S02.E08 Thank You, Dr. Crane

[astrohip]

When Frasier returns to Seattle for a KACL anniversary special, he reconnects with a former caller whose life went off the rails.

Another good episode. Not quite as sharp as last week's, but this is two in a row (three?) that have been much better. The writers are hitting their stride.

[Panopticon]

I might give them four in a row. The Bebe episode and Cape Cod were my two favorites, I liked last week’s sister episode a lot, and this week had the Seattle reunion.

[Blakeston]

I really, really liked last week's, but I thought this one was lacking. The stuff with the magician fell flat for me, and I really wanted to see Frasier take a few calls - which we never got to see.

It was great to see Bulldog and Gil again (and Bulldog coming out was the best part of the episode by far), but they really couldn't have paid a few extra bucks to give us Noel or Kenny?

[Badger]

Rory O'Malley, who played Lou, is another of Kelsey's former costars. It was a show called "Partners".

[Bumblebee84047]

Rory O'Malley is a national treasure.

[MaryMitch]

Did anyone else catch that Carol Burnette was the voice of the caller "Jennifer" that Gil talked to and sang the Chinese food song? (About 16:50 into the episode.)

[Sarah 103]

@Blackeston I thought the reason Roz took over was that Kenny was leaving. It wouldn't make sense to have Kenny at KACL because he no longer works there. 

I thought the episode had potential but could have better. I would have liked to see Frasier dealing with the magician during commercial breaks or between promo/station events. 

[SoMuchTV]

43 minutes ago, MaryMitch said:

Did anyone else catch that Carol Burnette was the voice of the caller "Jennifer" that Gil talked to and sang the Chinese food song? (About 16:50 into the episode.)

They did have a full screen picture of her in the end credits, but to be fair, most streamers (not positive about this one) make watching to the end of the credits harder than beating the final boss. (At least I assume that’s a relevant video game reference.)

[chessiegal]

Carol Burnett is credited as the voice on the IMDb page for the episode. I usually would go to the IMDb page for an episode because the credits for caller/s goes by so fast.

[Irlandesa]

19 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

They did have a full screen picture of her in the end credits, but to be fair, most streamers (not positive about this one) make watching to the end of the credits harder than beating the final boss. (At least I assume that’s a relevant video game reference.)

Luckily the credits in this one included her for me because I think my mind wandered during the call in. 

Bulldog was the best part of the episode for me. I think they spent too much time on the magician/Lou.  I was impressed they rebuilt a facsimile of the radio station, the coffee shop and the bar. It felt like the places. 

I don't know how I feel about Niles and Daphne in Sedona.  A vineyard makes sense but I feel like a sharper episode would have had Frasier make a comment on the quality of his brother's wine.  There's too much rivalry surrounding that drink for me to believe he let that pass him by.

[Chit Chat]

5 hours ago, astrohip said:

Not quite as sharp as last week's, but this is two in a row (three?) that have been much better. The writers are hitting their stride.

I wish I felt that way.  It's not very funny to us, and the laugh track is terrible.  We're struggling to get through each episode.  I was really hoping for better for this franchise.  

[shapeshifter]

Well. The funniest part for me and the loudest audience laughs was for when the rabbit ran into the cage (after the magician yelled at it). I'm not sure if that's good or terrible for a TV show. 

I did think Jack Cutmore-Scott (Freddy) and Anders Keith (David) gave some excellent facial and gestural expressions.

 

7 hours ago, MaryMitch said:

Did anyone else catch that Carol Burnette was the voice of the caller "Jennifer" that Gil talked to and sang the Chinese food song? (About 16:50 into the episode.)

Thanks. I'll FF to the part to hear. The IMDb credit just said "Voice" when I checked, and even if they add "caller" later, it's helpful to have the time stamp.

Having not watch Frasier in its original run, I never knew that Dan Butler (Bulldog) is gay IRL. That sure puts a whole different twist on his character's Male Chauvinist persona. 

[Annber03]

It was great to see Bulldog and Gil again. I remember they had a bit in an early episode of the original "Frasier" where this young woman Frasier was interested in asked if Bulldog was overcompensating, so that really adds something to the whole reveal of him being gay.

Loved the bit with Freddie and Frasier sharing a beer at the end -  the photos on the mantle of Martin and Angell were a lovely touch. Frasier saying, "This is Dr. Frasier Crane. I'm listening" when he was doing his show was great, too. I agree it would've been nice to see him deal with a few more callers, but it was cool that Carol Burnett got to be a guest caller :D. 

I also liked the way they showed how much Nervosa and McGinty's had changed over the years. Poor Roz, too, trying to still do her job in a dying industry (my dad worked in radio, so I really sympathized with Roz's struggle there as a result). 

I also liked Olivia's Scottish accent to scare Alan into sorting things out with David :p. And good casting for the assistant who replaced him - that moment when he and David first saw each other was good XD. 

[shapeshifter]

15 hours ago, MaryMitch said:

Did anyone else catch that Carol Burnette was the voice of the caller "Jennifer" that Gil talked to and sang the Chinese food song? (About 16:50 into the episode.)

7 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Thanks. I'll FF to the part to hear. The IMDb credit just said "Voice" when I checked, and even if they add "caller" later, it's helpful to have the time stamp.

I FFed to the bit (thanks again, @MaryMitch) and here's the transcript for Carol Burnett's voice appearance:

• [JENNIFER — OVER PHONE]:
  Hi, Gil. Oh, gosh.
  
  I really want to start a family,
  but my boyfriend isn't ready.
  
  Oh, what do I do?
   
• [GIL]: Well, Jennifer, darling,
  
  I do find that a good meal
  helps me think things through.
  
  And if you enjoy Chinese food...
  
  ♪ There's no dim sum
  like Cho dim sum ♪
  
  ♪ It's oh, so very delish! ♪

I got that this is supposed to be the punchline to the bit earlier in the episode when Roz tells Frasier “we can't afford the music rights” and then Gil starts singing bits of show tunes with similar sounding words substituted (never mind that it's the music rights that they have to pay for, because the different lyrics makes it a parody which legally side-steps copyright issues). 

And I even recognized that the song Gil is singing (with different words) is "There's No Business Like Show Business."

But I still had to do research to get this pretty obscure (to me) joke, which I guess I've figured out?
(Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, including about it being obscure)
So I thought I'd share:

It seems "There's No Business Like Show Business" was sung by Carol-as-char-woman in Season 1 Episode 5 of her show: imdb.com/title/tt0061240/episodes/?season=1

However, on neither the Peacock nor the FreeVee versions does this song appear. So I'm guessing the royalties were too costly?
(Like how the DVDs of the Roswell (1999-2002) TV show substituted music, for those few familiar.)

 

[Magnumfangirl]

The last few episodes were really good, but this one fell flat for me.  I don't really care about what's going in Seattle anymore, but I assume this storyline is a way to add Roz as a regular back in Boston.

[Avabelle]

Was Frasier meant to be a distant dad? I know Freddy didn’t live with him but I thought he was relatively hands on and close to Freddie whenever we saw him in the original run.

[Chit Chat]

1 hour ago, Avabelle said:

Was Frasier meant to be a distant dad? I know Freddy didn’t live with him but I thought he was relatively hands on and close to Freddie whenever we saw him in the original run.

He always seemed to dote on Freddy whenever he was with him.  He did seem to be apart from him more than he was with him though.  The separation did neither any favors, but Frasier always spoke lovingly of Freddy.  

[Irlandesa]

2 hours ago, Avabelle said:

Was Frasier meant to be a distant dad? I know Freddy didn’t live with him but I thought he was relatively hands on and close to Freddie whenever we saw him in the original run.

There was a lot of talk about this last season because of how little Frasier seemed to understand Freddie.  I don't think Frasier was distant emotionally but he was very distant physically for most of Freddie's life.  He loved Freddie but he did move across the country when Freddie was very young so he wasn't there for his day-to-day. And his next big move was still pretty far from Freddie.  A lot of communication when it comes to parenting involves observation which he couldn't do if they spent most of their time apart.  

[Blakeston]

4 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:

@Blackeston I thought the reason Roz took over was that Kenny was leaving. It wouldn't make sense to have Kenny at KACL because he no longer works there. 

I thought the episode had potential but could have better. I would have liked to see Frasier dealing with the magician during commercial breaks or between promo/station events. 

If the writers expect us to believe that Frasier can get a tenure-track position at Harvard by doing a guest lecture, then they can give us a line or two explaining that Kenny came back to the station.