Frasier Online

I've been rewatching the entire show with my mom and we've been discussing Sherry Dempsey.

Of all Martin's girlfriends Sherry was the most brash, loud and really kind of trashy.

Martin is a regular guy but he did have a taste for sophisticated and classy women. Hester Crane being the first he married. Even Ronnie while not sophisticated like Hester (operas, language, etc that she passed onto the boys) Ronnie was definitely a very classy lady.

But Sherry was just didn't seem like Martin's type.


Even in season 9-10 when Martin and Cam Winston's mom start hanging out you get why they click. She's Hester but black. Thus why Cam and Frasier are so similar. She doesn't look down on a regular guy like Martin and they're very opposites attract but have a lot in common.

Sherry was just the outlier that doesn't fit at all.

Sherry is not an isolated case. off the top of my head, I can think of at least two other sherry-like women that Martin went out briefly with. There's that waitress at one of Martin's favorite bars/restaurants, the one he dated while he was pretending to enjoy the company of Roz' mother. And there's that other woman that that said to him: "Thanks for letting me use your John." , not the classiest thing to say, while he was dating a rich intellectual woman that Frasier was hoping would give a big check to his school.

The funny thing is that both Roz' mother and the rich lady were a lot closer to Hester than the women he went out with that were close to Sherry in behavior.

I'd agree with this, perhaps because I couldn't stand the character myself - but then a favourite pastime of mine is looking at a couple, real or on tv, and wondering what on earth they saw in each other!

Sherry is not an isolated case. off the top of my head, I can think of at least two other sherry-like women that Martin went out briefly with. There's that waitress at one of Martin's favorite bars/restaurants, the one he dated while he was pretending to enjoy the company of Roz' mother. And there's that other woman that that said to him: "Thanks for letting me use your John."

Yes, that was Bonnie, and then he dated Estelle at the same time as the affluent Penelope (who Frasier and Niles were trying to get money out of for their old school). If I remember correctly, in the end he ditched Penelope for Estelle.

I'd actually argue that they did have quite a lot in common. He loved the fact that she played the banjo, he sincerely laughed at her jokes, they were both equally excited to go see Nashville on Ice, and I suspect they have the same taste in furniture (Martin's chair and Sherry's frog lamp ). Of course, we could also say that it was just the writers tweaking Martin's character to look like they're similar people, but imo Martin really isn't the classiest of men. Actually, I'm much more surprised that he was ever married to Hester. I do think Sherry is more his style, and Ronee reminds me of her (minus the fondness for country music).

I guess she brought out his better side. Btw, I saw Don Juan in Hell 2 the other day and Hester played there as very dominant and bossy.

One thing that I find characteristic is that Martin never really ditched Sherry, quite the contrary, he wanted to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her. She's the one who refused.

I think Marty dated Sherry because she was uncomplicated, undemanding and fun. He didn't have to work hard to please her and she was able to look after herself. On a subconscious level, I have a theory that Marty may have been trying to irritate his sons by introducing Sherry into their well ordered lives. Marty appeared to be very comfortable with Sherry and she seems to have had low levels of expectation in terms of their relationship. Being wined and dined at all the right places, having the right social contacts or friends, just wasn't top of her list of priorities and she was as comfortable in her own skin as it's possible to get (unlike most of the women in Frasier and Niles' circle) Not caring about being seen to drink the right wine or wear age- appropriate clothing typified Sherry's joie d' vivre. She didn't give a damn and Marty loved that. The end of the relationship however may have paradoxically been a relief to Martin. Even riding on the fairground's wackiest, wildest ride has limited appeal after a while. Martin and Sherry didn't seem to be intellectual equals so I think inevitably, boredom would have set in, had the relationship continued.