Frasier / Tropes A to G

A

• Aborted Arc:
  • Season 10 built up an Unresolved Sexual Tension between Frasier and Roz that culminated with Roz leaving the station due to jealousy towards Julia. When Season 11 rolled around an A-team of Frasier writers (Joe Keenan, Chris Lloyd, Rob Greenberg) returned, declared season 10 a misfire, and undid all the damage in two episodes.
  • Frasier's romance with new station manager Kate Costas was aborted because Mercedes Ruehl was unable to handle the daily grind of doing a weekly sitcom. The romance comes to a screeching halt when Frasier and Kate sit down to talk and realize they don't share any interests.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Cousin Yvonne (AKA "Yvonne the Terrible") for Niles, and, more prominently, Noel Shempsky towards Roz.
• The Ace:
  • In "The Perfect Guy," Dr. Clint Webber is this to the point of being a Parody Sue. He's outrageously handsome to the point where even Martin is taken aback; he's an Oxford-certified MD who's so medically proficient that he's able to diagnose disorders almost instantly and treat serious wounds on very short notice; he has a Master's Degree in French history; he put himself through college working as a sous chef, meaning he's an excellent cook (even creating a mixed drink that Niles praises as "Heaven in a glass"); he's a polyglot who fluently speaks at least English, French, and Mandarin; he's the godson of world-famous opera tenor Jose Carreras; he's a chess expert despite never having played the game himself; he's a squash champion; he ran his college's radio station; he can recite clever jokes and Shakespearean sonnets off the top of his head; he knows how to fly a plane; he fixed Frasier's ice machine; and he's an overall charming fellow of whom people just can't seem to get enough (Frasier, Bulldog, Gil, and eventually Niles being the only ones not impressed.^note Frasier being upstaged as an radio advice specialist, Bulldog jealous at women flocking to Clint instead of himself, Gil in full Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? mode, and Niles because Daphne wanting to ask him out on a date) After slowly giving in to envy after a series of one implausible upstaging after another, Frasier is gleeful to discover that Webber is a terrible singer.
  • Diane's self-insert Marianne in Rhapsody and Requiem, in which everyone adores her and she completely gets away with jilting Frasier's Expy Franklin, heavily implying Diane has never really cared that she did the same thing to Frasier years ago. This ends up being what sends Frasier over the edge, provoking him into finally giving her what for after all those years of having to deal with the heartache she inflicted upon him. It's only after his rant at her expense that she finally acknowledges his pain and her responsibility for it, deciding to delay any production of her play until she's rewritten it to get rid of her lead's Sueishness.
• Accidental Misnaming: Niles is sometimes called "Miles" by those who are meeting him for the first time. Niles's attempts to casually style this out and give the impression that he's not bothered are always unsuccessful and frequently cringe-inducing.
• Accidental Proposal: Discussed and defied when Frasier finds Daphne's Lost Engagement Ring:
  Frasier: Can you imagine what conclusions Faye might have jumped to had she found this engagement ring in my room?
  Faye: [entering] Oh, Frasier, for me? I had no idea!
  Frasier: Well, actually, uh...
  Faye: [grabbing the ring] It's beautiful! It's so beautiful! Yes, Frasier, I do! I do! [The Big Damn Kiss]
  Frasier: [splutters until Faye gives him a knowing look]
  Faye: Oh, calm down, you big dope. I know it's Daphne's ring. And, uh, I can't tell you how flattered I am by those beads of sweat on your forehead.
• Acting Unnatural: Frasier and his family are encouraged to do this by Martin after they accidentally cross the Canadian border, unaware that Daphne's work permit forbids her from leaving the country, and must pass through customs before re-entering. This eventually involves Frasier babbling his head off whenever the customs officer asks him a question, Niles buttoning up entirely (and answering the few questions posed to him in a grim-sounding monotone), and Daphne saying the only thing she can say in a vaguely convincing American accent: "Sure". Martin, who actually does manage to act naturally, is not greatly impressed.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Niles mentions filling Frasier's floppy red shoes which could be a reference to his character Sideshow Bob. Guess who voices Bob's brother in several episodes? Yep — it's a mirrored Actor Allusion. This could also be an allusion to an episode of Cheers where Frasier suited up as a clown to entertain for a kid's birthday party Rebecca was in charge of putting together.
  • The first episode to feature "Sideshow" Cecil Terwilliger was aptly named "Brother From Another Series". In one bit, Bart has covered Cecil's eyes to surprise him, and pulls the standard "Guess who?" gag, to which Cecil replies, "Maris?"
  • The Simpsons blandly lampshades this with a Frasier-esque title card reading "Frasier is a Hit Show on the NBC Network." Taken even further in "Funeral for a Fiend", which introduces Bob and Cecil's father Robert, played by... John Mahoney.
  • Dr. Nora's mother is played by Piper Laurie, aka Carrie's mother.
    Mrs. Mulherne: YOU LITTLE WHORE!
  • Season 7's "A Tsar Is Born", Frasier and Niles become convinced they're descended from the Romanovs after learning an antique clock Martin owns was made for the Royal Family. The episode aired shortly after Anastasia, which starred Kelsey Grammer in a supporting role, was released.
  • The end credits of Season 9's The Love You Fake are played over an undercranked comical chase between Niles and Daphne as they fight over the Segway that Niles had been riding throughout the episode. Jane Leeves had been a Hill's Angel on The Benny Hill Show in the 1980s, in which such chases had been a notable feature.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • "Voyage Of The Damned" sees Frasier booked as a cruise ship entertainer along with several B-list celebrities whom Frasier is less than enthusiastic about sharing billing with ("You've booked me on a floating Gong Show! ...Of course I got top billing! I'm the only one up there I've ever heard of!"), one of whom is comedian Giggles O'Shea. Later, Giggles helps Frasier spice up his speech with a few jokes, which Frasier has to admit are really pretty good.
  • In "The Two Mrs. Cranes," Frasier gets caught up in the web of lies going on with Daphne's old boyfriend Clive; he has to pretend he's married to and currently separated from Maris. When Martin asks him the joking question about it "You couldn't stand her either, huh?", Frasier can't help but laugh.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • In "Cranes Go Caribbean", Frasier is displeased with the lack of available fish at a seafood restaurant despite there being "an ocean full of fresh fish not fifteen feet away."
  • In "Daphne Hates Sherry," Martin's girlfriend Sherry accidentally destroys the apartment's garbage disposal by throwing her rock-hard biscuits into them. Daphne complains that Sherry's "bloody big biscuits broke the blade." Sherry responds "That's a lot of B-words for one sentence. Here's one you forgot!"
• Advanced Tech 2000:
  • In one episode, Daphne buys a high-tech new vacuum cleaner called the Dirt Scourge 2000. When Daphne tries to clean Marty's chair with it, the vacuum breaks due to the sheer amount of dirt. Frasier quips: "Dirt Scourge 2000, no match for the Dirt Pile 1957."
  • In "The Fight Before Christmas," which takes place in 1999, Frasier throws a party that nobody comes to because his neighbor (who lives in apartment number 2000) has lured all the guests to his own party, with a banner reading "Winston Party 2000".. Martin guesses that the inherent coolness of the "2000" advertised on the fliers has something to do with it.
  Martin: Well, "Winston Party 2000" sounds like the party of the future. "Crane Party 1901" sounds like... [looks around at the empty room] ... well, this.
• Aerosol Spray Backfire: In episode "Momma Mia," Niles accuses Frasier of having an Oedipal attraction to Mia, his new girlfriend, because she's a dead ringer for his deceased mother. When Frasier gets frustrated and tries to put some bug spray on Niles, he accidentally sprays himself in the face as he was unknowingly holding it backwards, screaming "I blinded myself!" — an allusion to the historical Oedipus.
• Air Guitar: Frasier and Niles play "air violin". Frasier also enjoys air orchestra conducting.
• Alien Abduction: Congressional candidate Phil Patterson confides with Frasier that he genuinely believes he was abducted by aliens, who told him he had to do something to help the planet. Bulldog reveals that the news was reporting about Patterson and aliens, so Frasier goes on air to defend Patterson, only for Bulldog to explain to Roz that Patterson had illegal aliens from Guatemala working in his kitchen (actually foreign exchange students on a goodwill program). Patterson's opponent, Holden Thorpe, wins the election with 92% of the vote. Frasier is mortified at this, but Patterson says he may run in California, where this may actually help him.
• All Germans Are Nazis: ("A Man, a Plan, and a Gal: Julia" episode):
  Niles: Oh, it's just temperamental. My Gaggenau is German-engineered. It probably needs more power than my building's old wiring can give it.
  Martin: Leave it to the Germans. Even their appliances crave power.
  • In another episode, Niles's maid is revealed to know German, since she worked for a German family who came to Guatemala "...just after the war", which strongly implies they were Nazis. Certainly, Frasier himself gives Marta a very suspicious look after hearing this.
• All Love Is Unrequited: "The Ski Lodge" features one of the most complicated love tangles ever. With an especially cruel twist, as once it's all sorted out, Frasier is left to come to the hideously painful realization that no one was lusting after him.
  Frasier: Wait, wait, wait. Wait, everybody. Let me see if I can get this straight. All the lust coursing through this lodge tonight, all the hormones virtually ricocheting off the walls, and no one... was chasing me? (long silence) See you at breakfast.
  • Subverted during The Stinger when the Dumb Blonde Frasier had been pursuing changes her mind - but Frasier unwittingly screws that up, too.
    • Also, for most of the series, Niles and Daphne. Niles eventually seemed to get over his crush on Daphne and move on... just in time for Daphne to develop a crush on him.
    • Jane Leeves claims Daphne knew Niles was in love with her all along, but that's just her interpretation.
  • Some fans have dubbed this show "the Gilligan's Island of love", saying that Frasier having a successful romance would be like the castaways getting rescued.
    • The series ending with Frasier on a plane heading east to pursue a promising relationship would seem to reinforce this view.
• All Psychology Is Freudian: Subverted. While Frasier is a Freudian and Niles is a Jungian, none of the other psychiatrists who ever appear on the show adhere to these outdated models. Indeed, they generally spend a lot of time mocking Frasier and Niles for their rejection of more modern, accepted psychiatry. Lilith, Frasier's ex-wife and fellow psychiatrist, is a Behaviorist (though that's also outdated now) and particularly likes to mock him over it.
• Always Someone Better:
  • While Frasier's more elite education, sophistication, and fame as a local radio host gives him a huge ego and sense of superiority when interacting with most around him, several times over the series he'd encounter someone who'd outshine him in one or more areas of his expertise, which always manages to trouble him due to his own insecurities.
  • This was the entire theme in the episode The Perfect Guy, which has Frasier encounter a new radio host who constantly one-ups him in almost everything he does, and without any conscious effort. By the end of the episode, Frasier becomes determined to find even a single thing that he's superior; which he does by discovering the other man to be absolutely tone deaf.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Frasier and Lilith are this for Frederick at his bar mitzvah; Lilith embarrasses him first with a spectacular emotional breakdown during her speech, while Frasier follows suit with his attempt at holding his speech in Hebrew as his co-worker Noel taught him - only Noel actually taught it to him in Klingon in revenge for believing that Frasier had failed to fulfill his end of their deal.
• Ambiguously Bi: Roz has a few moments to suggest that she may have an underlying attraction to women, such as the time she mention an ex-boyfriend and her would spice things up by pretending to be strangers picking each other up in bars, only for him to actually go home with a stranger. She wasn't even mad, as the woman was, in Roz's words, gorgeous, and a couple more drinks and Roz would have gone with her. Then there was the time she thought Niles and Daphne were propositioning her with a threesome. She actually was considering it before it was cleared up. During a charity auction, a woman hits on Roz but turns her down. Later on, Roz takes the woman's offer for drinks, just so she can avoid Noel Shempky's advances.
• Ambiguously Gay: Gil Chesterton. He shows every outward sign of being effeminitely gay, but says he's married and makes several references to his wife over the years. But she's never seen (which Roz tries to call him out on), and he does things in quick gags like quoting lines from a romance novel clearly directed at Bulldog, and sneaking into a gay bar. Is he gay? Straight? Both, or curious, or just oblivious to how it all looks?
  • It results in a crowning moment of funny when Gil says, of one of KACL's production staff — one just as ambiguously effeminate as himself — "Between you and me, I always thought of him as being the other way", and Roz responds with a confused "Which way would that be?!"
  • In one episode, Gil is speaking at a sexual harassment seminar, and apologizes for ogling certain coworkers, adding "and you know who you are." Cue male and female KACL employees exchanging confused glances.
  • There's an equally brilliant scene where Gil finds that they all think he's gay and becomes outraged, explaining that he has a wife (and describing her in terms that match the stereotypical Butch Lesbian). It's followed by Frasier saying "Well, that's the first I've ever seen a man IN himself."
• Analogy Backfire: Used often in a variety of situations by different characters.
  Martin: If a comet were heading straight towards the Earth, and the only way to stop it would be to lie under oath, would you do it?
  Frasier: Who would I be lying to, the comet?
• Angrish: Mostly Frasier, but the other cast sometimes suffer this, too.
  • From Roz And The Schnoz, Roz has been having a Heroic BSoD the entire episode when she sees how massive her unborn child's grandparents' noses are.
    Frasier: You know Roz, in spite of a rather shaky beginning, I think this evening's turned out rather well.
    Roz: (calmly at first) Oh yeah, and you were absolutely right, Frasier. Now I can see some of the qualities my baby can have. A great sense of humor... a sweet disposition... (angrish) a nose like an ANTEATER!!
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Niles and Daphne have one towards one another after she learns his secret.
• Animal Theme Naming: Almost certainly a coincidence (the characters are unrelated and never meet) but the show has two Romantic False Leads named after predatory fish. Roz claims that Donny "the Piranha" Douglas is named less for his fearsome reputation as a divorce lawyer and more for his "night-grinding problem", while in the cruise boat episode Maris pursues a sleazy Lounge Lizard called "the Barracuda" (who lives up to his name with a rather revolting jaw-snapping action when coming on to a woman).
• Animated Credits Opening: Just like the rest of the show, classy and understated. Counts as a form of Couch Gag as there are several variations. Each season seems to have a theme, too. One had a hot air balloon rising, another had confetti/fireworks, another had a helicopter, and so on.
• Answers to the Name of God:
  • Played with in "Back Talk", when Frasier is dealing with severe back pain. Everyone is trying to give him advice.
  Frasier: That sort of exercise only helps people who lack self-awareness. I for one am... (back pain hits) God almighty!
  Niles: Well, no wonder you're stressed, you've got a whole Universe to run!
  • When Frasier shows up in Lilith's hotel room and starts stripping, unaware she's just slept with his brother and has him hidden in the bathroom, he takes her deadpan expression of surprise as a term of endearment:
  Lilith: [stopping in her tracks] My God.
  Frasier: [growling] My Goddess!
• Antiquated Linguistics: Apparently, when with one of his many girlfriends of the week, Frasier called her "m'lady" at the moment of climax. She and her family found this insanely amusing, as her sister recounts when she is a patient of Frasier's during his return to private practice (and which makes her unable to take him seriously).
• Aren't You Forgetting Someone?: Happens to Frasier and Roz at the first SeaBee awards they attend; they assume that they will be one of the two shows tied for an award.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: This dialogue from "Impossible Dream":
  Niles: Frasier, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
  Frasier: That Dad can interpret the looks from his dog and has only the spottiest recollections of our childhoods?
• Argentina Is Nazi Land: Apparently, Niles' housemaid worked for a German family that arrived in Guatemala just after the war, which explains why she speaks German fluently.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In the season 7 episode "The Late Dr. Crane", after Niles tells Frasier that he's just waiting for the right moment to ask Mel out, Frasier says something to Niles that hurts him.
  Frasier: Oh, please. Just knock this off. Isn't it time you just asked the woman out?
  Niles: Frasier, I'm just waiting until the moment's right.
  Frasier: Like you did with Daphne?!
  Niles: (Beat, stunned silence)
  Frasier: Oh, Niles, I am sorry. But I'd like to see you do this while I can still pick you out of a crowd.
• Aroused by Their Voice: One of Frasier's callers admits she listens to his show for this reason. This prompt Frasier to dial up the charm further.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Turns up in places you'd least expect. Sometimes becomes part of the scene-stealing moment.
  • "People of Seattle! Listen to me! We are not barbarians! We are not Neanderthals! AND WE ARE NOT FRENCH!"
  • In one episode, two DJ's try to make a career out of publicly humiliating Frasier. He refuses to sink to their level and will only counter them by quoting famous authors. After all the ridicule, one of them manages to hit his Berserk Button by correcting his pronunciation of "La Rochefoucauld."
  • Frasier, in a rant about how people in Seattle have no etiquette during the rain:
  "They buy huge umbrellas that are too big to walk around, so you have to walk in the street! And then they drive so close to the curb that they splash you with water! AND THEY WEAR BROWN SHOES WITH WHITE SOCKS!"
  • Roz grumbles at Niles and Mel's fake wedding reception because she couldn't find the proper shoes to get with her dress, the ones she does have are extremely uncomfortable, and a light on her car's dashboard keeps going off for no reason.
    Niles: What does that have to do with anything?
    Roz: Nothing! It just really ticks me off!
  • When Martin finds out that Frasier was having an affair with his piano teacher as a kid, he complains that she took advantage of him... and that she wasn't doing what he paid her to do.
• Artifact of Attraction: Played for Laughs. Frasier, suffering from back pain, stumbles and winds up sitting in his father's much-maligned chair. In a tone of wonder he says not only does his back not hurt, but there's no glare on the TV, and look at how convenient this little table is for putting your drink. Niles, horrified, pleads with him "Frasier, whatever the chair is telling you, don't listen!"
• Artistic License – Education: As a means of differentiating the scrappy-but-effective Donny Douglas from the refined Crane brothers (Ivy Leaguers both), he is said to have received his law degree at the "University of Las Vegas" (where Niles remarks they'd have no trouble finding tassels for those mortarboards). Only problem is, Vegas (indeed, the entire state of Nevada) did not have a degree-granting law school until 1998 (which, to be fair, is a part of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas) and the first graduating class was in 2001, two years after the episode's original airdate.
• Artistic License – Geography:
  • The view from Frasier's apartment does not come from any building or residence in Seattle. It was taken from a cliff.
  • In "Ham Radio", the script of the radio play says there are fens in Surrey. There aren't. They are in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk, over 100 miles away.
  • In "An Affair to Forget", Niles goes to the Washington-Oregon border and is sent back for having fruit in his car. There is no Agricultural Inspection Station at that border, unlike at California's state lines.
• Artistic License – Religion: Very many in the Bar Mitzvah episode: the fact that the service ends after Frederick finishes reading his haftara (there is a whole other prayer service that follows); the fact that a dinner is apparently served then (this service is in the morning); Martin taking photos in a synagogue on the Sabbath (even in a Conservative synagogue he would be asked to stop). For that matter, no one seems too concerned when Frasier is tricked into reading a prayer in Klingon, though the rabbi looks increasingly confused — one would assume the Jewish members in the audience are similarly confused. At the conclusion, the rabbi remarks it wasn't Hebrew — it was gibberish to his ears.
• Ashes to Crashes:
  • In the episode "Martin Does It His Way", Aunt Louise's ashes get blown back at Frasier and Niles. Niles is still pouring her ashes out of his shoe at the funeral, and in The Stinger, a janitor is seen sweeping them up.
  • In another episode, Frasier takes a call on his show from a woman who is concerned about the fact that her husband keeps his late wife's ashes in their bedroom. When he suggests she move them, the conversation continues "Well, I guess I could try that. Maybe I'll move them into the guest room." (crashing noise) "Oops."
• As Himself: Dr. Phil, Larry King, Bill Gates, John Glenn, and Wolfgang Puck all make guest appearances as themselves in later seasons.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: Invoked by Bulldog in one episode while attempting an ad for a Chinese restaurant.
  Roz: (after Bulldog's performance) We're gonna get sued this time for sure.
  • Also in "Ham Radio" when the cast is going through a reading of a script from the '50s with Bulldog as Mr. Wing (formerly Wang).
  Bulldog: Oh, me no lookee. Me go beddie-bye, chop-chop!
  Roz: Stop! Chinese Embassy on line one!
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: One episode had Roz break up with a French boyfriend who didn't speak English, so Frasier translates. The boyfriend immediately reveals he was planning to break it off himself, so the French parts of the conversation drift off into where he can find a good steak while Roz works through the whole speech she had prepared.
• As You Know: Mocked at least once:
  Frasier: Dear God, she believes they're genuine sapphires.
  Martin: [sarcastic] Gee, ya think?
  • In another episode, when Niles emerges from the bathroom covered in shaving foam following a loud "bang":
  Niles: I'm fine. Just a little hot... and foamy.
  Martin: You know what must have happened? My Hot and Foamy must have exploded!
  Daphne: He was a detective, you know.
• Awful Wedded Life: Niles and Maris, off-screen.

B

• Bachelor Auction: Frasier gets won by Kristina Harper (Claire Stansfield) in "Can't Buy Me Love". Despite the fact she's gorgeous and completely adores Frasier, he blows it. Bulldog is the last bachelor sent out and gets bought by Daphne who only bid because nobody else would.
• Back for the Finale: Simon Moon.
• Backseat Changing Room: Roz is changing clothes in the backseat of Frasier's car. A police officer has him pull over. It turns into Not What It Looks Like when the officer sees Roz in the backseat, her jeans around her ankles.
• Bail Equals Freedom: Addressed when Maris is refused bail because the police think she's a flight risk.
  Niles: Can you imagine?
  Martin: Well, it didn't help that when they found her, she had a passport, a wig, and $10,000 in her purse.
  Niles: Maris always has those things in her purse.
• Bait-and-Switch: In "Retirement is Murder", after Martin has the police follow up on a cold case of his that he was reviewing obsessively:
  Martin: Frank, about that theory of mine...
  Frank: I can't for the life of me figure what you were thinking.
  Martin: I know, I know. I just feel so stupid, wasting your time.
  Frank: It cost us a whole afternoon, and five detectives' time. And all we got to show for it is... (Beat) Heh, heh, we got the bastard!
• Balloon Belly: It happens to both of the Crane Brothers, and for opposite reasons;
  • Played seriously with Frasier, who gets one after eating so much food and gaining weight during his depression in Season 6.
  • Played for Laughs with Niles, who gets a very large gut when he gladly indulges in sympathetic pregnancy in the Season 11 episode "Match Game."
• Baseball Episode: "The Unnatural", which has Frasier attempting to play on the KACL softball team at the behest of Freddy. We don't see the match itself but judging from Frasier's "training" by Martin, he didn't do too well.
• Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: "Daphne Does Dinner" has a "Pantry of Overheard Insults":
  (after Niles and the party guests step out of the kitchen, Frasier walks out of the pantry with an angry look) I'm holding him [Niles] back. Your sauce is better than mine. Honestly, I don't even know why I try!
• Batman Gambit: Freddy's scheme to get a minibike. He acts like he's trying to trick Lillith and Frasier into getting back together, but knows that they would compare notes and realize what he was doing. This would make them feel bad enough to get him a present to console him, which was his goal all along. Subverted in that Lillith sees through it.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: It's heavily implied that the idealised love Niles and Daphne had for each other was based on kindness, as he calls her an angel in contrast to Maris's emotional abuse, and even when Daphne was supposedly oblivious, it's Niles being a gentleman that causes her to go to him for intimacy several times.
• Bedmate Reveal:
  • Frasier and Roz.
  • Niles and Lilith in "Room Service".
  • Frasier and Gil, in a homoerotic dream (Later, Frasier and Sigmund Freud).
• Bed Trick: A mutually-ignorant version with Niles and his marriage counselor, who each thought they were getting into bed with Maris.
• The Beard: In Season 5, Lilith discovers she is this to her ex-husband Brian who left for another man.
  • It's implied Gil Chesterton and his wife are this to one another.
• Berserk Button:
  • You can call the Cranes many things, but NEVER say Freddy will only go to a "State School."
  • Do NOT correct Frasier on his French.
  • Some episodes have callers coming to Frasier about their personal rage-inducers and if they can get help. Naturally, Frasier manages to press them, such as interrupting a caller who hates being talked over by people to talk about past tense, inciting a half-a-minute rant about how the caller also really hates pedants like Frasier...
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Zigzagged.
  • When new manager Kate Costas is introduced in "She's The Boss", she and Frasier immediately get off on the wrong foot, due to both being similarly stubborn and highly intelligent. A few episodes later that same animosity leads to BST. When they do try and turn their fling into a relationship, they sadly find they have very little in common just before Kate leaves Seattle for good.
  • Frasier dislikes a new host, Julia, and everyone else comments that he's obviously attracted to her. Eventually he becomes convinced of this himself, and in the middle of a screaming row asks her "Are you as turned on as I am?"... which disgusts her, and causes the office to run a sexual harassment seminar. However, once they get over their initial loathing, they do start dating.
    • It's also a Call-Back to when Sam and Diane first got together on Cheers. Sam said the same thing to Diane, who responded with "More!" and there was a Big Damn Kiss.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Humorously referenced in the episode "The Innkeepers:"
  Frasier: That man does things with eels like you wouldn't believe!
  Martin: I arrested a guy for that once.
• Better as Friends: Frasier and Roz.
• Betty and Veronica: Any time Frasier has more than one woman to decide between (e.g. Faye and Cassandra, Lana and Claire), they'll tend to have dramatically contrasting personalities which appeal to different sides of him.
  • Also during the multi-episode story arc wherein Niles and Daphne get together, Niles is Betty to Donny as Veronica, and Daphne is Betty to Mel as Veronica.
• Big Damn Kiss: Daphne and Niles have two extremely big damn ones: their first kiss in "Moon Dance", and their second one on Daphne's wedding night.
• Niles and Daphne's wedding kiss was this as well.
  • During the Grand Finale, when Roz announces her promotion to Station Manager, she kisses Frasier and Gil. Then Noel takes his opportunity.
  • Roz and Roger get one on the back of a garbage truck in Season 9, after Roz's Anguished Declaration of Love
  Do you still have an opening for a Mole Queen?
• Big Fancy House: Maris's house, and Niles's apartment after they split up. The latter has a gift-wrapping room.
  • This leads to a very amusing scene where Frasier is convincing Niles he needs to save money during his divorce, with Niles refusing to admit it:
    Niles: You can't blame me for the housing market - this is a simple apartment!
    Frasier: Well, this simple apartment of yours is going to bankrupt you! You must admit it's a bit large for one person?
    Niles: Oh, don't forget I have a pet.
    Frasier: Are you saying that your BIRD requires both a study and a library?
  • A little later:
    Frasier: You have a THIRD floor?
    Niles: It's practically a crawl space. (into intercom) Go out the door to the left. (to Frasier) Don't look at me like that! I have to have a roof over my head!
    Frasier: Niles, you have THREE roofs over your head!
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • If the viewer happens to speak French, they can catch the deliberately uppity yet nonsensical names of the restaurants that Frasier and Niles frequent, such as Le Cigare Volant (The Flying Cigar), Le Cochon Noir (The Black Pig), Le Pied de Cochon (The Pig's Foot), Le Petit Oiseau (The Little Bird), Coeur de Singe (Monkey's Heart), Le Petit Bistro and, arguably the best example, Quelquechose meaning literally "Something."
    • In the episode "Roz, a Loan," Frasier fears that Roz is wasting a loan which he gave her on fancy things such as dinner at a restaurant called "La Goulue," which is French for "The Greedy."
    • In the episode "An Affair To Forget", a viewer who understands German or especially Spanish will get the episode's major punchline several minutes before it's revealed in English. Niles confronts a German fencing instructor whom he suspects of trying to seduce Maris. Due to Frasier's translation mix-up, the instructor thinks he's been accused of stealing Niles' shoes and tries to skewer him.
    • There's also the episode where Frasier and Niles have a conversation in French to confuse Eddie.
  • (Semi) Non-French example: the gang usually attends Café Nervosa, where they usually drink coffee. In-Universe the Café is named after its owner, Maureen Nervosa. However, "Café" means either "coffee" or "coffee shop" in French and the various Iberian Latin languages, and "nervosa" is the female form for "nervous" in Portuguese. Because we all know drinking coffee can make some people nervous!
• Big Eater: Frasier becomes one as he hits depression in Season 6, stuffing his face with food. It gets to the point where he begins eating baby Alice's baby food.
• Black Hole Sue: Played for Laughs in "The Show Where Diane Comes Back", where Diane Chambers returns and gets Frasier to back what turns out to be a play about a Cheers-esque bar, which is mostly just an hour of the other characters gushing about how awesome Diane's Author Avatar character Maryann is. This leads to Frasier giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about Maryann, finally getting his frustrations with Diane out into the open, and in turn causing Diane to admit to her personal faults and shut the play down so that she can rewrite it in a more balanced fashion.invoked
• Blah, Blah, Blah: One episode even has a gag black-and-white POV shot from Eddie the dog, where everybody just makes yammering noises except when they mention his name. Soon after, a POV from Martin during one of his boys' discussions does the same thing, except in color.
• Blame the Paramour: When Niles suspects Maris is cheating on him with her fencing coach, Frasier tells Niles he needs to confront her. As soon as Frasier leaves the room, Martin convinces him to confront the fencing coach instead. The show seems to intend for Martin look like the voice of wisdom.
• Bland-Name Product: Car Chat with Bob and Bethany for Car Talk with Click and Clack.
• Blasphemous Boast: Frasier in "Oops", discussing the possibility of Bulldog being fired:

  Frasier: He's the stations highest-rated personality! I mean, with the exception of women thirty-five to fifty-four, who happen to think that I'm... (smugly) sort of a god.

• Blatant Lies: Frasier accidentally pushes Martin's precious chair over the balcony of his apartment, trashing it right in front of them. His attempt to defend himself is... unconvincing.
  Frasier: OH MY GOD, DID YOU FEEL THAT EARTHQUAKE?!
• Blind Black Guy: Frasier meets one (played by James Earl Jones) while helping out at a retirement home. Frasier accidentally breaks a plaster mask of the man's late wife and desperately tries to fix it before he finds out. It turns out the man has broken it himself many times.
• Blind Date
• Blithe Spirit: Inverted in "Taking Liberties"; Frasier gets a butler, and while he has only an incidental effect on the plot, he is cured of the British Stuffiness that's been getting in the way of his happiness.
• Bluff the Impostor: Happens on at least one occasion. One particularly notable one comes shortly after Roz discovers she's pregnant, and Frasier encourages her to find the father and tell him the news. She claims one morning at Café Nervosa that the father was an architect, and not much else. Later, at Frasier's apartment, she mentions that he was an archaeologist, and Frasier gets her into the kitchen to pull one of these off the bat by asking her how the two met again.

  Frasier: This morning, you told me you met him on a double date.
  Roz: Oh yeah, it was on a double date!
  Frasier: THIS MORNING YOU TOLD ME NOTHING!

• Blunt "Yes": Martin's fond of these.
  Frasier: You hated it, didn't you?
  Martin: Yeah. G'night, Frasier.
• Book Ends:
  • The man who delivers Martin's chair in the first episode is played by the same actor who removes it in the final episode. He even tells the moving man the same thing: "Be careful with it!" It's an Ironic Echo since when Frasier said it in the pilot, he was upset that the mover was damaging Frasier's furniture with it. In the final episode, Frasier cautioned him warmly not to damage the chair.
  • In an even subtler example, Frasier bitterly tries to get Martin to say "thank you" to him in the pilot episode. Martin does accomplish this by the episode's end... but he also repeats the phrase - with greater sincerity - in the series finale, as now he's truly grateful to his son for 11 years' worth of experience and love. It's part of the final conversation that the two share in the series.
  • With the revival series moving Frasier back to Boston, that becomes the city where his adventures in television began and will end.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • From the episode Dinner At Eight. One the one hand, Martin is right that Frasier and Niles need to relax and enjoy "normal" things sometimes; but seeing as how their hostess just cut off their (presumably expensive) ties, they have a right to be angry. Or at least very, very annoyed. Especially since Martin's gleeful reaction to said cutting shows that he knew it was going to happen, and hadn't bothered to warn them.
  • Frasier and Roz in Docu.drama. Frasier gets pretty indignant when Roz starts shooting down all of his ideas, simply because they were his, but it is supposed to be Roz's show, and Frasier had just walked in and acted like he was in charge.
• Bottle Episode:
  • Series-wide, the exterior of the Elliot Bay Towers, Frasier's apartment building, has only been seen once (during "The Impossible Dream").
  • Season 6's "Dinner Party" takes place almost entirely in the main room of Frasier's apartment as Frasier and Niles, who receive 90% of the episode's dialogue, attempt to arrange a dual-hosted dinner party to hold in the next few weeks. A classic and extremely tightly-written episode.
  • "My Coffee With Niles" takes place entirely in Café Nervosa, the title being a Shout-Out to My Dinner with Andre.
• Bowdlerized:
  • In the US, Hallmark Channel deletes all obscenities, even the tamer ones like "ass" and "butt", leaving to exchanges like Martin telling Frasier he's "behaving like a jack... with a stick up his...". Jokes with rude punchlines are often rendered unintelligible, with the subsequent laugh track looking like a non-sequitur.
  • In the UK, Channel 4 (which airs the show in the mornings) usually leaves in references to "ass" and "butt" but removes the word "bastard" and any references to drugs, providing a similar non-sequitur effect when it seems the audience are laughing mid-sentence, and that the actors are leaving sentences hanging in the air unfinished.
  • Likewise, "Dr. Nora", where the climax begins with a character's mother dramatically calling her estranged daughter a whore is also censored, making it look like the audience is laughing their heads off just because... someone walked into a room?
• Bragging Theme Tune: A Show Within a Show example from the season 7 episode "They're Playing Our Song", in which Frasier is told to come up with a jingle to introduce his show. He gets a full orchestra and chorus for something really over the top.
  Daphne: It was like Gilbert and Sullivan, only frightening!
• Brain Bleach: Many examples.
  • Frasier's reaction to his brother mentioning he's only packing sunscreen for his honeymoon.
    Frasier: Pardon me - I'm just going to go poke out my mind's eye!
  • Another example when characters are talking about past flings:
    Roz: Gosh, mine was this lifeguard. He had long blond hair and the bluest eyes. He used to get so sunburned, I'd spend hours just peeling the skin off his back. What was his name? Rick? Nick! I know there was an "ick" sound.
    Frasier: I was about to make one of those myself.
  • "Roz's Turn":
    Roz: Big news. Gertie Oldson is leaving the station.
    Daphne: What, from "Gertie's Grab Bag"? I love that show.
    Frasier: Oh please, that homily-spouting Hausfrau? It's the most embarrassing thing on the air. So, she finally got canned, eh?
    Roz: No, she got a million-dollar TV deal.
    Frasier: (chokes on his sherry, then mock-calmly mutters) Well, good news for Gertie and for the many atheists who will welcome this new proof of their theory!
  • "The Wizard and Roz":
    Frasier: (after seeing his mentor Dr. Tewksbury wearing only Roz's robe) I've gone blind. And ten seconds too late.
  • "Slow Tango in South Seattle":
    Frasier: (reading the opening of Roz's new favorite romance novel) There are tangos that come flowing from the wine-colored seas, from the rust of a hundred sunken ships. This is one of those dances.
    Roz: Well?
    Frasier: There are books that make your stomach lurch, and rumble, and thrust your lunch ever upwards. This is one of those books!
  • In "Lilith Needs a Favor", Niles demands the Café Nervosa waiter use Brain Bleach to forget about what Niles thinks is a picture of Daphne's nipple.
    Waiter: Hey, where'd you get the nipple shot?
    Frasier: Good lord!
    Niles: (frantic) You are to erase that from your mind!
    Frasier: Is it Daphne?
    Waiter: (smiling broadly) Nice.
    Niles: (to waiter) You're not erasing! ERASE!
    • Later, Niles finds out that it's a pic of Martin's nipple. Niles' horror is hysterical as he tries to forget ever seeing the pic. Martin's poor choice of words doesn't help.
    Martin: Oh, I can't wait to get to Bogart's. I know just what I'm going to get: the barbecue chicken breast. (Niles reacts in horror) They have the juiciest one in town. Or, or the lamb. They serve an enormous rack. (Niles cringes again)
    Niles: (flustered) Great.
    Martin: You might want to get an overcoat of Frasier's out of there. It's supposed to be pretty nippy tonight. (Niles cringes yet again)
  • The episode "Momma Mia" when Frasier finally realises that his girlfriend is identical to his late mother, and Niles thinks that he's suffering from an Oedipus complex.
    Niles: (running for his bug spray) Frasier, you didn't do anything wrong, your feelings for Mia stem from perfectly natural Oedipal desires.
    Frasier: Yes, but Oedipal desires are supposed to resolve themselves by the age of six!
    (Niles starts with the bug spray)
    Frasier: Oh for God's sake, give me that, you idiot!
    (Frasier takes the spray and "blinds" himself with it accidentally)
    Frasier: (screams) I've blinded myself!
    (Martin enters with water and sees the commotion)
    Martin: I leave you alone with him for two seconds!
• Breach of Promise of Marriage: Donny files a breach of promise suit against Daphne after she gets cold feet on their wedding day and decides not to go through with it.
• Break the Haughty: In a manner of speaking, Frasier does this to himself. In the early episode "Retirement is Murder," he and Niles cheerfully toast to having impossibly high standards. This comes back to bite Frasier in the butt when he and his family and girlfriend go on vacation in Belize. No thanks to his aforementioned impossibly high standards, he can't have a good time.
• Break the Motivational Speaker: Frasier coming onto Julia Wilcox, who the station execs are convinced is litigious, leads to the whole staff being forced to attend a sexual harassment seminar. Everyone unites in openly ridiculing the speaker and making a mockery of the exercises he gets them to do, and as soon as he finds out Julia isn't interested in suing, Kenny calls the seminar off mid-session. Still, all-in-all he gets off better than most victims of this trope.
• Brick Joke: Happens virtually once an episode.
  • In the season 3 episode "Martin Does It His Way": After a series of events, Niles empties the ashes out of his shoe onto the church floor, and he and Martin nonchalantly kick the ashes under the pew. That seems to be the end...until the credits, when we see the custodian sweeping up under the pew. In fact, the gag at the end of most episodes is a reference to something earlier in the episode.
  • At the beginning of "The Impossible Dream", Frasier bemoans the lack of good callers, and Roz says it's a choice between what they've got, or their old friend Rudy the Cryer. A few minutes later, Rudy's on anyway.
  • In the beginning of the season 9 episode where Martin starts his part-time job as a security guard, Kenny says that he can't go buy underwear for his wife from K-Mart since it makes him think about "man-and-wife" stuff. Later in the episode, Martin talks on the phone with a cop buddy of his who happens to mention "a possible perv at K-Mart".
• Brief Accent Imitation: Martin does an imitation of Daphne's accent at one point. It's not quite in the area of Manchester.
• British Stuffiness: Unusually, inverted - Frasier and Niles are elitist and stuffy while most of the British characters are cheerfully working-class. According to the Word of God, this was deliberate, and Jane Leeves openly expressed pleasure when discussing her role in that there were no working class Brits on American sitcoms.
  • Exemplified in the penultimate episode "Crock Tales", in which Daphne explodes at Frasier when she thinks she's going to be fired:
    Daphne: I'm washing me face with dish soap while you're out buying imported bath salts like a big rich girl! I hope you rot in debtors' prison!
  • Gil Chesterson is a pretty straight example however. Even his Camp Gay tendencies are fairly refined.
  • Ferguson, the butler who served Frasier for one episode (played by Victor Garber) is a bit of a subversion. While he's a very proper British manservant, when he's alone with Daphne in the kitchen, he drops his pretension and discusses Manchester United with her, explaining that it's his job to play the role of The Jeeves. (Needless to say, both Frasier and Niles delight in his subservient behavior, and even Martin finds a use for him, clicking his remote control for him.)
    • On the other hand, he's initially appalled by Daphne and Niles' cross-class relationship. Takes a more serious and bittersweet note when he reveals that he denied himself a chance at love due to his views on class and propriety. Niles' crowning moment in the episode - telling Mel off, in front of their social circle, because of the pain and cruelty she was inflicting on Daphne - forces him to re-evaluate said views, leading to his leaving Frasier's employ to pursue the relationship he had rejected.
• British Teeth: In "Rdwrer", Daphne is upset at businesses sending Christmas cards after Christmas.
  Daphne: Bloody hell! Five days after Christmas is over and I'm still getting these cards! They do it on purpose, you know. It's always from someone you forgot, and then it's too late to send one back, then they sneer at you for the rest of the year! (reads card) "Peace and Goodwill," my ass! You just lost yourself a customer, Dr. Naran S. Gupta, D.D.S.!
  Martin: (sarcastic) Losing a set of English teeth, he'll feel that!
• Broken Aesop: In "I Hate Frasier Crane," when Frasier decides to renege on fighting with a man who he had accepted an invitation to fight with, Martin is furious and brings up a past incident where Frasier decided not to fight a guy. An incident from Frasier's CHILDHOOD. His anger seems to stem from embarrassment at his son not being "man" enough to go through with such a fight. However, it's first lampshaded by Frasier how stupid it is that Martin won't be satisfied until he comes home with a black eye, and then subverted when Martin says he only wants Frasier to carry out promises he makes; once it becomes clear that Frasier is actually going to fight, Martin calls in the cops to break it up before things really get physical.
• Broken Pedestal: Played with; after discovering that his mentor and Roz are having a relationship, Frasier believes he's experiencing this (and it's not helped by the fact that he saw his mentor wearing nothing but Roz's robe) but he comes to realize that it's actually jealousy that Roz has become attracted to someone very similar to him whilst having never demonstrated any kind of attraction towards him.
  Roz: Frasier, did you ever stop to think there may be something special about not being picked?
  Frasier: Roz, that didn't work when I was cut from pee-wee football, it's not gonna work now.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Donny's first introduction has him coming back from the gym and stripping down to nothing but a Modesty Towel in front of Niles and Frasier, while apparently ignoring their explanation of the case in favor of a corned beef sandwich. Just as they're about to storm out, he phones Maris' lawyers and browbeats them into dropping a ridiculous demand for a postponed trial date, and Niles hires him on the spot. By the end of the episode, he's dug up a humiliating secret about Maris that gives Niles a huge bargaining chip in the divorce.
• Butch Lesbian: Flamboyantly gay Gil Chesteron's wife Deb seems to be one; he describes her as being good at auto-repair, being in the military reserves, and so forth.
  • In episode "Morning Becomes Entertainment", Bethany of Bob and Bethany's Auto Chat is also extremely mannish.
• But Not Too White: Lilith's paleness was often mocked, and even lampshaded by Lilith herself late in the series in the episode "Lilith Needs a Favor".
  Albert (played by the ultra-pale Brent Spiner, aka Data): No, actually, I'm always this pale. My ex-wife used to say she could tell when I was embarrassed because I'd turn off-white.
  Lilith: I can empathize. Sometimes after a late night, I cover my under-eye circles with Liquid Paper.
• But Now I Must Go: Ferguson the butler, as much as Frasier has come to rely on him. Niles and Daphne's relationship has inspired him to realize that his love for a certain Lady Westerfield might not be as star-crossed as he'd always imagined, and he leaves to reacquaint himself.
• Butterfly of Doom:
  • "Sliding Frasiers" is an episode based on Sliding Doors, in which two paths of Frasier's life are examined on whether he chose to wear a suit or a sweater for a speed dating service. After a week, Frasier's lives meet at the same point, showing no matter which choice he made, he ended up at the same destination. Also, regardless of what happens, Niles and Daphne remain Sickeningly Sweethearts, and Martin spends the credits watching TV with Eddie. The only difference is which side of the chair Eddie sits on.
  • We're shown Martin and Daphne's extraordinarily efficient morning routine on several occasions, but on the last one Daphne puts Martin's cereal in a red bowl instead of a yellow one. The whole routine goes to hell, culminating in Martin accidentally throwing his toast on the floor.

C

• Cake Toppers: After he's jilted at the altar, Donny retreats to his office for 24 hours with the tiny groom, whom he names "Mister Chump".
  Title Card: Guess who's short, wears a tuxedo, and has frosting all over his feet?
• Call-Back: One episode sees two of the Girls of the Week from earlier in that season reappear at once, with Frasier struggling to choose between them.
• The Cameo: Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn and Calliope Jones), wife of series producer Christopher Lloyd, made an appearance as the nurse at the vet clinic in "Goodnight, Seattle".
• Camp Straight: Gil... or at least, so he claims.
  • The "harassment seminar" guy (played by Mike Judge) also counts.
• Camp Gay: Lillith's ex husband's new lover was quite feminine according to Lilith.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Frequently featured Frasier or Niles engaging in some minor act of selfishness or pettiness and ending up being humiliated after A Simple Plan has backfired horribly.
  • Played straight in the episode "High Crane Drifter". After a particularly bad day where Frasier is screwed over by virtually every stranger he comes across, he finally snaps in Café Nervosa and throws out a man who stole his table. When he attempts to apologize to the man, he is hit with a lawsuit.
  • In "RDWRER", Frasier pulls a U-turn on a highway, asking what the worst that could happen is. They're immediately noticed by a cop, and pulled over. Then it turns out to be a cop who already pulled them over, holding a grudge over Martin calling him a "goober".
• Captain Ersatz: Space Patrol, one for Star Trek, co-exists with it in-universe (Frasier even encounters a Klingon cosplayer in the episode where Space Patrol shows up).
• Captain Obvious: Played with. A couple of times someone points out a psychological observation to another psychiatrist and said psychiatrist's response is the equivalent of "Duh".
  After Niles is trying unsuccessfully to get a hold of Maris.
  Frasier: Honestly, Niles, by calling her so many times you've given her all the power. You're much better off coming from a position of strength.
  Niles: Don't pour that sherry on your shirt — it will stain.
  Frasier: What?
  Niles: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was the portion of the afternoon where we gave each other patently obvious advice.
  • In another episode, a despondent Niles enters the bathroom. You next hear a loud bang from the bathroom — and Niles comes out covered in shaving foam:
  Niles. I'm fine. Just a little hot... and foamy.
  Martin: You know what must have happened? My Hot and Foamy must have exploded!
  Daphne: [rolling her eyes] He was a detective, you know!
• Career-Ending Injury: Martin's bullet to the hip, which ended his career as a cop.
• Car Ride Games: Daphne, her mother, Roz and Roz's daughter Alice go on a trip together. Alice decides to amuse herself by playing Punch Buggy with Daphne's mother who doesn't know the game and is very confused as to why the little girl keeps hitting her.
  Roz: Alice, honey, stop hitting Mrs. Moon. She can't take the Punch Buggy game.
  Mrs. Moon: Oh, really? Punch buggy white! (jabs Roz on the shoulder)
  Roz: Ouch! That was a Jeep!
  Mrs. Moon: I play the Jeeps. And Fords. Punch buggy Ford! (whacks Roz on the head)
• Casting Gag:
  • Dan Butler plays the aggressively heterosexual "Bulldog", though he's actually gay.
  • Beer-guzzling, opera-hating Martin Crane is played by the late John Mahoney, who was a connoisseur of both. He even shared his love of them with David Hyde Pierce, who had little to no interest in both at the start of the show.
  • Daphne's family and its multitude of inconsistent British Accents. Particularly on the part of the Australian playing Simon, who loves Mel Gibson and who Frasier once refers to as a "boomerang."
  • In one episode Frasier and Niles try to help a former Shakespearian actor Jackson Hedley revive his theatrical career by producing him in a one-man version of Hamlet, but they realize to their horror that he's actually a terrible actor, who does a laughably overwrought performance of the play. The gag is that Hedley is played by Derek Jacobi, an acclaimed Shakespearian actor. If that weren't enough, Patrick Macnee, another experienced Shakespearean actor who became known for genre TV shows (The Avengers (1960s), Battlestar Galactica (1978)), plays Jackson's father.
  • In the penultimate episode, "Crock Tales", Rosie Perez guest stars as Lizbeth. Perez was one of the original contenders for the role of Daphne.
  • Niles' O.R. surgeon Dr. Shafer in "Rooms with a View" is played by Daniel Davis, who's best known for being another Niles in a popular 1993 sitcom.
• Ceiling Banger: A few times with the upstairs apartment, for example when a Hollywood Tone-Deaf Martin is trying to hit the high note in "O Holy Night".
• Celebrity Endorsement: Several references throughout the show and a whole episode dedicated to the ethics of putting a respected name on a product; "Selling Out". Also two Real Life example where Frasier hawks a soft-drink and Frasier, Niles, Martin and Eddie hawk US Savings Bonds.
  • Frasier generally has no problems endorsing as long as he's tested the product himself and isn't asked to make a false claim; he endorsed a Chinese restaurant after enjoying the food, and a hot tub, saying that not only he liked it but his friends and family did as well (he, Martin, and Daphne took a soak in one). He drew the line at endorsing a brand of nut that was too unhealthy, and also at claiming that "Happy Dreams Tea" would give people happy dreams, because he felt it sounded like psychiatric advice.
• Celebrity Paradox: Noel is a big Star Trek fan, but apparently didn't notice the resemblance between Frasier and Captain Morgan Bateson. Then again, Noel somehow appeared on Voyager himself.
  • ...nor the one between Bulldog and Steth (Steth being a Rubber-Forehead Alien may help).
  • Frasier and Niles are said to have been massive fans of The Avengers (1960s) as children, to the extent that they used to run around the neighbourhood in bowler hats and carrying umbrellas, pretending to be John Steed. So it's a bit odd when Patrick Macnee turns up playing Jackson Hedley's father in The Show Must Go Off, and they don't bat an eyelid.
• Censor Steam :
  • Referenced in "The Unnatural." Frederick walks in on Daphne in the shower, but says all he saw was a bunch of steam.
  • Played for Laughs in "Frasier Lite": Frasier had converted his bathroom into a steam room for the others at KACL to use, and - considering that Bulldog is among them - lewd antics ensue, but there's so much steam everywhere that neither the characters nor the audience can see much of anything. For one, Roz tells Gil "PUT ON A TOWEL, YOU PERV!"
    Roz: It's weird, my skin tastes kind of salty.
    Bulldog: Oh, I'd say mostly sweet, but a little salty. Heh, heh, heh.
    Roz: (sweetly) That wasn't me, Bulldog.
    Gil: That was me you licked. And if it happens again, I shall consider it strike one.
• Chain of Deals: Frasier gives Roz the day off to buy Springsteen tickets in return for her escorting Kirby to the prom, so that Kirby will focus on his history test, so that his mother will set Frasier up with Claire. Naturally, everybody finds out at once and they all take umbrage at being used as pawns.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Almost always played for laughs, as one character obliviously keeps bringing the subject back into the conversation despite the other's protests.
• Character Catchphrase: Many, and usually quite subtle.
  Frasier: "I'm listening.", "What the hell was THAT?!", "Wishing you good mental health", "NILES!", "Off you go!", "Oh, dear God!" and "Get Out!"
  Niles: (about Maris) "The poor thing..." and "Well, I hope you're HAPPY!"
  Martin: "Oh, geeze..."
  Bulldog: "This stinks! This is total BS!" (Often sandwiched between "Where's my X? Somebody stole my X!" and "Oh, there it is.")
  • Invoked in one episode when Niles is filling in for Frasier for an extended period. He begins to use Frasier's "I'm listening", but decides against it, saying it's just not him. He then tells his first caller "Let's get better!", and beams at Roz, indicating that he found a catchphrase of his own.
• Character Development:
  • Over the course of the series, previously defining quirks and personality traits are played down or deconstructed leading to more subtle characterisation (e.g Frasier and Niles' snobbery, Martin's crankiness, Roz's promiscuity, Niles' cleanliness).
  • After Season 9 opener 'Don Juan in Hell', Frasier may still be extremely unlucky in love, but he at least stops the self-sabotaging behaviour. It's other things that end up making the relationships not work out.
• Characterisation Click Moment: Niles' dynamic with Frasier is established right from their first scene, but it's not until episode three that another, significant part of his personality settles in - his massive crush on an oblivious Daphne.
• Characterization Marches On: Frasier was originally introduced in Cheers as a Romantic False Lead to Diane Chambers. When Diane dumped him, this made him almost psychotic; for example, he threatened Diane's One True Love Sam with a gun, considered strangling Diane, etc. In his own series, it would be hard to imagine Frasier doing anything so extreme. Of course, Love Makes You Crazy: Frasier has admitted his relationship with Diane post-dump was... volatile, and a glimpse of his old self rears its ugly head when he gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Diane in "The Show Where Diane Comes Back". He became more stable in his relationship with Lilith (before going berserk when she left him).
  • It hits most of the rest of the cast, as well, especially after Season 1. Martin becomes less of an ungrateful Jerkass and more of an easygoing father figure. Daphne loses some (though not all) of her Cloud Cuckoo Lander tendencies. Niles becomes less of a Replacement Flat Character as he gains his own quirks that distinguish him from Frasier. Roz averts it as her personality mostly remains unchanged in later seasons.
• Charity Ball: Featured semi-regularly, usually because Niles, Maris or both are involved.
• Check, Please!: Discussed.
  Daphne: There’s nothing quite as exciting as a first date. All those questions you ask. "What’s your favorite food?" "What’s your favorite color?" "If you were to come back as an animal, what sort of animal would you be?" If she were to ask you that one, what would you say?
  Frasier: "Check, please" comes to mind.
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: In one episode, Frasier mediates an argument between a French family while eating in their restaurant. At one point the father yells "I wish I had been killed in ze war!", to which his wife replies, "Oh, iz 'ard to be killed when you ruuuuuunn ze other way!".
• Chekhov's Gun: A seemingly insignificant comment or action by one of the characters will often inspire the plot resolution (or at least drive it forward) later on. The show was always very subtle about the way it handled such things.
  • Also, the more literal example of Maris borrowing the antique crossbow at the beginning of Maris Returns
• The Chew Toy: Frasier really is, but often deserves it for being a variant of Insufferable Genius. Especially during the season 6 story arc when he loses his job and becomes despondent and desperate.
• Chez Restaurant: Quite a few, like "Chez Chez".
  • One rather funny gag about it:
    Frasier: You can't ban me from your bistro! It's my chez away from chez!
• Chivalrous Pervert: Niles, towards Daphne. Most of this behaviour appears to stem from his social awkwardness, which only gets worse when Daphne is around. In any case it's hard not to feel a bit sorry for him. Well, most of the time:
  Daphne [to Frasier]: "Your son just walked right in on me in the shower!
  Frasier: "Frederick!"
  Frederick: "Dad, all I really saw was..."
  Frasier [interrupting]: "I'm very disappointed in you, young man!"
  Niles: "Let the boy finish!"
• Christmas Episode: Several, for the most part revolving around Fredrick visiting or not visiting. A faint jingle bell can be heard during the opening credits of the Christmas Episodes.
• Class Reunion: Provides the driving force behind a couple of episodes.
  • In "Frasier's Curse," Frasier is afraid to attend his high school reunion after having recently been fired from the station.
• Clip Show: Subverted by "Crock Tales", which featured "past season outtakes" that were actually newly-shot, with the cast using the same mannerisms, wardrobe, and in some cases, wigs for their characters from each season. The 1993 segment even had Frasier's long hair.
  • Played with in "Daphne Returns" as well. Clips are shown from three shows, but this time, present-day Niles and present-day Frasier are inserted in the scenes (via CGI composite work) and comment on the action. For example, when Daphne and Niles start singing "Heart and Soul" while cutting vegetables, Frasier snarks, "Even your everyday memories are idealized. How long until the cartoon blue bird lands on her shoulder?"
• Closet Shuffle: One episode has Frasier hiding in Daphne's closet because he promised not to go in her room. And then he went in her room.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Though generally sane, Daphne has moments where she'll lapse into non-sequitur dialogue, often about her family and the strange things that have happened to them. In Flour Child, it prompts this response:

  Frasier: "I wonder how many more people she's got in there with her?"

  • "Death and the Dog":
    Daphne: If Eddie were one of the Beatles, I think he'd be George. I don't know why!
    (Daphne leaves.)
    Frasier: And yet she's never been committed. "I don't know why"!
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Obviously, psychiatrists have neuroses and issues of their own, and Frasier's are liberally used to fuel both the comedy and drama of the show, but one of the assets of the show's setup is that Niles (and occasionally Lilith) are there to point them out to him whenever needed.
  • Neither Frasier nor Niles ever realizes that Niles' wife Maris is suffering from an eating disorder and body dysmorphic disorder, despite symptoms that should be obvious to even a lay person, much less two psychiatrists—fear of gaining weight, obsession with staying thin, an addiction to plastic surgery. That, or they just don't particularly care; most of the times it comes up are jokes at her expense, after all.
• Comedic Work, Serious Scene: Despite being a sitcom, the show had many dramatic moments with no jokes, including a big argument between Frasier and Martin in the very first episode.
• Comfort Food: Maris ballooning to 200 pounds after Niles divorces her.
  • Frasier when he's between jobs.
• Comically Missing the Point: Often, usually from Frasier, but sometimes with Niles.
  • The Season One finale, "My Coffee with Niles":
    Niles: (re: Roz) I don't think she likes me.
    Frasier: Niles, it's not a question of liking or not liking you. She despises you.
    Niles: Why would I merit such strong emotions from her? I barely acknowledge her existence.
    Frasier: I think you may be on to something there, Sherlock!
  • Season Two's "The Show Where Sam Shows Up": Sam and his fiancé wind up in Seattle and confessing their adultery to each other (with her keeping secret that Frasier had slept with her as well without knowing about their relationship). After she admits that she slept with Paul and Cliff, Sam breaks off the engagement and storms out. Asking Frasier for help, he can merely question how he could sleep with a woman who slept with Cliff.
  • Season 6's "Secret Admirer": A series of gifts meant for Niles get sent to Frasier instead. Niles and Martin discover that the gifts are actually to Niles from Maris, and when they break it to Frasier:
  Martin: They're from Maris.
  Frasier: Maris... is my secret admirer?
• Comically Small Bribe: The man interviewing Frasier and Lilith for Frederick's place at a prestigious school; "I'll have you know that in 50 years, I have never accepted a bribe! [takes cheque] This is an insult! [reads cheque] In every possible way." [hands cheque back, slams door]
• Commuting on a Bus: Bulldog. For a long time he was the most important supporting character, appearing in more than 30 episodes during the show's first 7 seasons. Then he was mostly written out of the series when he lost his job as a KACL sports talk show host. However, since he got a new job working at the KACL storage room, the writers could still occasionally use Bulldog without needing to explain why he was "back". He had four more appearances during the show's last four seasons.
• Companion Cube: Martin's chair.
• Compensating for Something: In Season One's "Fortysomething", an attractive sales clerk drops by the station to deliver Frasier's purchases, and Bulldog (naturally) hits on her. She bears it without response, but when Bulldog is gone, she asks Frasier if Bulldog is gay, since "it seems like he's really overcompensating."). Frasier's priceless response:
  Frasier: Well, I don't know... but I certainly look forward to running that theory by him.
• Completely Unnecessary Translator: A variant when Roz enlists Frasier to translate for her when she wants to break up with her French boyfriend Jean-Pierre. Technically Frasier is necessary as a translator, but Jean-Pierre figures out what she's trying to say long before she's spoken her piece, so he and Frasier spend the rest of the conversation playing along and really talking in French about restaurants.
• Complexity Addiction:
  • A rare non-villainous example in Frasier and Niles. Rather than just ask people simple questions in order to solve problems or find information, the brothers seem to positively delight in discussing the matter to death and coming up with at times almost ludicrously elaborate schemes which inevitably backfire or otherwise fail. This has been lampshaded on several occasions by Martin, Roz, Daphne or a combination of all three. Rule of Funny applies to the most over-the-top examples.
  • Like most of Frasier's personality flaws, this is given an episode to fully examine it, "They're Playing Our Song". Frasier is given the task of giving his show a jingle, and he turns it into a full orchestra piece that Daphne describes as "Gilbert and Sullivan, only frightening." Afterward, Frasier tells his father that he's completely unable to do "simple", and doesn't know why. Martin explains that Frasier does appreciate simple, such as mooning over minimalist art, and that he just needs to be precise and concise, instead of showing off.
• Compliment Backfire
• Compressed Vice: Happens to Niles a few times. One episode sees him become obsessed with one of his nephew Freddy's videogames; another has him develop a fast food addiction.
• Confess to a Lesser Crime: Daphne is taken to Canada in the Winnebago without a green card. When they try to cross the border back into the States, the brothers act extremely guilty, so Martin tells customs that it's Eddie who doesn't have the proper ID.
• Consistent Clothing Style: For most of the duration of the show, Niles wore double-breasted suits (only switching almost exclusively to single-breasted ones in the last season), whereas Frasier preferred single-breasted suits (albeit he also used double-breasted ones every now and then up to Season 4). Martin's flannel shirts and Gil's bowties also count.
• Continuity Drift: A couple of minor ones, such as how little the brothers are acquainted with more "normal" pop-culture tends to vary over the series, for instance, in one episode Niles doesn't know what a double-header is, and in another he can correctly use the phrase "a scout from the majors". It could be seen as Character Development, but it's not completely unilateral.
  • Also, Frasier's birthday has alternately been given as being in May (season 5), and late November/early December (season 7)
• Continuity Nod: In season 11, Niles proves Frasier has a commitment problem by reciting every single one of Frasier's Girls Of The Week from the last four seasons.
  • In "Don Juan in Hell", no less than nine Girl of the Weeks appear for a 3 second shot, including Kristina, Dr. Honey Snow, Laura, Samantha, Annie, Vicky, Tricia, Regan, and Miranda.
  • A much subtler and longer-running one. In the first Christmas episode, Roz gives Frasier a very nice briefcase. He can be seen using it quite frequently throughout the rest of the series.
  • Another subtle one: in the season six episode "The Seal Who Came to Dinner," Martin wears the sweater that Daphne gave him in season five's "Perspectives on Christmas."
  • Martin hums "She's Such a Groovy Lady" a few episodes after the episode in which it debuted.
  • In "Shrink Rap", when Frasier and Niles decide to go into private practice together, Martin reminds them of when they opened a restaurant ("The Innkeepers") and tried to write a book together ("Author Author"), both of which were enormous failures.
  • Also a Chekhov's Gun : Niles mentions his heart murmur in Season 2, and has heart surgery in Season 10.
• Contrived Coincidence: Happens frequently, most often for laughs and considerably more subtle than one might expect for a sitcom.
• Cool Car: Something of a subversion in that the brothers pride themselves on having top-of-the-line saloons, but they often break down. This eventually led to the episode "Motor Skills" where they attempt to improve their practicality.
• Cool Old Guy: Martin. He is really a wise person to look up to.
• Correlation/Causation Gag:
  • In "Dark Victory," the lights dim from a city-wide blackout just as Martin blows out his birthday candles.
    Niles: Well, at least we know there's nothing wrong with Dad's lungs.
  • In "Crock Tales," Niles and Daphne sneak off to her bedroom for quickie sex. At that moment, the Cinco de Mayo fireworks go off.
    Roz: Wow, he really is good.
• Costume-Test Montage: A variation. One episode finds Frasier mentoring the station's wealthy young owner, who borrows the style of Frasier's apartment for his own. Rather than impose on his boss to change, Frasier decides to find new furniture, leading to this trope.
• Couch Gag:
  • The show's opening title is shown in a different color each season, and the accompanying animation of the Seattle skyline ends with a number of different variants. Some of the various animations:
    • Fireworks shoot over Seattle.
    • A hot air balloon flies over Seattle.
    • The sun rises over Seattle.
    • The moon rises over Seattle.
    • A stylized raincloud is shown.
    • A stylized thundercloud is shown.
    • A shooting star streaks across the sky.
    • Lights come on in the building windows.
    • A plane towing a KACL advertising banner flies across.
    • An elevator travels up the Space Needle.
    • A helicopter appears from the back of a building near the Space Needle.
    • The Space Needle is strung with twinkling Christmas lights.
    • Radio waves emanate from the Space Needle (which is not a broadcast tower in real life).
    • And for the finale, a rainbow appears over Seattle.
  • As Grammer sings the closing theme, he throws in an interjection after the first line: "Mercy!", "Quite stylish!", or "Oh my!" He adds another one at the end: "Thank you!", "Good night!", "Good night, everybody!", "Good night, Seattle, we love you!", or "Frasier has left the building!" Sometimes he also throws in the line "Scrambled eggs all over my face! What is a boy to do?" Christmas episodes usually get "Happy Holidays Everyone!" at the end, and season finales often have a variant of "See you next year, we love you!"
• Courtroom Episode: "Crane Vs. Crane" has Frasier and Niles as witnesses on opposite sides of a trial to determine whether an eccentric old rich guy is too mentally unstable to remain in charge of his family fortune. Despite Frasier's belief the old man turns out to actually be insane, but the trial ends abruptly before Niles has a chance to say his piece, so he feels that he lost, too.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": A central point of "Back Talk" has Frasier suffering back problems and feeling self-conscious about his age because of this.
• Creative Closing Credits: A Brick Joke is usually resolved in the closing credits.
• Creator In-Joke:
  • In "Out With Dad", they talk about a great opera singer named "Matilda de Cagny". She is actually Eddie's trainer.
  • Frasier's former school bully John Rajeski in Season 4's "Liar! Liar!" is named after one of the crew members of the show.
• Cringe Comedy: Frequently.
• Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: Niles and Frasier often come across as more neurotic than the people they treat, and even end up in therapy in the Flashback tale "Shrink Rap". Several episodes revolve around Frasier and Niles analyzing the crap out of an issue, when it's really far simpler than they ever would have guessed.
• Crossover: Multiple characters from Cheers dropped by. The producers said they moved Frasier to Seattle to avoid this, but couldn't hold out forever. The only character who did not appear on Frasier was Rebecca Howe (not due to Kirstie Alley's belief in Scientology, as is usually believed, but because the show's writers didn't really know how to integrate her into an episode).
  • Lilith was the first and the only one to recur. Justified in that Lilith was the mother of Frasier's son, and therefore more a part of the Frasier-verse than the Cheers gang.
  • Sam Malone (Season 2)
  • Diane Chambers (Seasons 3 and 9; with a cameo in the second season)
  • Woody Boyd (Season 6)
  • Cliff, Norm, Carla, and a bunch of the Cheers regulars (Season 9, "Cheerful Goodbyes").
  • Loose crossovers with Caroline in the City and The John Laroquette Show.
  • Frasier's mother appeared once on Cheers, and in death several times on Frasier.
  • In one episode the gang go on Antiques Roadshow. Martin notes that if a person has a valuable antique, the other one they own will always be worthless.
• Cruel to Be Kind: In "The Friend" episode, Frasier tries to end his friendship with Bob, a guy in a wheelchair who loves barbecue but had little in common with Frasier and was a bit clingy. When Frasier let him down conventionally, Bob felt incredibly ashamed of himself and believed he was an awful person. So, Frasier opted to obfuscate jerkassery by saying the wheelchair offended him. Soon Bob redirected his anger from himself to Frasier and also attracted a small shame squad censuring him. Bob rolled away without looking back and also quickly befriended his sympathizers talking about BBQ.
• Crying Wolf:
  • "Frasier's Imaginary Friend": During an impulsive trip to Acapulco, Frasier meets a pretty model named Kelly Easterbrook and begins a relationship with her. She wants to keep their relationship a secret since she is in the midst o a messy divorce from her football player ex-husband. Frasier is at first willing to honor this agreement but ends up telling Niles, Daphne and Martin about it when he gets sick of their condescending attempts at sympathy over his perceived loneliness. However, they don't believe him due to a childhood incident when Frasier pretended to be pen pals with Leonard Bernstein.
  • "RDWRER": Niles spends much of the trip phoning Frasier from the back of the Winnebago, when he could just come up and speak to him. So when Niles accidentally wanders into a different Winnebago, and believes it's been stolen when its owners drive off with him in it, he tries calling Fras... who thinks he's just doing this and immediately hangs up. By the time both sides figure out what's going on, they're three hundred miles apart.
• Cultural Posturing: Daphne tricks Frasier into doing this during "Where Every Bloke Knows Your Name". Not a sensible thing for Frasier to be doing in a pub full of Brits.
• The Cutie:
  • The hypersensitive romantic novel writer.
  • The cynical Julia can't resist Frasier's adorable idealism.
• Cutting Off the Branches: A non-video game example; the episode "Sliding Frasiers" has two different versions of how Frasier's Valentine's Day played out depending on whether he picked a suit or a sweater for his speed-dating exercise. In the sweater scenario, he has a terrible time speed-dating and is attentive enough at the house to prevent Daphne from putting something Niles is allergic to into their Valentine's Day dinner. If he picks the suit, he ends up meeting a girl that he's crazy about and is too distracted to correct Daphne, leading to Niles getting hives and thus being unable to take Daphne on their surprise trip to Cancun. A later episode has Daphne mentioning that she and Niles haven't gone away together as a couple yet, meaning that the suit scenario in which they don't go to Cancun must have been the canon one. In any case, Frasier ends up in the same place and merges with his other self.

D

• Damned by Faint Praise: Commonly used to spare someone's feelings, although Frasier sometimes can't resist following it up with a barrage of criticism.

• Dating What Daddy Hates: Frasier's street-performer cousin Nicos is engaged to the rebellious daughter of a wealthy family, who is obviously only with him to annoy her mother and father.
  Nicos: I'm sorry, Marianne, but Crystal is the woman I'm meant to be with.
  Marianne: I will never forgive you for this! Do you see how happy you've made my parents!?
• A Day in the Limelight: Most notably Daphne's flashback episode "Dark Side of the Moon", where a series of stressful situations lead her to court-ordered therapy.
• Dead Air:
  • For KACL's 50th anniversary, Frasier decides to stage an old-time radio murder mystery. His over-directing drives the whole cast crazy, most of all Niles - who gets so fed up that he kills off all the other characters on the air. The broadcast runs nine minutes short, and Frasier has no idea how to fill the time.
  • Happens when Frasier and Roz are put on the night shift and both fall asleep.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Frasier and Niles exist to point out flaws, criticise things of a perceived "lower class" and generally have fun at the expense of others. Especially Niles.
    Frasier: What is the one thing better than an exquisite meal? An exquisite meal with one tiny flaw we can pick at all night.
  • According to the Word of God, Roz is the only cast member who can put Frasier in his place - and she does, with unbridled delight. Then there's Martin, and you can see where Frasier and Niles got their snarkiness from.
    Martin: Maris is learning German, huh? Just when you thought she couldn't get any cuddlier.
• Debating Names: In season 10, Daphne and Niles want to send their (as yet unborn) child to a super-exclusive preschool; the standards are so high that they have to begin submitting their application while Daphne is still pregnant. That naturally leads them to fill out various forms, which sparks a debate about what to name the child. They ultimately realize they can't choose and ask Roz to fill out the form as a neutral third party. In what she thinks is a stroke of brilliance, Roz decides on Ichabod, making the baby "Ichabod Crane"; The Stinger of the episode shows the committee of the preschool reading the application and immediately rejecting it over the terrible joke.
  Niles: How about Desmond?
  Daphne: Hmm. "Desmond Crane, you are hereby sentenced to..." No, I don't like it. What about Jack?
  Niles: 'Fraid not. The first name ends with the same sound that begins the last name, so you either end up running them together — Jackrane — or you face the dreaded glottal stop. Jack-Crane. Jack-Crane. It's unpleasant for the throat.
  Daphne: This conversation's unpleasant for the throat.
• Defeat by Modesty: In Junior Agent, waifish Portia Sanders gets Frasier and Kenny to shut up and listen to her by stealing their pants while they're dressed only in a Modesty Towel.
• Delayed Reaction: One of the common comedy tropes used by the show, usually with Niles. From "No Sex Please, We're Skittish", the first episode of Season 11:
  Roz: I mean, if I were going to fall for him it would have been two years ago when we slept together.
  Niles: Well then, another theory I'd like to explore is... whoa, back up! You and Frasier slept together?
  Roz: He didn't tell you?
  Niles: No! (Beat) Well, I suppose it's only natural. When the wolf and the lamb work together, it's only a matter of time before the wolf gets his way. (Beat) I hope you were gentle with him.
• Delusions of Local Grandeur: Frasier thinks his popular local radio show entitles him to celebrity status. Justified, however, in that he starts getting offers for national television and radio during the show, so he's an up-and-coming host who has had over 2000 shows.
• Denser and Wackier: Cheers had no shortage of quirkiness and wit, but now there are three dysfunctional Crane men inhabiting the same show in cosmopolitan Seattle where the people around them have enough connections and capital to pursue insanity that the patrons of that Boston bar could only dream of.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Niles during the plot of "IQ", while under the influence of particularly strong anti-allergy medication.
  Frasier: Niles, Niles, that medication it's, it's affecting your speech - you've just taken a second dose of it, for God's sakes you're going to make a fool out of yourself!
  Niles: Oh well you should talk! Look at your shaky hands and your twitchy eyes! *GASP* You were up all night drinking coffee all night last night, weren't you?
• Derailed for Details:
  • In "Coots and Ladders", Frasier accosts Niles dramatically with a story about how he's committed... a crime! (cue thunder) He then embarks on a long, rather mundane story featuring a lot of irrelevant details, and every now and again Niles hijacks the flashback to describe the scandalous crime he imagines Frasier committing in the circumstances, only to be shot down.
  • Season one's "Author, Author" finds Frasier and Niles writing a book on sibling rivalry, and naturally they ask Martin for some stories from their childhoods. He starts to tell them one, but gets confused and leaves them hanging when he can't remember the name of a lake they were camping at.
• Derailing Love Interests: Invoked by Mel when Niles leaves her for Daphne just one day after they eloped together. Wanting her social set to think the relationship ended on her terms, she tells him to start acting insufferably in public out of the blue.
• Diet Episode:
  • Daphne starting eating excessively and gaining tons of weight after she and Niles got together. She was put on a regimen and eventually sent to some sort of fat camp. This storyline was a clever trick used by the writers to mask the fact that Jane Leeves was actually pregnant.
  • Another episode centres around everyone at the station trying to lose weight in a rivalry with another station.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: In Season Five's "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do", Niles gets so flustered he eventually stops forming sentences:
  Daphne: Sherry's never exactly liked me. You don't think she'll try to make your father get rid of me, do you?
  Frasier: Oh, Daphne, of course not. He'd be lost without you.
  Niles: Yes, and even if by some chance that were to happen, Daphne, I could always use you... I, I would know of a position you could take... services that you could perform... I would know of an opening... [picks up the check] This is on me.
• Dirty Business: Played for Laughs in "A Day in May", when Frasier and Lana have to build a replica of a popsicle stick house to replace the accidentally-destroyed original, which is a man's cherished keepsake:
  Lana: (holds up a piece of the original) So are you gonna write, "I love you, Daddy" or am I?
  Frasier: (sets his jaw) I'll do it.
• Dirty Kid: The ten or eleven-year-old Frederick pushing his luck whenever Daphne gives him a long loving hug - she is the last to realize his hormones have started kicking in. She is surprised at some of the places he manages to put his hands.
• Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Maris, naturally. Played With (and crossed with Rich Bitch) in that it's highly questionable whether any of her conditions actually constitute a disability:
  • In Season One's "The Crucible": "She's asleep under a pile of the guests' coats. She exhausts easily under the pressure to be interesting."
  • In Season Three's "A Word to the Wiseguy":
    Niles: Apparently, she was driving past a shoe store last week, when she spotted a stunning pair of Ferragamo pumps. Well, I need not remind you what effect a Ferragamo sighting can have on Maris's hand-eye coordination. She drove up on the sidewalk, and when the police ran her name through the computer they found quite a little backlog of unpaid parking tickets.
    Frasier: What else would you expect from a woman who thinks her chocolate allergy entitles her to park in a handicapped space?
• Disappeared Dad: Rick Garrett, the father of Roz's daughter Alice, never once is shown to visit her. While Roz agreed to let him off the hook in terms of raising her as he was only twenty at the time and said she'd keep him updated, this seems surprising. His parents (who had given Roz financial support) only appear once as well.
• Disappointing Heritage Reveal: When Frasier and Niles find out that Martin has a very valuable old clock which is a family heirloom, they start to believe that they are descended from Russian royalty. They eventually learn that they are related to the thieves who looted it during the revolution.
• Disneyfication: In "You Scratch My Book..." Niles gives Daphne phony stock payoffs after the first payoff earns a hug and kiss (on the cheek) from her; when he defends his deception to Frasier:
  Frasier: Niles, you are giving a woman money in order to obtain physical affection! We are talking the world's oldest profession here! Granted, this is sort of the Walt Disney version, but still...
• Disproportionate Retribution: In the episode "The Last Time I Saw Maris", Niles finally stands up to Maris after she left for a three-day shopping spree without telling him and calls her out on her thoughtlessness, telling her that he'll be waiting for an apology. So she files for a divorce.
• Ditzy Secretary: One episode has Niles hire a mobster's girlfriend as a receptionist because she's incompetent at every other job she's had. She tries to put Frasier on hold and hangs up on him instead. The only reason he hired her was because the mobster asked Frasier to recommend that she marry him, but he refused after she told him of several of the mobster's negative traits, including refusing to allow her to get a job due to her incompetence.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Bebe gives a monologue about smoking that sounds remarkably like a description of another oral activity.
  • Though Frasier and Niles are brothers, their relationship is quite similar to that of a typical gay couple. This wasn't lost on the writers, and was even lampshaded in Season 6's "Dinner Party."
  • One episode has Frasier confronting the son of his dad's bully, in an inversion of the usual idea of parents talking about their kids bullying one another.
  • Parts of Charlotte and Frank's argument seem more like a dysfunctional married couple arguing in front of their kid. With Frasier as the kid.
  • The whole "caviar" plot in "Roe To Perdition" is played as if it were a Scarface-style crime drama about the rise of a powerful drug kingpin. Roz's subplot where she gets hooked on caviar is similarly treated as if she were in the throes of a crippling heroin addiction.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Kelsey singing the closing song in his booming baritone — and it's brilliant. The metaphors in the lyrics are part of the joke. His singing voice is so different from his normal speaking voice, some assumed it was a different, professional jazz singer who did the post-credits song.
• Doppelgänger Dating: Daphne dates a man named Rodney, who is almost exactly like Niles in appearance and mannerisms.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male:
  • Implied in "Agents in America", where Frasier's agent gets him very drunk and sleeps with him.
  • Subverted to hell and back when Marty dumps Bonnie for her (female) poodle's humping Eddie. No one else seems to have a problem with it (and Bonnie thinks it's funny), but Marty is quite miffed.
• Downer Ending:
  • "Ask Me No Questions". Niles asks Frasier, in the midst of his reconciliation with Maris, if Frasier thinks they are meant to be together. Frasier realizes the huge impact this could have because Niles has always come to him for advice on big decisions and values his opinion highly, and while he believes that Maris has always been bossy, demanding and selfish, he also hears that she has become much nicer since the proceedings have begun and is a better person. After agonizing over what to do, he shows up at Niles's apartment late at night to give his answer: no. Niles thanks Frasier for his advice and tries to say goodbye, when the Twist Ending kicks in—Maris is at the apartment, Niles has taken her back, and judging from the bell rings and the whistle as she calls for him, she has not changed one bit.
  • "The Maris Counselor", while having some jokes (Niles damaging his own car throwing his wedding ring out the window), ends with all three Crane men staring out at the Seattle skyline, having drowned their sorrows over their terrible luck with romance, in Niles's case because he's finally realized how toxic his relationship with Maris is after finding she cheated on him with their most recent marriage counselor.
  • The season 5 finale ends with Frasier and everyone who worked at KACL being fired and replaced with someone new.
• Do Wrong, Right:
  • In Season Four's "The Unnatural", Bulldog tells Frasier that every son goes through a Broken Pedestal moment with his father; Bulldog's came when he got home early and found his dad in bed with another woman. Frasier starts to commiserate, but Bulldog says that wasn't the bad part:
    Bulldog: She was ugly, Doc. I mean coyote ugly. My own dad. And the best he could come up with was, "hey, you don't look at the mail while you're poking the fire." [Beat] Hey, I just got that! [laughs]
  • In Season Seven's "Father of the Bride", Donny is furious when one of his clients is caught making credit card payments to an escort service:
    Donny: Any idiot knows you've gotta pay a hooker in cash!
• Dramatic Irony: Frequently played for comedy, but once Daphne finds out about Niles's crush, it's used to create tension.
• The Dreaded: Poppy. Everyone at KACL flees at the sign of her approach, though not because she's unpleasant, but more because she is tremendously irritating.
• Dreadful Musician:
  • The way Frasier solves his insecurity complex in "The Perfect Guy" is by revealing his Foil to be one of these.
  • Martin is a downplayed example: while he can carry a tune, he has trouble hitting the high notes.
  • Daphne is shown to be such a terrible pianist that no amount of practice or training can improve her skills. She offhandedly mentions that her old music teacher went mad and killed himself trying to mentor her.
• Dream Sequence: Including whole episodes based around one ("The Impossible Dream" and "Freudian Sleep").
• Drinking Game: As it turns out, Frasier, Niles and their father are all fans of Antiques Roadshow. They make a game out of it, taking sips of brandy (or, in Martin's case, beer) whenever someone says "veneer". invoked
  Frasier: Next week we gotta pick a different word!
• Driven by Envy: Frequently happens to one or both brothers, often with disastrous results. In "Door Jam," for example, they con their way into an exclusive day spa and enjoy the pampering, until they spot a door that leads to the facility for upper-tier members. They weasel their way in here and find it truly luxurious, until they see another door within easy reach. Thinking that it will take them to an area for the absolute top members, they charge through - and end up locked out of the spa in an alley strewn with garbage.
• Dude, Not Funny!: After their favorite restaurant burns down, Niles makes a pun on the chef's name, to which Frasier replies that it's too soon for jokes.
  • Ex-cop Martin Crane relates to his sons how he first met their mother whilst standing beside the chalk outline of a murder victim;
  Martin (chuckling): Didn't you always wonder why she always made those funny shaped gingerbread men on our anniversary?
  Niles (outraged): We thought they were DANCING!
• Dull Surprise: In "The Late Dr. Crane," when a mixup leads to Frasier being announced dead on the evening news, Niles says "Outrageous!" - with a completely straight face, thanks to the Botox injection he received earlier.
• Dumb Blonde:
  • Poppy Delafield from "Everyone's a Critic" and "Rivals" is a bubble headed Upper-Class Twit. Unusually for the trope her defining character trait is being an irritating Motor Mouth - her being stupid is incidental.
  • Roz's cousin Jen (played by an unrecognisable young Zooey Deschanel in a blonde do) from "Kissing Cousins" is a less traditional take on the subject, being a pseudo-intellectual hipster airhead who is planning on vacationing in Vietnam because "Americans have never even heard of it."
• Dungeon Masters Girlfriend: "Where Every Bloke Knows Your Name", used and subverted at the same time.

E

• Early-Bird Cameo: Played with. In the second-to-last episode "Crock Tales", Kenny Daly appears as a pizza delivery man looking to get into radio.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Frasier's long hair in the first two seasons, especially to viewers who haven't watched Cheers.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The general air of season 1 was far more like Cheers and other '80s sitcoms — mainly, in its treatment of emotional issues in a comedy. The second and third seasons would perfect the show's trademark use of taking complex or emotional issues and events and making them funny through complications, character reactions, or exaggeration, rather than always alternating between emotional character moments and shallow humor moments, which can come off as kitschy.
  • The first season mostly keeps to the same standards as the rest of the show, but certain shots of Frasier's apartment are unique to that season (the show almost never shows the top of Frasier's Antique Shelves or the wall with the fireplace after this period), and Martin's chair has a "vibrate" setting that never reappears. In the first episode, Daphne's room was said to be next to Martin's, but later on, Martin's room is next to Frasier's in the left hallway while Daphne's room is the only room in the right hallway. Also, the studio audience acts more like that of a traditional sitcom than the more "classy" vibe this show had — they would "woo!" and catcall if there was a sexy scene, something that feels very odd having seen later seasons.
  • At one point in the first season, Martin says that Lilith is much weirder than Maris. Eleven seasons later, Lilith is a fairly sympathetic recurring character (she's still the butt of jokes from Niles and Martin, but they now seem like playful exaggeration), while Maris was so strange no human actress could portray her and she was once mistaken for a hat rack.
  • In Season 3, when it's the anniversary of Frasier's first show, we're also treated to an in-universe example as Frasier tries out various catch-phrases.
  • There was also Daphne's "psychic abilities", which are made much of earlier on, but come up much less frequently in the later seasons (though still occasionally focused on). She's also depicted as a competent enough cook — albeit one whose food is more to Martin's taste than Frasier's — in early episodes, before she becomes a Cordon Bleugh Chef whose food is utterly, horrifically inedible to anyone not born in the British Isles.
  • While the dynamic of tension between Frasier/Niles and Martin would be a consistent element throughout the show, Martin is a lot more bitter, hard-edged and jerkish than the good-natured and easy-going man he becomes in later seasons.
  • "You Can't Tell a Crook by His Cover" in the first season is the only episode where the flow of the standard multi-camera sitcom format is interrupted by a scene - the one where Daphne's supposed to pocket 6 pool balls in one strike - more akin to single-camera or dramatic shows. It also features the only piece of original soundtrack in the series other than the jazzy intro tunes or the credits music (not counting many of the songs played in-show, of course)
  • While Frasier's fluency in French becomes more apparent later on, in an early episode Frasier and Roz are having serious trouble understanding a caller referring to her husband as "monsieur" (which, admittedly, isn't even that obscure of a word to begin with).
  • Early seasons made a big thing out of how Frasier and Niles have such high ethical standards that even some basic deceptions (or self-serving lies of ommission) can make them physically ill. As the format fell more into "Fawlty Towers" Plot, they became quite comfortable with lying at the drop of a hat.
• Ear Worm:
  • When a death-metal artist moves in upstairs and plays his music full-volume around the clock, both Daphne and Martin get "Na-na-na-na-na-na, flesh is burning..." stuck in their heads.
  • Roz complains that the Wine Club's inauguration song, to the tune of "Rule Britannia," got stuck in her head after Frasier let her know about it.
  • "Groovy Lady," the song Martin wrote for Frank Sinatra, ends up being so catchy that Martin sings it to himself in the very next episode.
  • While unemployed at the beginning of season 6 Frasier starts writing an operetta about Robert and Elizabeth Browning. Later in the episode Martin starts singing one of the songs to himself and only realises what he's doing when Niles tells him he's doing it again.
• Embarrassing Cover Up: At least a couple per season.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Frasier and Lilith's son, Frederick, has the middle name "Gaylord".
• Embarrassing Nickname: In the first-season episode "The Crucible", Niles is incensed to learn that, after he was found hanging naked from a goalpost on the football field, the coach and players nicknamed him "Peachfuzz" and "Jingle Bells."
• Embarrassing Ringtone: Invoked offscreen in "Taking Liberties". Niles' wife Mel, as part of a domestic conflict, sets his ringtone to "La Cucaracha" before they go to a society funeral. For extra humiliation, she refuses to let him answer it.
• Empathic Environment:
  • Sometimes jokingly discussed regarding either Lilith or Bebe.
    Niles: Strange, I usually get some sign when Lilith is in town - dogs forming into packs, blood weeping down the wall.
  • Also done in an episode featuring Lilith's brother:
    Frasier: The Beast is among us!
  • Played for laughs in "Coots and Ladders":
    Frasier: I have committed a crime punishable... by law! [crash of thunder and lightning]
    Niles: By law?!
    Frasier: The law of the United States of America! [thunder crashes again—Frasier and Niles double-take]
  • Played with in another episode, Daphne's mother and brother are considering taking a road trip to see America, Frasier (eager to get them out of his home) gives a speech about all the beautiful and wonderful things America has to offer and just as he finishes an enormous American flag unfurls outside the window: the coincidental result of a Prank War between Frasier and his upstairs neighbor.
    Niles: How did you do that!?
  • In the episode "Father Of The Bride", Martin is just starting to tell a story about when his sons were young when a harp glissando, a stereotypical signal for a flashback sequence, is heard being played, causing the characters to look around in astonishment. It turns out to be a real harpist Frasier is considering hiring to play at Daphne's wedding. Martin even gets to say the words "I remember it as if were yesterday".
  • In "Death and the Dog", everyone is rendered thoroughly depressed after a therapy session for Eddie leads to them all listing out the many reasons they have to feel miserable, which ultimately leads to the inevitability of death and this little moment:
  Daphne: I wish I was a dog. All it takes is a little toy to make him happy again.
  Frasier: I'm afraid we're a bit more complex than that, Daphne. We know for whom the bell tolls...
  [In the distance, an oven-timer bell rings; everyone begins to look around warily.]
  Martin: [Nervous] Did anyone else hear that?
  Daphne: [Realizing] Oh! The biscuits. [Gets up to take them out of the oven]
• Encouraged Regifting: In one Christmas Episode Frasier had planned on getting his son some educational toys. When the ones he ordered won't arrive in time, he rushes to the toy store to get some. He manages to get the last few after persuading a man to sell the ones he'd gotten for his kid to him. However, then Frasier learns that his son doesn't want educational toys, but an action figure that's likely sold out by this time. Defeated, Frasier laments that he'll disappoint his son that Christmas. His father comforts him by giving him a present. Frasier opens it to see it's the exact toy his son wanted.
• Enforced Method Acting: In-Universe example and Played for Laughs: in one episode, Niles overacts when a man pushes him in the coffee shop so that when he falls on a table and hurts himself, Frasier can threaten to countersue the man and convince him to leave them alone. When he's gone, Frasier credits him as a good actor, and then Niles, clearly in a lot of pain, reveals that he landed on a fork.
• Entitled to Have You: Niles' feelings for Daphne strayed into ugly territory during the early seasons; as long as he was married, and too afraid to express his feelings, he couldn't have her, but the thought of any other man having her drove him crazy. For instance, in "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine", Niles goes nuts when instant sparks fly between Daphne and his contractor, Joe, and he lies to her that Joe has a "love them and leave them" reputation among his female clients. Even Niles knows he's gone too far, which is why his nose won't stop bleeding, but he still makes a lame attempt to defend himself, and Frasier instantly calls BS:
  Frasier: How could you be so selfish?
  Niles: I didn't do it for myself, I did it for her. She deserves a doctor, or a lawyer, someone for whom a t-shirt is an undergarment...
  Frasier: Look, I don't know what kind of twisted fantasy you've constructed about your future with Daphne. I suspect it involves a comet hitting the Earth and the two of you having to rebuild the species! But trust me Niles, it is not going to happen. She needs a man, one who can do more for her than just smell her hair.
• Epic Fail:
  • Could describe a lot of Frasier's situations over the years, but any situation where the Brothers Crane team up results in an even bigger fail, such as the time they try to run a restaurant together.
  • Frasier's first show at KACL. We see the beginning of it in "You Can't Go Home Again", where Frasier manages to fall out of his chair just as his first guest starts explaining her problem. It's so bad Roz is trying to get another job elsewhere by the first ad break, and Frasier actually forgets the show's still on-air. Apparently the remainder of the hour is much worse...
  • Anything asking physical dexterity of Niles. He puts his back out adjusting his car's seats, knocks himself to the floor just flipping a coin, and manages to damage a chair, a statue and a wall just catching a banana.
  • Niles and Frasier trying to learn how to ride bikes. We only see the end results of their first attempt, limping home after dark, with Niles somehow having managed to get his pants caught in the chain, and mention of hitting a jogger. With help from Daphne, Niles manages to get better. Frasier does not - repeatedly crashing into the exact same tree every time he tries.
  • Niles once recounts an incident where Maris managed to exhaust herself using a revolving door, and got stuck.
• Epiphany Therapy: Played with. Offscreen, Niles and Frasier both have long-term clients receiving proper therapeutic treatment, but any issues that come up for characters in the show tend to be solved with one conversation, or over the course of a single episode at most. (If at all, that is.) At the same time, Niles frequently makes jabs at Frasier for presuming to solve people's problems over the course of single phone call, while Roz remarks that his advice is always either common sense or to seek counselling if there's a serious problem.
• Erotic Dream: Frasier's homoerotic dreams about Gil Chesterton plague him in "The Impossible Dream"; in the same episode Martin claims to have had one involving Jayne Mansfield. Niles has many about Daphne.
• Escape Call:
  • Lampshaded in one episode, where Frasier is set up on a blind date with Faye, the daughter of a woman he met at a shop. He gets the call, rejects it because he's pleasantly surprised, only for her to call him on it. He admits to it, asks her how she knew, at which point she, sheepishly, also receives a phone call.
  Frasier: Excuse me. (to phone) Yes, hello? Er, yes but you know what, I'll just have to sign those papers later, thank you. (hangs up) Office work.
  Faye: That was an escape call, wasn't it?
  Frasier: No, what are you talking about?
  Faye: Come on, it's a blind date. You wanted a way to back out.
  Frasier: Oh, gosh, you are sharp aren't you? How did you know?
  (Faye's mobile starts ringing. Fade out with Faye looking a bit sheepish.)
  • Played straight in Poppy's first episode, when Frasier fishes into his own pocket to get his phone. Poppy's so dense she doesn't notice.
• Establishing Shot: Almost completely averted: only once in 11 years did we see the exterior of Frasier's building. And it's not even an establishing shot, it's the final shot of the episode. The production team consciously wanted to avoid establishing shots, which were the norm amongst TV sitcoms at the time, and introduced title cards as a sort of "anti-establishing shot".
• Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Used several times with Eddie, who was so good at this he could reduce Frasier to delivering eloquent attempts at backpedaling... to a room with no human beings in it.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Frasier brings his son Frederick to the radio station, Freddy meets Bulldog, Frasier's workplace enemy. Bulldog ends up telling Freddy that Frasier is the best softball player at the station (he is...not). He later tells Frasier that he was "just trying to be nice."
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • In the Season One episode "Can't Tell A Crook By Its Cover", One of Martin's poker buddies even Linda admits she finds finds Daphne attractive, leading to some snide comments from Frasier as he tries to figure out which one the ex-con.
    Linda: (to Martin) Yeah. And sexy too, you dirty birdy!
    Frasier: Interesting...you find her attractive, don't you?
  • In another Season One episode, "A Mid-Winter Night's Dream", Frasier asks Roz for advice on how Niles and Maris can inject some spontaneity back into their love life:
    Roz: Well, once I had a boyfriend take me out to a bar, and we pretended we were strangers picking each other up. Actually, that was kinda hot.
    Frasier: So, you used, like, fantasy/role-playing?
    Roz: Yeah. In fact, we had so much fun we tried it again... only this time he got so into it he went home with another woman.
    Frasier: I'm sorry.
    Roz: Oh hell, she was gorgeous. One more drink and I'd have gone home with her.
  • In Season Six's "IQ", Roz is partaking in a charity auction, where one of the prizes is spending the day with her in the recording studio. Turns out one of the auctioneers is a lesbian who thinks there's something between them. Roz eventually asks her out because the alternative is Noel.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Dr. Clint Webber, a new radio personality at KACL in "The Perfect Guy". This inspires great jealousy from Frasier, who schemes to find an exploitable weakness.
• "Everybody Dies" Ending: How Frasier's live radio drama ends in "Ham Radio" when an annoyed Niles - in an In-Universe case of Wag the Director - hijacks the proceedings and kills off the entire cast in about 30 seconds.
  Could the McAllister sisters stand back to back? I'm short on bullets. [BANG]
• Everyone Has Standards: Even though Roz likes to get around, she eventually gets tired of Niles and Daphne jokingly inviting her to a threesome with them in "Proxy Prexy."
  • Even Lilith regards Maris as eccentric and weird, despite her own, let's just say, odd and cold personality.
• Evil Lawyer Joke: In "The Crucible", Frasier complains about having to hire lawyers, but Niles states that as a psychiatrist, he likes them since they make "wonderful patients."
  Niles: They have excellent health insurance and they never get better.
• Evil Stole My Faith: There was a throwaway gag in one episode where he learnt that a radio show hostess whom he considered incompetent had just received national syndication.
  Frasier: Good news for Betty! And for the millions of atheists who will welcome this new proof of their theory!
• Exact Words: In "Crane vs. Crane", Niles responds to Frasier's news with two outraged "What?!"'s; Frasier tells him to quiet down, then delivers his last piece of news...
  Frasier: And don't say "what"!
  Niles: ...Why?!
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Quite a few episode titles fall under this Trope, such as "The Show Where [former Cheers character] Shows Up", "The 200th Episode", and so on.
• The Exit Is That Way: When Frasier and Diane make up and have a moving farewell on the set of a play she's written about Cheers, Frasier makes his exit through the bar's front door. After a Beat, he comes back through, having realised it's only a stage door and doesn't lead anywhere.
  Frasier: Sorry, force of habit.
  Diane: I've been doing that all week.

F

• The Faceless: Maris Crane, who is also The Voiceless for a significant amount of episodes. The writers certainly enjoyed toying with The Reveal of both, but settled for The Unreveal for the hell of it. Another problem, according to a season 4 DVD special, was that the writers had ascribed so many bizarre features and qualities to her that no human could properly play the role..
• Failed Attempt at Drama:
  • Roz mistakenly tells Frasier she is out of his life before she gets up to leave with a sprained ankle and crutches instead of after. And forgetting her purse didn't help.
  • Frasier yells at the apartment board and turns to leave, but his briefcase opens and he has to stay and pick everything up.
  • Niles related an incident where, in a marital dispute, he stormed out of the house, slamming the door as he went; of course, since the residence was equipped with an antique cathedral door, he required the assistance of several of the servants to assist in the slamming, however, "what it lacked in spontaneity, it made up for in resonance."
  • Frasier and Martin get into an argument over Daphne agreeing to go out with an ex-con. After telling them both it's her life and she gets to choose, Daphne storms off to her room. As Frasier himself put it:
  "That would have been a very dramatic exit if only her room was down that hall."
  • It almost looks like a blooper on Jane Leeves' part. Something in the way that John Mahoney breaks into a snort of laughter and the way that Jane comes flouncing back and then on the correct route to Daphne's room.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Frasier is just not meant to find love.
• Fake Danger Gambit: Daphne's dad had a money-making scam that involved him making crude passes at women in Manchester pubs, then getting pretend beaten up by their dates.
• Fake Faint: Niles pretends to faint into a man's arms in the last of a long string of attempts to stop said man from throwing Frasier out of a party before he can seal an important deal vital to Niles and Frasier's latest "Fawlty Towers" Plot.
• Fake High: Niles gets a hash brownie, but Martin eats it without realising what it is, and replaces it with a normal brownie. And even when Frasier actually explains what happened, Niles still doesn't realise:
  Niles: Well someone must feel pretty out of it, being the only one here who isn't completely burnt!
  Frasier: Oh, knock it off, you imbecile. You're as sober as I am!
• Faux Final Line: Frasier does this frequently, what with the Cringe Comedy that is the titular character's inability to handle his own life problems, but special mention goes to the Season 4 episode when he has a recurring sex dream about a male co-worker. He and his brother try to unravel what his subconscious must be telling him (he dismisses the obvious answer immediately). After a while of mulling it over at their favorite coffee house, Frasier believes he has the answer.
  Frasier: That must be it. Ha! I will rest easy tonight, and hopefully, there will be no naked man in my bed!
  Cafe Waitress: (Looks at him weird)
  Frasier: So, uh, and then, and then the rabbi says...
• Faux Yay: After being stalked by Noel, Roz makes an excuse to get a woman to bid on what she is auctioning. However, the woman turns out to be a lesbian and Roz just goes along with it, even offering to take her out to dinner so she could avoid Noel.
• Fallback Marriage Pact:
  • At one point it sounds like Roz is about to suggest one of these, and Frasier agrees to marrying her if they are both indeed single at the time. Turns out Roz was going to suggest they kill each other instead.
  • Played straight (and coupled with New Old Flame) with Daphne and her ex-fiance Clive.
• Fat Suit: In "Freudian Sleep", Jane Leeves wore a ridiculously ballooning fat suit that kept growing in every shot, as Daphne dreamt Niles was cheating on her because she was too fat from pregnancy pounds she was unable to lose.
• Fate Worse than Death: When Frasier's agent Bebe refuses to quit smoking, even though it will sabotage her engagement to a frail, elderly millionaire, Frasier finally gets through to her by painting a vivid picture of her future:
  Frasier: Oh, how I wish I could be there when you watch the funeral on the news. Watch the casket being slipped into the ground. Only, you won't be watching that. No, no, you'll be watching... the widow Boone. Tiffany, perhaps. Oh no, better yet, "Kelli" - with an "I"!
  Bebe: Stop it!
  Frasier: You'll picture her wearing your jewels, sailing in your yachts, sleeping with your gigolos - but oh, you won't be sad, no, no, no! Because you'll have your cigarette. Clutched in your nicotine-stained teeth! Smoke whirling about your once-pretty, now creased, leathery, smoke-ravaged...
  Bebe: Enough!
• Faux Horrific: Reflecting Frasier and Niles' upper-class nature, at one point they're mortified to find out they're wearing the same outfits (Niles's concern coming from the fact people will assume they share the same tastes, a fear proven justified seconds later when a Café Nervosa waitress gives him a duplicate of Frasier's order).
• "Fawlty Towers" Plot: There wouldn't be a show without it!
  • Played with in the episode "The Two Mrs. Cranes", where Martin, who's angry because Frasier and Niles imply Martin can't keep pace with another "Fawlty Towers" Plot, takes a great deal of pleasure in making the lies outrageously complicated.
    Martin: I was an astronaut.
  • Also played with in the final season episode "Guns N Neuroses", where Frasier and Lilith get set up on blind dates with each other— and never find out about it; and Niles, Martin and Daphne try to cover up having accidentally shot Frasier's wall— and succeed.
  • Also played with in "Hot Ticket", where, after an embarrassing incident where the Cranes fail to get tickets to a play due to gossipy socialites watching them, they have to bluff not only having seen it, but attend a party with the author himself. Frasier attempts to bluff some compliments....which actually work and touch the author deeply. Despite having miraculously gotten away with it however, Frasier is left ashamed over all the lies he committed, simply because he failed to watch the play out of petty pride.
• Feigning Healthiness: In the episode "Frasier Crane's Day Off", he comes down with a cold but refuses to not go to work as he is worried Gil Chesterton will steal his radio show's timeslot if he is not there. The next day, Frasier is determined to go to work, makes a big speech to Martin and Daphne about his health, and proudly walks out the door... only to ring the doorbell just seconds later.
  Frasier: (pathetically) ...I'm sick!
• Felony Misdemeanor: According to Niles, Maris became president of her wine club because she had photos of her rival drinking domestic champagne ("from Connecticut") at his wedding.
• Field Promotion: A cook is promoted to chef during a party, after the original one had enough of Frasier's and Niles's contradictory micromanagement. He soon storms out as well, for different reasons.
• Finger in the Mail: Parodied. When Niles is taking care of a sack of flour as though it were a child, he tells Frasier about his nightmares where the sack of flour is kidnapped and he starts receiving muffins in the mail.
• First Contact: Senator John Glenn confesses that he and other astronauts did in fact meet aliens, and that he was told by NASA, fearing an Alien Invasion, to lie to the public about his encounters. Naturally, Frasier and Roz ignore this in favor of their own argument.
• First-Name Ultimatum: Inverted in the first two seasons, where Martin refers to Frasier as Dr. Crane when he's annoyed at him and/or thinks he's handled something badly (for instance, the Accidental Innuendo-laden breakfast in "Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast?")
• 555: The call-in number for the KACL radio station.
• Five Stages of Grief: Frasier goes through them when he loses his job at KACL.
• Flag Drop: In one episode, as Frasier was giving an inspirational, quasi-patriotic speech, a giant American flag suddenly dropped in front of the windows of his apartment.
  Niles: How did you do that?
• Flanderization:
  • Julia was introduced as a cold but competent woman who deliberately maintained distance from her co-workers. She even became a kind of Defrosting Ice Queen and built relationships with other characters at the radio station. But in the episode where she sleeps with Frasier and has a (disastrous) dinner with his family, her rudeness and abrasiveness are dialed up to 100 and she's louder and more loathsome than ever before. It was a Kick the Dog moment that served to justify Frasier immediately breaking up with her and writing Felicity Huffman off the show.
  • Inverted with Daphne. She starts off as a Cloudcuckoolander, but develops into a much less eccentric character.
• Flashback to Catchphrase: Martin says "I'm listening" when Frasier forces him to have a conversation in "You Can Go Home Again".
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Frasier and Niles have a mild version of this, preferring things from foreign parts rather than American, but mostly if they're expensive, which is another source of disagreement with Martin, who's the exact opposite.
  Daphne: You'd eat a worm if I gave it a French name!
• Foreign Queasine: There are occasional digs at Daphne's cooking being bland at best and inedible at worst (although Martin takes just as much stick for his love of American junk food). On at least one occasion she exploits the trope; when she wants the flat to herself for the evening, she tells the Cranes she's preparing sheep's head stew for dinner. Yes, this is a real thing. Lamb's and pig's head stew were not unknown in the North of England as a means of making the most of a cheap cut of meat, and a cookery book dated 1905 has a recipe for sheep's head stew, pointing out how cheap and nutritious it is and therefore ideal for your domestic servants. It should be pointed out that most Brits nowadays (Northern or otherwise) would find the concept just as alien and unappealing as anyone else, though it's still popular in cultures less squeamish about the consumption of offal.
  • Although given steak and kidney pie is regularly in the UK's top five favourite meals, it's possible that not everyone knows what offal is
  Frasier: Even Hannibal Lecter couldn't keep that woman's food down!
• Fourth Wall Psych: "Good Grief", the first episode of Season 6, when the show was slotted by NBC in the timeslot vacated by Seinfeld ending, begins with Frasier giving an address to the camera about how excited he is to be in this slot, taking over from his "beloved predecessor", and his wishes that he get to spend many years in his new home. The camera pulls out to reveal that he is in fact auditioning for a local medical segment, having been fired from KACL in the Season 5 finale.
• French Cuisine Is Haughty: Frasier and Niles love French cuisine, as befitting their upscale tastes, but Martin believes French food is hardly any different from American fare.
  Martin: You know where we should go tonight? Frannie's Fish & Chips.
  Frasier: Dad, we're taking Niles out to boost his spirits, not his cholesterol!
  Martin: Oh please, that French food you guys eat is full of butter and cheese.
  Frasier: Yes, but at least it's not made by a woman working a deep-fryer in a batter-dipped brassiere.
• Freudian Slip: Part of the humor of the show. Niles discussing it is even the trope page quote.
• Freud Was Right:
  • Invoked and Lampshaded as Frasier thinks Niles is making up for a dry spell in his sex life by buying suggestive antiques.
    Frasier: In addition to the loveseat, let's see, your most recent acquisitions have been: a French bed-warmer, a pair of Toby jugs, the less said about that Civil War ramrod, the better.
    Niles: Oh, you Freudians! Sometimes a ramrod is just a... oh hell, even I can't make that one fly.
  • The source of jokes in at least two episodes dealing with a character's Oedipus Complex. In Season 5, when Roz reveals her pregnancy to Rick, he points out that his mother is the same age and even kind of looks like Roz. She makes him stop talking. In another episode, Frasier dates a woman who could be Hester Crane's twin.
  Niles: These pants might have to be REPRESSED!
• Fridge Logic: In-universe, Niles' season 4 attempt to get Daphne to stay at his apartment is thwarted when she has to go back to Frasier's for her medication, giving her the chance to make up with Martin and Sherry. As Frasier points out, Niles is a doctor, and could just have written her a new prescription, and there is a 24 hour pharmacy near him. The realization puts Niles into a Heroic BSoD.

• "Friends" Rent Control: Played with, but largely downplayed compared to other examples. As a syndicated radio host who has the local clout to get asked to appear on television and special events, Frasier would have a steady income to live comfortably on. Still, he owns an extremely spacious three-bedroom apartment with designer furniture and art, can afford to support himself as well as his father and Daphne, and pays Daphne for her services as well, to say nothing of all the expensive hobbies he enjoys and the major purchases he makes. Even in The '90s, local AM talk radio personalities weren't millionaires, but Frasier would have to be to live the way he does — the furniture for the set cost about $500,000 for real. On Twitter [1], writer Joe Keenan acknowledged this was a frequent debate behind-the-scenes as well. The closest thing to a consensus was that Frasier had done a great job investing the money from his practice in Boston.
• From Bad to Worse: Niles's situation in "Murder Most Maris". Maris gets in the news for accidentally killing her boyfriend, which Niles serves as an accessory to, having given her the crossbow she killed the man with. While Niles is being hounded by the press, Frasier tries to clear things up and says the exact wrong word. Meanwhile, Daphne is no support at all, blaming Niles for the entire affair, and while Martin isn't deliberately antagonistic, it later turns out he made things more difficult for Niles than they needed to be after Niles is brought in by the police for questioning. Niles maintains a good humor through the whole thing... until he finds Nervosa is out of straws. Cue the Freak Out.
• From the Ashes: It's the go-to example of a show that performed as well as its predecessor. Frasier ended its run after 11 seasons, exactly as long as Cheers. It stars Frasier, a secondary but popular character, in his home town and dealing with his many psychiatric patients.
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": The only way Frasier can make it through a eulogy in "Martin Does It His Way".
• Funny Background Event:
  • Martin and Frasier having a serious conversation in the car while Niles struggles to open a funeral urn in the background.
  • The topper is Season 11 opener "No Sex, Please, We're Skittish", when Frasier talks about what a wonderful new producer he has as his new producer (who is wheelchair-ridden) is screaming in the background after Roz pushed her away, down the hall.
  • In the Season 5 episode where Frasier re-hires Bebe as his agent, a desperately horny Niles asks the waitress at Nervosa if she could nibble a cookie erotically for him (before Frasier interrupts and tells the waitress to leave). Later in the episode, Niles watches longingly at Roz as she's eating a cookie.
• Funny Foreigner: Daphne and her occasional family member. On one episode she gets the Cranes out of the house for the evening by claiming she's making sheep's-head stew for dinner (see Foreign Queasine above.)

G

• Game Night Fight: One Halloween Episode, Frasier has everyone come to a party dressed as their heroes and answer questions in character. He begins by criticizing everyone's choice of hero and their answers before stomping out when he thinks they're making fun of him. There's also an awkward moment when Niles, dressed as Martin, claims in character that he's ashamed of his sons, which gets Martin himself enraged.
• Gasp!: Often. Usually from Frasier or Niles.
• Get Out!: Frasier is prone to outbursts of this when another character Deadpan Snarks after he suffers an Epic Fail.
  (Frasier has been humiliated by radio pranksters — again — this time while in the bathtub.)
  Niles: Now, now, it won't get you down for long. You've always had a thick skin. (giggles) Unless that Tahitian Vanilla softened you up a bit...
  Frasier: GET OUT!
  • Possibly the greatest use of this trope is with Julia when Frasier had convinced himself to "commit to commitment" and stick with the relationship only to discover she really is a rude, selfish, insulting hag at the dinner where Niles and Daphne were going to reveal that Daphne was pregnant. The thing that finally makes him snap and kick her out of his apartment and life is her calling his hand towels something an old lady would own. Frasier immediately abandons committing to commitment and roars at Julia to get out.
• The Ghost:
  • Maris is probably one of the most famous examples in TV history, along with Norm's wife Vera from Cheers.
    Roz: You know, in all these years I've never even seen her face?
    Frasier: Well, I haven't seen her latest one so it'll be a new experience for both of us!
  • Many fans may mistake Martin's friend Duke for being this, but he does appear in two episodes ("Duke's, We Hardly Knew Ye" and "Where Every Bloke Knows Your Name"), played by John La Motta. In the latter, he's the only one in Martin's poker game not referred to by name, and is only identifiable if you've seen the actor's first appearance seasons earlier. Later in the series they seem to relegate him to off-screen roles. In "Cranes Go Caribbean" he's said to have come with them but spends the evening in the hotel room after getting a bad sunburn.
  • Gil Chesterton's wife Deb is mentioned several times but never makes an appearance. The fact that none of the KACL staff have met her, and didn't know she existed for years, only makes them more convinced that Gil is in the closet.
• Gift-Giving Gaffe:
  • One Christmas episode has Frasier run headlong into this, with Martin pointing out it's because Frasier buys people the gifts he thinks they want, rather than what they actually want (and funnily enough, the gifts are ones that suit Frasier's tastes and interests). Evidently, Frasier forgets this lesson, since a later episode has Roz accidentally cluing him in that a gift he got her was destroyed in an "earthquake" along with Roz's unwanted ceramic animal collection. Thereafter, they agree to just get one another booze, but a later episode shows Frasier didn't keep up with this.
  • One episode revolves around Daphne giving Martin a nice sweater apropos of nothing, and him feeling honor-bound to repay it. It eventually ends with the two having a screaming match about how they do like their gifts, and angrily taking them, much to Frasier's alarm.
    Frasier: My god, it's like Christmas in the Gambino household!
• Girlfriend in Canada: Gil's wife, "Deb", an Army reservist, owner of her own auto repair shop, and graduate of Sarah Lawrence.
• Girl of the Week: Pretty much every love interest Frasier has. Sometimes he manages to avoid alienating them for a few episodes and they show up more than once. Sometimes not. This is a striking contrast from Frasier's love life on Cheers, where he is involved in two successive long-term relationships (with Diane for one year, and then with Lilith for about seven years).
• Godwin's Law: In "Kenny on the Couch", Frasier and Martin get into an argument at the end of the episode about the worth of psychology, with Martin thinking it's a bunch of hooey.
  Frasier: So tell me, Dr. Party Hearty Marty, who, in your expert opinion, does need therapy!?
  Martin: Well... Hitler.
  Frasier: Hitler?!
  Martin: And that one with all the different personalities, um... Sybil.
  Frasier: That's it? An entire science devoted to Hitler and Sybil?!
• Gold Digger:
  • Frasier briefly becomes this for none other than Patrick Stewart, who gives him expensive watches and introduces him to celebrities. In turn, Frasier lets the guy kiss him and treat him like a boyfriend, constantly "forgetting" to tell Stewart's character he's straight. And when Frasier finally tells Stewart's character that he's actually straight, Stewart responds by asking if a week at a luxurious villa on Capri would change that. After a lengthy Reaction Shot, Frasier admits that it actually might.
  • During a two part episode, Frasier dates famous lawyer Samantha Pierce. In the first episode, he's worried about being in the female role, but in the second, "Desperately Seeking Closure", he realizes he's only in love with Pierce for her celebrity friends. She's dumbstruck when Frasier admits this to her as the reason of his breaking up with her. Then Lesley Stahl walks in.
    Frasier: (star struck) Lesley! Hello! Dr. Frasier Crane, we met this weekend.
    Lesley: Oh, how are you?
    Sam: (disbelief) What kind of sick bastard are you?!
  • Niles gets asked if he married Maris for her money. He denies it, but adds that it's just "a delightful bonus."
  • Then there's Bebe and her engagement to Big Willy, an octogenarian rich Texan, in "Where There's Smoke, There's Fired".
    Niles: Well, marrying money can have its perils. Ten or fifteen years down the line, after you've adapted to a lifestyle now totally beyond your means, you can find yourself cast aside a hollow husk, penniless and crushed.
    Frasier: Niles, Big Willy's eighty-five, he's on his third pacemaker.
    Niles: Ah. (jealous) Mazel tov.
    • Of course, Big Willy dies before they get married, but Frasier still cheers Bebe up:
      Frasier: Well, you know, Bebe, there are other Big Willys out there, better ones! Richer, older... impotent!
      Bebe: Oh dear, you always know what to say.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • In the episode "Sweet Dreams", Frasier tries to get Mr. Martin to stop being a corporate stooge and rehire Kenny. It works, but Mr. Martin takes the criticism that he is a corporate drone further to heart than Frasier intended. (Kenny was rehired but Frasier and most of his coworkers were fired.)
    Mr. Martin: I'm going to march right in there and tell them that we're doing it my way! No more talk.
    Frasier: Exactly, action!
    Mr. Martin: No, no more talk radio. From this moment on, the station is all Latino music, all the time!
    Frasier: I beg your pardon?
    Mr. Martin: Thank you, Dr. Crane, I'm going back to my roots. I may have walked out of that meeting Joe Martin, corporate sellout. But I'm walking back in as José Martinez, risk-taker!
  • Then from Dr. Nora. Frasier brings Dr. Nora's mother, thinking that her abrasiveness and hostility was due to a misunderstanding between her and her mother, disappointing Roz who wanted revenge, not seeking a peaceful reconciliation. Little did he know, Mrs. Nulhearn was a shrill, grasping, moneygrubbing harpy whose first words to her daughter were "YOU LITTLE WHORE!"
    Roz: (jumping for joy) I was wrong, Frasier! Your way IS better!
  • When Mel has Niles acting like an inconsiderate jerk to make it seem like the divorce was justified, Niles' insults about a man being The Alcoholic comes off as Brutal Honesty and Tough Love, and everyone thanks Niles for it - to both Niles and Mel's dismay.
• Goshdang It To Heck: Kenny. His go to swearing is "Cheese 'n' rice!"
• Grammar Correction Gag:
  • Niles Crane has a habit of using a marker pen to correct all the grammar and spelling mistakes of the graffiti in public restrooms.
  • Daphne gives a lovely speech in the second season just to build up to a fantastic example of this:
  Daphne: I was very mistrusting of people back then. I was convinced the way to stay out of harm's way was to walk the streets with me eyes cast down, never meeting anyone's glance. But, finally, I decided that was no way to live, so one day I just lifted up me chin and took it all in. Well, the change was amazing. There were sights I'd never seen, sounds I've never heard. A tiny old man came up to me with a note in his hand. He needed help. I realized this was no city full of thieves and muggers. There were people here who needed me. I took his note, read it, and to this day I can remember just what I said to that man. "That's not how you spell 'fellatio'."
  • Niles' reaction to the "injurious graffito" limerick Frasier finds in a bathroom stall;
  Frasier:

  There once was a man, Frasier Crane
  Who says he can feel your pain.
  But he acts like a snob
  To the guys at his job
  And I think he's totally lame.
  Niles: That's terrible!
  Frasier: Thank you, Niles.
  Niles: There's a tense shift, an approximate rhyme, the scansion leaves a lot to be desired...
• Grammar Nazi: Frasier, who will interrupt callers with pointless speeches on grammar that only make the callers more neurotic.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Noel, who supposedly speaks Hebrew, tells Frasier that "yeshiva" is the word for school. It is not — it means a full-time institute where Jewish law is studied. (The word for school is beit-sefer). While "yeshiva" is originally a Hebrew word, the way he pronounces it with the stress on the middle syllable is the pronunciation derived from its Yiddish importation, something no Hebrew language teacher would do.