Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, I’m continuing my rerun series celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 2000-2001 season, counting down my picks for its ten best sitcoms. Up for consideration is every comedy from that TV year that I’ve ever covered, both on Sitcom Tuesdays and Wildcard Wednesdays. My analysis is based on a direct comparison of each show’s 2000-2001 output. But I’ll also be factoring in how each season fares in the trajectory of their own individual series, along with how each show’s ultimate, overall (and average) quality compares to the others. That is, I’m mostly looking at what was produced in 2000-2001, but I won’t be ignoring the broader intra-series and inter-series implications of such a ranking.
I kicked things off last week with #10 — the third season of Becker. For this post — #9 on my list — I have selected Season Eight of FRASIER, which I first wrote about here: https://jacksonupperco.com/2018/02/20/the-ten-best-frasier-episodes-of-season-eight/
This is a bad season of a great sitcom. In fact, although quality had been eroding for several years already, Season Eight observes Frasier’s first (and most) major fall — making it the first year for the series to not be a Top Fiver. There are several reasons for this downshift. One was the exit of several long-time writers who had helped instill in Frasier its trademark style — tailoring its tone into a unique reflection of the title character, thus rendering it so steeped in Frasier’s ethos that he could be implicitly engaged at all times. Without those key scribes — Christopher Lloyd and Joe Keenan (in particular) — Frasier was left to become less specific and less individually poised in both attitude and story, turning it, essentially, into something less special. Additionally, a huge narrative change occurred at the top of Eight: the show finally paired Niles and Daphne, giving the situation’s status quo its first and most drastic update. This ostensibly promised new and fresh story, but it also offered a more clichéd intra-ensemble rom-com dynamic that simply wasn’t the classic setup from the series’ earlier, and better, seasons. What’s more, with actress Jane Leeves pregnant in real life, the year was forced to sideline Daphne for a stretch, thereby straining the development of her budding romance — especially via the chosen tactic of winkingly acknowledging her weight gain by sending her to a health spa. It’s all a bit tacky, and her usage is indeed hampered by this reality for much of the year, contributing to the idea that this season is simply weaker, breaking from its long streak of excellence for conditions that aren’t as ideal. To that point, because this is one of Frasier‘s lowest — only Season Ten is worse — it maybe doesn’t even deserve a spot on this list. And I really debated whether or not, in 2000-2001 specifically, almost-peak-quality Becker warranted a higher ranking than almost-nadir-quality Frasier. But ultimately, I kept coming back to the fact that Frasier is always Frasier — and just a better show fundamentally. Unlike Becker, every regular is well-defined, and even with lesser writing, the precision of its core characterizations acquits this as a finer sitcom than anything I could have spotlighted instead. So, as a legacy pick more than anything else, Frasier comes in at #9 for 2000-2001. Stay tuned next week to find out my #8…
Notable Episodes: “Taking Liberties,” “The Show Must Go Off,” “Hungry Heart,” “Hooping Cranes,” and “Daphne Returns”
Come back next week for #8 on my countdown! And stay tuned tomorrow for a new Wildcard! Oh, and if you haven’t taken my latest survey on 2010s sitcoms, please do so here!