In response to @fredhincanada, I present part 3.
"Hey baby, I hear the blues a’callin’"
My mum and I would watch Cheers every friday on Channel 4, many years ago, and then we’d watch The Golden Girls (Which is also a banger of a show, I still have a crush on Beatrice Arthur now.). There was just something about the adventures of Sam Malone, Coach, Norm, Cliff, Carla and everyone else that just captivated us. It was American TV at it’s finest. There is a very small part of me that wishes my mum was still around to watch Frasier with me. The other, larger part of me knows that she is at peace now and I’m happy with that.
Anyways. Cheers was our go to every friday night, it was a chance for a son to bond with his mother, while dad was away, drinking at the social working men’s club. I believe we watched the very final episode together, in 1993, it was a heartbreaker. Now, I’m not gonna lie, the last person I thought was going to get a spinoff, was Dr. Frasier Crane, but looking back, I am glad that it was him.
Through some twist of fate, we moved home and things happened, leading to me and my mum never watching an episode of Frasier together, in fact, I think even I discovered it late, possibly around 1995. My mum had her own issues going on, having to essentially raise me and my sister, who is epilectic, on her own, while dad went out and got pissed. (That is not a jab at my dad, he was a great man and I will carry that to my grave.)
Frasier introduced us to a new bundle of characters, with their own quirks and charm, Martin, played by the late, great John Mahoney, was the father to this absolute character in Frasier, David Hyde Pierce was Frasier’s brother, Niles, Jane Leeves was their live in carer, Daphne Moon, and lest we forget, the amazing Peri Gilpin was his producer at KACL, Roz Doyle. I fell in love with each and every character and still class David as one of the best physical comedians ever, trust me, the episode where he sets his trousers alight on the iron is something that should be studied in comedy school.<p>
Now, I will be the first to admit, I have not seen every episode of Frasier, because it is just time consuming, and I am apt to binge it until 3am, and that is not healthy when you have a job that requires you to be up at 4:30am. But of the 7 seasons I have watched, I fell in love with Kelsey Grammer’s general demeanour as the titular doctor. He was the ultimate psychiatrist but was also very neurotic in his own personal life, always paranoid about the things going on around him. Frasier Crane is a very nuanced character and Kelsey played that so fucking well. He might very well be the reason why I am the way I am. I have always flirted with the idea of becoming a psychiatrist, or at least a psychologist and that is mostly down to one man, Kelsey Grammer.
I’m not gonna play bullshit here and say that Kelsey and I are alike, but I think we both had a very difficult upbringing. I lost both my parents by the age of 20 and he lost his sister to a rape and murder, along with other family members over the years. He was a very tormented man and he somehow managed to turn into a man that I admire a lot. Cast members will say he was difficult to work with sometimes, and I think an intervention was held for him by said cast members, I think they may have saved his life that day.
Sometimes, you watch shows like Frasier to escape the daily grind, but sometimes you accidentally discover a character who resonates with you for life, for me, that Is Doctor Frasier Crane. Thank you, Kelsey, for giving us all this beautiful character, nuances and all.
To anyone who reads this blog, whether you’re at your highest ebb, or your lowest, come speak to me, I may not always have the right answer but I will always have an answer. In the words of Frasier Crane, I’m listening.
Tags: @fredhincanada @dicentra @rare @avecalluna @kungfury @gawjusdaniel1992 @solostella @eirenne @missy
