Frasier Online Episode Guide: Episode 8.17

Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 8 -> Episode 8.17

Forgotten But Not Gone

Episode Details

Written by: David Lloyd

Directed by: Pamela Fryman

Original US airdate: 17th April 2001

Original UK airdate: 4th May 2001

Cast Information

Main Cast

Frasier Crane	....	Kelsey Grammer
Niles Crane	....	David Hyde Pierce
Martin Crane	....	John Mahoney
Daphne Moon	....	Jane Leeves
Roz Doyle	....	Peri Gilpin

Recurring Cast

Kenny Daly	....	Tom McGowan
Gil Chesterton	....	Edward Hibbert

Guest Cast

Frederika	....	Jennifer Coolidge
Endicott	....	Charles Cioffi
Lance	....	David Norona
Reynolds	....	Jonathan McMurtry
Virgil Hepplewhite	....	Richard Stretchberry

Guest Callers

Episode Synopsis

At the inauguration of Niles as the Wine Club's Corkmaster (for a second year), Frasier arrives with his own news. He is resigning from the wine club to host a 15 minute wine appreciation slot on KACL. He invites all the members to call in and provoke some of the fascinating discussions they have live on the radio. Gil Chesterton, whose show is losing 15 minutes for Frasier's slot, is none too happy about it, and Frasier himself is none too happy that his first show is such a disappointment. None of the wine club members call in, and those that do seem to lack the intellectual qualities Frasier seeks for a wine appreciation show. However, Frasier's diappointment turns to anger when one of the wine club members tells him that Niles has banned them from calling into his show, provoking Frasier into going down to the club to try and convince Niles to change his mind - but Niles is having none of it. Forced to spend Wednesday nights at home with Martion, his father sees his son's depression and drags Frasier down to the wine club to force his two sons to 'play nicely'......Meanwhile, Martin grapples with his new German physiotherapist who cooks fabulously but seems to be an ex-army drill sergeant.

Episode Title Cards

Oenology For Dummies
Whine Club

Episode Highlights

- Niles praises his brother when giving his corkmaster re-election speech:
Niles: .... the other Brother Crane, who so graciously conceded after the fourth recount.

- Kenny congratulates Frasier on his new slot:
Kenny: If you can't solve their problems with therapy, solve them with drink.
Frasier: Let's keep that out of the ads.
Kenny: Too late!

- Gil's slot about healthy food is axed to make way for Frasier's wine-appreciation slot:
Gil: Apparently health is going to take a backseat to the random musings of a radio psychiatrist on wine !!

- Gil 'congratulates' Frasier on his disasterous first show:
Gil: I'm sure everyone who was listening is hitting the bottle as we speak!

- Frasier has to spend his first Wednesday night at home after leaving the wine club:
Frasier: What do you usually do Wednesday nights?
Martin: Oh, just sit back .... enjoy the silence.

- Martin goes to see Niles to try and get Frasier back in the Wine Club:
Martin: Good God! You wear a sash!!

Frasier Online Episode Review

The Crane brother's inherent rivalry gets another airing in an episode similar to last season's 'Whine Club' ( so much so, in fact, that one one of the on screen subtitles is actually 'Whine Club'). However, as in that episode, the bunch of eccentrics that make up the club feel stereotyped and one-dimensional, while the conclusion where Martin forces Frasier and Niles to make up is not exactly new. I also found Martin's 'German' (yeah, right) physiotherapist to be an awful creation - a comedy cliche that just doesn't work in this episode. The episode is however lifted by the reappearance of Gil Chesterton, who isn't happy about having some of his show stolen by Frasier, and his interplay with his new producer: a camp creation by the name of Lance. Their scenes together made me laugh more than the rest of the episode. All told, then, this is another run-of-the-mill Season 8 episode, which is all the more disappointing given that it came from David Lloyd, the creator of such fantastic episodes like 'Ham Radio', and that it's the last episode he ever wrote for the show.

Rating

71 %

Latest Viewer Episode Review

Avg. Viewer Review: 73.5%
Total Number of Reviews: 2

FORGOTTEN BUT NOT GONE, Jul 18, 2006

Reviewer: Cake for Brains from Manchester, UK

By the standards of Season 8 ‘Forgotten But Not Gone’ is quite a good episode, and is the final script that writer David Lloyd would contribute to the series. Lloyd has been responsible for some of the very best episodes of ‘Frasier’ ever produced such as ‘Ham Radio’, ‘The Innkeepers’, ‘Martin Does It His Way’ and ‘The Maris Counsellor’, so I suppose that it is somewhat of a disappointment that his tenure on the writing staff had to end in such a low-key and underwhelming way, and much as I enjoyed the episode in question, unfortunately it was nowhere near as good as the majority of his previous work, although I’d rather watch this episode than ‘Crane vs Crane’ or ‘You Can’t Tell a Crook by His Cover’. I’ve also said in the past that nobody can write the character of Gil Chesterton quite like David Lloyd, and Gil’s only appearance during the whole of the eighth season is definitely the highlight. Meanwhile the other two plots have their moments, but ‘Forgotten But Not Gone’ certainly borrows very heavily from Season 7’s excellent ‘Whine Club’, and in my opinion the scenes set in the actual wine society itself feel a bit disjointed, because the members are conveyed as being quite wooden and boring, although I liked Niles ‘henchman’ when he intended to get rid of Frasier.

Let’s start with the subplot involving Martin – which witnesses the arrival of his new physical therapist, Fredericka, a rather unstable and eccentric German woman, who believes in a hard and vigorous excise programme followed by a huge, delicious meal as a reward. The character perhaps could have worked, but the actress overplayed her role terribly, and the character therefore came across as shrill, annoying, contrived and hugely unrealistic. However, I did like Martin’s terrified and pained screams! The undoubted highlight of this episode however was the memorable and hilarious exchanges between Frasier and Gil Chesterton, the latter being enraged that the former has hijacked his show in order to present a section on wine – and I loved Gil’s comments after Frasier’s unsuccessful broadcast: ‘I’m sure listeners will have hit the bottle!’. Edward Hibbert is always a delightful bonus and episodes that feature Gil are always a treat, and ‘Forgotten But Not Gone’ also featured Gil’s hugely camp and effeminate producer, Lance. I wonder how the pair’s ‘boys night out’ went? The main plot was a little predictable, and Niles’ as ‘corkmaster’ insisting that no wine club members could call into to Frasier’s show was a little churlish, and I didn’t like the ending too much either, with Martin coming down to sort things out and insisting that Niles let Frasier ‘play’. In conclusion then, a perfectly watchable episode of ‘Frasier’, but considering it was written by the genius that is David Lloyd, it could have, and should have been much better.

Rating: 75%

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Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 8 -> Episode 8.17

Forgotten But Not Gone

FORGOTTEN BUT NOT GONE, Jul 18, 2006

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