`Frasier’s” David Hyde Pierce received a letter from a fan critical of his character Niles Crane’s constant mooning (pun intended) over his father’s (John Mahoney) caretaker, Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves), especially now that Daphne is about to marry her blowhard boyfriend Donny (Saul Rubinek).
The writer was peeved that Niles and Daphne’s possible coupling would seem like an endorsement of sex without marriage, and also didn’t think it was respectful of Donny’s feelings.
“That really got me, because I thought that’s not true,” he says.
“The thing that has kept Niles, especially this last year, from saying a word to her is his deep love for her and his respect for her fiance, and respecting that relationship. And if she’s in love with this guy, then it doesn’t matter what Niles wants. What he most wants is her happiness. I think that’s a laudable trait.”
But conversely, the thing that heartened Pierce about the letter was that, because of the superior writing and acting on the durable comedy, it proved fans don’t think of the characters simply as characters.
“What I love about that is superficially, this character, like Frasier (Kelsey Grammer), is such a weirdo,” says Pierce, 41. “He’s so uptight and he’s so snotty, and he has his suits and wine clubs and all that stuff. But, as sort of a tribute to the acting but also to the writing, he’s a real person.”
It all comes to a head for these “real” people — maybe — Thursday at 8 p.m. on WMAQ-Ch. 5.
Daphne is supposed to wed Donny, but she now finally realizes she has true feelings for Niles.
Pierce thinks it’s about time.
“I can’t imagine that this series will end without them getting together,” he says. “Now maybe . . . I’m too close; maybe that’s Niles talking. But I think that would be a shame. But maybe she’ll wind up being a nun, you never know.”
The Niles-Daphne relationship has been an amusing and touching subplot for the last seven seasons. It got a refreshing revision late last year, when Daphne finally found out that Niles had a thing for her, causing her to look at him in a different light.
At the same time, Niles found Mel (Jane Adams), someone who is as persnickety as he is. Last week, Daphne revealed her feelings to Niles’ brother Frasier, and it looks like she is about to let Niles know. Niles, however, has a surprise of his own.
Pierce believes “it was definitely a good idea” to switch things and let it be Niles unaware that Daphne was developing a thing for him.
And although “the glimpses we’ve got of them when they are together have been pretty great,” Pierce says, whether or not Niles and Daphne become involved will always remain an intriguing sidelight to “Frasier.”
“I think they’re really well-written characters, so they’ll always be interesting,” Pierce says. “I also think, fortunately they’re not the only storyline in the show. So as I look at however many years we have left — whether it’s one or two or three or 17 — there are a lot of possible storylines and relationships between the characters that haven’t been explored yet.
“I’m curious to see where we go next season and how the show expands.”
Morning shakeup: NBC is expanding “Today” to a third hour sometime in the fall, from its current 7-to-9 a.m. time to 7-10 a.m. Katie Couric, Matt Lauer, Ann Curry and Al Roker will work the third hour. In Chicago, it means going up against “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on WLS-Ch. 7 at 9 a.m.
The move pushes the network’s “After Today” show to 10 a.m., putting it in direct competition with ABC’s popular “The View.”
Kicked to the curb: The USA Network announced two new comedies that are supposed to debut sometime in July . . . apparently at the expense of its long-running cult favorite “La Femme Nikita.”
USA is axing the stylish and edgy series starring Peta Wilson after four seasons. Meanwhile, USA will go with the sitcom “Manhattan, AZ.,” where a cop and single father leaves the big city to be sheriff of a quirky desert town; and “Kill, Kill, Kill,” a “Spy vs. Spy”-style comedy in which a secret agent battles his mortal enemy to the death — as in expiring — each week . . . and comes back to do the same thing the following week.
Ohmigod, they’ve ripped off poor Kenny McCormick of Comedy Central’s “South Park!”
Who wants to take on Jesus: Part one of CBS’ “Jesus” was seen by an impressive 24.1 million viewers on Sunday. Even more impressive, it beat ABC’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” when they went head-to-head between 8 and 9 p.m.
The last case: Tuesday’s two-hour season finale of ABC’s “NYPD Blue” will be the last one for co-creator, writer and producer David Milch, who many see as the heart and soul of the gritty crime drama.
Milch, who says he’s leaving partly because it’s time and partly because he has a development deal with Paramount, tends to disagree with those who think he has poured his sweat and blood into making the series one of the best on television.
“In a way, it isn’t putting so much of myself into [the characters], it’s being able to kind of diminish my own needs and sort of submit myself to their spirits and their consciousness,” he explains.
“That’s a passionate act, but it’s also humble. And I want always to be able to do that. Every character is unique, and although these were wonderful characters to work with, I don’t feel that the next group of characters that I work with will be any less compelling or that it will be any less of a passion or an act of happiness for me to work on them.”
The finale–which will see the departure of Jill Kirkendall (Andrea Thompson is leaving to try journalism, believe it or not, as a TV news intern in Albuquerque, N.M.) and a crisis yet again for Dennis Franz’s Andy Sipowicz–is at 8 p.m. on WLS-Ch. 7.
Milch couldn’t reveal what’s going to happen, or, he says, he would be taken out and shot.
