This sounds like Leonard’s mom on The Big Bang Theory. What if they were sisters? How about that continuity?
The two are related, aren’t they? Falling in the shower wouldn’t be such a problem if his wife were still around.
Maybe, maybe not. I am a fan of the show, and I don’t recall there ever being reference to exactly when she died. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but I don’t remember it.
Maybe it’s a question of what counts as “newly” widowed. It must have happened some time after Frasier moved to Boston, because Niles once complained to Frasier about having had to look after Martin all by himself ever since their mother died. But circumstances suggest it wasn’t too long before Frasier returned to Seattle—for example, after some brief hesitation about rushing into a relationship after his wife’s death, Martin starts dating women in the first few episodes of the first season. If he’d been a widower of ten years already it’s less likely he’d have been hemming and hawing about it being too soon.
An epilogue to a Cheers episode suggests Frasier and Lilith will reconcile in some sense and possibly there will be a break between Frasier and Niles, or that Niles will die before Frasier. She (and an adult Frederick) are the only ones present for the reading of Frasier’s will “many years” in the future.
One fairly blatant inconsistency I recall, though, involves Frasier’s mother. There was an episode of Frasier in which (as I possibly misremember) Frasier and Niles made some critical comments about a woman Martin was dating. Martin blasted them for it and they essentially called him a hypocrite, recalling times when Martin had made similar disparaging remarks about Lilith and Maris, among other women that Frasier or Niles had been involved with. I think it was stated or implied that Hester Crane had been classy enough to restrain herself, but the only actual appearance of the character (that wasn’t a flashback, dream or home movie) was the Nancy Marchand guest appearance on Cheers, where Hester was quite thoroughly and instantly and indeed menacingly hostile to Diane Chambers.
Maybe she was already terminally ill and/or starting to suffer from dementia. My dad’s personality changed completely when he was dying from bone cancer.
I don’t know about that, but I think Frasier and Niles have a third brotherthey never talk about or acknowledge.
Good point - from Frasier’s reaction (as I recall), he didn’t seem to think Diane’s descriptions of Hester’s threats were plausible, at least at first.
Frasier likes to think of himself as someone who prefers the finer things, but who can fit in with any crowd; this shows up when he’s at Cheers, when he starts hanging out at the British-style pub he finds in Seattle, and other occasions. Niles, by contrast, doesn’t feel the same need to diversify his interests.
Leonard’s mom is more like Lilith (more interested in lab experiments than empathy); maybe they are sisters instead.
According to IMDB, the episode of Cheers! with Hester aired on 22 November 1984. The first episode of Frasier aired on 16 September 1993. So she died sometime in that almost nine-year window.
Marty had apparently been living on his own for some time, so we can assume she died sometime around the first Gulf War. This would be about six years after threatening to kill Diane. Sounds right for someone afflicted with dementia?
But nothing ever changes! Do you have any idea what it’s like to play the same [del]character[/del] poster for twenty years?
LOL, I just watched that episode last night.
I don’t get it.
From the Wiki article:
The Scarecrow (Dr. Jonathan Crane) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. The character first appeared in World’s Finest Comics #3 (September 1941) and was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. A professor of psychology and psychiatry, Dr. Crane uses a variety of fear-enhancing drugs, toxins, and psychological warfare tactics to exploit the fears and phobias of his adversaries.
Ah, thanks. Got it.
Three brothers? And Martin’s a widowed father with three boys? So Frazier was going to be an updated My Three Sons until Jonathan “Chuck” Crane disappeared upstairs in Happier Days?
I just watched “Room Full of Heroes”, an episode from the ninth season which aired in October 2001. In it, Niles mentions that Hester has been gone for fourteen years, which would put her death around 1987. So Martin had presumably been living on his own for about six years.
… And there we go! 