I watched Frasier when it originally aired back in the day, recording it on VHS every week. Eventually, I pieced together the entire eleven-year run on DVD from local used media stores and watched them all again, and then perhaps about five years ago, went through them yet again. And then last year. This sounds like a lot, but it comes out to once every five years.
I’ve recently been under-the-weather, and at the same time, the NHL playoffs have been on cable, something I stopped watching entirely back in October. I needed (and this is part of why I’m not watching cable anymore) to flip to something during the numerous commercial breaks, and Frasier was the only thing even vaguely appealing, even though I watched it last year. I got hooked again, as I had to stop watching the commercial-ridden, logo-obstructed, soft quasi-HD offering and instead started up my DVD copy of the show.
Which is the beauty of physical media; I can watch this whenever I want, commercial free. Although the video quality isn’t that great by today’s standards, it is better than the current cable option.
Going through and watching my favorite shows again on DVD/Blu-ray has been a good time, and it feels great to have the control over what I’m watching, not wasting time flipping channels, recording, going through menus, etc.
I have a buddy who is a big Cheers fan; but he won’t even try Frasier, much less Wings. Which is too bad, because Frasier isn’t just a continuation of Cheers, it keeps getting better since it is mostly the same people involved, and they have all of that accumulated experience making these shows.
And while I’m not a writer or an actor, I can tell that the writing on this show is so much better than everything that is new these days, and that is before Kelsey Grammar’s fantastic portrayal of Frasier Crane with all of his eccentricities. There’s nobody like him, or his character. Actually, the show has double the Frasier Crane, since his brother Niles is so much the same, yet different enough to compliment the character of Frasier and make Frasier more interesting.
It’s just a great show. And I’m getting so much mileage out of my DVDs. Most physical media, if ever used at all, gets watched once and then becomes part of a collection or library, forever, because the thrill of the hunt for new things to watch totally wastes what is right in front of a person; something they know they like, that would be fun to watch again, but no. Gotta go find some new stuff.
When at thrift stores, looking at the DVDs, it is really interesting to see how many of them are still in their shrink-wrap, some of them decades old and never used. Most DVD’s at thrifts are in perfect condition; there are plenty of scratched-up ones, but the majority are like new. I often see great series like 24 or Frasier there, a season for just $1.50-$3.00. So much great entertainment for practically nothing, but they just sit there because people overlook them in the search for the newest thing, and usually that newest thing is quite sub-standard in comparison.
Anyway, I’m having a blast re-watching Frasier yet again, and I highly recommend not just this show, but your own favorite show, whatever it is, that you already own; don’t let it just sit around, give it another watch! Because if you don’t, you might as well give it to the local thrift.
Randy Rydberg 