My Favorite Frasier Episodes

     The original title of this post was "My Top Ten Favorite Frasier Episodes"—then I thought, "Who am I kidding? I can't pick just ten!" Then I thought I'd try to choose two from each season. Nah. Doesn't work. Because there are some seasons I like much better than others. So I decided simply to choose my favorites from each season. I realize my choices are rather Niles-heavy. Are we surprised?

Season One:

• "Travels with Martin"  Frasier wants to take Martin on vacation, and Martin decides they should take a road trip in a Winnebago. Martin persuades Daphne to go with them to serve as a buffer between him and Frasier, and Frasier asks Niles to go for the same reason (but of course, Niles only decides to go because Daphne's going). Besides being very funny, I think I like it because of all the "togetherness."
• "My Coffee with Niles"  The writers of this one had a lot of chutzpah, writing an episode that a) takes place entirely in one setting, b) takes place in "real" time—aside from commercial breaks, there are no time lapses; and c) is nothing but conversation, and most of it with the characters sitting still. On paper, it sounds boring. But the conversation is so real, so engaging, so intelligently written and brilliantly acted, you feel like you're sitting right there with Frasier and Niles, listening to them just chat. And when Roz, Daphne, and Martin (and Eddie) stop by, it feels completely natural. By the time the episode ends, it's as if you've just spent twenty minutes having coffee with good friends.

Season Two:

• "Slow Tango in South Seattle"  A spoof on the novel Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend by Robert James Waller. Actually, it's more a spoof on his first, more famous novel, The Bridges of Madison County—the paraphrase of its opening sentence is just too pointed to miss. A best-selling author and former drinking buddy from Cheers has used an incident from Frasier's life as the plot of his phenomenally popular novel.
• "Flour Child"  Niles wants to be a father, so Frasier advises him to make a sort of trial run by carrying around a ten-pound bag of flour. Best line: "Last night I actually had a dream my flour sack was abducted, and the kidnappers started sending me muffins in the mail."
• "Seat of Power"  After a disastrous attempt to fix a toilet themselves, Frasier and Niles call a plumber. The plumber turns out to be Niles' old bully from school.
• "Breaking the Ice."  I just love this one. Niles and Frasier accompany Martin on an ice fishing trip, where they all bond. Very funny and touching.
• "An Affair to Forget"  Never get tired of that fencing scene. Absolutely brilliant, on so many levels—the ongoing gag of translating from English to Spanish to German is hysterical, and David Hyde Pierce demonstrates his genius at physical comedy. Of course, it helps that he really does know how to fence.

Season Three:

• "Moon Dance"  A Niles & Daphne classic, it has all the elements of the best romantic comedies.

Season Four:

• "Mixed Doubles"  Daphne dates a man who is eerily like Niles (except not nearly as cute). The final scene is especially bittersweet, with DHP giving one of his most touching performances.
• "Daphne Hates Sherry"  Okay, I admit I chose this one solely for the Niles-in-a-white-linen-shirt scene. The final scene with Frasier in the bathtub reminds me of a similar scene in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
• "Are You Being Served?"  Maris serves Niles with divorce papers. This episode contains the Hot & Foamy explosion scene.

Season Five:

• "The Maris Counselor"  As funny as this one is, you can't help being moved when DHP obviously tears up in the scene where Niles finally decides, once and for all, to divorce Maris.
• "Room Service"  Bravi tutti—Grammer, Neuwirth, and Pierce! What a treat to watch three great actors rip up the stage! And the whole idea of Niles sleeping with Lilith—talk about a disaster waiting to happen! However, the cherry on the comedy parfait is John Ducey's performance as the room service waiter. He steals it with just one word: "Okay."
• "First Date"  After trying and spectacularly failing to ask Daphne out, Niles pretends to have a date with a certain Phyllis, and Daphne helps prepare the meal. This is probably my favorite Niles & Daphne episode besides "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue." I like it even more than "Moon Dance." So sweet and funny.

Season Six:

• "I. Q."  Frasier and Niles at their conflicted best. Or worst. Funny, I don't much like the other "sibling rivalry" episodes, mainly because Frasier is so insufferable in them; but he's not so bad in this one. The restaurant scene is priceless. (And, actually, "Author, Author" from season two is not so Frasier-obnoxious.)
• "Visions of Daphne"  Unless I miss my guess, it was this episode, along with the now classic opening pantomime in "Three Valentines" (also from this season), that won DHP his third Emmy. From the scene where he learns of Daphne's possible engagement, to the scene with Daphne in his office, to the heart-rending moment when he witnesses Daphne accepting Donny's proposal, it's a bravura performance, one of his very best.
• The reason why I'm not including "Three Valentines" is that I only like it for the opening scene.

Season Seven:

• "Back Talk"  Frasier's back goes out, and under the influence of his painkillers, he inadvertently blurts out to Daphne that Niles is in love with her. I love the studio audience's reaction.
• "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue"  But of course. My favorite moment: when Simon interrupts Niles' confession to Daphne, Niles goes to close the door, then on his cross back to Daphne he gives her a look that is so beseeching .... It's a throwback to those old romantic movies, like An Affair to Remember and Now, Voyager. {*sniff-sniff*}

Season Eight:

• "And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon"  But of course! All through the first three-quarters of this season, it's kind of amusing to see how they coped with Jane Leeves' pregnancy. I thought it was handled very well.

Season Nine:

• "The First Temptation of Daphne"  Daphne is paranoid because one of Niles' patients is in love with him. The final scene is one of those scenes that prompt so many women on Twitter to write, "I wish someone loved me the way Niles loved Daphne." You'd be surprised how many women tweet that.

Season Ten:

• "Rooms with a View"  Probably the most serious episode in all of Frasier. This is the one where Niles has open heart surgery. Very fine performance from Jane Leeves.
• "Fathers and Sons"  I always thought that Charles Emerson Winchester III, the lovably pompous character on M*A*S*H, was the perfect forerunner of Frasier and Niles. Whoever cast David Ogden Stiers in the guest role in this episode obviously thought the same thing. Absolutely perfect casting of the character that Martin is afraid might be the real father of Frasier and Niles.

Season Eleven:

• "No Sex, Please, We're Skittish"  Niles and Daphne decide to get pregnant, but Niles finds out he has "slow sperm." Fortunately, Daphne has fast eggs.
• "Murder Most Maris"  Oh, Maris, Maris, they couldn't do the final season without you! My favorite part, of course, is Niles nearly having a nervous breakdown and stripping stark naked in the Nervosa Café.