Frasier: 10 Times The Show Broke Our Hearts

Spin-offs are treated with apprehension because they can either be an absolute win or a total flop that kills off the likability factor of the central character. Frasier avoided being a failure chiefly because the show had so much heart to it.

With this level of care, there were bound to be moments that made us sad, as this is proof that the viewer comes actually likes the characters on the show. Even though Frasier was very funny, here are 10 moments from the series that broke out hearts.

10 Frasier Realizes Why He Is Alone

Throughout the timeline of the show, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with Frasier yet he was always single. You could say Niles was too neurotic or that Martin was too stubborn, but Frasier didn’t have anything strikingly bad about him. He figured the problem out eventually: he himself was the problem.

As it turned out, Frasier was too absorbed with the hurt his mother, Lilith, Nanny G, and Diane had doled out on him that he took to sabotaging his relationships because he was afraid to get hurt again. Unfortunately, this meant he had no-one to blame but himself, and he was destined to be alone because he was afraid to be alone.

9 Niles Finds Out Maris Was Unfaithful

Niles was ready to burst after years of keeping his feelings for Daphne bottled up inside him, but you can never blame the guy for being unfaithful to his wife. It was too bad, then, that Maris didn’t have any such loyalty to Niles and had an affair with their marriage counselor, Dr. Schenkman. 

It was here we found out that Niles did genuinely love Maris even after having put up with her bossy attitude for over a decade, and he was left heartbroken when he realized all the affection he had to give had always been one-sided.

8 Martin Fears Death

Martin kept his feelings hidden due to being the only member of the Crane clan to be the macho guy. He didn’t like admitting his insecurities, which led to Martin making rash decisions when he felt he was being ganged upon.

On his birthday, even though he had his family around him, Martin escaped away to the horse stables where he was found with the horse he had been paired with back when he was in the police. Martin finally confessed that the aged horse reminded him that he too was now a senior citizen and that death would come knocking soon enough. It was a rare instance of vulnerability from him.

7 Frasier Lost Contact With Cheers

For all us Cheers fans, there could be no greater sight than witnessing the original gang with Frasier once more. We got to see this in Season 9, but it wasn’t the reunion we wanted. As it turned out, Frasier was revealed to have completely lost contact with his former best friends, and only pretended he was in Boston to see them in order to spare their feelings.

After all those years we’d seen Frasier have a lovely time with these people, it was a tough pill to swallow that he considered the original gang to be a thing of the past. Alas, that’s how real life works too.

6 Frasier & Woody’s Final Goodbye

Frasier and Woody had an older brother-younger brother relationship on Cheers, and his initial appearance on Frasier was amazing to see as we had the two friends behave exactly as they had back at Cheers.

However, it was a sad realization when it turned out that both Frasier and Woody were only faking having a good time in each other’s company and had nothing bonding them other than their memories of Cheers. Their goodbyes to each other, although promised to last only 5-10 years, was clearly the final time they would see each other.

5 Niles Has A Heart Attack

After years of paranoia and panic attacks, we stopped taking Niles’ health problems too seriously, as did the Crane family. It was because of this lack of concern that no-one thought Niles had an actual heart problem until it turned out he really was having a heart attack.

It was at this point that Frasier took a very real look into the issue of mortality. The episode was easily the least-funny of the series and was filled with hard truths that death can take you at any point. The family reminiscing over how much Niles meant to them was a reminder that we take the ones we love for granted.

4 Martin Confesses Hester Was Unfaithful

Considering how Hester was posthumously touted as the ultimate wife and mother, Martin was the easy suspect when Niles and Frasier found out that one of their parents was unfaithful. However, it turned out that the saint-like mother was the guilty party.

An ashamed Martin confessed to his sons that his wife had cheated on him with a family friend and that it was her greatest regret. After that, no matter how much Frasier or Niles remembered their mother in a positive light, their once perfect image of her was shattered beyond repair.

3 Frasier Chooses Julia Over Roz

After many episodes of confronting and fighting each other, Frasier and Julia finally admit their attraction for each other. The timing was awful, though, because Roz and Julia’s antagonism blew up by this point. The moment of truth arrived, and Frasier had to choose whether he wanted to have a relationship with Julia or treasure his friendship with Roz.

Since Roz was the one making up the scene in the first place, Frasier refused to be childish and told her to step back; Roz took this as Frasier choosing Julia over him and promptly resigned, heading over to another job. The once unbreakable friendship between the two seemed to be broken up for good since this was a season finale.

2 Daphne’s Reason For Overeating

Total bliss didn’t exactly follow once Daphne and Niles got together, as Daphne took to overeating and gained a ton of weight. After she headed off to a spa to cut the weight down and succeeded in doing so, a huge bombshell was dropped on Niles.

It turned out Daphne was too insecure of living up to Niles’ unrealistic expectations of her, that she turned to food to relieve stress. Niles made it worse by hurting Daphne’s intelligence by belittling her assertion, making Daphne feel more like a prize to be attained rather than a real person with understandable flaws.

1 The Perpetual Cliffhanger

Frasier‘s finale is considered to be a success, with the main character completes his arc and begins to appreciate love and friendship more than work and ethics. That said, the viewer who watched Fraiser for eleven years was still left sad not knowing if Frasier accomplished his mission.

We last saw him heading over to Chicago to win over Charlotte, finally giving love a chance rather than focusing on the odds of this relationship working. Since one can interpret that Frasier was unsuccessful, it’s heartbreaking to consider that our Dr. Crane might have been perpetually unlucky in love.

About The Author

Saim Cheeda
(1355 Articles Published)

Saim Cheeda is an entertainment writer covering all of Film, TV, Gaming and Books. He’s been a writer for Valnet since 2017, contributing 500+ articles for The Gamer, The Things, Game Rant, Comic Book Resources and Screen Rant. Apart from freelance writing, Saim is a lifestyle blogger, co-owning the blog 3 States Apart.

http://3statesapart.com

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