ANOTHER day, another finale. First “Friends,” now “Frasier.” But in TV, old sitcoms never die, they just fade into endless syndication until someone comes up with the All New Reunion Show! This is the inevitable show where they drag the half-dead stars out again, even though they’d sworn they were finished with the show 35 years ago, but haven’t had steady work since.
But Kelsey Grammer is a little smarter than your average sitcom phenom, and has already said he’s not done with the Frasier character that has served him well for the past – yes! – 20 years. Eleven of those years, incidentally, have been spent with top billing as Frasier Crane radio shrink/dapper sissy.
Last night’s finale, which began after a 54-minute recap of some of the funniest moments over the past 11 years, almost steered clear of the standard cheesola tearful sitcom goodbye. But even though in the end (and at the end) the writers succumbed to the big cheese, at least most of the finale was as funny as the show normally is. It was fun, unlike the “Friends” finale, which was treated with all the dignity and importance of a state funeral and had about as many laughs.
In last night’s show, Dad and Ronnie got married, Niles did not, repeat, did not, come out, but did have a baby with Daphne, Ros became the station manager, and Frasier accepted a gig in San Fran after the local radio shrink fell out a window and died, which may or may not have been the fault of Bebe, Frasier’s nightmare agent.
The show was built around Frasier’s plane ride where he met a beautiful shrink (Jennifer Beals), to whom he poured out his neurotic and recent life story. He got to revisit only – thank God! – the past three weeks, starting with his affair with Charlotte to his job offer, his father’s hilarious wedding. (Daphne’s bros got the 6-year-old flower girl drunk, a cow-truck crash near the reception filled the joint with gaseous cow odors – OK, it was funnier than it sounds.)
Of course, since this is NBC, they couldn’t help but to go all shmaltzy and sentimental at the end – and had Frasier saying goodbye to all his fans in Seattle, while the whole cast of the show was in the back behind the glass window. Unnecessary and self-important.
But that doesn’t and didn’t diminish the 11 years of razor-sharp writing, impeccable timing and hilarious comedy. And with any luck, the cast members will continue to amuse and entertain us in other shows – and not show up like Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore and Rose Marie pretending that everything is exactly the same 35 years later.