Facetiously, Fabulously Funny

Two adverbs and one adjective do not accurately describe how I feel about Frasier, a sitcom series in the 90’s (spin-off of Cheers). It is so much more, because it defies description. 

It has been the after-supper staple night after night of Tony, our son #3, and me during the pandemic lockdown. 

Let me gush over it. 

Kelsey Grammer (a talented actor, director, writer and producer) portrays the title role. He went back to his hometown in Seattle, where he is a celebrity as a well-paid radio psychiatrist (who actually needs one!). He takes his father and his dog to live with him; his younger brother, also a wealthy psychiatrist (who also needs one!), pops in and out of their home. Naturally, their lifestyle is opulent and their taste, snobbish. 

The series’ credentials? 

It won 37 Emmy Awards during its 11-year stint on TV including “Outstanding Comedy Series” from 1994 to 1998. Channel 4 in the US voted the show as the greatest sitcom of all time in 2006! It was the undisputed gold-standard of ’90s sitcoms. 

But those are not what makes Frasier outstanding for us, more than two decades later. 

Aside from bringing out our loudest laughter, which is not the norm during these foreboding times, we see ourselves in the cast, with every member acting as a foil to each other: pretentious yet natural, refined yet crude, vulnerable yet resilient, carefree yet anxious, ethical yet improper—and enjoying the warmth of family and home.     

Their farcical speech is facetious and their uppity milieu with bespoke furniture, art museums, champagne, and opera is fabulous—all toward a funny ha-ha viewing. It’s like a therapy, which I call grace, waxing nostalgic about what was and what could be, and forgetting what is. 

The only hitch is, sometimes our DVDs, because of age, act up and therefore unwatchable. 

No matter. Each episode of Frasier is like a modern-day fairy tale, with gags that have both heart and soul, ending ha-ha-happily ever after. 

“He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy." (Job 8:21 NLT)