Top Ten Best Frasier Episodes
From 1993 to 2004, Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) and friends entertained America with wit, class and culture. The series aired 483 episodes, six Halloween specials, two live specials and even inspired a Frasier-themed host club in Shinjuku.
With such an overwhelming load of Seattle-based humour provided by the series, newcomers are best off being inducted into the Fellowship Of Frasiernatics by a wisened veteran fan. Here are ten absolute banger, no-bullshit full-throttle Frasier episodes packed with puns, banter, romance, psychology, hatred and violence.
10. Frasier And Niles Order A Prostitute
(Season 6, Episode 15)
Perhaps the most beloved relationship in the series is that of Frasier and his younger brother Niles, who are always butting heads in a desperate competition to settle who is the smarted psychologist and the wittiest retorter. Their life-long rivalry comes to a head in this controversial episode when Frasier claims he is superior in the sack and Niles demands he prove it in a sex-off with a hired woman of the night.
The antics start early, with the intelligent brothers slapping each other to work up the courage to talk to a man they believe is a pimp, but is actually a blind homeless veteran. Later they call an escort service and request “your most graceful and educated courtesan, s'il vous plaît”, but are horrified when crack-smoking loudmouth Shondra (Debra Wilson of MadTV fame) shows up to the hotel room.
We’ll save the big twist for first-time viewers, but suffice to say neither brother come out on top. Amusingly, this episode was conceived in reaction to NBC president Warren Littlefield’s criticism that Frasier and Niles are “too gay” and should be shown having sex with a woman. After the episode aired he reportedly attacked his secretary in a fit of rage.
9. Frasier’s Dad Kills Himself
(Season 3, Episode 8)
Despite rarely speaking and never given a first name, Frasier’s Dad made a huge impact on the series with his cantankerous senility. His fictional World War 2 service and hetero posturing made him a hit with the geriatric network television audience, who admired whenever he would scream at his namby pamby pussified sons when they would attempt to recite a poem or whatever.
This episode came about early in the third season after Frasier’s Dad actor John Mahoney was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. Capitalizing on the resulting media frenzy, the episode depicts the relatable humor that naturally surrounds a suicide in classic Frasier fashion.
Frasier and Niles decide to install a ceiling fan in the bathroom despite their father’s sobbing pleas that it is unusual. When the successful psychologist brothers return from a play to find their father’s corpse hanging from the newly installed ceiling fan the studio audience laughs for a full minute.
8. Frasier’s Dad Comes Back To Life
(Season 4, Episode 1)
Responding to feedback regarding the previous season’s over-reliance on brainy references and farcical plotlines inspired by British playwrights, NBC decided to fire the entire Harvard educated writers room and replace them with three men who replied to a newspaper ad seeking unskilled day laborers.
The new writers’ debut proved to be one of the show’s most popular episodes, as it featured Frasier breaking out of his typical stuffy environs to explore an Egyptian tomb and retrieve a magic crystal in order to bring his dead father back to life.
Although light on jokes and full of plot holes (Frasier fails to obtain the magic crystal yet his father appears alive without explanation just before the credits), the episode remains a classic if only for the 12 minute sequence in which Frasier fights a gang of Mexican banditos on top of the Empire State Building.
7. Frasier Sucks His Own Cock
(Season 10, Episode 11)
At this point in the series Frasier’s ego knows no bounds. He’s already donned blackface to embarrass an ex-wife, destroyed the cure for cancer and assaulted the prime minister of India. But no one was prepared for the hilarious and heartwarming moment where Dr. Crane finally learns to suck his own cock.
The episode garnered Kelsey Grammer his second Emmy win, made more impressive by the episode featuring no dialogue whatsoever. Grammer’s performance is said to have been influenced by French filmmaker and mime Jacques Tati.
6. Frasier Visits The Office
(Season 13, Episode 24)
Much like how Frasier is a spin-off of the moralistic Boston drama Cheers, The Office was greenlit after this gut-busting episode where Dr. Crane works with a human relations department to develop psychological profiles of their employees.
Although obviously non-canon due to the episode ending with a bloody shooting spree committed by a nascent version of Jim, the episode still delights fans of both series by showing Frasier match wits with Dwight, yuck it up with Michael, and have sex with Pam.
5. Frasier And The Dog Switch Brains
(Season 4, Episode 2)
The second and final episode written by a rag-tag group of barely literate day laborers broke new ground for the series when it answered the question fans had debated since the show’s debut: What if Frasier and the dog switched brains?
4. Reisarf: Reckoning
(Season 5, Episode 9)
When Frasier’s antimatter universe counterpart Reisarf comes to town, you just know it’s gonna be trouble. Frasier is forced to use all his wits, tricks and wine tasting skills to face off against his cackling mirror self. In the end they find themselves equally matched and Frasier only gets the upper hand by calling on his British slave, Daphne.
Later episodes featuring Reisarf failed to recreate the thrill of his first appearance and the character would eventually be so heavily nerfed that Niles was able to defeat him.
Fun Fact: Reisarf’s actor is credited as Remmarg Yeslek.
3. Frasier’s Son Gets Brain Damage
(Season 7, Episode 15)
Frasier has always had a rocky relationship with his son Dudley, but their differences are magnified into comedy gold after Dudley receives severe head trauma during a car crash, permanently limiting his speech, motor skills, memory and cognitive ability. For a certified college grad like Frasier smarts is everything, so it’s funny to see him struggle to love his son now that he’s a pathetic drooling simpleton.
If that’s all the episode offered it would merely be great, just like hundreds of other Frasier episodes. What sets this one apart is the B story, where Frasier’s Dad gets a new lease on life after becoming the world famous “Rappin’ Grandpa”.
2. Frasier Goes Back In Time
(Season 9, Episode 32)
Aired only once as part of the infamous ninth season that produced 75 episodes and was subsequently banned from distribution, this legendary episode has been hand-traded in the Frasiernatics community for decades and is only available to those who have proven themselves worthy.
Although another episode from the same season, “Roz And Daphne Lez Out”, tends to fetch a higher value on the black market, critics and fans agree this one has the better story. Features the final television appearance of Christopher Reeve before his death.
1. Niles Shits His Pants
(Season 2, Episode 13)
Kelsey Grammer famously threatened to leave the series after this early Niles-centric episode aired, complaining that Frasier should have been given the storyline. His frustration is understandable given the episode’s unanimous positive reception and the shadow it cast on the rest of the series, but it’s hard to imagine anyone portraying the pants-splitting hilarity of shitting your pants with more authenticity, passion, and humanity than David Hyde Pierce does here.
The episode was such a hit that in many countries the series has been localized as “Man Shits Pants”, and re-edited so that scenes from the episode appear in every storyline. For example, in the Portuguese version of the episode where Frasier’s son gets brain damage: as Frasier weeps with a bottle of whiskey on the couch the scene jarringly cuts to Niles shitting his pants.