Characters / Cheers: Frasier Crane

Frasier Winslow Crane, M.D.

Played by: Kelsey Grammer

Appearances: Cheers | Frasier | Wings | Frasier (2023)

This is Dr. Frasier Crane, wishing you good day and good mental health.

Originating from Cheers and later getting his own self-titled spinoff (that was revived nineteen years after it originally ended), Dr. Frasier Crane is a Harvard-educated psychiatrist who has various neuroses of his own. He's rather stuffy, insecure, and ultra-competitive, but does have a personable, charismatic side that allowed him to achieve mainstream success, first with a local radio show and later a national television show.

In General

• All Psychology Is Freudian: Frasier's hero worship of Sigmund Freud is mocked in-universe as outdated by other therapists (including his ex-wife Lilith, a Behaviorist, and his brother Niles, who is a Jungian) who practice more modern theories. However, Frasier's reliance on Freud's long-outdated theories and methodologies are probably a major reason he's so successful as a radio and television pop-psych rather than a private doctor, as it makes his diagnoses more accessible to the masses who by-and-large believe in the trope themselves, and who have simple issues that can be solved quickly with a little bit of insight. Additionally, Frasier being a Freudian lends comic irony to his own neuroses; he doesn't get along with his father, idolizes his mother since she's the one who spurred his interest in psychiatry, and has trouble forming and maintaining romantic relationships that go beyond the sexual.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • Throughout the original series, Frasier had few flattering things to say to Cliff himself, though in the Frasier episode "Cheerful Goodbyes", he does show deep down he cares about him, attending his party and trying to raise his spirits when he feels unwanted. He is left exasperated in turn when everyone else turns out not to feel the same and just wants Cliff out of their lives at all costs.
    Carla: Shh. Here he is. Everyone pretend you like him.
    Frasier: Carla, we do like him.
    Carla: Yeah, like that.
  • While his resentment towards Diane for dumping him wouldn't be fully healed until a way into his spin-off show, Frasier still had moments in between of showing he still cared about her. When she breaks down from her career being in tatters, he instantly drops any passive aggression and becomes concerned and sympathetic, even offering to fund to her new play (even if he shortly starts to regret it after watching it).
• Carpet of Virility: Frasier is shown to have a very hairy chest whenever he is seen without a shirt on. Lampshaded in Frasier episode "Slow Tango In South Seattle" when Daphne says he refers to his chest hair as his "rug of love."
• Characterization Marches On:
  • When first introduced in Cheers, he's got severe problems showing affection in public. By the time he's taken up with Lilith, this is not remotely a problem. Similarly, he has a tendency to give off forced laughter. It's not until "Second Time Around" that this stops.
  • His characterization would evolve even further once he starred in his own show.
    • His obsessive tendencies were mentioned infrequently on that show, most often by Lilith, but hardly ever displayed (Diane dumping him and an incident with his gold card aside). Here, they're on full display. He also becomes much more hammy and easy to anger. While he did get worked up in Cheers, it was not quite as easily as he does in this show.
    • Back in Cheers, Frasier had two different phobias on separate occasions - fear of dogs (instilled by Hester of all people), and fear of bees. In eleven years, his problems with Eddie are never once even suggested to be the result of a phobia, just annoyance with the little guy. Meanwhile, Niles inherits the bug phobia, which Frasier treats with irritation.
    • His love of sherry. In Cheers, he generally preferred brandy at home, and even if he did drink sherry, it was nowhere near to the extent he does here. It's established in a flashback episode that he and Niles started indulging in sherry not long after Frasier returned from Boston.
      Frasier: Sherry? What an intriguing idea!
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: A psychiatrist who successfully advises the public on a daily basis... and also an impulsive, obsessive, egotistical, oft-unreasoning, emotionally fragile ball of neuroses. Frasier often ends up not taking the clinical, diplomatic approach to his personal problems simply because his all-too-human pride won't let him.
• Drink-Based Characterization: On Cheers, wine, to show he's classier than the usual clientele of Cheers. He switches to more casual drinks when he's a regular. His spin-off has him switch almost exclusively to sherry.
• Insufferable Genius: He is very intelligent, and he'll let you know it if he finds a chance to show it off. Even if he doesn't find a chance, he'll often make one.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As egocentric, arrogant and self-serving as he can be, Frasier is a good man at heart and truly cares about the people in his life.
  • While Frasier is a bit of an Insufferable Genius and was quite bitter after Diane left him at the altar, he does care about his friends and tries to give them legitimate advice for free, such as helping Sam with his sex addiction.
  • Even though he's upset about Freddy dropping out of Harvard, he goes as far as to buy the apartment building so that Freddy and Eve won't have to worry about paying rent.
• Long Runner: Individual character version. By the end of Frasier Kelsey Grammer had played Dr. Crane for twenty years, tying the record with Matt Dillon as portrayed by James Arness on Gunsmoke, until the record was surpassed by John Munch (for Live-Action TV) and The Simpsons (for TV overall). Grammer would reprise the role again in a Frasier revival 19 years after its original ending.
• Old Hero, New Pals: Happened twice.
  • After Cheers ended, Frasier's misadventures continued with new friends and some previously unmentioned family members.
  • Twenty years after the show's original run, Frasier (2023) returned with a new supporting cast. While Freddy and David were previously established characters, they were a teenager and a newborn respectively and had changed very much in the intervening time, and were played by new actors.
• Sophisticated as Hell: He's an educated and courteous man (and wants to be seen as such), but he won't hesitate to be vulgar when pressed far enough. An example from Frasier:
  Frasier: Bebe, throughout our relationship, I have put up with a lot, but I never doubted for an instant your devotion to my career. Apparently, that is at an end and so, therefore, is my association with this agency. And screw, may I add, you!
• Serial Spouse: He has been married at least twice — first to Nanny G, then to Lilith — almost married Diane between his two actual marriages and had a long relationship with Charlotte that may or may not have been a legal marriage. And that's not counting his numerous failed relationships that didn't make it that far.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice in the early seasons of Cheers was a bit higher-pitched and less hammy than it would be in the later seasons of Cheers and both versions of Frasier.
• Weight Woe: He tends to fixate over his weight, even though he's of average weight, fitting with his pompous self-image:
  • In Cheers he hires Sam as a physical trainer. This lasts until Frasier ties Sam up with a jump rope and makes a break for it.
  • In Frasier, he's often mentioned to be going on diets and gets very insulted whenever someone makes a crack about his weight, something his enemies and critics are all too eager to do.

Tropes from Cheers

"Sam, everyone at this bar is on a connecting flight to “Beyond Loony”."

On Cheers, Frasier first appeared in the third season as a new love interest for Diane Chambers. Meeting during her time as a patient in a psychiatric institution, they quickly fall in love and within a year head to Europe for their wedding. However, Diane leaves him at the altar and Frasier returns to Boston humiliated and miserable. After a string of dates that go nowhere, Dr. Crane shares one fateful TV appearance alongside one of those previous bad dates Dr. Lilith Sternin, and after seeing her in a new light, begins a romance that lasts the rest of the series, and they start a family together with their son Frederick.

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• All the Other Reindeer: He gets very tetchy when the subject of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer comes up, insisting that the bullying continued afterwards in a way that's very suspicious...
• Ascended Extra: He was originally meant to be a brief, barely used character. He became so famous that not only did they make him a regular, but he earned himself a spinoff which lasted a whole eleven seasons, and it was revived almost two decades later.
• Baldness Angst: Mostly full-headed when he's first seen, but as the show goes on it starts thinning out. It doesn't come up too often, save for a season 11 episode when he gets self-conscious before a date.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Tries to invoke this by holding Sam up at gunpoint after Diane leaves him at the altar for him. Sam sees right through this though because the gun was visibly not loaded.
• Birds of a Feather: He and Diane are both pompous, melodramatic intellectuals, so it's easy to see what drew them to one another. One of the differences is Frasier is more willing to let his hair down and join in with the gang's antics.
• Blatant Lies: Insists he's over Diane. Thoroughly over her. Completely over her.
  Diane: (as Frasier grips her shoulders) Frasier, you're hurting me!
  Frasier: Well, you never hurt me, did you?!
• Breakout Character: Holy moly, is he ever. He shows up midway into the series as a clear romantic obstacle for Sam and is a pretty flat character. After Diane breaks up with him, he actually sticks around, and slowly gets fleshed out into the lovable nervous wreck we know and love today. His romance with Lilith forms a major backround Story Arc that lasts several seasons, to the point that their romance arguably takes precedent over Sam's. Of all the characters on the show he is the one who ends up getting his own spinoff, which in many ways eclipses Cheers itself in popularity! And all this from a guy who begins his first scene as a background extra before revealing himself!
• Butt-Monkey: Getting dumped by Diane at the altar begins a chain of romantic bad luck which lasted (depending on whether you count the marriage to Lilith, and Frasier probably does) through the turn of the millennium.
• Characterisation Click Moment: He begins the series as a stuffy and pompous jerk, and it's not until "Second Time Around" when the Frasier we know and love starts to solidify properly.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: When Frasier goes out to get revenge, he gets creative. After Diane dumped him, one of his responses was to apparently sign her up to every tape and record club in Boston ^note this would be the ones that charge small prices for the first few instalments, then jacked up the prices. And when his fellow psychiatrist Simon Finch-Royce deliberately overcharges him, Frasier makes certain to send Diane in full I Reject Your Reality mode after him.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Rare gender inverted version. Hester Crane did not like Diane, regarding her as a "pseudo-intellectual barmaid", even seriously considering shooting her.
• Disposable Fiancé: He was introduced as one of these to Diane before she reunited with Sam. Grammer's performance was so popular that the writers decided not to abandon the character after the relationship ended. Being jilted at the altar leaves him with some major psychological scars that he struggles with well into the later seasons of Frasier.
• Dodgy Toupee: Briefly considers donning one for a date in season 11.
• The Dog Bites Back: In "The Heart Is a Lonely Snipe-Hunter." It is his Establishing Character Moment, and he doesn't do it because he is mean or angry—he accepts being a victim of a snipe hunt because that's what guys do, but screwing the others would also be what guys do. At that moment, Frasier earns some Hidden Depths.
• Foil: He basically starts off as the anti-Sam; an urbane, intelligent, successful psychiatrist who secretly lacks confidence and is afraid of showing affection in public. "The Heart is a Lonely Snipe-Hunter" starts moving him out of this characterization.
• Freudian Excuse: Not the one you might expect. When the bar gets a karaoke machine, Lilith tells everyone else this was a bad mix with an obsessive personality and parents who played broadway show albums to cover up the sound of their lovemaking. Frasier proves nigh-impossible to get off the damn thing, save the nuclear option: Having Lilith taking the mic from him.
• Green-Eyed Monster: For a while, he resented Sam because Diane left Frasier for him—this jealousy even started before the ill-fated marriage proposal, knowing their prior relationship. He got over it though, after hooking up with Lilith.
• Happy Ending Override: The show ends with him and Lilith tentatively reconciling. By the time Frasier begins, they proved unable to work it out and divorced, with Frasier's only word on what happened being that it was "excruciating".
• Hates Their Parent: Through a little Retcon in his spin-off show, it’s later revealed that Frasier and his father Martin Crane were on extremely poor terms during the later half of this series, which explains his occasional references to his (metaphorically) dead father.
• Henpecked Husband: Lilith will get her way. No questions asked.
• Heroic BSoD: For the first handful of episodes in Season 4, Frasier is pretty broken up following Diane leaving him. He gets better in "Triangle."
• Hidden Depths: A large part of why the crowd at the bar comes to love him. While on the surface he's a stuck up know-it-all dilettante with a serious ego problem, on the inside he's just as lonely and desperate for connections as the others. As well, his high-class background also betrays a pretty solid knowledge of men's culture, so once the guys pick up that he's into all the same things they are, they let him into their social circle and he becomes "one of the guys".
• Hypocritical Humor: In "The Impossible Dream", he brushes off a lunch with friends of his and Lilith's on the grounds they just want free psychiatric advice... so that he can give Rebecca free psychiatric advice.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: His first reaction to seeing Diane again? Terror. Then anger. Then demanding hard liquor from Woody.
• Iconic Sequel Character: He is one of the best-known characters on the show, thanks in no small part to his own series that spun off from it, but doesn't appear until the third season. Ironically Frasier was not hugely popular with audiences during his run on Cheers itself - viewer polls taken after the series finale had aired showed that only 1% of viewers were interested in watching a Frasier-centric spinoff.
• Informed Attribute: At one point Lilith pegs him as having obsessive tendencies. Aside from holding a grudge against Diane, for what even his brother eventually points out is about the most humiliating way to dump a person, this doesn't come up much here. It gets a lot more focus when he gets his own show.
• It Works Better with Bullets: Amusingly, the reason Sam knows Frasier isn't about to shoot him isn't because he thinks he's a wimp- it's because he's using a revolver and Sam can easily see that the chambers are empty.
• Jerkass to One: He became incredibly frosty towards Diane for dumping him at the alter. He mellowed out a bit after hooking up with Lillith, though it takes until Diane's return appearance in Frasier for them to fully make peace.
• Large Ham: Not quite as much as he becomes in his own show, but when he gets worked up, sure.
• Love at First Punch: Frasier first meets Diane when she's at Goldenbrook (of her own free will!), trying to beat up another 'guest' for cheating at croquet. Fras intervened... only for Diane to attack him.
• Not So Above It All: He's got class, but he takes part in his fair share of bar pranks and tomfoolery and no one respects him less for it.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Invokes it when talking about Lilith's mother to the others, much to Lilith's irritation. Then, in season 10, she turns out to be one for real.
• Occidental Otaku: Likes Japanese food and Kurosawa films (at least in his earliest appearances)
• Prima Donna Director: Woe unto he who lets Frasier have a camera. He manages to reduce Kelly to tears after just one take (and this was after several hours dealing with Cliff being one already).
• Romantic False Lead: What he starts off as, only intended to be a roadblock for Sam and Diane, but he sticks around and even gets his own Spin-Off that lasted 11 seasons.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: It's his main language, such as using the old yuppie term for shacking up, "POSSLQ".^note Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters for those who don't know. It originated with the 1980 US Census Form, and caught on in the mid-80's.
• Ship Tease: Often shown to have an attraction to Rebecca, who doesn't notice him. He actually does nearly sleep with her... then Lilith returns.
• The Shrink: His profession, which he eventually makes a radio career out of.
• Spinoff: Frasier moves to Seattle, where his antics would go on for 11 years.
• Stalker with a Crush: Lilith mentions that between their utterly disastrous first date and their getting together, he stalked her. Fras is unapologetic about this.
• Stepford Smiler: After Lilith leaves him, he pretends to be happy, but can only keep up the façade so long, and it becomes apparent Frasier is actually deeply heartbroken without her.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Embodies this trope for 20 years.
• Took a Level in Badass: His arc in "The Heart Is A Lonely Snipehunter". This is the episode where he transforms from a kind of lovable goof into "one of the guys".
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Diane leaving him at the altar left him quite bitter for a very long time, most notably in Season 4—as indicated by his first exchange with Woody—
  "Just get me a whiskey, punk!"
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's jittery about bees. Carla exploits this for maximum evil.
• You Need to Get Laid: Frasier's mind starts to unravel when he's not getting any. It starts to really unravel. He even starts getting turned on by wine glasses (it's the curves).
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: A broken Frasier threatens to kill Sam for ruining his life, but it was really just an attempt to see him quake in his boots.
• Yuppie: Once he settles into the ensemble, Frasier basically becomes the show's resident yuppie, to contrast with the mostly working-class (Cliff) or older (Norm) clientele of Cheers. His eventual wife Lilith is also a yuppie (though she despises being called that), allowing them to explore many yuppie couple stereotypes (most notably the POSSLQ phenomenon in "Dinner at Eight-ish").

Tropes from Frasier (1993)

"It may be an unwise man who doesn’t learn from his own mistakes, but it’s an absolute idiot that doesn’t learn from other people’s."

On Frasier, Dr. Crane has divorced Lilith and returned to his hometown of Seattle, reuniting him with his brother Niles and their father Martin. After Martin is injured during the course of his police work, he is forced to move in with Frasier and the brothers hire a physiotherapist named Daphne to help Martin with his injury. Frasier spends his time in Seattle working as a radio psychiatrist for a local radio station, going on dates, suffering though visits from Lilith and trying to maintain a relationship with Frederick.

---

• Allegedly Dateless: People poke jabs at him not being able to get a girl and he spends supposedly months dateless, but he's getting dates left and right in-show. It's played with in that he gets dates all the time, but 90% of them never go past the first one.
  Frasier: I'm a one-woman man. If that.
• Amicable Exes:
  • He and Lilith eventually became much more cordial towards each other as the series progresses. This seems to have been undone somewhat by the time of the revival, though does placate again during her first reappearance.
  • He still has some skeletons about Diane, though in her return appearance he does let them out and make peace with her.
• Annoying Patient: When ill with flu, he drives Daphne mad with constant, incessant whining about every little thing, until she finally snaps and yells at him for it, saying she's known people on their death beds who were less fussy. He never apologizes, but she gets her own back at him by messing with his head.
  Niles: Is he in pain?
  Daphne: Not enough.
• Answers to the Name of God: Frasier often does this by accident.
  (Lilith has just slept with Niles, when Frasier shows up with Niles in the bathroom.)
  Lilith: [seeing Frasier in just a bathrobe, horrified] My God!
  Frasier: [hungrily] My Goddess!
• Aroused by Their Voice: Is regularly complimented on his sexy baritone voice, which just encourages him to dial the charm up further.
• Bad Liar: Lying gives him nausea in one episode. Later on, though, he's got no problem lying to women in order to schmooze, it's just quickly rewarded with a karmic backlash.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension:
  • With Kate Costas in "Sleeping With The Enemy".
  • He insists he and Julia Wilcox have this. Niles' estimate is that it's not, but rather Frasier over-compensating for his previous failed relationships.
• Berserk Button: Never challenge his intelligence, be it with psychiatry or anything else he considers himself educated in.
  Frasier: Chicken! I believe it was Laroshe-foucalt, the great thinker, who said...
  The Chicken: Hey, give it a rest, Double Wide! I went to grad school too, and P.S.- it's pronounced "La Rochefoucauld".
  Frasier: THAT'S IT! NO ONE CORRECTS MY FRENCH PRONOUNCIATION, YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!
• Big Brother Instinct: As much as they squabble and snark at each other, he cares deeply for Niles and always takes it seriously when others (usually Maris or Mel) are emotionally abusive to him.
• Book Dumb: Anybody without an Ivy League education, according to him and Niles. Once, he sniffed haughtily at his Girl of the Week's Stanford education, saying, "Well, if you have to go to school on the West Coast..."
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: His relationship with his own father wasn't the best considering Martin's inability to connect with him and Niles because of their vastly different personality and interests. Meanwhile, his relationship with his own son Frederick is much healthier. It helps that they often have the same interests. But even when there is some problem with communicating with one another, Frasier does attempt to connect with Frederick.
• Break the Haughty: A big part of the humor of the show is seeing if it's Frasier's or Niles's turn to get broken, or if they'll share it, and how it's going to happen. Subverted in that while he does get over much of his stuffiness and haughtiness over the course of the series, the actual "breaking" rarely sticks for long.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He is a very effective and successful psychiatrist, but more than a handful of times are the instances where he helps people in need by screaming at them and playing on their insecurities or vulnerabilities to make them see his point.
• Camp Straight: The show takes occasional jabs at his metrosexual and opera loving habits as being homosexual
• Cannot Keep a Secret: If he's ever told something secretive, you can be sure he'll accidentally end up blurting it out to half of Seattle by the end of the episode.
• Can't Take Criticism: Even someone saying they simply don't like him, in a general "not very interested" sense, will send him into an obsessive spiral that will last days, if not longer. Actual negative criticism is worse. Daphne even mentions at one point that if she wants him out of the way, she'll make an innocuous comment about him gaining weight, and he'll sulk for the rest of the evening.
• The Casanova: Deconstructed. Frasier is a charming, handsome man, who has no problem catching the eye of women. However, whenever he tries to juggle multiple relationships it inevitably falls apart when his partners find out what he's doing and they all break up with him, understandably furious at him.
  "I'm a one woman man. If that."
• Catchphrase:
  • "Oh dear god!" "Oh, for God's sake!" and "What the hell was THAT!?"
  • And of course, his radio greeting and sign-off: "Hello <caller>, I'm listening" and "This is Doctor Frasier Crane, wishing you good mental health."
• Character Filibuster: He loves to give speeches, and the rest of the characters know it and complain about it. Lampshaded as early as the second episode.
• The Chew Toy: Nothing ever seems to go his way.
• Chronic Self-Deprecation: Although he is usually quite vain, pompous, and full of himself, and quite willing to rub it in everyone's face, this arrogance is largely a cover for his insecurity, and when it fails him, his self-loathing black moods are miserable. His brother Niles usually has to flip their Vitriolic Best Buds bickering on its head and do the same thing to himself to get Frasier out of it:
  Frasier: I wanted my day. I wanted hoopla and fuss, I practically planned the whole thing myself. Says a lot about me as a psychiatrist, doesn't it? I'm a small man.
  Niles: Well, what does it say about me that I was happy seeing you miss your day? I was jealous all week! I'm a tiny man.
  Frasier: Next to me, you're a giant!
  Niles: I stare up at your ankles!
  Frasier: I need a stepladder just to —
  Niles: Oh, let's not do this again.
• Complexity Addiction: He can't really do anything simply. When he's asked to write a short jingle for his show, he ends up hiring a full orchestra. It gets to the point where, after agonizing over a bizarre dream he has, he finally comes to the conclusion that he was so bored at his job that his subconscious invented a problem for him to work on. Martin notes that it isn't that Frasier doesn't like "simple", noting he went on and on about a painting of a red square (Frasier: "That was deceptively simple!"); it's just that Frasier needs to be a show off.
• Compressed Vice: One episode claims he has a severe aversion to hugging. You'd never know from the times he's quick to offer Daphne and Roz hugs when they're down.
• Control Freak: On occasion, is very determined to do things his way.
  • When he inadvertently is put in charge of Daphne's wedding, he quickly takes charge, making every decision regardless of what Daphne thinks, until he finally hits her Trauma Button and she explodes at him for it. Afterward, Frasier admits in this case it was because of issues related to his own failed marriages.
  • He and Roz even have a falling out over it at one point, since she lets him be a part of her new radio show, and within minutes of walking in is acting like it's his show. When Roz boots him out, he spends days sulking and plotting obsessive revenge.
• The Dandy: Tends towards overly flashy suits and bold colours.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has a very dry sense of humour.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Thanks to his quirk of having to elucidate everything he says, Frasier finds himself getting himself in more trouble the more he tries to explain himself. Notable examples include:
  • "The Doctor Is Out": Frasier tries to explain why he was in a gay bar with Niles but can't say Niles is his brother because he promised not to reveal Niles was breaking a promise to Daphne. At the same time, Roz realizes Frasier was trying to prove her metrosexual date was gay, and Frasier just "outed" himself to all of Seattle.
  • "The Fight Before Christmas": Frasier keeps trying to patch things with Mel, only to make her madder and madder at Niles over Maris.
    Frasier: Well, actually I was just apologizing for my part in your little misunderstanding.
    Niles: Well, then of course you were discussing the present.^note Meaning the gift he was giving Mel.
    Frasier: Oh, yes, the present. [lifts glass] And the future, Maris is all in the past!
    Mel: [Tranquil Fury] Maris?
    Frasier: Oh, dear.
    Mel: You were with Maris last night? How dare you!
    [Mel storms off]
    Niles: [to Frasier] Anything else in the box, Pandora?
  • "Murder Most Maris": Frasier defending Niles to the press about Niles' role in the murder that Maris commited, making an unfortunate slip: "If there is any justice in the world, Maris Crane and Niles Crane will soon be executed!" when he intended to say "exonerated". And keeps trying to tell people he meant "exonerated", just making people angrier.
    Martin: [watching TV] That's four times in one newscast. Must be some kind of record.
  • "Radio Wars": Every time Frasier confronts Carlos and the Chicken, whether amiably or threatening, just makes them turn up the mocking, leading to them holding a "Frasier Crane's Big ASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Contest". Everyone tells Frasier the best way to deal with pranksters is to ignore it, but he can't help but try to attack them back... with pithy quotes.
• Disappeared Dad: He is terrified he is this to Frederick, having lost a bitter custody battle with Lilith and moved interstate as a result. He clearly loves and dotes on his son when they're together (which becomes annoying to Frederick when he's 13 and an Emo Teen Goth), and still spends a lot of time on the phone with him. In "Cranes Unplugged":
  Frasier: Good lord. He doesn't seem very happy to be here. He hardly said two words to me.
  Martin: Oh, it's perfectly normal. You're his dad. Kids that age don't want to talk to their dad.
  Frasier: I never stopped talking to you.
  Martin: [sighing] I know, buddy.
• Does Not Like Spam: He grumbles about red meat often. A problem for him, since Martin's preferred meat is steak.
• Drama Queen: When his ego and/or social position is on the line, he cranks up the ham.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: He sports a skullet in the first two seasons, which is carried over from his appearance in the final seasons of Cheers. Season three (of Frasier) onwards would see Frasier cut his remaining hair short. Only qualifies as this trope to viewers who have watched Frasier but not Cheers.
• Elite School Means Elite Brain: Frasier definitely believes this, constantly rattling off his academic resume (Harvard, Oxford) to anyone who doubts his intelligence. When Niles is going in for heart surgery, Frasier sniffs at Niles' doctor getting his degree at Tulane, then reassures Niles that his anesthesiologist went to Duke.
• Family Man: He lives with his elderly father, is best friends with his brother, clearly misses his son who he does not have custody over, and eventually becomes close friends with his ex-wife.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His obsessive tendencies tend to be what ruins any chance of romantic happiness he has.
  • His ego. Dear god, his ego. Rare is the episode where it doesn’t get him into trouble. More than once, the plot starts when he's suckered by people manipulating him with flattery, or where he comes across a simple problem that he overcomplicates by believing he knows better.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Niles. They agree that their mutual competitiveness has been healthy for their development in the long run, and they care about each other a lot.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Despite only being a radio personality on a local station, Frasier makes enough money to afford a three bedroom apartment in downtown Seattle and have a high-class social life that includes regular opera tickets, the wine club, and a nice car. Word of God admitted when asked on Twitter that the question of how Frasier afforded all this was something the writers themselves joked about internally, and he quipped that Frasier may have just invested the money from his Boston practice very wisely.
  • Episodes with Bebe show that, for all of her evil and insanity, she's a very good agent, and has not only negotiated several raises for Frasier, but also at least one syndication deal outside of Seattle, so Frasier probably makes a fair bit of money.
• Gasp!: Prone to this when enamored of something. Mocked in "Out With Dad" when Martin mentions it as one of the more unrealistic tropes of opera, and Frasier immediately obliges. Martin gasps himself when he realizes the old crone of a mother is waving at him.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: While Frasier certainly can be arrogant and snobbish, he is nevertheless a well-intentioned and caring man. Even going as far as missing out on a ceremony to honour him, just to help a man he had just met cope with his ex-wife getting remarried. He’s also well-educated and very well read.
• Get Out!: It's almost Catchphrase status for Frasier, who will say this of anyone snarking after one of his Epic Fails or presses his Berserk Button.
• Glory Hound: Frasier has a desperate need to be acknowledged for his achievements. However minor they may be.
  Niles: Oh please, in your sixth grade production of Oklahoma! you took so many curtain calls Mrs. Van Raphorst had to lasso you and pull you from the stage.
  Frasier: That woman never understood me or the role of Farmer Number Three!
• Good Parents: He is one to Frederick—even when the boy starts acting out against him.
• Gossipy Hens: Frasier is pretty bad at keeping secrets. Not maliciously, but his inability to tell lies and attention issues usually means he'll blab quickly.
• Guilty Pleasures: In "Daphne's Room," Frasier starts playing the usual classical music that he likes on the piano, and then, realizing that he has the place to himself, he gladly and enthusiastically plays and sings Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire."
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Downplayed. While not aggressive, Frasier isn’t a hard man to irritate or anger. Generally, annoyances mounting up on him will cause him to suddenly explode and start ranting about every little thing that annoys him.
• Has a Type: Insists he's drawn to smart, capable, sophisticated women. Judging by his dating record, his type seems more like any woman who's remotely interested in him. Roz states his types are total bitches, whom he's attracted to solely so he can "fix" them. By "Don Juan in Hell" Frasier finally realizes his type is his mother. Ironically, Frasier is a Freudian.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Goes through a comical version of this after he temporarily loses his job at KACL.
  • He also goes into spasms of "Oh my God!" exclamations when he finds out Niles slept with Lilith.
• Honorary Uncle: To Roz's daughter Alice.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Largely due to judging people based on appearances.
• I Gave My Word: One of the show's usual means of torturing him. Frasier stands by his word, often usually making him fall into situations where he'd really, really like to break it, but can't, and tries looking for a loophole or way out.
• Ignored Epiphany: No matter how many times his obsessive nitpicking brings misery to his life, either romantically or just in general, he never learns to just let go of things.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: Mainly because he's so snobbish, but some of Frasier's ideas of fun can fall here, to the extent his KACL coworkers ditch his parties. Niles is about the only one who enjoys Frasier's party games, and even he has his limits, as seen in "Room Full of Heroes", where Frasier's plan for Halloween night is discussing the Human Genome Project. Mysteriously, all the people he invited who weren't Roz came down with sudden plague.
• I Resemble That Remark!: "POMPOUS AND SANCTIMONIOUS, AM I?!"
• It's All About Me: Played for Laughs most times. Frasier can be monumentally self-absorbed, such as assuming Niles and Lilith slept together while drunk solely to get at him, or when Niles and Daphne have an argument, and he focuses on some insult thrown at him.
• Ivy League for Everyone: He went to Harvard, as he often likes to remind people. It's something Kate snarks at him about, noting he seems incapable of going a sentence without name-dropping his alma mater. When briefing the gang about his brother's heart surgeon, he expresses his dissatisfaction at the surgeon having gone to Tulane's medical school, but approved of Niles' anethesiologist being from Duke.
• Jerkass Ball: Often treats Daphne like a servant, demanding she get the door for him whenever it rings. Goes as far as making her do housework in his flat after she's married Niles, all the more awful because at the time she was pregnant.
• Lame Pun Reaction: He's fond of the joke "Freudian slip" in reference to a psychiatrist tripping or falling somehow. No one ever laughs when he makes it, not even those who probably understand it.
• Large Ham: Loud, pretentious, and a total Drama Queen.
• Limited Social Circle: Several episodes draw attention to the fact that he doesn't really have any close friends in Seattle besides Niles or Roz. This is often contrasted with his mucher larger social circle from Cheers. His attempts to rectify this by making new friends always end up failing and sending him back to Niles.
• Mirror Character: The recurring gag with Frasier's Sit Com Arch Nemesis, Cam Winston, was that Cam was almost exactly like Frasier, just slightly more successful at it.
• Missing Mom: Frasier's mother Hester Crane, has been dead for several years by the time the series starts.
• Momma's Boy: It's pretty clear he got on better with Hester far more than he ever did with Martin. Possibly too better, since Frasier - ever the Freudian fanboy - is convinced he's got Oedipal issues, even thinking at one point his love for his mother is why all his relationships have gone belly-up, since none of his wives could ever match up to mom.
• Moral Myopia: When running for president of their wine club, Frasier insists Niles support his candidacy, but is outraged when Niles doesn't, even though he had no intention of doing the same for him. Though to be entirely fair to him, the issue was mainly because Niles had earlier promised to support his candidacy, only to go back on his word and run for the presidency himself, betraying Frasier in the process.
• Never My Fault: Zig-Zagged from time to time as whenever Frasier creates a problem (albeit sometimes indirectly), he just cannot bring himself to own up to it. For example, when he makes the ludicrously over-done song for an ident, he insists Kenny didn't tell him not to, even though the word "jingle" should've been a tip-off.
• Nice to the Waiter: Well, he tries. Most of the time, he's actually very cordial and polite to serving staff and service workers, it's just that his need for everything to be just so often means that he winds up annoying them with his requests when something isn't exactly how he wants it. Best shown in the season 1 finale "My Coffee With Niles" where he spends an entire episode sending a coffee order back because of some small complaint.
• Not So Above It All: Though it's less common on his own show than on Cheers, Frasier is definitely capable of cutting loose and hanging out with the boys.
  • When alone in the apartment and playing piano, he shifts from playing a classic piece to a boisterous rendition of "Great Balls of Fire", then back to classical when Martin and company come in.
  • When Woody drops by, Frasier goes into his beer-swilling Cheers persona. Martin is amazed. In another episode when going through a stint of loneliness, he starts visiting a bar that Daphne frequents and fits right in with the other patrons.
  • In Season 2's "Love Bites Dog" when Bulldog becomes a Ladykiller in Love and is heartbroken when he's dumped, Frasier tries to use his usual psychiatry to make him feel better until Bulldog asks him to be "like a guy". Cue Frasier giving a loud Testosterone Poisoning rant about how she was no good for him and he can do better, and he's going to go out tomorrow and have a one-night fling with someone even hotter and won't feel bad about using her, "because we're guys, and that's what guys do!" He gets so into character that he keeps talking that way to Niles and has to be slapped to his senses.
  • Zigzagged when it comes to rivalries with those who try to embarrass him or show him up — on occasion he'll sink to their level and get them back at their own game, other times he'll be satisfied with making sure they know he can get them back but lets them off the hook.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: Downplayed. While he does have a medical degree (from Harvard, thank you) and the fact both he and Niles are qualified physicians gets brought up all the time, Frasier's practice in this show is limited to dispensing advice on the radio — something for which Niles, who has actual patients, frequently mocks him. Doesn't stop him trying to boss actual hospital doctors around when Niles goes in for surgery.
  Doctor: Well, if you're such an expert, maybe you should perform the surgery yourself!
  Frasier: Maybe I should!
  Niles: [weakly] Daaaaaad!
  Martin: Frasier, you're not operating on your brother.
• Prima Donna Director:
  • In "Ham Radio", Niles states he has an Orson Welles Complex, being unable to stop directing. Niles is right on the money, as over the course of the episode Frasier's obsessive pomposity drives one of the cast members to quit after an entire evening of being badgered by Frasier over his accents. At the climax of the episode, Frasier's over-directing causes Niles to snap and sabotage the entire show from frustration.
  • Again in "They're Playing Our Song", he nitpicks and overdirects an orchestra in much the same way.
  • And there's that time he tries to micro-manage a stripper. This one somehow ends up with them handcuffed to one another.
• Rousseau Was Right: Frasier thinks so — he notes in a few episodes centering on exploring the idea that he believes everyone is a good person deep down, and if you just give them a chance and believe in them, they will do the right thing.
  • Proved wrong when Bulldog is a complete Karma Houdini for doing a reprehensible act, even getting rewarded. However, his selfishness is shown up by the end of the episode where he uses his own mother as a human shield.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: On one occasion in particular, Martin scares him and Niles comes in thinking it was a woman.
• Self-Serving Memory: Not surprisingly, Frasier's recollections tend to overlook his faults, flaws and mistakes.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: A habit that often irritates those around him.
  Frasier: (to a caller) You have my sympathies, there is nothing worse than pretentious and pointless erudition.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He's almost always wearing a very expensive suit.
• The Shrink: Before the series, Frasier was a practicing psychiatrist; however upon moving to Seattle, he got a job as and spent the series working as a radio shrink. However, towards the end he began to realise he missed being able to do more for his patients.
• Sibling Rivalry: With Niles. The two constantly try to outdo the other when one of them gets some sort of recognition or position the other lacks, or outdoes the other in a competition. Reconstructed quite well when the two openly discuss their constant need to one-up the other and realize that their mutual fear of being outdone probably helped motivate them to become as successful and intelligent as they are, making their rivalry an ultimately positive influence on their lives.
• Sibling Team: With Niles, especially common in the earlier seasons. They never work out though—whenever the two collaborate on anything, their rivalry splits them back up.
  • Lampshaded by Julia:
    Julia: Bye, Frasier. Bye, Emergency Frasier.
    Niles: [seething] Ooo, I don't like her.
• Sore Loser: Part and parcel of his obsessive tendencies. And that's if he concedes defeat in the first place. When he and Niles run for president of their wine club, Frasier demands no less than four recounts when Niles wins, and still tries to undermine him afterward anyway.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: The premise of the show, which is made all the more vexing for Frasier as he never really belonged in Seattle while he was growing up either.
• The Tell: When Frasier has knowingly broken his ethical code, he starts having attacks of nausea.
• Trademark Favorite Drink: Sherry. So much so that his accountant has to hire an assistant specifically to calculate Frasier's sherry expenses.
• Trophy Wife: Inverted during his relationship with successful lawyer Samantha Pierce, where he's the trophy boyfriend, even getting surrounded by all the trophy girlfriends when left alone at a party, who start offering sympathy, and reciting the usual excuses from memory.
• Unreliable Narrator: Was Gil trying to steal Frasier's time slot in the former's first appearance? Frasier was paranoid and either sick or high as a kite during the episode, and in later appearances Gil wasn't the conniving Smug Snake he was portrayed as. (Well, smug, yes, but not an antagonist.)
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Several episodes highlight that Frasier and Lilith both have shades of this. They have sex with each other a couple of times, but they're never able to reconcile their relationship.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Not always- he's often quite sympathetic. But this definitely comes into play during some of his more Jerkass moments, or when he's managing to totally screw up yet another promising relationship.
• Unwanted Assistance: He's obviously popular and helpful on the radio, since they keep him on the air and he usually has a good influx of callers. However his attempts to give advice to his friends and family often backfire horribly, and they call him out on it.
  Frasier: Well Niles, if you want my advice-
  Niles: [mildly threatening] Ooo, you know, you really need to stop saying that.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Niles and Roz. He may argue with them a lot, but he cares about them a lot and vice-versa.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Frasier retains a lot of his character development from Cheers, but his most recent divorce, moving back to Seattle, having his professional reputation frayed from his very public suicide attempt in Boston, and his father and brother indirectly taking out their own troubles on him causes him to backslide in temperament and overall stability.

Tropes from Frasier (2023)

"I feel amalgamated with the hoi polloi!"

After leaving Seattle, Frasier later moves to Chicago and has a 13-season run as TV talk-show host. He later returns to his old stomping grounds of Boston in the hopes of reconnecting with Frederick (now going by Freddy), who dropped out of Harvard to become a firefighter.

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• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: His stint as a TV personality netted him a tidy sum and he's able to buy Freddy's apartment building almost on a whim. In general, he seems to have a much larger disposable income than he ever did even on Frasier, which only assists further in his Zany Schemes and disastrous dinner parties.
• Feeling Their Age: He's pushing seventy years old and, after aggravating an old knee injury (and injuring his other one in the process) he realizes that he needs Freddy to help out around the house more often.
• History Repeats: He finds himself falling into a lot of dynamics with Freddy which he previously had with his father Martin, namely that his son is an easygoing everyman who likes sports and more mundane entertainment while Frasier himself is the same uptight, snooty elite obsessed with fine culture he's always been. This is frequently lampshaded by the both of them, with Frasier using his past experiences with his father to help reconnect more quickly with Freddy.
• Old Shame: He is deeply ashamed of his old TV show, which started off as a genuine attempt to provide psychological advice, but gradually devolved into a regular talk show that barely had anything to do with helping people. He couldn't handle betraying his principles and left the show.
• Sell-Out: When Frasier was first introduced he was a very well respected psychiatrist who had written several papers and had a successful practice. Ten years later he abandoned private practice for a career in entertainment. Twenty years later he has become exceedingly wealthy but at the cost of all professional credibility, something he regrets.
• Snobs Vs Slobs: The Snob to his son's Slob.
• Too Clever by Half: He's well-versed in the classics and gives intellectual answers during a trivia quiz when the questions are only looking for information Eve can look up in a quick Wikipedia search.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Since the original series; he's still fussy and pretentious, but he's quicker to make an effort to see where people around him are coming from, and is very gentle with his nephew in particular.

Other

Wings Tropes

• Character Title: "Planes, Trains and Visiting Cranes" is named after both him and Lilith.

Mickey's 60th Birthday Tropes

• Birthday Hater: Discussed when mentioning Rebecca's sour mood over her birthday, Frasier points out how some people dislike them and would prefer the practice of celebrating it to be abolished.
• The Piano Player: Frasier doesn't do much in the special beyond accompanying Mickey on piano, playing a ragtime version of "Happy Birthday".
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Frasier doesn't seem phased at seeing Mickey Mouse walking into Cheers and ordering a root beer float.