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, with $10,000, we'd be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like... love!


With the finale of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. still fresh in our heads, another long-running sitcom (11 years) has come to its final conclusion.
I missed the first 10 minutes of the 1-hour finale. But, it's okay. The show ended with the typical comedic endings, namely with a marriage and a birth. Truthfully, I don't really understand Frasier, and the reason for that would be the constant cultural reference and foreign names, vocabulary and phrases that the Crane brothers make. The 2 brothers are both psychiatrists. Frasier Crane offers his professional advice in his own radio phone-in show on the air. Despite of their knowledge in the human psyche, they seem to be the ones who suffer from relationships the most. Both Cranes have been married and then divorced. Their love lives are disastrous. Frasier's brother, Niles, has secretly been in love with his father's caretaker for several years. Frasier himself hasn't had any more luck; he has yet to find the right woman,even by the end of the finale.
The sitcom also pokes fun of the upper-middle class. These brothers try so hard to fit in. With their weekly Opera House visits and Wine Cellar meetings, their strive to belong in that class and strive to climb up further in the social hierarchy. Their father, Martin, however, is a much more down-to-earth everyday man. He would visit the local bar, walk the dog in the park, and meet other "ordinary" people in the process, much to his sons' distaste and embarassment. But he is happy!
The punchline of the sitcom is that it is the therapists who need therapy the most.
In the episode, Martin re-marries; Niles and his wife Daphne's son, David, is born. This leaves Frasier feeling empty. He then decides to take the job offer in San Francisco, and leaves Seattle. The highlight of the show, ~at least to me is when Frasier decides to do a little "lift" work on his face, but of course, something goes awry, leaving his eyes tearing up. Roz mistakens the tears and Frasier's generous gifts-giveaways as signs of his impending death. The situation is not helped when the Cosmetic doctor leaves a message on the phone saying that he is sorry about Frasier's condition. The entire family listens to Frasier gives a speech about his "leaving", and "the crossing of the Golden Gate," which drives every one to tears.
I love dramatic irony.
It is obvious that Frasier is not as popular as F.R.I.E.N.D.S., which is packed with young, energetic, beautiful people, but, Frasier is really a satiric sitcom that pioneers in mocking the bourgeois. Frasier's love life has an open-ending. Maybe we'll see a sequel to the story, but for now, "Frasier has left the building."