I used to be a huge fan of Cheers and was a moderate fan of Frasier. I remember in Cheers Frasier had a son named Frederick. I’ve not seen even half of the “Frasier” episodes but in the show I never see it mentioned where his son is, although it is obviously the exact same character as Sam appears on Frasier at one point and in one episode he meets with the cast of Cheers.
So what’s the scoop, did his son just get forgotten when they made the Frasier sitcom?
No, he lived with Lilith. Frederick usually made about one or two appearances per season (often around Christmas) on Frasier.
In one of the final seasons (if not the final season) of Cheers, Frasier and Lilith’s marriage fell apart. So, when he moved out to Seattle (for Frasier), they conveniently gave Lilith custody.
They do mention Frederick from time to time, and he visits (and Frasier visits him) a few times. But he’s across the country, so he didn’t need to be mentioned in every episode.
One thing that I admired is that it was always the same actor who played Frederick, all the way from the last season of Cheers. (I believe another actor played him before then)
Aah, Frederick’s Bar Mitzvah episode. Never has speaking Klingon been used for funnier effect.
I remember when Frederick was born . . . and Frasier, despite being an M.D., was totally freaked out by having to watch him get circumcised!
FRASIER (WALKING INTO CHEERS WITH A HUGE BULGE UNDER HIS SHIRT AND HURRYING TOWARD’S SAM’S OFFICE IN THE BACK): Yes, my son is fine and well and nowhere in the vicinity of this bar. By the way, Sam, do you have any female customers who are lactating and need of fast cash? OW! Forget it, kid, it’s not gonna happen!
I don’t think that he is a M.D.
Yes, a psychiatrist by specialty.
All-in-all that was kind of strange, considering that Lilith had abandoned Frasier and Frederick to go live in the Eco-Pod with a pioneering but unfortunately insane (and claustrophobic, as they learned five minutes after the Pod was sealed) scientist. Not exactly the most stable thing she could have done.
Now, I loved Bebe Neuwirth’s Lilith, and regretted that she wasn’t included in Frasier (all of her appearances, especially the confused hotel waiter scene, were hysterical) but if they’d had to write numerous episodes incorporating the kid, the show would have suffered. I was a little surprised she didn’t appear in the Cheers final episode.
Favoured Frederick-related dialog:
“Oh, really, Lilith. You weren’t expecting any sympathy here in Mayberry, were you?”
“That’s right, Lilith. You’ll revive the man by having a baby on him.”
Frederick got a little character development over the years. He was shown as being nearly as obsessed with Daphne as Niles was and in the last season, they had him as a 12-year old Goth.
Originally Frasier was a psychologist (Ph.D) and Niles was a psychiatrist (M.D.) but the producers let that distinction get fuzzy over the course of the show. But I do admire the producers for handling the continuity issues between Cheers-Frasier (only child, mother alive, father dead) and Frasier-Frasier (younger brother, mother dead, father alive) – a simple “I lied.”
There were two different Fredericks. The second actor, Trevor Einhorn, did the bulk of the appearances.
Plus, then they couldn’t have made the show about Frasier being a single guy! (Who, despite living in a major city and being handsome, intelligent, well-dressed, pleasant, locally famous, and at least moderately rich, hardly ever seems to get laid.)
Are you sure? Frasier was introduced in Cheers as the shrink Diane met while she was committed to a mental hospital. I think it’s usually psychiatrists, not psychologists, who get that kind of job. (The practical difference being, M.D.-psychiatrists can prescribe medication, Ph.D.-psychologists can’t – and medication is pretty important in a mental hospital.)
Well, my mother is a shrink in a mental hospital and she’s a psychologist. She does conseling and makes recommendations to the psychiatrist on staff. So that part seems plausable…actually it’s the radio personalty part that sounds more like a psychologist gig. Obviously no use for the M.D. part over the airwaves. And he never seems to talk about drugs, while my experience of psychtrists these days, is they’re prozac this, effexor that, remoron the other, for just about anything.
Still, I believe he’s refured to as a psychiatrist.
TVTome refers to him as a psychiatrist.
I think they made the point that Frasier was doing some research there, or something, and definitely not part of the medical staff responsible for Diana’s care, thus he wasn’t violating medical ethics by dating her.
On a late-in-the-series-run “Cheers” episode, Frasier chides Carla for consulting a psychic. He tells her they are nothing more than charlatans who tell desperate, needy people exactly what they want to hear.
Carla: “How is that different from what you do?”
Frasier: (awkward pause) “I can prescribe drugs.”
Hmm, here it says “psychiatrist”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4955155/
http://www.tvland.com/shows/cheers/characters/char7.jhtml
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0106004/
Here it says “psychologist”
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/eo/20040503/108363720000.html
http://www.frasieronline.co.uk/season3/ep7.htm
Googling both terms gives about 6,800 references to psychiatrist and about 3,200 to psychologist. The cites show that Frasier refers to himself variously by both titles.
I wouldn’t worry too much about Cheers/Frasier inconsistancies, since even within each shows there are glitches. The only one that annoys me was a Frasier episode where Frasier and Niles express misgivings about Martin’s latest girlfriend, Martin rips into them for it, then they call him on all the criticism he’s heaped on their relationships (i.e. Lilith and Maris). During the conversation, Martin’s wife/F&N’s mother is mentioned, as having had too much class to ever resort to such tactics. Yet in that character’s only appearance (a third-season Cheers episode, as played by the late Nancy Marchand), she took such an instant dislike to Frasier’s then-squeeze Diane that death threats were made and hilarity ensued.
There was one (hilarious) episode where Frasier was ill and had Niles filling in for him at the radio station. He wrote himself some strong prescriptions so that he could go and do the show. That would seem to indicate that he is an MD.
Not to mention casting a vivacious Rita Wilson as the late Mrs. Crane in two or three episodes of Frasier, but still making reference to her appearance in Boston (where, again, she was played by Nancy Marchand).
Generally, though, I like the way the producers handle the continuity in both series. They sort of brazen out the most glaring discrepancies.