Frasier Online Episode Guide -> Season 8 -> Episode 8.07

Mary Christmas

After Frasier's show, Mary Thomas (from Episode 7.16 - Something About Dr Mary) walks into the booth and hands Frasier and Roz copies of her new book 'Cornbread for the Soul'. Kenny then arrives and announces that Mary is coming back to KACL, and to Frasier's surprise, she is getting the morning drive-time show. Although a little taken aback, Frasier has more important things on his mind: the Seattle Christmas Parade. The parade has represented the spirit of Christmas since he and Niles watched it when they were kids, and it has been a dream of his to host it ever since. Luckily for Frasier, one of the presenting spots has become available as the husband and wife team of Kelly Kirkland and beau have split up. So Frasier begins a charm offensive by inviting Kelly to his apartment for dinner and cooks some of the recipes from her TV show. Kelly is impressed by this and even more so when Frasier shows her some banter he has written. All his hard work pays off - Frasier gets the job!

Frasier's elation is soon vanquished by the news that Kelly has gone down with food poisoning and Frasier will have a new co-host: Mary Thomas! Fearing that Mary's larger than life personality will ruin the carefully scripted banter he has written, Frasier decides he just has to try and get Mary to stick to the script as much as possible. However, Mary is soon ad-libbing her own comments much to Frasier's dismay but to the delight of the producer who tells Frasier to lighten up. This goes on until Frasier decides he has had enough of Mary's comments and wants to do the Santa interview on his own. Mary agrees, but Santa seems more interested in Mary and the ensuing argument between Frasier and Mary causes Frasier to accidentally hit Santa with the microphone......

- Frasier is peeved that Mary's book refers to her as Dr Mary:
Frasier: I hate to quibble about things such as accreditation....
[Kenny walks into the booth]
Kenny: Woah, it's like the American Medical Convention in here!

- Niles arrives at Frasier's apartment bearing gifts:
Frasier: I hope you had the presence of mind to bring presents of mind
Niles: I haven't heard that line since last year (!)

-Martin is depressed as this is his first Christmas since they stopped making Ballantyne's, but then realises:
Martin: No more Mel, no Maris, no Lilith - maybe I won't need beer this Christmas.

- Frasier to Mary on the spirit of Christmas:
Frasier: You know in my house, we don't even shake the boxes.
[Cut to Martin, Niles and Daphne having opened all the presents]

- One time Parade presenter, Bob Vernon, speaks to Frasier:
Frasier: You didn't watch the parade, did you?
Bob: I turned it off when the smelling salts started making Santa nauseous.

"Dr" Mary returns in an episode that is sadly bereft of laughs, really. There is a rather funny opening scene, where none of Frasier's callers want to be fitted in the 1 minute before the news, but the rest of the episode seems like a retread of the previous Dr Mary episode (Frasier is forced to work with her, finds her irritaing, ends up having to apologies to her) - you have to wonder why they brought her back, but I wouldn't have minded if the episode was better written. Too many flat and weak jokes in the Frasier/Mary plotline compete with some better moments for Martin, Niles and Daphne as they take the open one present each early a bit too far. This episode is yet another below-par one, in a series that seems to be slipping in quality.

Rating

69 %

Avg. Viewer Review: 66.0%
Total Number of Reviews: 2