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Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 1 -> Episode 1.23

Frasier Crane's Day Off
Episode Details

Written by: Chuck Ranberg & Anne Flett-Giordano

Directed by: James Burrows

Original US airdate: 12th May 1994

Original UK airdate: 30th September 1994


Cast Information
Main Cast
Frasier Crane .... Kelsey Grammer
Niles Crane .... David Hyde Pierce
Martin Crane .... John Mahoney
Daphne Moon .... Jane Leeves
Roz Doyle .... Peri Gilpin
Recurring Cast
Gil Chesterton .... Edward Hibbert
   
   
Guest Cast Guest Callers
Blake .... Steve Young
Louis .... Garry Trudeau
Howard .... Steve Lawrence
Lois .... Eydie Gorme
Robert .... Tommy Hilfiger
Janice .... Patricia Hearst
Marjorie .... Mary Tyler Moore

Episode Synopsis

Frasier is starting to get ill but doesn't want to take the day off because he believes Gil Chesterton will try to take his timeslot by 'helpfully' filling in. However, he relents when he gets much worse. At home, Martin is recalling the sickest he ever was while Daphne is tending to Frasier's incredibly petty requests. While Niles visits, Roz phones and tells him he was right - Gil is vying for his slot. He then tries to get Niles to fill in his slot who agrees. He starts out as dreadfully dull, but by the end he has become scintillating as he brings the love back into two people's relationship. Frasier is now paranoid Niles is after his slot and races down to KACL high on drugs. He manages to throw both Niles and Roz out of the studio and lock them out. He then starts taking calls, calling one caller's problem boring and cuts another one off for saying his name twice. Eventually, they manage to drag Frasier off the air and Niles takes over again. Will he remember anything when he wakes up the next morning...?

Episode Title Cards
  • Spring Is In The Air
  • Frasier Crane's Day Off
  • I Go To Pieces
  • Radio Daze

Episode Highlights

- Frasier is apologising to a caller on his show:
Frasier
: Sorry, Blake, when I told you to close your eyes and visualise you were on a tropical island, I didn't realise you were calling from a mobile phone.

Daphne: You can't think of going back to work - you're all pasty, clammy and pale.
Martin: That's bad coming from an Englishwoman.

- Martin's escalating stories of being sick.

- After Daphne is getting tired of dealing with Frasier's petty needs:
Niles: Hello Daphne. Is he in pain?
Daphne: Not enough.(!!)

- Roz is showing Niles the ropes at the radio station:
Niles: I have no cough reflex and excellent bladder control.
Roz: It's true - all the good ones are married (!!!)

Niles [on air]: While Frasier is a Freudian, I am a Jungian - so there'll be no blaming mother today!

- Frasier' s performance on the air while high on drugs, provoking Niles to say:
Niles: Thank you Frasier for so eloquently showing why they call it dope.

Frasier Online Episode Review

The penultimate episod of Season 1 - and a definite high point - is another brilliant episode from the pens of Chuck Ranberg and Anne Flett-Giordano, and sees Frasier almost losing his slot to Gil Chesterton (who makes his debut here, and would become a much funnier character in future episodes than the rather oily one he seems in this episode), before seeing Niles take the airwaves by storm after persuades him to take over while he recovers. All of the cast contribute wonderfully - Martin with his stories of being sick, Daphne dealing sarcastically with Frasier's increasingly petty needs, and best of all Niles filling in for Frasier on KACL, with the added highlinght of seeing Frasier trying to present while high on drugs. Great fun all round.

Rating

87 %

Latest Viewer Episode Review

Avg. Viewer Review: 93.4%
Total Number of Reviews: 7


Fever Pitch, Aug 10, 2011

Reviewer: David Sim from Skelmersdale, Lancashire


Season 1 is erratic among Frasier's peak years. The high quality comedy of Seasons 2-5 drops in and out of Season 1. But that's certainly not apparent of the last four episodes of the season, where the production team maintain a consistent level of laughs and top notch writing.

And Season 1's penultimate episode is a splendid affair. Frasier Crane's Day Off is lively, spry inspired silliness. My favourite episode of the season.

We've already met KACL staff like Bulldog and Noel Shempsky, but the producers have saved the best til last. This episode debuts the wonderful Gil Chesterton, played with camp (or is it just British?) pomposity by Edward Hibbert.

Because this is Gil's first appearance, it means that some of his much loved character traits aren't too readily apparent. For instance, Gil's gayness isn't really an issue yet. I suspect that was added to the character when Joe Keenan joined the writing team in Season 2. Here, Frasier chalks up Gil's prissiness to a "phony British accent"!

Frasier's a little under the weather today. Something that has not gone unnoticed by Gil's wandering eye. Gil wishes him a speedy recovery, but Frasier isn't buying it. He knows that Gil has an eye on his time slot, and he won't give it up without a fight. Illness or no illness.

But the next day Frasier's worse and has to stay home, giving Gil the perfect chance to pounce on Frasier's airtime. When Roz hears a rumour that Gil is sweet-talking the station manager into letting him have the slot on a permanent basis, Frasier does some sweet-talking of his own and convinces Niles to fill in for him the next day.

After being a co-host in the last episode, Niles gets the mike to himself in this one. He convinces a married couple on the rocks that instead of packing up they're emotional baggage, they admit they're love for one another on the air. When they do, Frasier thinks Niles is after his time slot too. His fears give rise to paranoid dreams and insidious plots that everyone is out to take his show away. In an insane attempt to get back control of the mike, he mixes medications, goes down to KACL in high spirits and has the equivalent of an on-air meltdown.

Frasier Crane's Day Off is an early attempt at something this show would become renowned for. Watching simple events spiral further and further into madness. Its all plausible too if you stop to examine the episode. Frasier's fears are based on logic. Gil is a food critic, and he's interested in Frasier's slot because it ends just in time for dinner. And Niles has always been jealous of Frasier's celebrity status (something that came up in the last episode) and wants some of it for himself.

It isn't just some contrived behaviour designed to get an audience laughing. Frasier's actions may seem extreme to the casual viewer. But anyone who knows the show will see that it isn't. The episode's plot logic is carefully thought out, where every little action seems to fuel greater and greater mayhem. Something the show would get better and better at.

The inspired insanity at KACL brings the episode to a wonderfully funny close. Kelsey Grammer even looks genuinely wired. It all reminded me of the finale to The Germans, that Fawlty Towers classic. I half expected to see doctors with strait-jackets and butterfly nets chasing Frasier through the studio!

Frasier Crane's Day Off is filled with delightful throwaway gags. I like the way Niles puts his tissue to a different use when he covers his mouth with it, thinking Frasier's got some sort of plague. Or Daphne playing Nurse Nightingale to a whiny Frasier. I loved Martin overpowering Frasier by giving him a simple poke with his finger.

Its a bit odd to watch Gil without anyone making cracks about his sexuality, but even in his first appearance Edward Hibbert is as lovably pompous as ever. Its no wonder he became a mainstay, and the show's most enduring supporting character. Although David Lloyd is the one who would come to shape and define the Gil we all know, Chuck Ramberg and Anne Flett-Giordano do a more than capable job of endearing him, with Hibbert clearly relishing the role. Never again will Edward Hibbert find a part like Gil Chesterton.

A flawless penultimate episode that motors along in fine style, puts everyone to good use, and leaves us panting for the season finale.


Rating: 100%

 

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