My Coffee with Niles

[Patrick]

Speaking of Roz Niles says "I barely acknowledge her existence."

Hello!!! During the former episode they do work (several) days together, 3 hours a day.Could someone explain to me how they could do that with Niles "barely acknowledging Roz' existence"? Seems to me that this line was written as if that episode never took place. There are some serious continuity problems there.

[CatNamedRudy]

There are people I have worked with that I barely acknowledge outside of the workplace. And I've had people do it to me. People I worked with for a couple of years. I see them somewhere outside of work or even at a training that has to do with work and we won't acknowledge one another or maybe just a head nod or something.

Yes, he would have to acknowledge her while they were working together but any other time he doesn't have to.

[Patrick]

There are people I have worked with that I barely acknowledge outside of the workplace. And I've had people do it to me. People I worked with for a couple of years. I see them somewhere outside of work or even at a training that has to do with work and we won't acknowledge one another or maybe just a head nod or something.

Yes, he would have to acknowledge her while they were working together but any other time he doesn't have to.

Still, when you watch that episode you can see that working together they acquire a complicity that's way beyond the nodding stage they were before. This can be seen when "doped out of his mind" Frasier takes control of the booth. You may work in the same building as someone else, even sometimes the same office without paying much attention to them but it all changes as soon as you have to cooperate with each other, when your work performance is directly dependent on the work performance of someone else, in a small way it's like people who've fought a war together.

But watching this series several times, I see continuity problems cropping up all over the place. Like Niles and Frasier both forget about their Father's Birthday, yet four seasons later they talk about a long tradition of one-upmanship about who's gonna buy him the bigger gift for said birthday.

[Whisper of cinnamon]

Patrick, I think you have to remember that these episodes were written under extreme pressure, to deadlines. It's not like the writers had all the time in the world to think through every little detail. Producing 24 scripts a year is a hell of a challenge. The writing team would be juggling multiple scripts at once, in various stages of development, often having to do last minute rewrites etc. (As regards your continuity quibble above,the script for MCWN was probably being written before the script for FCDO was finalised.) If you've ever seen a documentary about the process of making a U.S. sitcom, it's utter madness in terms of trying to write and produce episodes in the allotted time. Those writers did not have the luxury we have, of watching all the episodes over and over again, getting to know all the episodes intimately, being able to pick them apart and analyse them at our leisure. They would have been living in the moment, only having time to think about 'make this episode/scene/line funny'!

[Eddie2012]

I wonder if this can be applied to other series as well. The writers of 'Friends' would have been under the same strain as the 'Frasier' writers, but I never paid attention to this kind of errors (let's face it, if it wasn't for this forum, 90% of all continuity errors on 'Frasier' would go right over my head ) when I was watching 'Friends'. Does anyone know?
But still, I would expect new writers to be given a factsheet with the most obvious facts that cannot possibly be changed, like birthdays or brothers/no brothers.

[Patrick]

I wonder if this can be applied to other series as well. The writers of 'Friends' would have been under the same strain as the 'Frasier' writers, but I never paid attention to this kind of errors (let's face it, if it wasn't for this forum, 90% of all continuity errors on 'Frasier' would go right over my head ) when I was watching 'Friends'. Does anyone know?
But still, I would expect new writers to be given a factsheet with the most obvious facts that cannot possibly be changed, like birthdays or brothers/no brothers.

Friends is nothing but continuity errors. Plus there is one thing of Friends that's really grating, it's the fact that at least once a season they would have a clip-show made of nothing but excerpts from other shows, not to mention the multiple flash backs in other shows whose sole purpose was to save filming time, the fact that they made those episodes shorter and shorter as the seasons went on, till season ten that contains one sixteen minute episode. They would also use token appearances of celebrities (aka cameos) just to boost the ratings. I mean next to Friends, Frasier is simply perfect.

FYI, a friend of mine lent me the series on blu-rays for a few weeks.

[Eddie2012]

Patrick, I think you have to remember that these episodes were written under extreme pressure, to deadlines. It's not like the writers had all the time in the world to think through every little detail.

It must be really hard. I watched Are You Being Served the other day and there are several odd things. For example, it always amazes me that the very fast and without a doubt well trained guard dogs are nowhere to be seen when N&F make it all the way to the backdoor and fiddle with the lock. Yet there they are moments later, viciously stopping them from going out.
And the messenger, who delivers the petition for divorce, obviously has no idea who Niles Crane is, but still manages to go straight to their table (well, maybe he asked another customer). Then he delivers an official document without asking for ID and does not request a signature. And who the heck has a petition for divorce delivered to a café in the first place?
And I am still struggling to see Kois eating meatballs

[Patrick]

...
And I am still struggling to see Kois eating meatballs

Well, maybe some of the drug seeped into the pond, it must be some powerful soporific though!

I agree with your whole comment though. I don't get how a messenger can deliver something without a signature. I don't remember anything being delivered to me without having to sign for it. (Including a summons from our version of the IRS that scared the hell out of me! It turns out it was nothing much.) Plus imagine the detective work that the messenger must have done in order to find out where Niles would be at this time of day!!! I hope he was well paid for it!