"Frasier" Farewell Cheers Critics

Final episode watched by more than 25 million, biggest audience in nearly four years

By Joal Ryan May 14, 2004 6:45 PMTags
In the end, Frasier was no Friends. Not that that was a bad thing.

Ratings-wise, Thursday's hourlong-plus series finale, in which the good Dr. Frasier Crane heads for Chicago, looking for love, if not pizza, was watched by an estimated 25.4 million, per NBC.

That's about half as many devotees as Friends' farewell attracted last week. But it's all relative--the Friends finale got twice as much hype and twice as much ad money ($2 million per 30-second spot, compared to Frasier's $800,000), all because the sitcom averaged twice as many viewers (22 million to 10.2 million) throughout the season.

All things considered, Dr. Crane can hold his jaunty jaw high. The Frasier finale proved to be the comedy's most-watched episode in three-and-a-half years, and helped lead NBC to another key Thursday night win in the May sweeps.

An hourlong Frasier clip show, Frasier: Analyzing the Laughter, which ran prior to the final episode, was watched by an estimated 17.7 million, running second in the 8-9 p.m. time slot to Survivor's $1 million giveaway on CBS. (A similar Friends retrospective was watched by 36.9 million.)

One department where Frasier did not run second to Friends was reviews. If critics were sorta underwhelmed by Friends' sappy goodbye, the nation's professional TV watchers were sorta impressed by Frasier's classy goodbye.

"I've complained about series ending with finales that try to be grand and end up not good," R.D. Heldenfels wrote in Ohio's Akron Beacon Journal. "Frasier just tried to be good one last time. That was good enough for a grand finish."

On MSNBC.com, Wendell Wittler appreciated the show's lack of gimmicks (à la Newhart's Bob-wakes-up-in-bed-with-Emily twist), and, proving his TV I.Q., ranked it high with one of his all-time-fave TV goodbyes--the last episode of '60s cult series The Prisoner.

Frasier's swan song was "almost as good as Patrick McGoohan's automated door, and no Suzanne Pleshette in sight," Wittler wrote.

In USA Today, Robert Bianco found the final episode "honest and true to the series."

"After all, how many sitcoms could not only make room for a lengthy quote from Tennyson, but make it seem movingly appropriate?" Bianco wrote. "The answer, with Frasier now gone, is 'none.' What ever will we do without it?"

The good notices befit a series that scored more Emmys wins (31) than any other prime-time show in TV history. The show may yet add to its haul at the 56th Annual Emmy Awards in September.

Frasier's 11-season run ends at 264 episodes--one less than Murder, She Wrote, five more than Married...With Children and 28 more than Friends.

The show's last story found all things ending happily for Dr. Crane's neurotic bunch: Frasier followed gal-pal Charlotte (Laura Linney) to Chicago; Niles and Daphne welcomed a baby monkey, sorry, boy named David (after series creator David Angell, who was killed in the 9-11 terrorist attacks); Martin and Ronee (Wendie Malick) got married; and Roz got a promotion.

Dr. Crane's departure from the Seattle scene (with the on-air sign-off, "Goodnight, Seattle") may signal his arrival on another sitcom landscape.

Paramount, the studio behind Frasier, is said to be shopping an all-new Frasier Crane series. Kelsey Grammer, who has played the doctor continuously since 1984 (when he originated the character on Cheers), is said to be interested in starring in an all-new Frasier Crane series.

For now, Frasier is chilling in the Windy City. Maybe checking out a Cubs game.