How Did Frasier Wind up Dating Captain Picard?

on my way home from the gym I popped in too bad Billy's looking for a man I was hoping was in the bathroom that's not how I got into another man's shorts that is no one's business ah dr. Frasier Crane a man who wears short shorts to a gay bar who has gay friends and co-workers who enjoys stereotypically gay hobbies but house his gaydar well it turns out that's a bit of a blind spot for him which is how in 2003 he wound up dating Captain Picard all aboard and welcome to mat bounds culture cruise in last month's video we took a look at the evolution of queer characters across the gay 90's with the show Fraser offering up more LGBTQ episodes than any other sitcom until Ellen and Will & Grace this month I want to take a look at Frazier's final gay episode 2003's the doctor is out in which after years of flirting with gay cliches Fraser finally flirts with a gay person by the way thanks to everyone who makes culture crews possible with the pledge of support on patreon folks like Robert hare Kevin Schlemmer and Jack Smith if you're enjoying these videos head over to patreon.com slash matt baume to check out those rewards for backers the doctors out came at the climax of a particularly turbulent time for LGBTQ folks on TV as I talked about in the last video throughout the 90s gay characters evolved from being a source of fear to a fact of life to being aspirational to finally being so mainstream there was no one way they were depicted it was a huge change from one end of the decade to the other and the doctors out features all of those different depictions packed into a half-hour farce with a bit of a twist so let's set the scene it's 2003 season 11 and Frasier has already had episodes featuring a gay boss at gay dream a gay dad and gay friends this episode begins with something new inque celebrity it's Alistair Burke director of the Seattle opera played by Patrick Stewart in real life Sir Patrick was a big deal at this time and we'll talk about that in a minute for now Frasier Niles are simply beside themselves to have run into him I like your suit okay I can't fault them for fanning out here I'd probably melt if I saw Patrick Stewart in the wild but he quickly scampers off having set up the a plot with that out of the way the cranes can move on to the B plot meeting Ross's new boyfriend Barry Frasier immediately suspects that Barry is gay we give away he has muscles he works in fashion and he helps Roz pick out clothes he's been a whole day last week going through my closet and throwing out all the stuff I shouldn't wear anymore one wonders what's been in Barry's closet a little what are you talking about oh come on he didn't seem gay to you this level of suspicion is a bit rich coming less than a minute after Frasier and Niles both fell all over each other to worship an opera director in fairness working in fashion had been a gay cliche on TV for decades like on this 1965 episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show although openly queer characters did pop up on TV from time to time and decades passed a lot of media was squeamish about openly acknowledging the existence of gays so in those occasions when shows or movies wanted queer characters to exist but didn't want to actually say that they're queer they were often coded and working in fashion was one of the most frequent ways to do it but by 2003 openly queer characters had become far more common on TV there's no more need for code those old stereotypes we're starting to come off as ridiculously old fashioned as Niles points out that guy's not gay you can tell the muscles good point Deb second tip-off no poodle but Frasier remains suspicious about roses boyfriend Barry and Frasier gets an opportunity to investigate him later that night Frasier Niles are walking home from a game of squash and sidenote Frasier had to borrow Niles of shorts because his ripped and they say what they think is Barry entering a suspicious establishment we're for the place do you think that is well let's see Tuesday is leather night it's probably some sort of shoe outlet Fraser wants to prove that Roz his boyfriend is gay so he heads in to catch him while Niles stands guard outside and once again we just have to talk for a minute about what mainstream television thinks gay bars are on one hand this place doesn't look all that different from my own local Seattle gay bar but it's also called bad Billie's and advertises a leather night on a Tuesday who has time after work and I think it's a bit of a mismatch that it looks so much like the tasteful waiting room of a dentist's office to be fair the show isn't the first with a curious interpretation of a gay bar back in the 70s mod showed one that looked like somebody's living room Murphy Brown's gay bar looks more like a Men's Wearhouse and Lauren Bacall discovered the world's most cavernous gay bar in the TV special applause I'd bring all this up because there's something crucial that all these weird TV gay bars seem to miss which is that queer bars are primarily for queer people so often when these bars appear on TV it's because straight characters have gone to infiltrate them rather than queer characters just going to relax and unwind gay bars are safe havens and the fact that Fraser is going into a gay bar to out somebody is not great anyway as he arrives for his manhunt Fraser finds the place to be quite welcoming excuse me I'm looking for a guy yeah I kind of got that from the shorts he spots a familiar face behind the bar it's his furniture polisher which is definitely not a naughty entendre inserted by the writers but you surprised to see me in here okay she'll has a fine line to walk here they've got to acknowledge that Fraser fits a lot of gay stereotypes himself even when he's not wearing those shorts but the joke is that he's a bit of a hypocrite a suspecting Barrie of being gay due to stereotypes while he himself fits so many Frazier's the butt of the joke not for conforming to gay cliches but because he's relying so heavily on gay cliches while also being obtuse about his own meanwhile outside miles discovers that Barry never actually went into the bar he just lives nearby now Ellis tries to hide behind a magazine called naked guys review or do I wish that was real and then he rushes downstairs to grab Fraser is some difficulty shouting over the music I'm begging you please take me home that's pretty direct as pickup lines go do you think anyone noticed well yes as it turns out the next day on his call-in show I saw you in a gay bar last night Frasier tries to explain the circumstances I popped in too bad Billy's looking for a man I was hoping was in the bathroom that's not how I got into another man's shorts that is no one's business good job Frasier now everyone in Seattle believes that he's gay and they're honestly kind of nice about it nicer than I think he deserves considering his intent when he went in there I just want to say that your kaal family will be here for you as you take your first brief steps on that yellow brick road to pride and self accept up your big queen but it turns out that there may be some unexpected consequences or benefits to the misunderstanding later at the cafe he runs into Alistair again take a closer connection if it's any comfort I went through the same thing myself once really yes I was a guest on a call-in show and an angry ex-boyfriend phoned in everything came out quite chat with the wife that night very frank oh very expensive Oh in sympathy Alistair invites Frasier to a party with all his fancy opera friends leaving Niles behind I would kill to go to that party I was at that gay bar too you know from there things escalate quickly between Frasier and Allison you turn my head so Oh Alistair buys Frasier a fancy watch he invites him to go to Madrid he tells his famous friends about him they flirt shamelessly with each other in a way they make a great couple perfectly match for each other Frasier enjoys the attention and insist there's nothing going on between them well it's not like it's the first gay friend I've ever had the first one who thinks you're gay too you just not think I'm gay he thinks I'm gay and I'm standing next to my pregnant wife but Frasier simply won't hear of it I'm friendship with Alistair is the best thing that's happened to me in months I will not have to sully it by making it out to be something it's not sorry my angel what we're seeing here is a phenomenon I talked about in the last video the rapid shift in the 90s from gays as a source of trouble like when he thought Barry was a deceiver to gays as a fact of life with Alistair openly discussing his sexuality to gays as something aspirational with Fraser pursuing a gay man with high social standing aspirational gay characters were a particularly pleasant development in the 90s for decades LGBTQ characters were only depicted as serial killers or mentally ill or tragic or just a punchline but in the late 90s TV suddenly discovered that queer people can actually be really talented and really funny so we started to see open depictions of queer people who could fix all the messes straight people got themselves into in fact the same here this episode of Fraser aired Bravo launched a brand new show called Queer Eye for the straight guy which was the most overt depiction to date of straight people who wanted to have LGBTQ folks in their lives suddenly straight TV characters wanted our help they wanted what we had and few wanted it more than Fraser is there anything this man can't do time will tell it's also pretty significant that the show cast Patrick Stewart in this role he was and of course still is a huge star much bigger than your typical sitcom guessed he'd appeared in the x-men films he was literally a magazine cover model alongside Cindy Crawford Patrick Stewart was quite the sex symbol sorry did I say he was he is casting him not only as a gay man but as an enormous leap hour philanderer gay man was quite meaningful especially to a young gay nerd like me who was delighted to see that someone I looked up to wasn't afraid to play gay multiple times in fact Patrick Stewart was also queer in the movie Geoffrey can I do this how do I look like some sort of gay superhero things come to a head as it were at a party after the premiere of allister's new opera this scene is I have to say one of my favorites in the show's entire run and not just because of this incredibly charming painting of a dog in a dress uniform computer zoom and enhance ah a masterpiece the sexual tension between Frasier and Alistair is reaching new heights the production was a triumph while Smith smile there congratulated on their adorable relationship so I hear that you and Alistair of white an I do we're just very good friends oh yes of porpoises and Frasier finds that his flirtation with Alistair is yielding even more benefits Nigel fry is retiring and giving up his seat on the Opera board but I am thrilled to name as his successor Frasier Crane this is a crowning moment for Frasier and even when Niles points out that everyone thinks he and Alistair are dating he doesn't even seem to care all my life I have dreamed of being half of a power couple and now I finally am is it perfect No [Music] but it's fun and I don't want to end he's completely bought into this relationship at this point happy to go along with it if it means he gets a little taste of allister's power and prestige but then he realizes there's something else he may soon be expected to taste in fact when I'm in rehearsals I devote every ounce of strength to it I even abstain from sex well you can ask Frasier here my dear patient Frasier well looks like Nigel won't be the only one giving up his seat tonight and that's when freed you realizes there's more to being gay than fashion fitness and very small dogs his only reason for thinking that Barry was gay was how he seemed and yes a TV character who worked in fashion could be reasonably assumed to be gay a decade or two earlier now that would be perfect if I was making dresses for your mama but by the early 2000s those old stereotypes are just laughably outdated by the time this episode aired there were more openly queer characters on television than ever and they weren't all defined by collections of cliches like working in fashion and yes it might be a bit cliche that Alistair is devoted to opera but so is Frasier and he's definitely straight intensity Frasier realizes that as much as he wants the benefits of this relationship there's one in particular that he really doesn't want so he comes clean I'm afraid I could never really be more than friends for three weeks on Capri in Bertolucci's villa change your mind it's worth a try Alistair is disappointed but he takes it in stride and asks if Frasier would at least stay a bit longer so it won't look like he's been dumped and no sooner does Frasier agree to stick around for a few hours and someone mentions it's time to fire up the hot tub then you'll fit right in and in a way Frasier really will fit right in not just a hot tub but in the new TV landscape that would emerge over the next few years though Frasier was in its final season when this episode aired we're seeing hints here of what's to come over the next decade shows featuring queer characters whose depictions are far more rich and complex than the simple cliches of decades past like the l-word Torchwood the office Brooklyn nine-nine this episode of Frasier came just at the start of TV offering those much more nuanced depictions in that way the doctors out serves as sort of goodbye to the old cliches that TV once clung to cliches so old-fashioned they could only be a joke land ho thanks for cruising along with us and thanks to everyone who makes culture crews possible with the pledge of support on patreon if you're enjoying culture crews head over to patreon combat balm to support the show and get some backer rewards now if you'll excuse me I'm late for the job fair there are gay truck drivers and gay cops and gay Lumberjacks and I just thought oh get her

Channel: Matt Baume

Views: 176,849

Keywords: frasier, frasier crane, captain picard, patrick stewart, sitcom, nbc, 90s, 1990s, television, gay, lgbtq, queer

Id: zdsuTlpC3tc

Length: 13min 48sec (828 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 18 2019