Frasier is an example that sometimes spin-off series are just as good as their counterpart, as well as competing shows. It's common knowledge that this series is a spin-off to Cheers, a show which I personally feel is superior in the humor department. Frasier is still good enough on its own, even if the watcher knows nothing about Cheers going in, since the show has little connection to the previous series, aside from a few reunion episodes and nods here and there.
The show kicks off when Frasier Crane moves from Boston, leaving behind his wife and son, to Seattle to stay with his brother and retired father while working as a hotshot radio psychologist. Decent enough premise, if a little selfish on Frasier's part, and a lot of the humor comes from the "Odd Couple" styled characterizations, between the Crane brothers' pompous and sometimes outright snobby attitudes and their father's down- to-earth and blue collar personality clashing.
As I said, the humor is a little less than Cheers, due to the more high class and sophisticated air that the series tries and achieves to portray. As such, there are a few jokes here and there that will fly over your head if you're not the most knowledgeable on college-level literature and theater.
That said, there's still plenty of regular humor and typical sitcom misunderstandings which bring on the laughter, like an episode where everyone thinks that Frasier's old friend (Played by Patrick Stewart) is a gay lover, or a humiliation conga that Niles endures in the beginning of one episode, where not one bit of dialogue is uttered and it's all capped off with some classical music.
The last couple of seasons took a nose dive, but the ending was a perfect way to cap off the series. All in all, Frasier deserved the acclaim it got in the 90s, and provided a good escape to those who wanted some more intelligent humor compared to other staples of the time like Friends or Seinfeld. It's not my personal favorite sitcom, but I can respect the impact it made and once again, proof that spin-offs don't always suck.
The show kicks off when Frasier Crane moves from Boston, leaving behind his wife and son, to Seattle to stay with his brother and retired father while working as a hotshot radio psychologist. Decent enough premise, if a little selfish on Frasier's part, and a lot of the humor comes from the "Odd Couple" styled characterizations, between the Crane brothers' pompous and sometimes outright snobby attitudes and their father's down- to-earth and blue collar personality clashing.
As I said, the humor is a little less than Cheers, due to the more high class and sophisticated air that the series tries and achieves to portray. As such, there are a few jokes here and there that will fly over your head if you're not the most knowledgeable on college-level literature and theater.
That said, there's still plenty of regular humor and typical sitcom misunderstandings which bring on the laughter, like an episode where everyone thinks that Frasier's old friend (Played by Patrick Stewart) is a gay lover, or a humiliation conga that Niles endures in the beginning of one episode, where not one bit of dialogue is uttered and it's all capped off with some classical music.
The last couple of seasons took a nose dive, but the ending was a perfect way to cap off the series. All in all, Frasier deserved the acclaim it got in the 90s, and provided a good escape to those who wanted some more intelligent humor compared to other staples of the time like Friends or Seinfeld. It's not my personal favorite sitcom, but I can respect the impact it made and once again, proof that spin-offs don't always suck.