The Frasier Storyline That Had Niles Actor David Hyde Pierce Overcome With Emotion

When David Hyde Pierce signed on to play Niles, the titular physician’s brother in “Frasier,” he initially thought the pilot script was “horrible.” The actor thought the writers had basically created two variations of the identical character in Frasier and Niles and wasn’t certain how the present’s dynamic was ever going to work. Quick-forward two years to the 1995 episode “The Final Time I Noticed Maris,” and Pierce was absolutely transformed. Having performed Niles for nearly three seasons, the actor had developed a bond together with his solid mates and an appreciation for the writing high quality on “Frasier,” which stays the most effective and most constantly well-written sitcoms in TV historical past. Nevertheless it appears he’d additionally developed an actual affection for his character’s spouse, Maris, regardless of the actual fact she had by no means been seen on-screen.

By 1995, audiences had turn out to be well-acquainted with Niles’ spouse although they’d by no means as soon as seen her within the flesh. When Maris was first launched to “Frasier,” it was within the pilot episode “The Good Son,” whereby Niles reveals that his father, Martin (John Mahoney) would not get alongside together with her. This prompts Frasier to ship the primary of what would, throughout the sequence’ 11 seasons, grew to become many, many digs at his brother’s associate: “I like her from a distance. , the way in which you just like the solar. Maris is just like the solar. Besides with out the heat.”

As “Frasier” went on, the present by no means as soon as confirmed Maris. The writers initially supposed to solid somebody within the position, however as extra episodes got here and increasingly characters began to explain Maris in more and more weird methods, it grew to become a operating joke to maintain the character off-screen. So, you’d assume that when Niles and Maris broke up, there would not be all that a lot to get upset about. However for Pierce, it appears his fictional divorce was a bit of an excessive amount of to take.

In “The Final Time I Noticed Maris,” Niles’ spouse disappears, inflicting him to turn out to be distraught earlier than discovering out Maris launched into an impromptu procuring spree in New York. Urged by his father and Frasier to demand an apology for her insensitive actions, Niles stands his floor just for Maris to ask for a divorce — once more remaining off-screen at some stage in the episode. By the top, Niles adheres to Maris’ needs and the ultimate scene sees him leaving his and his spouse’s condominium for the final time.

In a behind the scenes featurette, David Hyde Pierce recollects being “emotionally overcome” when doing the desk learn for “The Final Time I Noticed Maris.” The actor remembered being blindsided on the desk learn by how upset he grew to become over a personality that, in actuality, did not even have an actor hooked up to the position. “I keep in mind the primary time we sat right down to learn this episode,” he stated. “I used to be severely emotionally overcome sitting on the desk discussing the potential of separation from this lady who would not even exist in actual life. We do not even have an actress to play the half.” He continued:

“It took me utterly unexpectedly, as a result of I would learn the script the evening earlier than and I believed, ‘Oh that is good,’ after which one thing about sitting across the desk with the opposite actors, with the writers, with your loved ones like that enhances the fact of it. It was very unusual.”

Making an attempt to make sense of his sudden surge of emotion, David Hyde Pierce put it right down to the truth that “the writing is that this good” and that he and the solid had “all labored collectively so intently for, at that time, three years.” He added, “You do not understand how a lot part of your character’s life, even somebody who we have by no means seen, has turn out to be.” In that sense, it wasn’t a lot Maris the character that prompted Pierce’s response, however his empathy for his personal character, which even informal “Frasier” followers would agree he utterly inhabited.

It is attention-grabbing to notice how Pierce was not solely satisfied of his present’s high quality after initially balking on the pilot script, however simply how a lot the actor grew to become immersed in “Frasier.” The present appears to have a document of changing unbelievers, with even Kelsey Grammer himself admitting to being a “sitcom snob” earlier than starring in “Cheers,” the showcase which “Frasier” span. The truth is, in what’s an eerie portent of issues to come back, Grammar admitted that he thought the “Cheers” pilot was “horrible” when he first learn it. After all, today the “Frasier” star cannot cease himself getting emotionally overwhelmed, with the brand new Paramount+ revival sequence offering loads of excuses to activate the waterworks.

It is a testomony to the standard of “Frasier” that its actors turn out to be so completely caught up on this planet and characters created by Glen and Les Charles. Now, if Grammer might solely persuade Pierce to return for the revival, audiences might have an emotionally overwhelming second of their very own.