best Frasier podcast

Season 3 – Trailer

January 11, 2021 lauren Season 3 Episodes 00:02:24 0 Comments

It’s finally time! Season 3 of the Café Nervosa podcast is on its way. Look for a whole new set of episodes about NBC’s hit sitcom Frasier in your feeds next week (January 17, 2021). Get pumped for the season by starting your season 3 rewatch now. We’d recommend such classics as “Moon Dance”, “A Word to the Wiseguy”, “It’s Hard to Say Goodbye If You Won’t Leave”, and OF COURSE “Look Before You Leap”. Frasier is available to stream on Peacock in the USA and on CraveTV in Canada. Happy Frasier-ing!

Frasier and Niles sit at the piano.

Residuum – Season 2

February 8, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 00:32:55 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the Residuum episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: We are wrapping up season 2 of Frasier with a few things we didn’t get to in our other episodes, and I take back the Lilith crown and talk about that bathing suit!!! Also, we have our swear-filled outtakes.

Eddie is adorable and it is hard to bring clips in of him because he is a dog. So here’s a clip of a dog! Also, we are cat people as you may be able to tell because we don’t really know how to talk about him. But out of all dogs, Eddie is a pretty darn great one.

David Hyde Pierce makes an appearance because he is so damn talented that his gifts cannot be contained to just one episode. Also, hang up those framed quotes y’all. And then go do something good in the world.

Now, the moment  I know you have ALL been waiting for. I talk Lilith. Our Lilith count has been appalling low this season. We have no good excuse for this, but her time on the show is limited in Season 2. It is well-established who she is in the Frasier-verse, and we don’t need constant reminders about who Frasier’s ex-wife is. But come on show, give the people what they want. It’s really great to get to talk about her. And Lauren, you are forgiven, you did all you could and I shouldn’t have put such a burden on you to capture the essence of The Magnificent Sternin.

Everybody clap for Lauren and Taryn because they talked about the passing of John Mahoney and didn’t cry on their podcast. And Frasier is such the better show for Mahoney’s amazing contributions as Martin.

Before the end of this recap I want to take the opportunity to thank anyone who spent their time with us and listened to our podcast and read these recaps. We are very excited to tackle the next season, but I do want to say that as I am writing this I am 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant, so it may take a little longer to get ourselves organized for season 3. But fear not, we will be back!

Episode to Check Out

“Breaking the Ice” (this is not a shock because we recommended it in nearly every podcast episode this season)

Honourable Mention

“Flour Child”

Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

We’ll call it 10 just because she deserves it

Roz – Season 2

February 6, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 00:25:01 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the Roz episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: We get to talk about our fave person, Roz Doyle, so who cares about the specifics, it’s a great episode.

It’s the most wonderful time of the podcast! Roz is the show we really want to be watching, and so this is our fave podcast episode to make each season.

Lauren loves a good Roz gaslight. As she should. It’s a great way for Frasier to kick off its second season.

We ignore the crappiness of the episode “Roz in the Doghouse” (don’t worry, we’ll get to it) and talk about how great Roz is in this episode. As always, she does not give a fig about what you think about her. She believes in herself and will be the first person to stand up for herself. This is a woman that we should all aspire to be.

Watching Roz and Niles go head to head is always enjoyable and we are thankful that the writers of the show have picked up on their chemistry and are running with it. I think a letter writing campaign to give Peri Gilpin a retroactive Emmy for her performance in Frasier is in order. Who’s with me?

It’s not about Roz, but Frasier yelling “well blow me down” is one of my favourite line readings this season. Back to Roz! Her meeting Sam Malone is a really special. She is the Sam Malone of this show, and you can see how that is when they meet. And again, Peri Gilpin fully stands up to the formidable talents of a much more lauded actor. We apologize to ladies everywhere for constantly undervaluing them. Also for double standards.

It’s sort of shocking that we don’t talk more about Roz getting blown up by cherries jubilee, because we really love it a lot.

Episodes to Check Out

“The Show Where Sam Shows Up” and “The Innkeepers”


Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

0, and we recognize that is a bummer because what a fearless team Roz and Lilith would be.

Martin – Season 2

February 5, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 00:18:41 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the Martin episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: We get gushy about our fave television dad.

Guys, we really love Martin and the show gets better as we learn more about the supporting characters like Martin. We get to see how good Martin was at his job, which adds great depth to this already great and loveable character.

The show also does a great job of showing what different transitions in different people’s lives look like. Martin is still fairly new to retirement and the show sensitively takes the time to pay attention to him and his journey.

I could listen to Martin say “I love YA” all day. It is a great example of how the show is working to soften Martin’s character and make him more of a real person. We really don’t really spend enough time talking about how freaking amazing the episode “Breaking the Ice” is. It is a masterclass of writing and also just a charming episode that explores the complicated relationship between three men who love each other but don’t always see eye to eye. We do, however, basically recommend this episode for every topic this season.

Episodes to Check Out

“Retirement is Murder” and “Breaking the Ice”

Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

0, sadly.

Writing – Season 2

February 4, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 00:26:26 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the Writing episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: Professor Lauren teaches us all about writing stuff. She is real smart.

As always, this episode is important and good, but hard to make funny because it’s about analyzing writing. We do our best for you, but hopefully you don’t mind mostly learning.

The episode “An Affair to Forget” has such great writing in the climactic mistranslation scene because it is never out of control, no matter how big and broad the situation gets. There are big laughs, a lot of story, translations, action, and emotion. It’s an impressive feat.

We introduce my fave new character on the podcast: Professor Lauren. Guys, Lauren is wicked smart and knows about writing, so listen up. She goes into how this show is structured from a writing perspective and teaches us all about why that matters. We also get to meet a much less illustrious person: Professor Taryn. [Ed’s note: the title “Junior Professor” will do just fine.] She is pretty good too.

Please enjoy the part of the podcast where I explain jokes. And then Lauren gets to talk spoonerisms. Yeah, that’s right, she gets to use the phrase “language device”. So you are welcome.

Here is the link to the Oral History of Frasier that Lauren mentions: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/frasier-25th-anniversary-oral-history. It’s a great read and gives hardcore fans (like us!) a look behind the scenes at how lovingly the show was made. You get hints throughout about how awesome the show is, but it’s wonderful hear from the makers that it was a labour of love.

Honestly, the joke I leave with is one of my favourites of the entire season. I love when people use words incorrectly, or have alternate, totally makes sense, definitions for them. Trite and true. Crap, it’s funny to me.

Episodes to Check Out

“The Innkeepers” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”

Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

1, during the intertitles talk. Phew.

Sexuality – Season 2

February 3, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 0:21:53 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the Sexuality episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: We do as Salt-N-Pepa suggest and talk about sex, baby.

Can you believe this show had an openly gay man in a position of authority and it was NEVER a joke that he was gay? I cannot. Well done show in the mid-90s.

On a related note, ladies on this show get down. It is wonderful. Daphne bones in a park, Lilith goes on a sex vacation, Maris could be boffing her fencing teacher, Bebe uses an affair to get her client a better raise, and Dr. Honey Snow is totally in control of her sex life with Frasier, and lords it over him.

Lauren drops a bomb telling me that Frasier’s main relationships this season are age appropriate! She also casually slips Nepean, Ontario into the conversation. Her talents never cease to amaze me.

Can we talk more about my theory that Bebe and Frasier don’t actually go to bang town? It’s a solid theory. Frasier is unsure about what happened and Bebe would 1000000% make up this story because she is hilarious and great. Also, maybe I watch too much Law & Order: SVU and have been expertly trained to find the holes in stories like this. CHUNG CHUNG.

“Slow Tango in South Seattle” deals with Frasier losing his virginity when he was a teenager and had an extended affair with his older piano teacher. The hits just keep on coming, age-wise in season 2. I am here for it.

Quick PSA: To quoth noted sexual harasser Bob Barker from The Price is Right: “Have your pets spayed or neutered”.  Seriously, it’s ridiculous to not do so.

Episodes to Check Out

“The Matchmaker” and “Adventures in Paradise, Parts 1 & 2”

Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

1, and you can hear my excitement at the prospect of more in the episode about women.

We say the jokes are from season 1. They’re from season 2. Oops. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Cast – Season 2

February 2, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 00:27:21 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the Cast episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: We talk about our favourite moments from star Kelsey Grammer, discuss our weird world of shared obscure references with our Who’s Calling segment and go deep into some obscure IMDB pages.

It’s cast time! Kelsey Grammer is a good actor. He is the centre of this universe for good reason, and by extension Frasier is the centre of the show for good reason. Something that we don’t often see from the character is that he actually is super good at his job. The episode “Dark Victory” is an earnest episode and I appreciate the emotion that is put into this character. Lauren goes to the opposite end of the  spectrum and loves when Frasier goes all in on something stupid, and she is not wrong for loving this. To sum up, despite ourselves we really respect Grammer’s acting abilities.

I love talking about Who’s Calling. Lauren surprises me with recognizing two callers. Including star of One Magic Christmas, Mary Steenburgen. Readers will note that it is not wholly surprising that Lauren recognized her because she genuinely loves her. If I’m being honest I am not 100% sure where this love comes from. I’ll just have to keep citing One Magic Christmas. Lauren and I have a DEEP well of shared pop culture information, and this is our time to really get into it. It’s a good look into our shared brain, as frightening as that may be.

Further into our discussion of good and great guests from this show. When discussing Téa Leoni, I give a real botched synopsis for Jurassic Park III. And I somehow failed to acknowledge her role in Deep Impact. Swing and a miss, me. We get to talk about Diedrich Bader, Nathan Lane, John C. McGinley, and the great Ted Danson. I get in there with some hot takes about national treasure, Ted Danson.

The nonsense we each bring is basically that dudes suck. Nothing new here.

Episodes to Check Out

“Retirement is Murder” and “Dark Victory”

Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

1 , with thanks to Lauren for slipping her in there.

People of Colour – Season 2

February 1, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 00:19:39 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the People of Colour episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: We decry the lack of diversity in this show and very occasionally are happy for the good steps towards representation that the show takes.

Lauren starts us off with her patented diversity rundown. There are people of colour in 14 of the 24 episodes this season. Woo! But not many of them talk. Booooooooo. This show is super white, and it is a big flaw. Thankfully we do get to see the great Luck Hari mock Frasier. Other featured performers in this season are Irene Olga Lopez, Lincoln Kilpatrick, and Charlayne Woodard.

The episode “Burying a Grudge” is pretty much the highlight of episodes featuring people of colour. Something specifically great is that the close relationship is between the oldest person on the show and a person of colour. This is something we like to see.

Lauren bravely admits her Japanese isn’t up to snuff.

This season was hard for us to stay positive when talking about diversity. Again, this show is better than a lot of its contemporaries, but that doesn’t mean it is good. Do better, everyone.

Thankfully we get to talk about Golden Globe and Emmy winner Alfre Woodard, because she called in! And she gets to talk about droppings, so there’s that.

Episodes to Check Out

“Burying a Grudge”

Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

0, because she is perhaps the whitest person on the show.

Siblings – Season 2

January 31, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 00:20:47 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the Siblings episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: A couple of siblings discuss how awesome these psychiatrist siblings are.

We start off talking about how Niles and Frasier have to one up each other and how it fuels the farcical nature of the show. We are not petty people, nor do we often enjoy petty people, but these Cranes make it oh so enjoyable. “The Innkeepers” and “The Club” are really stellar episodes to highlight how these two men, who so often have each other’s backs, are willing to turn on each other. Thankfully these petty squabbles never take away from the awesome base of their relationship.

I take a turn and talk about how great Niles and Frasier are as supportive, loving brothers who just want to see each other be the best version of themselves. It’s rare to see characters like this take so much stock in what the other has to say and take steps to change their behaviour. Kudos show for showing that growing as a human is a great thing to do.

Also a great thing to do: go to the spa! No matter who you are! Niles and Frasier support each other in their love of comfort and pampering despite what the world tells them. And spoiler alert: the world tells them that they should not enjoy things like spa treatments because they are dudes and that is full on malarky.

I think we can all agree that the younger sibling is often the more put upon one. And I await your fan mail to tell me how stalwart I have been being Lauren’s younger sister for these 32 years. [Ed’s note: Copernicus called, and you are not the centre of the universe!]

Episodes to Check Out

“The Innkeepers” and “Breaking the Ice”

Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

0. Sad trombone.

Women – Season 2

January 30, 2019 Taryn Cheal Episodes, Season 2 Episodes 00:23:21 0 Comments

Welcome to the show notes for the Women episode of Season 2 of Café Nervosa. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Podcast Episode Synopsis: In a switcheroo, I generously let Lauren talk about Lilith.

We start by talking about how Daphne has some sexual agency! And we discuss the upside of double standards. You go stalk that guy, Daphne.

Speaking of stalkers: women can be anything! In “Someone to Watch Over Me” we get to see women be bodyguards, stalkers, and radio producers. There are some cheap shots at women in this episode, but overall, the message is that ladies are good at what they do. That’s true even when they challenge (bogus) gender stereotypes with the work that they are doing. Ladies rule.

Now, here is the moment we (I) have all been waiting for! Lilith time! While on a sex vacation with Madeline Marshall, Frasier runs into Lilith and we get to spend some quality time with her. As per usual, she stands up for herself and admits she is happy that she is happy, something ladies are not often allowed to do.

Bebe Glazer is another bomb-ass woman on this show. She wears dope pant suits and gets results for her clients. She also uses what men think of women to get what she wants. AND she works the system. Never change, Bebe.

Thankfully, I get to talk about Lilith a little bit myself. I really love the power she exerts over Frasier and the confidence with which she does so. Niles is also controlled by a powerful woman, the invisible Maris. It is impressive how present an invisible woman can be in a show.

Episodes to Check Out

“Adventures in Paradise” and “Agents in America, Part III”

Taryn’s Patented Lilith Count

Oh boy, basically too many to count! Let’s say 200 times.

About Café Nervosa

We made a podcast about Frasier. We’re pretty proud of it. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts!