Product Description
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With its witty dialogue, sophisticated character development,
and classic slapstick situations, Frasier is perhaps best
described as the thinking man’s Friends. Taking centre stage is
pompous radio psychiatrist Dr Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer),
whose phone-in show serves as much an outlet for his neuroses, as
it does a public service for the people of Seattle. Clever
intersecting storylines feature a brilliant ensemble cast,
including his prim and proper brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce),
their gruff retired-cop her Martin (John Mahoney), live-in
home care worker Daphne (Jane Leeves), brassy radio producer Roz
(Teri Gilpin), and a charismatic Jack Russell terrier named
Eddie, with whom Frasier has regular staring contests but never
wins. This collection includes every episode from the show’s
seventh series.
.co.uk Review
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This is the pivotal season that finally, finally brings together
Niles (David Hyde Pierce (
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)) and Daphne (Jane Leeves (
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)), Frasier's answer to Ross and Rachel. Daphne, engaged to Donny
(Saul Rubinek), learns of Niles' unrequited feelings for her from
an extremely medicated Frasier in "Back Talk." If Daphne's
impending marriage was not obstacle enough to keep them apart,
there is fussy, phobic, and formidable Dr. Mel Karnofsky (Jane
Adams), Maris's former plastic surgeon, who is introduced in "The
Late Dr. Crane" as a romantic interest for Niles. The season
culminates in the Emmy-nominated episode "Something Borrowed,
Someone Blue," arguably the show's very best, and most satisfying
cliffhanger, in which Niles and Daphne make like Ben and Elaine
in The Graduate, only in a Winnebago. Bebe Neuwirth makes another
memorable return as the dread Lilith Crane in "The Apparent
Trap," in which son Frederick employs psychological warfare to
try and get a mini-bike from his parents. Episodes featuring
Frasier's amoral agent Bebe Glaser (Harriet Samson Harris) are
always a season highlight, and "Morning Becomes Entertainment" is
no exception, as Bebe and Frasier (Kelsey Grammer (
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)) team up to host a TV morning chat show (who knew that Frasier
had "a way with voices," as witness his Sean Connery and James
Mason impressions!). Dan Butler also returns as Bulldog in the
poignant episode "The Dog That Rocks the Cradle," A welcome
addition to Frasier's gallery of colorful characters in Simon
(Anthony LaPaglia in an Emmy-nominated performance), Daphne's
besotted brother.
Frasier Crane is a witty and urbane New Yorker cartoon in a
lewd, crude shock jock world. In the hilarious episode "Radio
Wars," he literally becomes the butt of his radio station's new
morning team's stunts. Frasier is also at odds with his
substitute producer, Mary (Kim Coles), a you-go-girl black woman,
in "Something About Dr. Mary." The series excelled at farce, and
"RDWRER" is vintage Frasier, as the Crane men embark on a New
Year's Eve road trip to Sun Valley, and Niles mistakenly thinks
he's been kipped when he falls a in the wrong Winnebago.
Another season benchmark is "Out with Dad," in which Frasier is
compelled to pass off his her (John Mahoney (
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)) as gay. The lack of extras on this four-disc set is
disappointing, but as wine snob Frasier might say, the seventh
season was a very good year for the show that bears his name, and
it's a pleasure to uncork its many delights. --Donald Liebenson