On September 16 in 1993, the Cheers spin-off Frasier made its debut on NBC. The show starred Kelsey Grammer relocating his Cheers character Dr. Frasier Crane from Boston to Seattle. One of the reason for the relocation was because the creators wanted to distance the show from Cheers in more than one way. Had it been set in Boston, fans would have expected continuing cameos from Cheers characters.
Other characters included Frasier’s father Martin (John Mahoney), Frasier’s brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce), housekeeper-therapist Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves), and Frasier’s radio show producer Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin). And, of course, there also was the dog Eddie (played by Moose and then his son Enzo after season 7), who received more fan mail than anyone else in the cast.
Frasier stayed on the air for eleven seasons until May 2004 (matching the eleven seasons of Cheers) and won a number of Emmys. The success is not bad for a character who was supposed to only appear in a few episodes of Cheers before becoming a regular character there.
Few TV shows can make me laugh out loud, and Frasier was one of those shows. I miss it, although it is great that one can still catch reruns in syndication or streaming.
Below, travel back to 1993 with some highlights from the first season of Frasier.
Goodnight Seattle!
What is your favorite episode of Frasier? Leave your two cents in the comments.
For twelve M*A*S*H episodes from 1973 through the series finale in 1983, actor Allan Arbus created one of the great recurring character roles in television history. Arbus, who played the psychiatrist Major Sidney Freedman, passed away recently due to complications of congestive heart failure. He was 95.
Anytime I am flipping around the TV channels and come across a M*A*S*H episode with Arbus, I stop and watch it because I know it is something special. Arbus’ portrayal of Major Sidney Theodore Freedman provided part of the heart and soul of the series. The psychiatrist even allowed the long-running heart of M*A*S*H, Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce, to digress into troubled waters while Dr. Freeman assumed the role of providing some sanity in insane circumstances.
Arbus, whose first wife was photographer Diane Arbus, went on to other TV and movie roles. But he was so good as Dr. Freedman, that Alan Alda claimed that he had assumed that Arbus had psychiatric training. While Arbus did not have such training, he had served in the Army as a photographer. When Arbus first appeared during the second season of the series, Dr. Freedman’s first name was “Milton,” but in subsequent appearances his name was changed to Sydney, possibly in a nod to the initials of Sigmund Freud.
Reportedly, Arbus was offered a more regular role after Gary Burghoff (Radar O’Reilly) left the series, but he preferred his occasional appearances. Yet he still managed to make a memorable impact on the show with only twelve appearances. Below is a collection of some clips of Arbus on M*A*S*H (and a summaries of his episodes are available here).
On the final episode “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen,” after caring for a troubled Hawkeye, Dr. Freedman exited by repeating advice he had earlier given to the members of the 4077th: “Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.” Remembering Arbus and his passing today, it is still good advice in our insane world to take a moment to enjoy the good things in life. Thank you Dr. Freedman.
What is your favorite episode of M*A*S*H with Allan Arbus? Leave your two cents in the comments.
I was sad to hear that Jack Klugman passed away this week on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, we also lost the excellent actor Charles Durning, whose many accomplishments include a memorable role in O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000), on the same day too. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Klugman is his great work in The Odd Couple (1970-1975). Apparently the show was on the minds of other people too, as after news spread about Klugman’s death, fans began going to 1049 Park Avenue in New York, the location of the apartment of Felix and Oscar. I remember watching the show regularly as a kid, and although the impetus for the storyline was the adult problem of divorce for the two men at the center of the story, a kid could easily relate to the humor the show found in the challenges of friendship.
Of course, Klugman did a lot of other great work in shows like Quincy, M.E. But when I think of Klugman my next thought after The Odd Couple is his great work in The Twilight Zone episode “A Game of Pool” (1961), also starring Jonathan Winters. In the episode that originally aired October 13, 1961,both Klugman and Winters, largely known for their comedic skills, show they can pull off drama just as well. Klugman’s character aptly illustrates the dream of being the best, as his character dreams of playing the greatest pool player of all time. But in the end, we also learn that with accomplishment comes its own kind of responsibilities.
Klugman also appeared in three other episodes of The Twilight Zone, including another memorable starring role in an episode touching on the afterlife, “A Passage for Trumpet” (1960). His other two episodes were “Death Ship” (1963), and “In Praise of Pip” (1963). According to Wikipedia, Klugman’s four appearances in the original series tie him with Burgess Meredith for most appearances. In this video clip, Klugman discusses series creator Rod Serling and his work in the series. Here is hoping that Klugman and Durning both find more peace in the afterlife than Klugman’s character did in “A Game of Pool.” What is your favorite work featuring Jack Klugman or Charles Durning? Leave your two cents in the comments.
When I first heard that Ernest Borgnine passed away today at the age of 95, my first thoughts were of his great film roles in The Wild Bunch (1969), From Here to Eternity (1953), and Marty (1955), for which he won a Best Actor Academy Award. But as the news sunk in, I began to think more and more about the way I first saw him when I was a kid. Before I watched any of those movies, I knew him as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale on McHale’s Navy. The series ran from 1962-1966, overlapping with The Andy Griffith Show. Borgnine and Griffith, who also passed away in the last week, had the great talent to play the heart of their respective shows amidst a sea of wacky characters. Neither show would be so fondly remembered without the fine work by the two actors.
Borgnine also appeared in two spin-off movies with the characters from the show, and he also had a small role in the 1997 film McHale’s Navy with Tom Arnold. Below is the first part of the first episode of the first season of McHale’s Navy, originally broadcast in 1962.
In this clip, Borgnine remembers how he became involved in McHale’s Navy, which started out from a drama called Seven Against the Sea.
Both Sheriff Taylor and Lt. Commander McHale were both men in uniform, but each know sometimes you had to work against an unfair system. Sheriff Taylor would dispense his own kind of fairness and justice, while McHale regularly found ways to protect his men from the often inept authority figure Captain Wallace Burton Binghamton (played by Joe Flynn). While neither comedy was revolutionary, looking back, one sees a little of the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s seeping out of these characters from early in the decade. Although McHale’s Navy was set during World War II, Ernest Borgnine knew how to give a heart to a character surrounded by craziness during a decade that saw the country getting deeper into another war in Asia. Rest in peace.
One of the legends of television, Andy Griffith passed away today at the age of 86. He died at his home on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, where he lived peacefully out of the spotlight. Griffith will always be remembered as the sheriff of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968), where Griffith also helped in developing the scripts for the series. Many of us grew up watching that show and Griffith’s role in the legal drama, Matlock (1986-1995), which actually ran longer than The Andy Griffith Show.
Griffith’s first big break came when his 1953 funny monologue, “What it Was, Was Football,” became a best-selling record. The story recounts a hillbilly’s attempt to try to figure out the sport.
On television, he appeared in the teleplay No Time for Sergeants in 1955 playing a country boy in the Air Force. The show would later inspire the Andy Griffith Show spin-off, U.S.M.C. Gomer Pyle, and it led to Griffith starring in the 1958 film version of No Time for Sergeants. The movie teamed Griffith with Don Knotts, who went on to co-star as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. The TV show pairing with the funny Knotts freed Griffith’s Andy Taylor from having to be the clown and allowed his character to develop as the small town’s heart. Knotts also became Griffith’s life-long best friend until Knotts died in 2006.
My favorite Griffith movie role is his starring performance in A Face in the Crowd (1957). The film, directed by Elia Kazan, starred Griffith as a power-hungry country boy, capturing something darker than we would usually see in Griffith’s characters. The film had mixed reviews initially, but today, most critics appreciate the film’s deep journey into revealing something scary underlying American popular culture. A Face in the Crowd now has an excellent 91% Critics Rating and a 93% Audience Rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.
In later years, Griffith did not appear often on television. But in 2008 he appeared in Brad Paisley’s video for “Waiting on a Woman” and on a remix of the song on Paisley’s mostly instrumental album Play (2008). It was great to see Griffith in action again, once again dispensing some country wisdom to a new generation. Paisley became friends with Griffith, and told the older man that his TV role as Andy Taylor had taught him many lessons about raising his own son.
I still watch The Andy Griffith Show when I catch it on television, and I wrote about my trip last year to see Andy Griffith’s birthplace of Mount Airy, which claims to be the basis for the fictional Mayberry. So, for many of us, the story of Andy Griffith has to begin and end with The Andy Griffith Show because we so loved the character and the town he created. And we loved how the country boy in a simple town taught us something about being a man in a complicated world. And so I will end with one of my favorite short clips where Andy used birds to teach about responsibility to his son Opie (Ron Howard).
My, don’t the clouds in heaven seem nice and full today? RIP Andy Griffith (and Andy Taylor).
On September 16 in 1993, the Cheers spin-off Frasier made its debut on NBC. The show starred Kelsey Grammer relocating his Cheers character Dr. Frasier Crane from Boston to Seattle. One of the reason for the relocation was because the creators wanted to distance the show from Cheers in more than one way. Had it been set in Boston, fans would have expected continuing cameos from Cheers characters.
