Hey baby I hear the blues a-callin',
Tossed salads and scrambled eggs…
I was never into this show. I’m not sure if I was scared away by its well known intellectualism1 or if I just never gave it a fair shake. Then I met my wife, and for a myriad of reasons, she loved Frasier. She loved Seattle, she loved that Frasier Crane was a psychiatrist, she loved Eddie the dog. And she forced me to fall in love with this crazy show while I fell in love with her.
For those, I’m guessing incredibly few, who don’t know about this show, Frasier was a spin-off of one of the most popular television shows in history, Cheers. After Frasier’s (Kelsey Grammer) divorce from his wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth), he decides to leave Boston and return to his childhood home of Seattle, Washington. With a job as a local radio call-in psychiatrist, and looking forward to life as a bachelor 3,000 miles from his frigid ex-wife, Frasier is dismayed when he has to take in his father, Martin (John Mahoney), a retired Seattle Police detective, who cannot live alone after being shot in the line of duty. Frasier hires Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves) to be Martin’s live-in physical therapist and caretaker, and Frasier’s competitive also-psychiatrist brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) is a constant part of his life. And there is an adorable dog named Eddie.
Whew.
If my memory serves, the opening credits sequence was limited to simply a drawing of the Seattle skyline, the famouse Frasier logo, and the theme song actually played over the end credits after each episode. However, for syndication, the end credits theme was repurposed as an opening credits theme.2 Either way, it was a jazzy, catchy tune sung by Kelsey Grammer himself.
So what to pair with this, among the most commercially and critically successful comedies of all time?
“Sherry, Niles?”
That’s right, the Spanish fortified wine that Frasier always has on-hand in a decanter located between his kitchen and his grand piano. Just about any time Niles walked in the door, Frasier would, after greeting him, ask, “Sherry, Niles?” They drank the stuff like it was going out of style.
So here’s the big admission on my part, and a pledge. I admit, I have never had Sherry. I pledge that I will, and soon; at least three different Sherries3 within the next six months.
I’m sure Frasier Crane would approve.