Frasier Online
home About The Show Episode Guide Merchandise Forum Reviews Gallery Contact

What irritates you about 'Frasier'?

Discussion of all things 'Frasier' - the episodes, the actors and other 'Frasier'-related topics.

Re: What irritates you about 'Frasier'?

Postby The Coyote » Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:46 pm

Definitely Daphne's brothers. Such bad casting! One has a pseudo cockney accent ala Dick Van Dyke, one mumbles badly to disguise the actor's Scottish origins and the great Richard E Grant is as out of place as Niles and Frasier at The Timber Mill or Hoppy's Old Heildelberg.
They are meant to come from Manchester??

I love the show but find the references to British cuisine etc misrepresentative.
When Donny hides a basket of Daphne's fav English food in the park for her to find she mentions blood pudding (it's called black pudding in England) jellied eels ( No one eats jellied eels !! only a few old cockneys and they are rare and only in the east end of London) and so forth.

Oh and maybe the writers should have had Niles and Daphne happily together without all that protracted Mell nonsense. They spoiled it by dragging it out.
The Coyote
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:00 pm

Re: What irritates you about 'Frasier'?

Postby Patrick » Wed Nov 27, 2013 1:37 pm

The Coyote wrote:Definitely Daphne's brothers. Such bad casting! One has a pseudo cockney accent ala Dick Van Dyke, one mumbles badly to disguise the actor's Scottish origins and the great Richard E Grant is as out of place as Niles and Frasier at The Timber Mill or Hoppy's Old Heildelberg.
They are meant to come from Manchester??

I love the show but find the references to British cuisine etc misrepresentative.
When Donny hides a basket of Daphne's fav English food in the park for her to find she mentions blood pudding (it's called black pudding in England) jellied eels ( No one eats jellied eels !! only a few old cockneys and they are rare and only in the east end of London) and so forth.

Oh and maybe the writers should have had Niles and Daphne happily together without all that protracted Mell nonsense. They spoiled it by dragging it out.

I remember Daphne about the bovril... "it's supposed to smell bad, it's English". I think the exaggeration is deliberate for comical effect.


I am glad that they protracted it (Niles and Daphne) because it would have killed a lot of the gags. In fact in my opinion they didn't protract it enough. Their marriage should have taken place in the last season, maybe the post (Daphne/NIles) episodes would have been better for it.
Frasier: You started us down that path of insanity. Golda Meir.
Golda My-ass!
User avatar
Patrick
 
Posts: 1531
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2012 5:43 am
Location: France

Re: What irritates you about 'Frasier'?

Postby Ariel » Wed Nov 27, 2013 5:56 pm

The Coyote wrote:Definitely Daphne's brothers. Such bad casting! One has a pseudo cockney accent ala Dick Van Dyke, one mumbles badly to disguise the actor's Scottish origins and the great Richard E Grant is as out of place as Niles and Frasier at The Timber Mill or Hoppy's Old Heildelberg.
They are meant to come from Manchester??

I love the show but find the references to British cuisine etc misrepresentative.
When Donny hides a basket of Daphne's fav English food in the park for her to find she mentions blood pudding (it's called black pudding in England) jellied eels ( No one eats jellied eels !! only a few old cockneys and they are rare and only in the east end of London) and so forth.

Oh and maybe the writers should have had Niles and Daphne happily together without all that protracted Mell nonsense. They spoiled it by dragging it out.

I have to agree, who DID the casting for Daphne's family - it went past comedy into the realms of the ridiculous! How could the whole family have different accents? How did Daphne grow up to be the Daphne of the first few series if she was related to that lot?? Not sure whether they just appear more ridiculous to me as an English person - but I could happily remove the entire family from the series!
"Love is an awesome force. It can make us do things we never imagined were possible. For you see, we don't actually choose love- it chooses us. And once it has, we are powerless to do anything about it."
User avatar
Ariel
 
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2013 6:43 pm
Location: UK

Re: What irritates you about 'Frasier'?

Postby heartofmotion » Sat Nov 30, 2013 12:20 am

Yes, the Moons were bad although it was worth it just to see Niles reaction to them!

I think it's the only-to-be-expected casting of English stereotypes by American producers. It's not really surprising that Daphne starts out as a cliché as that's where the comedy lies - after all, British sitcoms used to excel in stereotyped roles for non-British characters (Manuel being the most obvious example). Over time, Jane Leeves turned Daphne into a real character but the other Moons didn't really have the chance to move beyond stereotype. I found Robbie Coltrane the most unbelievable - totally unsuited to the part.

It's only natural that the writers would try to score comedic points from nationality stereotypes though. Quite late on Niles told Roz that Daphne hasn't slept with Donny yet because 'she's English'. Cue much laughter ...
heartofmotion
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2013 2:43 pm

Re: What irritates you about 'Frasier'?

Postby Patrick » Sun Dec 01, 2013 2:42 pm

heartofmotion wrote:Yes, the Moons were bad although it was worth it just to see Niles reaction to them!

I think it's the only-to-be-expected casting of English stereotypes by American producers. It's not really surprising that Daphne starts out as a cliché as that's where the comedy lies - after all, British sitcoms used to excel in stereotyped roles for non-British characters (Manuel being the most obvious example). Over time, Jane Leeves turned Daphne into a real character but the other Moons didn't really have the chance to move beyond stereotype. I found Robbie Coltrane the most unbelievable - totally unsuited to the part.

It's only natural that the writers would try to score comedic points from nationality stereotypes though. Quite late on Niles told Roz that Daphne hasn't slept with Donny yet because 'she's English'. Cue much laughter ...

The French people are not any better, some of them like that girl in High Holidays are not French at all. In fact I don't think I've ever heard a worse fake French accent than the one of that girl. So, if you don't find the way your compatriots are represented in Frasier very convincing then I'll say "Join the Club." :lol:
Frasier: You started us down that path of insanity. Golda Meir.
Golda My-ass!
User avatar
Patrick
 
Posts: 1531
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2012 5:43 am
Location: France

Re: What irritates you about 'Frasier'?

Postby Frank B » Sun Dec 01, 2013 3:16 pm

Patrick wrote:The French people are not any better, some of them like that girl in High Holidays are not French at all. In fact I don't think I've ever heard a worse fake French accent than the one of that girl. So, if you don't find the way your compatriots are represented in Frasier very convincing then I'll say "Join the Club." :lol:


I can't speak a word of French, but even I can hear that she doesn't sound like French people.
User avatar
Frank B
 
Posts: 69
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:30 pm

Re: What irritates you about 'Frasier'?

Postby PistolPoet » Sun Dec 01, 2013 5:32 pm

Frank B wrote:
Patrick wrote:The French people are not any better, some of them like that girl in High Holidays are not French at all. In fact I don't think I've ever heard a worse fake French accent than the one of that girl. So, if you don't find the way your compatriots are represented in Frasier very convincing then I'll say "Join the Club." :lol:


I can't speak a word of French, but even I can hear that she doesn't sound like French people.

When I see her, she always brings to my mind an image of the stereotypical French maid with the over-the-top accent, sort of like the feather duster from Beauty and the Beast :P.
"Whenever I'm wrong, the world makes a little less sense."
User avatar
PistolPoet
 
Posts: 358
Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2012 9:22 pm
Location: Serbia

Previous

Return to Frasier Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 25 guests

cron

© Site contents are copyright Stuart Lee 1999 - 2024. This is a Frasier fan site and is not affiliated in any way with the program, Grub St Productions, Paramount or NBC.