Whine Club 2: Electric Boogaloo, May 18, 2013

Reviewer: Sammy J from Melbourne, Australia

"Forgotten but Not Gone" falls into the category of average season 8 episodes, of which there are a fair number. It seems odd to be back at the wine club just one year later given that there wasn't any sense of a recurring story from last year (ala "Cheers'" Bar Wars). I can only suspect that the series felt like it hadn't done much with the concept last year, when they squeezed it into a Mel-centric episode. There's some cute stuff here with Frasier unable to give Niles his due, and the way that the brothers talk themselves out of the wine club is, if nothing new, at least quite clever.

It's nice to see Gil back in action, and at his most smug. The always reliable and always cute David Norona fills in as his producer, and it's great to see Roz in her trademark KACL sassy state, given we haven't seen much of the station this year outside of "Docu.Drama". As David Lloyd's last script, this is certainly lacking much of the vigour that filled his greats, which is a shame since the concept is reliably true to the characters. It just feels as if the series is spinning its wheels and the episode really doesn't know how to squeeze any life from the concept.

I may be the only person who enjoys Jennifer Coolidge's cameo as Martin's German physical therapist. She's a ridiculous character who feels a little overdone for this series, but I still find myself giggling at her attitude and deliberately whacked-out accent. The only strange thing, again, is that this feels like it should've been a recurring arc. Perhaps the Daphne-free episodes would've been stronger if something more was made of them. Why is Martin only getting a physical therapist one episode before Daphne returns? Why is this storyline of an interloper in Frasier's home given all of three short scenes? Nothing makes sense.

Ultimately, a confused script that has some genuine laughs but also raises more questions than answers.

Rating: 68%

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%

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%

'Forgotten But Not Gone' review, Aug 31, 2005

Reviewer: Jocelyn from London, UK

This episode marks not only the sole episode penned by veteran writer David Lloyd during his son's absence from the show but also the last he would write altogether. His talent and experience would seem to be just what Season 8 is crying out for so it's rather disappointing that this episode should prove no more or less middling than so many others in this season, being little more than a retread of the main plot of the previous season's 'Whine Club' (which is even reused as one of the title cards!) as Frasier resigns from the club to host his own wine show on KACL, leading the club's 'Corkmaster' Niles to disallow any of the members from ringing into his brother's show. This fairly stale plot is lifted by some enjoyable performances. I like the way the club's oldest member, Virgil Hepplewhite, is employed by Niles as a somewhat less than threatening 'henchman' to show Frasier the door while Gil Chesterton - sadly in his last appearance until Season 10 - is as reliably hilarious as ever, incensed at Frasier for stealing some of his timeslot and appearing here in a double act with his wonderfully camp producer Lance, whose performance I found very funny. Which is more than can be said for Jennifer Coolidge's ludicrously over the top performance as Martin's supposedly German physical therapist, Fredericka - a dreadful caricature which feels totally out of step with 'Frasier''s style of humour. The fairly dull second half only really livens up when Martin goes down to the wine club to persuade Niles to 'play' with his brother, causing much teasing from the other members. An unexceptional rather than bad episode and, given that it flowed from the same pen that produced such classics as 'The Innkeepers' and 'Ham Radio', a disappointing swansong from one of 'Frasier''s finest and most important writers.

Rating: 72%