Red! Hot! Frasier!

Sporting cowboy hats, Kelsey Grammer, John Mahoney and David Hyde Pierce swagger into a conference room above a Paramount studio soundstage for a Frasier re- hearsal. “We’re in the saddle here,” Gram- mer deadpans in gunslingerese, all part of a joke on Ken Lamkin, a Texan, who is making his first foray into directing after serving as the show’s cinematographer since its first season. Lamkin smiles, then shoots back: “I’d like you to know that for six seasons, we’ve made you look pretty darn good.” Staring at Grammer, he adds, “And when it comes to the guy at the other end of the table, it’s not an easy task. It’s payback time.” Grammer chuckles.

It is several days before the Emmy awards, and a writer has a bit of news: “Today on the radio, they said Frasier is the anti-Susan Lucci of the Emmys be- cause it always wins everything.” At the head of the table, Grammer, now eating a turkey burger and sipping apple juice, says simply, “That would be very nice.” But the topic of the upcoming cere- monies is all but verboten here, as if it would jinx the show’s chances, unlikely given Frasier’s track record of winning awards, viewers and critical raves.

Frasier, born of a supporting character on Cheers, is poised in its sixth season to become television’s highest-rated comedy thanks to NBC’s decision to reward it with the coveted Seinfeld slot on Thursday nights. Grammer says that he has committed to do the show at least through the ninth season (having signed a new contract that pays him a reported $400,000 an episode, in addition to syndi- cation revenue). Should Frasier run that long, Grammer will have played the part for 18 years. “I think James Arness has the top: 20 years,” Grammer notes, referring to the star of Gunsmoke. “We’ll see. It’s not a record I’m chasing necessarily, but it might be kind of cool.”

To uncover what makes this very successful, very funny series tick, TV GUIDE spent time on the Frasier set as cast and crew prepared this week’s episode.

REHEARSAL, DAY ONE Pierce sits at the grand piano on the set of Frasier Crane’s apartment, playing a song from the 1956 Flanders and Swann revue “At the Drop of a Hat.” Jane Leeves (who plays Daphne) dances as Mahoney softly sings some bars from “The Hippopotamus Song”: “Mud, mud glorious mud! Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.” It’s a friendly, relaxed ensemble. Cast members have found themselves spend- ing more time together outside the show, a testament, they say, to how close they’ve become over the past few sea- sons. Last year, they got together on a weekend to see the Rossini opera “The Barber of Seville” in downtown Los Angeles. Recently, Grammer, Mahoney and Pierce gathered at Grammer’s Malibu, California, home to perform the play “Art”; the trio is negotiating to star in the work on Broadway next spring. (In the meantime, they will perform selections from “At the Drop of a Hat” at Chicago’s Bonaventure House AIDS benefit later this month, at which Mahoney will serve as one of the emcees). “Our feelings for each other have gotten deeper,” Mahoney says. “We are a very touchy company. We’re always hugging.”

It’s a contrast to this week’s episode: Martin moves in with Niles but soon suspects that his son is subconsciously trying to harm him. Later in the day, the cast debates a scene in which Daphne announces that she plans to move on to an- other job, given that Martin’s hip has healed. “Daphne’s announcement is just
so sudden,” Leeves says to the producers. “It just sort of pops out.” Says Grammer, “It needs to be more organic, more realistic.” He pauses, then blurts out in Frasierian bluster, “We need the truth here!”

A few minutes later, another line stops them, when Martin reacts to the idea of moving out of Frasier’s apartment and in with Niles: “Out of the sauté pan into the fire.”

“That’s a little too Noel Coward for you,” creator/executive producer David Lee says to Mahoney. Sauté pan is even- tually changed to frying pan.

REHEARSAL, DAY TWO The cast provides an unusual amount of input, right down to the most minor of words. “The writers are really open, and they ask for feedback,” says Peri Gilpin (Roz). “If it sticks out like a blatant joke,” says Dan. Butler (Bulldog), “it will be cut.” Some dozen writers and producers are lined up before the cast on directors chairs as the actors begin to rehearse a scene. Pierce questions whether Niles should shout at his dad, “I just had that room mottled!” or “I just had that room stippled.” (They settle on “I just had that room frescoed.”) Grammer stops at a reference to Frasier dating a lingerie model. He worries that Frasier has dated too many of them be- fore. “We need something that gives greater value than her anatomy, like I met her at a Mensa meeting,” he says. “Something like she’s a model for a Mensa catalog?” The room erupts in laughter.

In the coming weeks, expect Frasier’s already complicated life to get even more complicated. Left unemployed at season’s end (the staff was fired after Frasier unwittingly convinced the radio station boss to switch to an all Latin format), he will initially spend more time at home, dealing with his loss of celebrity. The writers are already planning for another return of Frasier’s ex-wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth). And they are trying to figure out a way to have Woody Harrelson do a guest shot as Woody, the bar- tender from Cheers (Ted Danson as Sam Malone popped by in 1995). But the writers admit it can be something of a stretch to bring characters like Woody to Seattle. “It’s a challenge,” says Lee, adding, “The hardest part for us is resisting the temptation to fix something that isn’t broken. We’re going to do what we’ve always done. We try to keep from doing unclassy things. But there’s a certain degree of confidence that the show is going to perform well. Frasier has been on Thursday night [1993-94] and has done very well there, and a lot of people tend to forget that.”

Grammer puts it philosophically: “We went up against probably the toughest competition on television [Home Improvement] when we were on Tuesday and did very well. Now the competition is really just ourselves and what we can keep coming up with to make our show the best show we know how.”

AN EMMY INTERLUDE Two days later, Emmys go to Grammer and Pierce, and the show gets best comedy, its fifth consecutive win and a TV milestone, breaking a record for most comedy wins it had shared with The Dick Van Dyke Show, Cheers and All in the Family. The cast mingles with TV legends. Pierce gives Milton Berle a kiss on the cheek as the 90-year-old comedian leaves the backstage press area. Several Frasier writers tell Dick Van Dyke, who presented the best comedy award, that it was his Rob Petrie character, a TV come- dy writer, who inspired them to get into the business. Grammer tells reporters that he consulted a Magic 8 Ball, a child’s fortune-telling toy, to reassure himself that the show had a chance at breaking the record: “About three weeks ago, I shook it in my daughter’s bedroom, and it said, YES, WITHOUT A DOUBT.”
The cast keeps Emmy award night in perspective. “If we were going to get full of ourselves, we would have done it after the first or second or third or fourth award,” Mahoney says.

The next day, the crew applauds as Grammer and Pierce walk onto the Frasier set. On a bulletin board, printed on computer paper in large black type, is the simple message: 5!

SHOW TIME The studio audience that has gathered to watch the filming bursts into laughter at just about every blooper or flubbed line. The writers have solved the problem of the lingerie model: Mention is made that she is someone Frasier met at a concert. The cast is in a jubilant mood, but one member is slowing them down: the dog. Moose, the pooch that plays the staring Eddie, has been side- lined with an ear operation. His son Enzo has taken his place. One scene, set in Niles’s apartment, calls for the dog to play with a squeaky toy. But Enzo won’t stop making noise with it. When Ma- honey tries to grab the toy, Enzo nips at him, scratching the actor’s hand. Finally, Grammer exclaims, “Stop the dog!” Later, Mahoney misses a cue. Pierce breaks into laughter and declares, “He’s got rabies!”

At one point during a break, a beaming Grammer walks toward the audience and mentions the Emmys. He graciously thanks the cast and crew. Then, heading back to the set, he announces: “Back to the grind. And the grind is good.”