Reflecting on the approach of the 100th episode of "Frasier," series star Kelsey Grammer looked back at the first four seasons of the Emmy Award-winning sitcom.
"Well, I think the chief thing that everyone would notice it's been a show about hair," he said. "The hair has changed on just about everyone.""Yes, for different reasons," interjected Peri Gilpin, who co-stars as Roz.
And Grammer couldn't help but agree with her.
"My hair has, by necessity, gotten shorter," said the star with the receding hairline. "Jane (Leeves) and Peri have cut their hair in different ways. I mean, it's quite noticeable. I think you'll see now that we have syndication coming out that the hair has been the defining quality."
Actually, other than the hair, "Frasier" hasn't changed a whole lot. It has consistently remained the best-written, best-acted sitcom on television - a fact that has led to its unprecedented run at the Emmys, taking home the award for outstanding comedy series for each of the show's first four seasons on the air.
(It's the only series ever to win four consecutive best-comedy Emmys.)
"I think the one thing that has remained a constant. . . . This show really is full of love and integrity," Grammer said. "I think we do good shows and that has stayed the same."
Which is not to say that the show hasn't evolved somewhat. The characters have encountered different challenges - from Niles' (David Hyde Pierce) separation from Maris to Martin's (John Mahoney) romance with Sherry (Marsha Mason) to Roz's pregnancy.
"The thing that always occurs to me is that the evolution that's happened over the show was built into the first season," Pierce said. "All the characters, not just Kelsey's . . . was made three-demonsional enough from the beginning that they could go anywhere over the course of the run of the show. And everyone has started to have chances to evolve and have more complicated episodes."
Tonight's 100th episode (8 p.m., Ch. 5) may be the series most complicated ever, if only because of the logistics involved. "Frasier" has always been set in the city of Seattle - and the cast and crew actually traveled there to film parts of this installment.
The show's rather appropriate peg is that Frasier gets caught up in the hype over his radio show's 1,000th broadcast. Not only is the station throwing a public rally at the base of the Space Needle, but the mayor of Seattle is going to declare a "Frasier Crane Day."
(Norman Rice, the real mayor of Seattle, plays himself. And he actually proclaimed a "Frasier" day in the city when the cast was there to film the episode.)
Frasier, of course, feigns disinterest - but he's pretty much thrilled and completely full of himself over the events.
Meanwhile, Niles is insanely jealous. And events add up to a situation that may keep Frasier away from his own celebration.
The best news about "Frasier" is that it hasn't lost a beat - it's still the funniest show on television. And the even better news is that fans don't have to worry about the show going away anytime soon.
Grammer said he wants the show to go on "forever." Asked when he might think about calling it quits, he said, "The point will be when it's not fun anymore."
And, after 100 episodes, "This is still the best job in the world," he said. "I can't imagine anything that could be better than this."
"OVER" AND OUT: The short, strange story of "Over the Top" is at an end. ABC has canceled the miserably bad, pathetically rated sitcom.
Oh, and while it was at it, the network has also shelved "Hiller & Diller" for at least a few weeks.
To recap, "Over the Top" has been mired in controversy ever since ABC ordered the series last spring. You see, one of the show's executive producers, former "Late Show with David Letterman executive producer Robert Morton, was involved in a personal relationship with ABC Entertainment President Jamie Tarses when she put his show on her schedule.
Then there was the show's original pilot, which was dumped and never shown to either critics or advertisers. The revised version was awful - we can only assume the original was worse.
Then "Over the Top" was yanked from the September schedule, delaying its debut by about a month. It didn't help - the show finished a weak fourth in its time slot last week. It's gone for good, we're assured.
On the other hand, "Hiller & Diller" is scheduled to return in December. Of course, the fact that the network has so little confidence in the show that it pulled it out of the November sweeps lineup says a lot.
(And this is yet another really bad sitcom.)
For now, ABC will air reruns of "Home Improvement" on Tuesdays at 7 p.m., "Soul Man" at 7:30 p.m.; original episodes of "Home Improvement" at 8 p.m.; and various reruns at 8:30 p.m. (Tonight, it's a repeat of an episode of "Dharma & Greg.")
ABC plans to bring back "Grace Under Fire" next month (not that that's exactly great news for viewers), and at the same time "Hiller & Diller" will return to the 8:30 p.m. time slot.