Grammer tries to recreate glory days of ‘Frasier’
BY DAVID BAUDER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
, NEW YORK — There’s a light
ness to Frasier’s step these days.
Following a difficult year, the
NBC sitcom “Frasier” has engi
neered an off—camera reunion in
an attempt to recreate its glory
years, and wring a few more
laughs out of the final season.
At the producer’s suggestion,
“Frasier” brought back the writ
ing team of Christopher Lloyd and
Joe Keenan, who had left three
' years ago. Some critics, and the
star, have already noticed an im
provement.
“We’d lost a little bit of the ami
ability of the character of Frasier,”
said Kelsey Grammer, who is go
ing into his 20th year of portray
ing the preening psychiatrist.
Last season, the show’s 10th,
was the first to produce whispers
that maybe “Frasier” had over
stayed its welcome.
Certainly viewers sensed
something. The show’s weekly
audience dropped to 12.6 million,
down from 15 million a year ear
lier. In the 1998—99 season, when
its five—year Emmy—winning
streak as best comedy ended, the
show regularly had 22.5 million
viewers. ; ■
Last week’s season premiere
was seen by 14.5 million people,
way below the 21 million who
watched the season opener in
September 2002.
“American Idol” cut into its au
dience, and NBC didn’t help by
scheduling weak shows around it,
said Jeff Zucker, NBC entertain
ment president. ABC’s “According
to Jim” has also become a sur
prisingly tough competitor.
But “Frasier” bears part of the
blame for the sinking fortunes.
“It was an off year creatively,”
Zucker said. “All shows go
through that, especially if they’ve
been on the air for 10 years. I’m
thrilled to have (Lloyd and
Keenan) back, and I think Kelsey
would tell you the same thing.”
With story lines like brother
Niles Crane’s heart problems and
Roz D'oyle’s departure from
Frasier’s radio station, the show
occasionally forgot it was a come
dy, Grammer said.
“We spun our wheeils a bit too
long last year, that’s all, and now
we’re back on the right footing,”
he said. “There’s just a lightness
again. There’s a frivolousness
about the tone of the show that I
think was always there that was
kind of muted last year.”
He doesn’t want to exaggerate
the decline; Grammer said he con
fronted a critic who wrote that the
writing last year stunk.
“I’ve seen our worst shows, I
know which ones they are,” he
said. “And then I’ve seen some
other shows that are supposedly
their good ones. There’s no prob
lem for me.”
Grammer, a three—time Emmy
winner for best actor in a comedy,
scoffed at the notion that “Frasier”
stuck around too long.
Grammer’s own interest in
milestones may have fed that per
ception. His 20—year run playing
Frasier Crane — the character
was introduced during the third
season of “Cheers” — ties Janies
Arness of “Gunsmoke” for the
longest stretch playing a charac
ter in prime-time TV.
It was also important to
Grammer that “Frasier” last at
least 11 seasons, the sajne dura
tion as “Cheers.”
“I’m a driven, competitive
man,” he said. “I used to be in de
nial about that, but I’m OK with it
now. Coming from ‘Cheers,’ there
was always the onus of ‘Cheers’
hanging over us. I thought if we
could equal ‘Cheers,’ that would
be just right.”
The rare spinoff that has suc
ceeded, “Frasier” has eclipsed
“Cheers” in quality, Grammer
said.
“We did it in a way that was a
lot more challenging creatively,”
he said. “ ‘Cheers’ had the great
insight to realize that they could
retool the show by adding new
characters. We have not done
SURFYOURSELF
Read more about the show and its characters at
www.nbc.com/frasier
that.”
His only regret over the years
is that “Frasier” dealt only tan
gentially with the fallout from the
Sept. 11,2001 terrorist attacks.
At the time, entertainers de
bated whether to address it or
provide the country with a
respite. The only response from
“Frasier” — a story line where
Frasier was angered when a
neighbor’s flag draped over his
balcony — was so subtle viewers
may not have known there was a
connection.
“There was this big, giant ele
phant in the room,” Grammer said,
“and we didn’t acknowledge it.”
Although “Frasier” will stop
producing new episodes next
spring, the show will live on for
many years in syndication, en
riching Grammer beyond his
dreams. It also means as an actor,
he will be competing with himself.
Grammer, 48, said he plans to
take about a year off, then contin
uing acting. He’s talked about a fu
ture in politics, musing on Fox
News Channel last week about
running for the U.S. Senate in
California, but said that’s several
years in the future.
He doesn’t expect a melodra
matic end to the series, only to
leave the characters “in a place
where we can hopefully imagine
them going on to someplace else.”
Will Frasier Crane himself ever
be happy, ever settle down?
“I think Frasier is going to find
true love,” Grammer said. “But I
don’t know if it’s going to be this
season.”
Friends, fans of Springsteen create personal appeal for charities
BY LARRY MCSHANE
THK ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Without picking
up his guitar, Bruce Springsteen
sounded a chord for charity.
A double CD of Springsteen
songs, featuring cover versions
from 37 artists spanning his 30
year career, was released this
month to raise money for two
charities close to the Boss’s heart.
All of the net proceeds and the
artists’ royalties from “Light of
Day: A Tribute to Bruce
Springsteen” will be evenly divid
ed between the Parkinson’s
Disease Foundation and the
Kristen Ann Carr Fund. •
“It’s really a terrific record,”"
said Springsteen pal Garland
Jeffreys, who contributed a mov
ing version of the Boss’ Oscar
winning “Philadelphia.” “It’s nice
to be a part of something like this
— a good thing.”
Jeffreys brought something per
sonal to his track: a close friend
suffers from Parkinson’s.
But personal connections were
an integral part of this project.
The Kristen Ann Carr Fund
was started in 1993 by Carr’s par
ents: Barbara Carr, Springsteen’s
co—manager, and Dave Marsh,
Springsteen’s biographer.
Springsteen visited 21-year-old
Kristen in the hospital before she
died of sarcoma, a rare and dead
ly kind of cancer; the fund began
with a Springsteen benefit show at
Madison Square Garden and has
since raised more than $3.5 mil
lion.
“Kristen knew Bruce from ear
ly childhood,” Marsh writes in the
“Light of Day” liner notes. “She
loved his music intensely.”
The Parkinson’s Foundation is
tied to Bob Benjamin, a New
Jersey shore music scene fixture
who first met Springsteen in
Buffalo before a 1978 concert.
Seven years ago, the 44-year-old
Benjamin was diagnosed with
Parkinson’s, a degenerative dis
order of the central nervous sys
tem. This year, he became one of
the driving forces behind the trib
ute CD.
When the disc was finished this
summer, Benjamin managed to
slip a copy to Springsteen. The
two later crossed paths before
Springsteen’s September shows at
Fenway Park in Boston.
“I saw him a couple of weeks
ago, and he said that he liked it a
lot,” Benjamin said. “He knew that
I’d been working on it for a year.”
Springsteen put his musical im
primatur on the project in May.
After hearing Elliott Murphy’s
version of “Better Days,” a track
from 1992’s “Lucky Town,”
Springsteen invited Murphy — a
friend of 30 years — onstage to
play the song in Madrid.
Bruce
"The Boss" - a rock 'n' roll icon for almost 30 years and symbol of
blue-collar pride - Has spent most of his career singing about
American places, people, hopes and frustrations.
Vital statistics
Born: Sept. 23, 1949, in
Freehold, N.J., to middle
class parents
Early missteps: Tried his hand
at Dylan-styte folk singing,
song writing in New York's
Greenwich Village after high
school; returned to New
Jersey, playing with several
Asbury Park took bands
Fame: inducted into Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame, 1999
Family: Divorced from
actress Julianne Phillips;
married to E Street Band
backup singer Patti Scialfa;
they have three children
• Did you
J Breakthrough: 1975 album "Bom to
• Run” with E Street Band led to natt
• acclaim; title song was a hit
• Red, white and blue: “Bom in the
J U.S.A." (1984) spinned off seven hit
l singles, sold more than 10 million
• copies, led to a two-year tour
I Oscar: “Streets of Philadelphia,"
I soundtrack for the film "Philadelphia"
J won a best song Academy Award,
j several Grammys
• All-American Jersey boy: Writes al
l dignity of everyday people and work;
l takes local citizen role seriously, giving
J benefit concerts for Freehold. N.J.,
• neighborhood Si
I Ordinary heroes: Latest album, "The « 'ri
l Rising" about Sept. 11 heroes
Source: Mew York Times. Los Angeles Times. Rolling Stone. KRT Photo Service
Graphic: Pat Carr. Tim Goheen
Tartuffe
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
engagements, including that of
Orgon’s daughter, Mariane, to the
villainous Tartuffe. Steven Fenley
plays Tartuffe perfectly, mixing
diabolical humor with lewd be
havior in his attempts to seduce
Orgon’s wife, Elmire.
Increasingly, though, the play
comes to belong to Orgon and
Elmire (Pamela Vogel). Jennings,
as Orgon, wears realistic looking
attire but stays with us through a
laughably fake penciled-in mous
tache. Although his Duke is the
prime dupe of the play, Jennings
clearly has a fuller grasp of the
language, and he imbues his iron
ic dialogue with a welcome and
much needed subtlety.
Vogel is even more understated,
and is just as effective. They both
a clown, and sporting an accent
that seemed to come equally from
ao meir oesi naiy anu rires
work in a scene “Jartllffe ” & 17th- native Brazil,
with Tartuffe, as_._the effeminate
Elmire attempts Century French comedy, courtier wasn’t
to seduce the centers on a noble onstage much
cleric so orgon family dealing with a but stole every
treachery first- nypOCntlCal Clergyman. pearedin.
hand. Orgon is “Tartuffe”
slow to come to his wife’s rescue,
preferring to switch hiding places
and interact with the audience.
Elmire’s biting dismay at her hus
band’s performance produces some
of the funniest lines in the play.
Other cast notables are Mary
Helen Floyd as Dorine, an audi
ence favorite for her frank sexual
dialogue and gestures. Although
Dorine’s act became a bit tedious,
Mariane’s suitor Valere (Fabio
Pires) was well loved. Dressed like
may not be high art, but it is a
whole lotbf fun. The entire cast
rises to the challenge of translat
ing a 17th-century French farce
into a current production, and
there’s not a dull moment in the
action. If the rest of the USC main
stage productions meet this high
standard, we are in for a great sea
son indeed.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com
Eating
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
limited dining options. She said,
however, “this year is better than
the last” and enjoys the
renovations.
Ashley Walker, a first-year pub
lic relations student and Chicken
Finger Wednesday devotee, eats
turkey sandwiches with lettuce
the other days of the week and also
takes advantage of the new sushi
being offered.
She wishes, however, that Fire
and Ice would use less oil.
“I would like to make the sug
gestion of a potato bar being
added,” she said.
Davin Emmel, a second-year
psychology student, agrees that a
potato bar would be a healthy
addition.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com
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