By the hour, May 12, 2013

Reviewer: Sammy J from Melbourne, Australia

Okay, I have to admit the hiccuping concept is a little hokey. Season 5's "I am not a man..." made sense. This is a little dire. However, that's really my only complaint.

Season 7 takes off in fine form with Frasier getting suckered into paying for Daphne's wedding, and then can't help himself from taking over. It would've been easy for us to worry that having Daphne engaged for a season would require the writers to engage (ha!) in obligatory plot-progressing storylines. Instead, "Father of the Bride" proves that they will find unique ways to mine comedy out of the situations they put the characters in, much as was done with Roz's pregnancy in season 5.

There are fine moments for all the cast, with Martin and Donny equally stressed about the prospect of Frasier paying; Daphne continuing to fall apart at the mere mention of Gertrude Moon (long before fans would do so!); and Roz ducking into shadows to avoid the inevitable bridesmaid's dress. (Although, does anyone else find it odd that Frasier - two-time groom, longtime shrink, confirmed metrosexual - needs the concept of an ugly bridesmaid's dress explained to him?

Meanwhile, David Hyde Pierce has great fun in a pun-heavy subplot where Niles unwittingly "dates" a prostitute. It plays to the series' love of mistaken identity, but also to Niles' continued social naivete, particularly as he enters his first year without Maris in his life at all.

Rating: 92%

Father of the Bride: Frustrating, yet funny., Feb 19, 2009

Reviewer: A pro-opera Jungarian. from Santa Rosa, California, USA

I am not one who likes the Frasiers where he and\or Niles act like meddling idiots, but this one was actually very funny.

The episode begins with Daphne being agrivated with her Mother who is taking over her wedding with great lines like 'Then she says you can plan your own wedding once you have a daughter who's engaged'. Then Frasier decides to agree to pay for her wedding flowers but when saying so he says 'We decided that we'll bay for your wedding *hiccup*', resulting in him paying for the entire wedding. Daphne is so relieved because now she can plan the wedding, that is of course until she gets Frasiers imput with 'the gift of Frasier'.

Menwhile Roz is worried about being chosen to become a bridsmaid, a position she hates because 'The bride always makes the Bride's maid dress ugly to make the bride prettier'.

At the same time, Niles joins a dating service, which unbeknowist to him is a scam with Women payed to enjoy all your actions.

Back to the main plot, Frasier starts to take over the wedding. He gets the caterer, the music, the flowers, and even the minister and to Daphne's dismay refuses to listen to her because 'you'll thank me later'. To this Daphne then blows up, saying 'that's all my Mother ever told me, you'll thank me later' and retakes her Wedding. Frasier, after apologizing, realizes the only reason he took over her wedding is he never had the one of his dreams that 'the first lacked in ceremony, the second lacked a bride and the third I never would have done if I realized I could have traded Lilith with the ice sculpture and it would still not be as cold as her'.

The episode on a whole is decent. A good main plot though you want to strangle Frasier, and has two decent sub plots. But Niles was wasted and Martin was almost never there.

Is it re watchable: Yes.

Does it rely on the main plot: Yes.

Does it use the characters properly: No.

Does it rely on the story: No.

Does it have a good balance of types of humor: No.

Rating: 74%

FATHER OF THE BRIDE, Aug 05, 2006

Reviewer: Cake for Brains from Manchester, UK

After the season premiere which was very much centred around the three Crane men, ‘Father of the Bride’ resumes the plotline of Daphne and Donny, which cultivated at the end of Season 6 with the latter’s proposal of marriage to the former, who accepted. Regarding this episode, I have always thought it vastly overrated and not all that funny, but when I re-watched ‘Father of the Bride’ in order to compose this episode review, I was enormously surprised because I found it wonderfully witty and frequently hilarious, containing a great deal of laugh out loud moments and an interesting and engaging plot, with some hysterical dialogue. The episode begins with a very funny exchange between Roz and Frasier, in which Roz stresses her hated of bridesmaid attire and asks Frasier if he’d ever been to a wedding where he found himself staring at the bridesmaid and not the bride, in which Frasier quickly replies; ‘That would be my wedding to Lilith!’ The episode manages to maintain the humour set by the opening of the episode, and there is a great moment where Niles recollects his afternoon, which consisted of a cat’s surprise birthday party and how Niles came in third in the five-legged race (he partnered Mr Waggles). The plotline involving Niles antics with a dating service called ‘Executive Match’ (an escort service) is also engendered here, which leads to some very funny moments later on in the episode, which sees Niles dating a prostitute named Sabrina. Niles believes her constant phone calls and ‘counting the minutes’ they’ve been together proves that her profession is probably something along the lines of a ‘high priced lawyer?’ There is also a wonderful Niles quote when he outlines his sluggish process of dating to Frasier, which apparently will climax in two weeks when he will ‘storm the citadel of her womanhood’. The scene when Frasier confronts Niles on his girlfriend’s occupation is priceless, and David Hyde Pierce’s delivery of ‘Oh my God, I’m dating a whore!’ is sublime.

The main plot of the episode is also very funny as well, and contains some of the funniest material of the entire season. One of my personal favourite moments is the hilarious mix-up that ensues after Frasier gets a hiccupping fit after eating some spicy beef jerky and then attempts to tell Daphne about his wedding gift, he is going to pay for the wedding flowers. ‘Dad and I would be honoured to pay for your wedding… hiccup…’ Frasier quickly realises that it is too late to take the offer back, because Daphne is so excited and ecstatically overjoyed that she can now have the wedding of her dreams, so he decides that he may as well make the most of his expertise and good taste, and endeavours to give Daphne ‘the gift of Frasier’, which leads to some brilliant comedy. Predictability Frasier’s obsessive and controlling nature sees him taking over Daphne’s wedding plans, and whereas Daphne would have been happy with rice and a buffet, Frasier is soon auditioning food, ministers and harpists, as well as planning a shower of doves for the ceremony. Martin’s contribution is superb as well, with Eddie carrying the wedding rings! One of my favourite quotes is the discussion between Frasier and Daphne about where to hold the wedding reception, and Daphne suggests Captain Jonah’s, although you have to enter through the whale’s mouth. I loved Frasier’s response: ‘I hesitate to ask where you exit!’. Thankfully however, Daphne stands up to Frasier and takes back charge of her wedding, which leads to a hilarious ending between Frasier and Martin, in which Frasier confesses to his father that he’s never had the wedding of his dreams despite marrying three times. ‘We dashed off to city hall. You could hardly imagine a wedding more lacking in ceremony. Until my second wedding – which was lacking a bride! And then came Lilith, and if I knew then what I know now I would have walked down the aisle with the ice sculptor and have her stand by the buffet table to keep the shrimp cold!’. I’m so glad I’ve rediscovered this wonderful episode, and it’s a rare example of where everything seems to work brilliantly together, and as a consequence its an episode that kept me laughing throughout. Classic episode.

Rating: 87%

'Father Of The Bride' review, Jul 31, 2005

Reviewer: Jocelyn from London, UK

A marvellous episode blessed with a consistently amusing debut script from Mark Reisman which gives all the cast members a chance to shine. Focusing on the preparations for Daphne and Donny's wedding, the episode sees a dose of hiccups lead to an unfortunate misunderstanding where Frasier leads Daphne to believe that he and Martin have agreed to pay for the whole wedding, which in turn leads Frasier to switch into full control freak mode as he feels his money should be matched by his 'taste' and 'expertise', or as he modestly puts it: 'The gift of Frasier'. The resulting control freakery contributes some great comic moments as, without any consultation from Daphne, Frasier comes up with all manner of extravagant ideas for the wedding, throwing in everything from doves to a harpist - the latter providing a wonderfully silly joke when Martin is seemingly about to launch into a flashback while Roz's frustration at failing to secure her chosen bridesmaid dress adds further to the fun. However, the funniest moments are those which concern Niles dating Sabrina who, much to his oblivion, is actually a prostitute from escort agency 'Executive Match'. The moment where Frasier finally enlightens his brother of the situation is a joy, not least for David Hyde Pierce's hilarious delivery of 'and oh my god, I'm dating a whore!', while the two plots are nicely brought together at the end when Daphne, furious with Frasier's overbearing interference, throws away the bouquet which is then caught by Sabrina, only to be snatched and thrown to the floor by an equally furious Niles as 'Here Comes The Bride' inappropriately plays in the background. In all, this is a great episode which both brings the wedding plotline into the show effectively as well as standing as a very funny episode in it's own right.

Rating: 86%