Written by: David Lloyd

Directed by: Pamela Fryman

Original US airdate: 17th April 2001

Original UK airdate: 4th May 2001

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• Whine Club

Raise your glasses in memory of David Lloyd, Apr 23, 2009

Reviewer: David Sim from Skelmersdale, Lancashire

Forgotten But Not Gone is a sad day for Frasier fans everywhere. Because its the final episode written by David Lloyd, one of the show's finest writers. He would stay on as creative consultant, but he never again wrote for the show. In fact he hasn't written anything since. He seems to have chosen this script as his swansong.

Its all the more disappointing then that its nowhere near as good as it should be. A flat, forgettable episode. And in no way remarkable. Its sad that David Lloyd chose to end his tenure on the show in the way he began it.

For all his later success, I've always felt that David Lloyd's initial scripts for Frasier were rather bland and run-of-the-mill. It wasn't until his third script, The Innkeepers, that Lloyd found his stride. And he never lost it (until now that is). After that, the quality of his scripts rose considerably. He produced many highly regarded episodes. The Innkeepers, Ham Radio and The Maris Counsellor are all widely considered to be Frasier classics.

What a shame that the flair and energy that Lloyd has brought to so many episodes in the past seems to have deserted him here. There's nothing outstanding to any of Forgotten But Not Gone. Its just Frasier by numbers.

There's something that seems incredibly lazy about this episode. Almost as if David Lloyd is just coasting through his duties. (Perhaps he didn't like the direction the series had taken of late, or his sons absence depressed him but it seems to have come through in his writing). Its certainly one of the weakest things he's ever written. He's just not trying hard at all. Even the title is not as original as you might think. That was a line used by Danny DeVito in Junior. Watch and listen out for it!

Contrary to popular belief, this episode didn't remind me that much of last season's Whine Club (although using that episode's title as a cue card is a glaring example of Lloyd's disinterest in this episode). That was an opportunity to get us to hate Mel that just used the wine club as an excuse. The plotline here is rather different.

Frasier has decided to resign from the wine club, and announces it on the night of Niles' inauguration as Corkmaster. He plans to host a new radio slot about wine tasting. But Niles puts a spanner in the works when he forbids any of the club members to call into it.

Its not much more than an excuse to pit Crane against Crane. Which has made many an amusing plotline in the past. But I'm afraid this isn't one of them. It just goes through the motions without ever leaving the launch pad. David Lloyd tried it in the Season 3 episode Crane vs Crane, and didn't get it quite right there either.

Ironically, the funniest thing in the episode has nothing to do with the main plot at all. The scene with Gil Chesterton is the one part of the episode where we finally see something of the sparkle David Lloyd often brings to a script. Gil is mighty miffed that Frasier's wine slot will cut into his show by 15 minutes. David Lloyd always writes Gil the best. He never fails to provide him with plenty of excellent, cutting remarks and this is no exception. After Frasier's wine slot bombs, Gil says:

"I'm sure everyone who was listening is hitting the bottle as we speak."

Gil by himself is funny enough. But as an added bonus, David Lloyd has also given us Lance, Gil's producer. A man every bit as camp as he is. They make a wonderful team. What a shame Lance vanished after this one. Never to be seen again after he went with Gil for a "boys night out." (I'll bet they did!)

Gil's appearances on Frasier became more sporadic after this point. He wouldn't resurface again until Season 10. Perhaps the writers were stumped over what to keep doing with him. With David Lloyd stepping down from his scriptwriting duties, it would fall to Joe Keenan to pen Gil's funniest moments in future.

I hate to have to get back to the main plot. So instead I'll just go to the subplot. With Daphne still away at the fat academy, Martin has hired a temporary physiotherapist. A German woman called Frederika, with an accent as fake as her breastsize. Jennifer Coolidge, a regular in Christopher Guest's movies (like John Michael Higgins in the previous episode), does tend to overplay Frederika a bit. To the point of racial caricature. But at least her scenes were lively. More lively than the main plot. Her voice grates but she keeps the attention (she used the same accent in Guest's A Mighty Wind).

The main plot winds down in an unremarkable way. Frasier wants back in the wine club. Niles refuses. So Martin goes down there and forces Niles to let his brother play. Only for them to be jeered at by the club members. Frasier & Niles both resign to start their own wine club.

What a disappointment! Both Joe Keenan and Christopher Lloyd wrote final scripts that were fitting tributes to their time on the show. David Lloyd deserved no less. A sad, anonymous sendoff for one of Frasier's finest writers.

Rating: 50%