The best (and worst) of 'Frasier': A series of misunderstood events

As far as the concept of misunderstandings and "Frasier" go, you can’t get much better than “The Ski Lodge,” especially in its ability to put the entire cast of characters to work. That is except for Roz, who at least gets a great opening scene to put this entire plot in motion, in addition to two solid (non-stunt cast) guest stars in the form of James Patrick Stuart (as Guy, the gay ski instructor) and Cynthia LaMontagne (as Annie, Daphne’s dimwitted friend). 

And “The Ski Lodge” doesn’t just rely on misunderstandings to do the trick: Nearly everyone in this plot is in the dark to some degree, with only the audience having the full picture. But even when there’s the possibility of one of the characters getting said full picture — before it all goes straight to bedtime shenanigans — that’s all hindered by Martin Crane’s inconvenient hearing problem in this episode (as an earlier moment in the show pointed out that his ears are stuffed up due to a cold). There’s that necessary dose of miscommunication that leads to all those beautiful misunderstandings.

This particular episode is all about the “bedroom farce” (or “sex farce”), and while weekend adventures at a cabin were shockingly a well "Frasier" went to often, this was the episode that took it to the next level. (The previous season had “Four For The Seesaw,” which feels somewhat like a dry run for this episode but nowhere near as ambitious.) Frasier wants Daphne’s friend Annie, Annie wants Niles, Niles of course wants Daphne, Daphne wants their ski instructor, Guy, and Guy wants Niles. Yes, Niles is the most in-demand character in this episode, while no one wants Frasier. (This is made even funnier by the fact that Frasier is written as his most lust-crazed, lecherous Lothario here. To witness him deflate upon the realization that literally no one was pursuing him — after the way he behaves the entire time — is the beautiful comedown from the madness of this episode.) Oh, and Guy also thinks Daphne and Annie are lesbians. Throw in the fact that Martin tips off both Frasier and Guy on things he misheard from Daphne, and you’ve got yourself a farcical stew going.

“The Ski Lodge” is considered one of the greatest episodes — if not the greatest — of "Frasier" because of its ability to tell a high-concept, high-level comedic story with its incredible cast. It doesn’t have the physical comedy of “Three Valentines” or the emotional gravitas of “My Coffee with Niles,” but it provides laughs at an alarmingly intense rate in a way that people pretend multi-camera sitcoms just aren’t able to do. Of course, "Frasier" was always more like a play masquerading as a sitcom. But that just makes the point even stronger because “a play” airing on NBC during Must See TV isn’t exactly the type of thing you’d expect to be this intensely funny. 

“The Ski Lodge” is truly an episode that doesn’t let up. The tension — sexual and comedic — builds up so much that when Annie bursts out in frustration that this is her worst birthday ever, by that point, the audience has completely forgotten that “Daphne’s friend's birthday” is even a part of the equation…and then the situation becomes even funnier because of that realization.

“Hungry Heart” (Season 8, Episode 14)

“TRY TO CONTROL YOURSELF!” - Roz Doyle

To argue that observant psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane should have been able to tell Annie wasn’t interested in him in “The Ski Lodge” is to ignore Frasier’s intense vanity — as much as he’s ultimately a good guy — and how much that plays into a lot of the misunderstandings in the series’ run. Now as for the mix-ups that happen in Season 8’s “Hungry Heart,” those are much more difficult to defend. Exactly three seasons after what could be called the definitive episode of "Frasier," we got…this.

In this episode, KACL station manager Kenny (Tom McGowan) accidentally asks a woman — who is not his wife/the mother of his kids — out on a date, and he goes to Frasier for advice. Frasier decides to speak to the woman, Janice, face-to-face at the restaurant where Kenny’s supposed to meet her, and Frasier ends up hitting it off with her instead. Of course, by the time Frasier got there, Kenny’s wife (Illeana Douglas) had already scared Janice off, as Kenny had given this woman his home phone number, and she left a message that his wife heard. But she lies and says she’s Janice. And it works because Kenny has apparently not introduced (or shown a picture of) his wife to anyone at KACL in the over three years he’d been their boss.

“Hungry Heart” is a strange situation because while it’s probably for the best that the misunderstandings in this particular episode don’t drive it entirely — because the Frasier/Kenny/“Janice” plot is really bad — if they did, that would at least eliminate the Daphne plot. (As an aside, while it was, in theory, clever for "Frasier" to lean into Jane Leeves’ actual pregnancy at the time by having Daphne overeat — and to be fair, the aftermath of this story actually lands very well — the combination of tired fat jokes and awful costuming for the character made for a really unpleasant first half of the eighth season.) But getting everyone involved in this plot really wouldn’t help things because while “The Ski Lodge” owes much of its success to its guest cast, that’s certainly not the case with “Hungry Heart.”

That’s not to negatively criticize Douglas here as “Janice”/Kenny’s wife but more the episode’s decision to focus on Kenny, the least interesting, developed or funny of all the KACL supporting players in the series. But then you have “Janice” being just as terrible of a person as her husband, as the misunderstandings here are based on the fact that she decides to lie to Frasier — although the audience is supposed to be amused and sympathetic to Kenny accidentally almost having an affair. 

That’s the “miscommunication” in this episode compared to the typical (but preferable) sitcom beat that "Frasier" usually had no problem hitting of characters interrupting and preventing other characters from saying what they mean to say. “Janice” knows exactly who he is, not just because he’s Seattle’s Frasier Crane but because he’s her husband’s employee. Frasier always worked hard to at least make the audience care for its characters even if they were all making asses of themselves. But not only was Kenny never an interesting character to the audience, but this episode honestly has you rooting for his wife — despite her being no better than her husband — to leave him for Frasier. Or just leave him at all.

“Hungry Heart” as a whole is so atypically underwhelming and simplistic for an episode of "Frasier." And it doesn’t matter that it was eight seasons in at this point, because Frasier ultimately maintained its high quality throughout all 11 seasons. But there is a glimmer of a bright spot here in terms of general quality and the ever-powerful "Frasier" misunderstanding: While Roz is an afterthought in this episode, her brief bit of believing that her pheromone perfume is so strong that Frasier literally can’t control himself is a laugh-out-loud moment that would almost make the entire story better if it were, well, better.

But “Hungry Heart” also, thankfully, wasn’t the standard quality level for "Frasier," which is what makes it such an anomaly. Having 264 episodes of misunderstandings means not every one of them is going to be a winner. But "Frasier" certainly knew how to make it feel like they should be.