‘Frasier’ Producers Insisted on Cutting This Joke From ‘The Simpsons’
With apologies to “Father Christmas” and Down Periscope’s Lieutenant Commander Thomas “Tom” Dodge, Dr. Frasier Crane and Sideshow Bob Terwilliger are clearly Kelsey Grammer’s most beloved characters. And even though one is a radio psychiatrist and the other is a clown’s sidekick-turned-homicidal maniac, the two share a fair bit in common, such as a love of spontaneously performing Gilbert and Sullivan tunes.
The similarity between the two characters was really cemented in Season Eight’s “Brother From Another Series,” which guest starred David Hyde Pierce. Pierce, who, of course, played Dr. Niles Crane, voiced Sideshow Bob’s jealous brother Cecil. In addition to the meta casting choice, a number of other Frasier nods were shoehorned into the episode, including Cecil’s swank wine-filled bachelor pad and the sitcom’s trademark title cards.
But one reference never actually made it to the air, thanks to Frasier’s producers.
“I’d been watching a lot of Frasier at the time,” writer Ken Keeler explained on the episode’s DVD commentary. “And it was the time of year when we write the Sideshow Bob episode. The germ of the idea was, ‘What if we have Sideshow Bob’s brother?’ It was no more and no less than that.”
“So I was condemned to repeat my performance on Frasier on The Simpsons,” Grammer quipped.
Not wanting to piss off the makers of one their favorite sitcoms, the Simpsons writers “ran the script by” the folks over at Frasier, including late producer Christopher Lloyd (not that one). “There was only one thing, they took exception to,” Keeler recalled, “which is, we had a scene — very briefly, without her saying anything — showing a character named ‘Maris.’ And there was a tremendous objection (from Frasier's producers), which I still don’t fully understand. Their argument then, and when I asked them about later they repeated it, (was) that, ‘We don’t show Maris.’”
“You can never show Maris,” Grammer agreed, referring to Niles' wife, who was famously never depicted on screen. Although Frasier gave us plenty of colorful descriptions of the thin, pale, coatrack-esque heiress.
Keeler argued that the Maris on The Simpsons wasn’t meant to be the actual Maris, but Frasier’s producers still felt as though the joke violated their rule. “Of course it’s Maris, it’s Kelsey and David; that’s clearly Maris,” they responded.
The Simpsons writers did eventually figure out a way to include a reference to Frasier’s most mysterious character. When Bart grabs Cecil from behind and shouts, “Guess who?” he responds, “Maris?”
While they were successful in keeping her off of The Simpsons, sadly no one involved with Frasier was able to stop people from creating nightmarish A.I. renderings of Maris.
