Forgotten But Not Gone

Welcome to Reverse Psychology, the Fraser Rewatch podcast where we go backwards through every episode of the show. Tonight, we are covering Season 8, Episode 18, Forgotten But Not Gone, which originally aired on April 17th, 2001. Is this an episode I've forgotten, even though it still exists? We'll find out. I'm your host, Curtis Schack. Joining me as always, it's our resident upside downer. It's Ryan Sam Sohn. Well, what's happening? Where do we forgot stuff? Do we have amnesia? That's what the title says. What's the title? For real? Forgotten But Not Gone. Oh, you were just, oh, you were just quote. Okay, good. I remember. I remember. I watched the episode. I'm excited to be here. Also forgotten, if we're lucky, is our cork master. It's Bradley Kirkston. Thank you. Thank you. It's not easy being the king of the corks, but someone's got to cork it up. Cork master for Brad. Huge upgrade. The amount of times that Curtis gives me a compliment through these intros is really incredible. At one point, I thought you were off the show. Now you're the cork master. I'm guessing you're getting a medal. Like, that's a huge win for you. I went from being a special guest star to a distinguished guest star to now, you know, I'm a cork master. Fantastic. Congratulations, Bradley. I'm so sorry. I misread that. It says here that you're the cock master, Bradley Kirkston. Oh, that makes more sense. And also, yeah, that tracks. That tracks. That makes way more sense. All right. The stars have realigned thankfully. By the way, that's like a contradiction in terms, isn't it? Yes, very much so. What do you mean? A cork master? Yeah, you're the master of getting cut. What's wrong with that? You're really good at it. I'm good at lots of things. Everyone's got skills, Art. In any event, this episode, we get a kind of a peek into the feud that Niles and Fraser have. Well, I've got a scab I'd like to pick with you, Brad. This Brad or a different one? Cuck master Brad. Got it. Okay. It's Bradley. You know what they say? If you got a scab, pick it. Exactly. So I want to talk about a feud we've had, which is when we were in college, we were roommates. We lived in the same apartment. It was you, me, and our friend of the show, Vitaly Steert. Yeah. Friend of some show. I don't know about this one, but sure. You had said when we first moved in that when it's time to turn the heat on, you should not be involved in that process because you will tolerate any temperature and that it will not be on you to decide when to do it. You took yourself out of it. You're like, don't involve me. Just turn it on when you're ready to turn it on. 100%. Crazy thing to throw out there. Like, especially knowing Curt, like, who's got terrible preferences. Yes. Huge thing to throw out there. We get to late. Well, I think we're closing in on Halloween. And a little later, a little after that. Yeah, it was way late. It was so late. It was, but it's fine. The apartment was in the 50s. Like, it was really cold. I wanted the fan on because there was a mold problem in that apartment. And I was having mold growing on my walls. And instead of like calling the landlord and saying, this is unacceptable. I was a college student who I was just like, well, if the fan is on, the air is circulating. It won't collect as much moisture and it won't be as moldy. And for the record, at this point, I'm still on Curtis's side. I had been running the fan pretty much nonstop, which was fine when it was warm out. But now it's cold. And Vitaly started turning it off because he was annoyed by how the moving air was making it too cold for him. Where was the fan? Where was the mold? These are like, like central air. So it was just like vents. Oh, that fan. Okay. I'm picturing a ceiling fan. Okay. He means the internal fan. Yeah, yeah. Vit keeps turning it off. I keep turning it on. Finally, we come to blows and I'm like, I'm not going to live with this mold. I need the air. They're like yelling at each other. We're really having a fight over this, but we eventually reach a compromise. We agree that it is time to turn the heat on. It is fine to have the fan running as long as the heat is on. So it's not fucking frigid in this apartment. And as soon as we come to an amenable agreement, I go, I turn the heat on. And that is what you storm out of your room. Having heard, I presume, most of this. Yes. Probably none of it knowing Brad. No, I heard all of it. You were very mad. You were very angry. And I believe the words you said to me were, Curtis, it's always something with you. And then you turned off the heat and said, we're not turning the heat on. Ever, ever again. There's no way that I only said six words. That's the least dramatic Brad's ever come across. There's no way. I think you're somehow making me sound nicer, which I appreciate. Yeah. This wound up being a real knockout drag out between all of us. We were all fighting. And then like a few days later, we were out. We told all this to Ryan. It was on the way to DudeFesto9. That's right. I was trying to get Ryan on my side. And at first he was very skeptical because I don't think he understood what we were talking about. I don't think he realized that we had not yet turned the heat on. Well, you have terrible preferences. I assumed you were in the wrong. Seems safe. Yeah. Especially back then. Bit and I agree on a lot of things, especially temperature. You know, I was like, yeah, he's probably, but probably knows. I knew Brad didn't know. I forget how this was all. You guys were going at it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're trying to walk to a party and you guys are psycho. All three of you are being psychopaths. I'm like, yeah, Curt's in the wrong. And then someone was like, I think it was Curt's like, I'm so cold. Like I just want the heat on. I was like, oh, wait, what? The heat's not on. I was like, we've had the heat on for two months. Like, what are you talking about? And then Brad's like, oh, wait, you just want the heat on? As far as I know, everything was good after that moment. 100%. 100% resolved. And then the next year, Vitaly canceled the heat too early and it was like 50 degrees. Those two went home and I couldn't go anywhere. So I had to stay in the place by myself. And I had like five blankets on. Why didn't you come like stay with me? I would have put you up. My option was to sleep on your floor in your disgusting frat house, the annex. And I was like, I'm not living on your floor. I think I actually called you. You were talking about this apartment that was riddled with mold, which was the nicest place you guys lived, by the way. Correct. Correct. No one's denying that. I don't know. You're getting all high and mighty about my place. I just want to be clear for our audience. When you throw around the word mold, people might have different ideas about what that means. We did a Relay for Life one year and it was pouring rain. So we were walking around in the rain. We came back soaking wet. And so my tennis shoes were completely soaked through and I set them on my floor in my bedroom to dry out. And within a couple days, I went back to them to see if they had dried and instead they were covered in black mold. Oh my God. That's not right. That's like you guys started COVID or something. What are you talking about? I remember I brought it up to the landlord. Once your shoes were toast, you're like, I have to do something. I can't walk anywhere now. Literally, I think it took that long for me to be like, maybe this is a problem that should be dealt with. His advice was, oh, it's not a problem. You can just use bleach to clean it up. No, you can use bleach. What do you mean I can use bleach? No, I finally had to get involved and be like, Johnny, you had to take care of that because Curtis and Vitaly weren't going to be the bad guys. So I had to call him. And then he did. He did take care of it. I'm like, you're an asshole. Get out here. Also, bleach, not the move, by the way. He did not take care of it. He said like this young kid. He probably was like in high school. Right. But my point is you don't clean mold by wiping off the visible mold. Like that apartment was infested. It probably needed to be condemned. You guys should have got, yeah, you should have got him arrested. Hey, we were paying $300 in rent a month. It was okay. And then somehow you guys found a cheaper place the next year that was, it wasn't mold filled, but it smelled like murder. Talk about feuds. You exploded my toilet. There was water going down to the floor below. They took it out of my security deposit. I did? Right before we go out. And then our landlord called. So then I had to answer the phone. How is it that Brad in college was the like administrative one of us? How did that happen? You heard how little got done. You literally got your shoes covered in mold. It's because I never had a fear of talking to people. So it's like, fine, Brad will go deal with it. I didn't say I did a good job. It is wild in hindsight that I was ready to knock that, like knock out, drag out fight with the and Brad over turning the heat on, but was like way too timid to mention to the landlord. By the way, I think there's a mold problem. And somehow I had the smallest room and no mold issues. Well, you wouldn't notice if you had mold anyone. No, I would. I remember Curtis and Rar Vitale, like who was like legit mad. How come you don't have any mold? That's my, that's not a good Vitale accent. That was a really good Vitale accent. I just remember him being like angry about it. And my response was, I don't know. Well, I don't know about this episode, but should we talk about it? Let's cork it up. We open with rain clouds over Seattle. Niles is reelected to cork master of the wine club. His speech is interrupted when Frazier announces he is quitting to start a wine segment on Gil's show. I was absolutely shocked to find that Niles was the outgoing cork master. Thankfully, they immediately rectified that by making him also the incoming cork master. And I think they actually ultimately clarified there were at least three terms because he also described himself as his own previous predecessor. I think that he's had at least three terms at this. What I want to know is like when Frazier shows up and starts interrupting and wanting to speak, everybody's like, let him speak. Everybody wants to hear from him. Myth made no sense. But why didn't they vote for him? Yeah. Why did they overwhelmingly vote for Niles? But they also want to hear Frazier give one of his notoriously boring speeches. We don't know that they overwhelmingly voted for him. There was four recounts. We don't know if that's Frazier being really insane or if there's like a one vote difference. That's a good point. I read it as it was a blowout, but you may be right that it was closer than that. I'm not saying it was. I just they didn't technically specify. I feel like even if it even if it was not close, they would tell Frazier was close to make him feel better. But then they did seem to like him and value his opinion and they didn't seem to like Niles. So that is confusing. But at the same time, they also didn't care about anything besides getting drunk. It is a wine club. I was wondering about that because at least some of the members seem really disinterested in all the bureaucracy that Ryan that Ryan then I love the BRG. I was not do not lumpy in with those fools. Niles and Frazier added a lot of bureaucracy and some of the wine club really just wanted to get drunk. They didn't care about any of this stuff. And I wondered why would they elect somebody so annoying if they just want to hang out and get drunk? But then it occurred to me just now, oh, the only people that can navigate the labyrinth of rules and regulations to even get nominated are Niles and Frazier. Like they have completely engineered this place so that one of them will be the winner. 100%. Yeah. And even if one tried to get in, they would probably just get them drunk so they couldn't remember. So right. The people that just want to get drunk are not organized enough to get the signatures they need to get on the ballot. I co-chaired the committee that reviewed the recommendation to revise the color of the book that regulations in. We kept it gray. They didn't genuinely seem to like Frazier though. Like they were excited to hear him give a long speech, which is crazy. How drunk do you think they were at that point? Not drunk enough according to that one guy. Yeah. He literally said he used to come here to drink. But like he didn't get a ton of backing there, which was really just the two, the two old curmudgeons of the table that didn't like the bureaucracy. It was a little unclear if the rest of the club liked it or did not. I do have a theory now, which is we come into the scene with Niles already at the podium. It kind of seems like he's just getting started, but we don't actually know how long he's been talking. Oh, that's interesting. Maybe they're excited to hear Frazier talk because Niles has been droning on for so long. They just, any, even another crane brother is better than hearing more of Niles. We're like three hours into the club meeting and no one's had a sip yet. Yeah, that makes sense. That, that's definitely what happened. The only reason it's confusing is Niles specified like, oh, you're going to give a long speech and then people did seem excited that it was going to be long. So I don't know. I don't know. The vibes, the vibes are weird in this place. Yeah. But Curt, we did do some sleuthing. Ooh. That's right. We got to hear about Gil Chesterton's restaurant beat. I think we knew he was restaurantee, maybe, but I couldn't have told you that with confidence. I think we knew he had a restaurant show. I think this is the first time you heard the name of the show. I certainly didn't know he had a beat. That was news. I feel like this is the third time that we've, we've described and, and it's come up again and again. Every time it's new for you. Gil's show has a poster in the hallway. We've seen Gil's poster before. This was close up enough that you could see the name of the show. It's the Chesterton restaurant beat. I did not see that coming. Eh, a little bit. It's infrequent. It's infrequent enough. And the wine flows over here. Another crane boy's mystery solved. They established the, the bureaucratic rules of the wine club. And it's a little tedious and annoying when they're doing it at first, but they do an excellent callback at the end of this scene to do the all in favor, blah, blah, blah. Like that was fun to get Frasier back doing his speech. Well, well maneuvered, Frasier writers. Maybe there's some hope for this season. We get a title card. Analogy for dummies. Gil's masculine energy is surpassed only by his producer Lamps, a true womanizer. They spar with Frasier and Roz for stealing part of their show. Frasier ends his segment disappointed that none of his wine club members called. Curtis, a little more sleuthing. Ooh. We got to see Gil's show. That was crazy. Was it crazy? I'm a little bit surprised that it is not only in the exact same recording booth, but they don't even have a second mic. Like literally when he hands the show off, they don't go to commercial. Like it is live air and they have to take the time to take the headphones off, pass them on, get sat down. Like there's a full 30 seconds of dead air on the radio because they're passing off the mic. I thought that was awesome. Is this how radio stations work? Is it only one booth and you guys swap in and out? I assume there'd be multiple booths. There's got to be at least two, I would think. But yeah, I would think at least two. I do like that. They really just were like, you know, we only have one female right now. Let's figure out a way to get Roz in this episode. And they put her in one scene. That is a fan. That's maybe the best point you've ever made. I would think that because it's the same show that the same producer Lance would just do this segment. But nope, he brought Roz. They went out of their way to say this is a little weird. Yeah. And it's a little weird because the writers had nothing else to do for her. Is this the first we've seen of Lance? This is definitely the first we've seen of Lance. We also get both Gil and Kenny. You're right. Like you're so dead on about like they had one woman in this show. They had so many opportunities. They could have included other women. And they were just like, let's just go all in on more men. But it's all in one scene. Literally none of these characters are in any other scenes. After this scene, I'm pretty sure it's just the Frasier men. Even the wine club is only men with speaking parts, I think. Yeah, definitely with speaking parts. There may be a couple of women floating about, but none of them are allowed to talk. That's for sure. Part of the rules, though. Kenny describes the ad he made for this new segment. If you can't solve their problems with therapy, solve them with drinking. I guess let's just keep that out of the ads, shall we? Too late. Great stuff. Also, it's a good tagline for, I guess, a restaurant radio hour or whatever. It's a 15-minute segment of a restaurant radio hour. Yeah, but I'm saying it works. And honestly, it's on Frasier because if he wanted any input into the marketing of this thing, he could have come up with his own slogan. He clearly didn't. It is unclear why he just didn't do it on his show. I'm certain he was advertising this on his own show, but there was a pre-recorded ad that rolls at any time of the day. That was just something Kenny put together, I think. No, no, no. I'm saying it's surprising that Frasier doesn't just do the wine bit in his show. Part of his segment. It's not directly a restaurant thing, right? Like, it makes sense to, you could stick that into the psychology hour if you can stick it into the restaurant hour. I can see where you're coming from, but I do think if you're going to do a wine or a drinking segment, it makes more sense as part of a food show than as part of a psychology show. Kind of. I don't know. Does it? Yes. Yes, it does. Disagree. Strong disagree, actually. Defend yourself. What are you talking about? Why would it be? I mean, the whole joke we're talking about is pointing out that it's not a good idea to mix drinking as a solution to problems. I don't know how the restaurant beat works, but it sounds like it's a thing that where he goes around and reviews restaurants, not that he just talks about food. Sell wine at restaurants, Ryan. Sell wine all over the place. So what? Oh, were you about to say, doctor offices? I was very close to saying that. I mean, maybe some. I don't know. I've not been to all of them. You know how they have those barbershops where you can, like, get a highball or a whiskey while you get your hair cut? The best kind, yes. I'm wondering if there are, like, boutique therapists that are like, grab yourself a drink, we'll talk about your problems. I guess that's just what a bar is. That's just a bartender at a bar, isn't it? The therapist wouldn't drink. You would drink while you talk to the therapist. That actually sounds like a decent time. Okay, we're definitely going to get canceled after this episode. It's fine. What? Don't be such a fusspot. We have to get the levels just right to accommodate the timber of his voice. My, my, my, isn't she the fusspond? Actually, it was my idea. That's who I was talking about. It's a pretty basic joke for everybody takes it that he's talking about Roz, but then have it revealed he was actually talking about Freight. Like, it's a very, the structure of the joke is very basic and often done. I think it's a very good execution of it. Yes, I would agree with you. I do agree. I liked, I could have used more Lance time. He was, he was, he fit in well. Too bad this is it for him. Maybe also the first time we meet him. Who knows? The joke we've seen before with Gil is that he puts himself up as this lady's man while he's behaving in a way that makes him seem pretty undeniably gay. And Lance is sort of an extension of that. It's the same thing. He comes off as a very, you know, gay coded character, but he's claiming to be a real womanizer. And the fact that everybody's sort of surprised that he's calling himself a womanizer makes me think that this is the first and only time we've seen Lance because that joke works only like nobody rolls their eyes the same way at Gil. Because they're just like, well, yeah, we know that this is the weird way that you are. Gil's little bit at the end is pretty fun, too, though, where he's like, yeah, I always thought he went the other way, but he says he's a womanizer. It is funny coming from Gil. Yes. Well, and then you get you get Roz's nice retort where she's like, which way? Which is a good question. Because they're like going out on the town together. Like, clearly, they're going to that gay bar that we saw in that other episode. Like, I don't think they're hiding from each other. I think that was a little bit of deflection. Like he thought maybe if I throw Lance under the bus, then it will seem less like I'm gay. It's how it's written, but it felt the way it was delivered did kind of feel the other way. Like he's just self delusion. Yeah, I think so. I mean, we only see we only see an 11 where he actually season 11 when he actually is clearly at a gay bar. I'm guessing we don't get that before this moment. We'll see, though. We'll be tracking it. Daphne's temporary replacement arrives and puts Marty through his paces. Brother Peabody informs Frazier that Niles has banned the wine club from calling the show. Brad, do you remember when you said there's only one woman in this episode? Sorry, one actor who is in this episode. You're right. Yes. I had a feeling you were going to say that. I went right along with him, too. Yeah. I completely agreed with him. Yeah. There was definitely only dudes in this episode. Yes. Look, for Brad, that's like a common error. I really got to be taken to task here because I completely was like, yeah, one woman in the whole episode. This is Jennifer Coolidge, guys. Like as a gay man, I think I'm in trouble. I'll shape him up or know the reason why. Why? Why? Stifler's mom, who was in such things as Legally Blonde and The White Lotus and American Pie. Great. You were so off, Curt, that I am starting to question if you maybe were in the wrong in that thermostat story. Am I like the opposite of Gil? Like I claim to be gay, but secretly I'm very straight. Yep. That's how people describe you. Secretly very straight. Yeah. You like Roman. You just don't realize that. It is this hot guy, Sabrina Carpenter, you know, I just am so into him. You know what? The fact that Curtis just said Sabrina Carpenter makes up for everything. That he even knows who that is. That's impressive. Yeah, I guess all forgiven or whatever. You haven't earned it. Can we talk about Jennifer Coolidge for fuck's sake? Yeah, let's talk about Stifler's mom. What is the voice she is doing? It's clearly a German accent. It is like if you sucked in all of the Helium maybe in the world and then tried to do a German accent, like that is the voice she does. It's a very like alien-y sounding voice. So could you please stop giving me a hard time for my voices? Like you can just do whatever you want on TV shows and it's great. Like she does a good job acting in this episode, but this voice is atrocious. I feel like this was a case of like, because this is after America Pie, right? Yeah. I feel like they wanted some stunt casting. They're like, we can get Jennifer Coolidge. They approached her and were like, we've got an idea. You would, you know, be this thing. And she was like, can I be German? And like, she just wanted to have fun. She's like, I'll do a Frasier episode, but I want to have some fun with it. And so they're just like, uh, okay, sure. If you do it, great. I'm only doing it if you give me no notes on the voice. I do enjoy the old tech you occasionally get to see. We get a laptop in this thing that might as well be a fax machine. Is that what we were looking at at the start of this? It was definitely a laptop. I had that same thought. It was very large. It's wild how big it was. It's also very white. Excuse me. It was not white. It was that late 90s beige that computers all were. It was a very, it looked a little like, like attempting to be future techie, but like it was, it was funky looking. He's at the computer because he is trying to prepare his next wine segment and he's sipping a wine and trying to describe it. This delightful offering is infused with the brooding, almost dangerous presence of vanilla. That was pretty good. I gotta say, fairly strong Marty episode. Yeah, it's, yeah. I'm really glad you brought this up because sometimes we are like, it's a strong Marty episode and you kind of start off on a defensive footing. So I'm glad that you were able to acknowledge that. One of his best lines we've had to date. You don't think it's clear that I enjoyed the wine? I don't think it's clear you're talking about wine. Fantastic. It's a solid one. And accurate. He's not like a terrible person this episode, which is a fun bonus. This is like, I think for what we've seen, this is like peak Marty. Like he is sort of not taking the bullshit of his sons, but he's also not being unnecessarily like cruel or mean to them. He's just like, you two need to get along. And in this moment, he's like, he's not being cruel to Frasier. He's just there, but he's very funny. I'm not going to go for days on this. See, this is a good episode for him. All right. We're moving on. We didn't have a title card. The Wine Club. Frasier confronts Niles at the Wine Club. They bureaucratically squabble until Frasier is tossed out on his ass by the burly sergeant at arms. Former Brother Crane, as they refer to him. Well, that is the kind of capper to the scene, right? So they have this fight and they refer to all of the members of the Wine Clubs as brother because there are no women in it. And when he calls him former Brother Crane, it is literally about him no longer being a member of the Wine Club, but it is figuratively about Niles rejecting his own brother. Yeah, it's one of the stronger moments of the scene. But I do think this episode takes a sharp downturn from this scene on. I thought this was pretty run of the mill stuff here. It was a little funny when we get the old sergeant of arms guy, but like it was also very predictable. I even that I was like, the joke's going to be the sergeant at arms is not a real sergeant at arms. Like he was about two years older than I expected, but it was pretty on point. Again, that guy did a good job acting because he was so old. Well, I like that he takes the job seriously. He's not like, you know, I'm too old for this. He's like, all right, my job is to throw you out and I'm going to throw you out. I'm feeble, but I'm going to try. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. That's how that joke always goes, though. Like it and it should have been a little funnier and it just I don't know, just wasn't. Then do it for me. I think because this was such like a scene that led to other things. I mean, you can tell that that was the goal of the scene, but like it was it was fine. Marty enjoys the fantastic meal that Frederica prepared. Frasier mopes. This scene starts out so stupid. Frasier's like, oh, hey, Marty, what do you do? Funny. He's like, I'm old and I just sit in the silence. Yeah, that was very bizarre. Well, OK, no, this might be one of the moments that is a little bit snipey because you can read it as Marty literally just sits in a quiet room alone. As I did. And that sounds very bizarre. No, it makes sense. He's old. I think it's more of a jab at Frasier. Like Frasier usually goes out on Wednesday nights. Now he's not going out anymore. And he asks Marty what he does. And he says, I just enjoy the peace and quiet because he's basically saying this is my one night without you. And now you're here in what used to be my space. As a new cat owner, I totally get the feeling of I used to be able to be alone. And that is no longer true. And it's a little bit upsetting. I see this felt relatable. If you didn't think that was weird, at least you have to acknowledge that after that moment, Frasier is weird as hell. And he just goes, he's sitting on the couch and he just goes, 730. That was really weird. We're going to see later that Marty sort of intervenes to force the two to make up. And I got to feel like Frasier is sort of fishing for that fatherly interference. Advice. Yeah. Because he could just, he comes in saying what's on TV tonight or like, is anything good on TV? Like you've got the TV guide. You've got the remote. Like you could just occupy yourself and do something. He wants to be visibly mopey so that somebody will either give him something fun to do or force Niles to be his friend again. I got it. Fish. Fish. But fish was a better line. 730. Come on, Frasier. They'll just read the actual time. So there's something else we've got to talk about. And this goes back to the Jennifer Coolidge of it all. We've known for a while that Daphne is a healthcare worker who lives in the house. She's an at-home, full-time healthcare worker. But she also is sort of a maid and a cook. Like she's doing all of the tasks, all of the household domestic work, which in and of itself is a little bit crazy. That she's away for a few weeks. And they're like, not only need to get a replacement for your physical therapy, we need a physical therapist who will cook. They actually say it, which I love. Did they confirm that it was weeks? I feel like she could be gone for a day for all we know. I feel like in the last episode when we talked about her visit to the spa, I feel like that was described as weeks. But we don't know how long that's been between episodes. This may be the only episode she's not in. I don't know. But I'm saying that the way the show played it out, I think it was weeks. It makes sense. But like, you know, this could easily be a day and they're just nutcases. Which they are either way. Yes. Also, like, why didn't we just keep Jennifer Coolidge on staff instead of having Niles's girlfriend continue to work on Marty and be a terrible cook and be the housemaid? Yeah, especially if Marty likes it. Marty doesn't like that many people. Very confusing, actually. Daphne is the girlfriend. Yes. So she's integral to the family at this point, but she's also not married to him yet. So she cannot rely on him financially. She still needs a job and a home, by the way, because she also still lives there. Like, if they're like, OK, Jennifer Coolidge has got your job. You can now go move in with Niles, which will do like six episodes from now. Yeah, but the episode we're on, like when she returns, it doesn't seem like she's in a good state to be moving in with Niles. Why? Just because they'd never boned? No, because they were like fighting and like have it like there were some issues to work out. We all knew we were going to move past it. Yes, because we went in reverse order. That's why. That's funny. They were saying I love you. Like, they were going to make it work. You know. Also, if it didn't work, guess who's no longer got that job? Daphne is definitely moving out. If the relationship doesn't work. The crazier part is not that they at this moment in time fired Daphne and replaced her with Jennifer Coolidge. That would have been pretty awful, I think. A pretty bad timing. But the crazier part is that I think there is a moment. There's a whole episode, I think, where they do need to formally, finally replace Daphne entirely and hire a new physical therapist. And Jennifer Coolidge is not on the shortlist. No, that's fun. Yeah. Instead, they try to hire that stripper. Huh. So we find out Jennifer Coolidge is good at cooking. Great. Did you see how poorly Frazier tries to cut up his food? It's very weird. I noticed that too. He does an awful job. Like, he makes Brad look so competent. Correct. It's like he didn't know how to use a knife. He struggled to cut it. And then he cuts off the smallest bit of food I've ever seen. That is a thing. Like, in television, you have to do multiple takes. And I've heard a lot of actors talk about they always either avoid eating or eat very, very little. Because you have to match the take each time. You have to take the same size bite each time when you reset. Because if you don't, then the continuity is going to be messed up. They're going to use one take with a giant bite out of that burger and another take with no bite out of the burger. And it's not going to line up. So whatever you do, you have to do the same over and over and over again. Kelsey Grammer probably didn't want to eat like an entire steak in the course of a day, bite by bite. He probably just wanted to take the smallest piece possible. He also like struggled to cut it. Well, that I didn't actually notice, but I take your word. Oh, it happened. Marty embarrasses the brothers crane when he scolds them into making up in front of the whole club. Again, we're kind of in the predictable zone. I had like a little bit of excitement. I was like, OK, this is gonna be like a really funny scene. And then he just treated them like children in front of other adults. This isn't necessary. Yeah, we can talk about this some other time. Zip it up. Both of you. Niles, let your brother play. First, I want an apology. I said zip it. He did. I heard him. Don't get smart. I gotta disagree on this. OK, good. To have Marty come in and treat these adult men in their like 40s and 50s and in front of all these old people who are in the wine club to treat them like they're 12 years old and you're gonna go play with your brother. And like the way he dads them is so emasculating and infantilizing. Like maybe an obvious joke to make, but I thought it was very well executed, very well acted. I thought it was a lot of fun. It was too much. I think if they because there's again obvious what they were doing and then I think they delivered it in the obvious way. It was fine. But like if they would have made it subtler, it doesn't have to be like very subtle, but if they would have just toned it down a little bit, hinted at that's what they were doing. I think we could have got some actual laughs. I didn't think this was funny at all. The part where he just starts repeating himself. Are you going to let your brother play? Dad, are you going to let your brother play? What? Are you going to let your brother play? Are you going to let your brother play? Yes, that was the part I didn't like. Yes. See, that's interesting because I felt like that kind of sold it because the way he's fathering them kind of reveals to us that he kind of is a child himself. Oh, they were just a bad dad. Yeah. Okay. He's showing them how childish they're being by being childish himself. Oh, you thought that was him teaching them on purpose. Well, I think it's certainly possible that he is just immature. Like that is not out the window for Marty. But it does have the effect, I think, of making them feel like dumb little kids for having this squabble at all. Oh, I didn't get any of that. Yeah, I thought he was just acting very childish. He was being a dad in a very childish way and they were doing it the most hamly way possible and we hammed our way out of the scene. Frazier proposes they start a new, more bureaucratic club since they are embarrassed to show their faces at the old one. I did like this part. I like that they do kind of realize that they like clubs for the rules and that they like establishing the rules. Obviously, I would not like to be a part of that club, but I like it for them. Yeah, I think it makes sense for as much as they go on about how much they love wine. I don't know if they really, truly appreciate and love the flavors and the experience of drinking wine as much as they love talking about it, as much as they love feeling important because they understand the nuances of the flavors. A prestige that comes with wine. Yeah, in the same way, I feel like the bureaucracy of the club, it's the pomp and circumstance. It's the way in which they get to feel important because they're part of something that gives them authority and power and a grandiosity. And the fact that it's about wine is almost secondary. Like, it could be about anything. When he's describing it, he describes how much he loves the discussions that happen in wine club. I assume some of it is lifted by the fact that some people are getting hammered. I'm guessing that the Crane brothers don't get as hammered as some of the other members, and that leads to some fun arguments. I'm guessing. But yeah, I do think that in another circumstance, they probably would make do just fine. There's a trope of show, don't tell. Like, if you're just telling us how a character feels or just telling us how they act, you're not as effective as when you show it on screen. But I actually think, like, we never get to see the wine club actually do the things they say it's so good at. Like, those discussions we don't get to hear. We just have to take their word for it that they have really interesting discussions. And I think in this case, like, I don't know if they could have written it in a way that would have made it sound interesting to the audience. I think they were probably right in this case just to leave it at tell, don't show. Well, they don't have to be interesting discussions to us. They're interesting discussions to Frasier. Exactly. Yeah, so I think you're right. I think it is fine to avoid it. And they aren't going to be interesting to us if they're interesting to Frasier. Yeah, right. Frasier plays this out to Marty, severing the Corkmaster sash from the medallion to stop Frasier and Niles squabbling over who gets it. I thought this was the worst one possibly ever. Well, we didn't really talk about this, but yeah, Niles as Corkmaster gets to wear... I didn't even know what to call it. Like, I called it a sash with a medallion. Why don't you just grab what he's wearing? He's wearing a sash with a golden medallion. Yeah, it's not too far off from what you would see like a gold medalist at the Olympics wear. It looks like if you're in high school or maybe actually maybe even like middle school, elementary school, and you're doing like it's Olympics week and you win an Olympic medal, quote unquote, that's what it looks like. Exactly. Yes. This would have been a perfect time to do something with Jennifer Coolidge. Like, she's so funny and like quick bits. And the fact that they went with this was very disappointing. Yeah, I think you could have got some easy laughs with her. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I'm with you. Especially on a silent thing. Her physical humor is very good, but they went with this route. And then you wouldn't have to carry the accent. Yeah. I don't know what their set was like. I don't know if it's hard to like reset at the cafe or something. But it does seem like if they only had her for like a day and had limited time with her, if they wanted to do a quick silent bit, like it's in the same set. It wouldn't have been that hard to get it set up. But we didn't. So we got a mediocre bit. Yeah. Well, Brad, was this a mediocre episode? What did you think? You know, I said a bunch of negative things, but I kind of weirdly liked this episode. Like it was just kind of goofy in a weird way. That describes you to the T. If Curtis were saying this, I would give him a lot of crap. You saying this? Yeah. I think that tracks. I'm going to give it a B+. It's been a long time since they're giving something a B+. All right. What? I'm going to give it a B+. I don't think that's the round you were going. I can't wait to hear what Curtis says. I love this because you're like, I was kind of dogging on the episode, but I actually think it was kind of good. I think I was sort of defending the episode and praising it. I ranked this 42 out of 89. So right in sort of the center. I think it was a solid up, but it's definitely not special. I thought it was better than a passing fancy when Frasier was tutoring Kirby, but not as good as Love Stinks where we met Roger. Oh, you're doing the Love Stinks real dirty. You just hate trash. Well, I do hate trash. Speaking of trash, Ryan, what do you think? Yeah, it was trash. I had to fight to put this as high as I did. I gave it a 4-6. I was entertaining the threes. I did think there was some really good structure. Jennifer Coolidge was really good. Lance was good. You know, basically anyone that's not part of the show was good. The opening bit was pretty good, too. But the rest of it was trash. A lot of good setup worked for very little payoff. I thought the actual delivery was pretty weak. So 4-6, and I think that's probably high. I actually think that you are way underselling this because you recognize and admitted this is a good Marty up and you just, you can't, you can't rank highly a strong Marty up. You're going to trash. Like, I don't even think you're doing this on purpose. I think subconsciously you kind of like Marty in this episode and that ranked it lower. I said he did good. I don't know what else I can say. The episode still sucked. And that maybe that's because Marty's not a good being the best guy in the episode kind of person. Maybe we lean on other people. I don't know. Yeah, sounds like I'm right. I'm not going to acknowledge anything, but the important thing is that we're done with the episode and we can move on. I hereby call to order the inaugural meeting of the TBD Club. You actually cut out. It sounded like you said the titty club. It did sound like that. And I was like, we're going a really weird route for this segment. For someone who doesn't see women, this is interesting. Let's start over. I hereby call to order the inaugural meeting of the TBD Club. Actually, very disappointing. Some may ask why to be determined. And to that I say, what could be more noble, more inspiring than a mission yet unformed? What could be more grand than a destiny still unwritten? It is not indecision. It is possibility incarnate. First order of business, roll call. Man, do you know what's happening? Not even a little bit, but I'm just going along with this. Why don't we get this voice from Curtis more often? I like this. I know. This is amazing. I feel like I'm about to go on a quest. All right. Let's hear roll call. Come on. Yeah, let's do roll call. I'm excited for roll call. That's where we're at right now. When I say your name, you will signal your presence with your favorite chain store. Ryan Sansone. Dicks? Why was that a question? No, it was like a dicks. Like that's how they, how do you say dick sporting goods? Penis sporting goods. Ew. Cards. It's like sports. Quick side quest. Yes, subscribe more things than side quest. That's great. I was in like middle school. The internet was young and so was I. And my aunt at Christmas was talking about how if you want to go to the website for dicks sporting goods, do not enter dicks.com. That's your hot tip. Does that still work? Now it redirects to dicks sporting goods. Okay, good. Bradley Cookston. That's Bradley and Margaret. Bradley and Margaret. Gadzooks. Is that a place? Yeah, it was a store in malls in like the 90s. Was it? Gadzooks? Wasn't that the green guy in Flintstones? I am the great gazoo. I think this is what like a animaniac says. If anyone's an animaniac, it's Bradley Kirkston. You know what? I searched Gadzooks and Gadzooks store did come up and it is a mall based clothing store. Yes. You really don't remember it? Popular with jeans in the 90s and early 2000s. It's known for its unique Volkswagen Beetle decor. What? What is a Volkswagen Beetle decor? That's a very specific and weird. Okay. Rabbit all. Maybe we move on because this could be the rest of my night. Have your fun, fellows. All right. Let's go back to the next thing, Curtis. Uh, present. You love present to the store? No, uh, I said present. I shouldn't have said present. But I will stick with the theme of present and I will say Spencer's gifts. Also mall theme. I'm sorry. I didn't do mall. Well, yeah, there's Dixon malls. I'm good. Yeah, you're good. There are definitely Dixon malls. Take that how you will, internet. Members, the floor is open. What, pray tell, shall be our club's mission? Obviously something with the mall. Tamal? Ooh. Tamales? I was going to say, are we a mall walker club? What is that? Yeah, like people that go to the mall just to walk around? Mall walkers. You know what, though? I'm kind of in on that. Yeah. The weather, it's, I live in Ohio. The weather's not good all the time. I need a place to walk that I don't have to spend money. And thankfully, the mall, you really can't spend money anymore. So I'm in. Yeah. Let's mall walk. You are all way out of order. Bradley. Oh, no. I would like you to repeat your proposition. What's a proposition, Curt? Point of order. I would like you to repeat your proposal. My proposal is for a mall walking club? Seconded. No, that's it. Just seconded. The motion is up for a vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Nay. All opposed, say nay. Nay. Nay. Ryan, you're not so good at this. You have to wait your turn. You didn't explain that we had to wait for things. I don't know these. I don't know who's the rules. First of all, the eyes have it. Which is disappointing. I am a little confused, though, because a moment ago, you were all in on mall walkers. You were ready to go with it. And then you say nay? Kind of a flip flopper, are you? I want to see what happened if the nays won. He doesn't really understand how this game works. I mean, maybe he does. Maybe he knows better than us. Maybe it's more interesting if the nays won. All right, well, before we get into any more details. Voice, Curt. The voice. Now that we are a mall walking club, I propose we elect officers. Okay. Do I have a second? Seconded. Sorry. Motion is agreed to. So we will elect officers. What are the leadership positions? My proposal is head of the food court. I was going to say captain of the food court. Oh, captain. We can go with captain of the food court. Second captain. King of the food court, because it's a court, right? Yeah. Yeah, but captain, I like captain better. It sounds better, doesn't it? Captain? Seconded. Ratified. Yep. Next one is the emperor of Victoria's Secret. Oh, no. Nay. Very nay. We don't even have to vote, because ain't nobody seconded in that. I think before we even pick the next thing, I would like to propose we vote on who will get the position captain of food court, which I think is stand in for president. I think that is the president of this group. Yeah, okay. When I think captain food court, I think Ryan Sanso's. Seconded. Oh, good. I thought me as well. Yeah, Ryan all the way. There's nobody better for that specific position. I thought I was going to have to give a speech. I mean, obviously I was going to win, but like this. Yeah, that was an obvious one. Point of order. The captain of the food court, newly elected, will now take over as master of ceremonies and will give a speech. Gentlemen, no ladies. As I look before you, I can tell you are hungry. You are hungry not just for the mall, but you are hungry for a random assortment of mildly ethnic foods. Hear, hear. You've got your Mexican food. You've got your teriyaki place. You've got your Sbarro. And with this, we eat. Fuck yeah. I will now be electing my cabinet and the first cabinet member will be the secretary of transportation. He who must watch the escalators. Who would like to run? I would like to propose we come up with a better title. Can I ask a clarifying question on the secretary of transportation? You can if you say point of order. Point of order. Does the secretary of transportation also oversee an in-mall shuttle? Yes, accepted. You will have multiple venues of transportation. You can use shitty golf cart. You can use escalator. You can, if you get a car in there, that's your duty as well. My proposal is that the most interesting name for that is actually just transpo. Can we just call him transpo? AKA rides in my beds. Who would like to run for transpo? I would like to throw my hat in the ring. Yeah, that's probably a safer call. All right, there will be an election. Curtis versus Bradley. Curt, give us your pitch. When I was born, I knew I had a destiny. And that destiny was tied to the very fate of our mall. Which, based on how my body is feeling these days as an old man, kind of a lineswip where malls are at. I promise, as transpo, when escalators break down, they will be allowed to stay open as stairs and not weirdly cordoned off. End of speech. Bradley, I will now give you a chance to either give a speech of your own or to attack your opponent. Yeah, I'm going to give a speech to my own. That's also going to be attacking my opponent. Both is acceptable. Look, you know, unlike my opponent, I was born to be a transpo. No. It's just, it's in my blood. It's in my spirit and it's who I am as a person. Are you done? I'm done. Speech over. Where's the attack on me? I was born with it. You weren't. Sorry, buddy. That cut to the quick. The voting will now commence. As you two are running for the position, I will get the sole deciding vote. Point of order. In most democracies, you are allowed to vote for yourself or vote at all if you're up for election. Not in this democracy. Yes, I didn't hear anything about a democracy. I am captain of the court. Keep it down. Anyway, I will be casting my vote. Curt will obviously be our new transpo. Congratulations, Curt. Yeah, that's probably safer for America. I will certainly not give Bradley any position that requires him to hold a key. I would say he gets the keys to nothing. Absolutely. All right. Now to round out the cabinet, we have one last position, which of course is the chairman of new business. That is the person who gets to decide which stores are in the mall. Your titles are just really impressive. Okay. Well, you can work on the titles. Hold on. Bad title. Maybe worst job. You are giving him most of the power that goes with being a mall. Motion, can I change the title? I have a good idea. Great. Seconded. Well, one is I'm supposed to be the lowest on the total poll, so let's go with that theme. What if I was the retail rat? Sorry, brother. You've not won any election. Retail rat. Hold on. I agree, Ryan. Brad, you're out of order. However, retail rat. That's interesting. Did you say retail rat? Is that what you proposed? Rat. Retail rat. Oh. He can dress up in a little rat costume. Yeah, 100%. What's the rat element? I'm the mascot. No, I propose that the retail rat is a weirdo dressed like a rat who goes around to all the annoying teens and sort of creeps them out until they leave, opening up more walking space for us olds. Approved. Approved. Seconded. Seconded. Radified. Look at you going back to the original theme that I may or may or may not have forgot about. Who would like to run for retail rat? I'd like to throw my hat in the ring. Yeah, I'll do it. We have two combatants again. We have our honorable transpo, Curtis Sheck, versus our less than honorable Bradley and Margaret. Bradley, we will let you go first this time. What does a rat do? A rat is there when no one else is. A rat is there to push things. A rat is there to get in the way. A rat is there when you don't want it to be. A rat is not your friend. A rat is here for the sanctity of the organization and nothing else. That is why I should be your rat. Point of order. I need you to clarify this point. A rat is for the organization? Is that what you said? Yeah. This rat is here to help out the maw. And the maw being the organization. The rat is here to make sure those teens go away. Curtis, you now have a chance to either respond with a speech of your own or simply attack your opponent. Bradley Kirkston says that he would be good as the retail rat. But baseless rumors say that he is a pervert and he will creep out a little too much. Curtis Shaq is absolutely ready to take on the job on day one. He wants to dress as a rat because dressing in costumes is kind of his thing. Vote for Curtis Shaq. Curtis Shaq approved this message. You could have called me Bradley and Margaret. Had to go with my real name for that one. One man, Margaret, as your opponent has chosen to both attack you and I think maybe spot some ad time. We'll give you one last chance to buy some ad time of your own. But you don't get to give a speech because you just did. You simply get to attack Curtis. The honorable trans pal. Curtis does not even know my name. My name is Bradley and Margaret. How are we going to pick somebody who can't even give the right name to his opponent? Going on the strength of knowing names. I mean. Your time is done, Curtis. We will now call to a vote. All those in favor of Curtis, the honorable transpo, say aye. Nay. Out of order. All those in favor of the less than honorable Bradley and Margaret, say aye. Aye. I will choose to abstain because I think we have no qualified candidates. Well, the motion has still ratified and passed. So, Bradley and Margaret, congratulations. You are a retail rat. Point of order. I believe the motion was ratified. Get out. Transport your ass out of here. I will now pass this to the honorable transpo to move this segment along. All of that took kind of a while, but was meant to be the preamble. Oh my god. We're just getting started. The meat and potatoes of this particular bit was going to be that we propose a bunch of rules. And we were just going to vote on rules and come up with rules. So, I don't have a closer, is what I'm saying. Honorable transpo, Curtis Sheck, why don't you propose a rule for us? We'll see if we would like to pass it. Ratify. Ratify it. Looking at you, Bradley Anne. I propose a minimum speed limit. We must walk not at a snail's pace, for it is unpleasant to my long legs. We must walk briskly. Denied. Uh, Bradley? I propose a daily break at the Dairy Queen. That was not in the mall. We had a Dairy Queen in my mall. Yeah, totally is a mall thing. I have never seen the Dairy Queen in a mall. It's usually paired with an Orange Julius. Correct. I've seen an Orange Julius. Then you've seen a Dairy Queen, my good sir. Yes, correct. What? They're all the same thing. Are they? Yes. It's like when Taco Bell and KFC were one thing. Yeah. I've seen Orange Julius. I don't know if the words TQ were there or not. I don't think they were. So, do you accept my rule or not? No. I guess, Curt, you can ratify that. Or you can second it. I second for sure. That is, I mean, ice cream? Give me a break. Come on. We're doing that. It's an Orange Julius. I don't know if they have ice cream. I've never stopped. Breakfast? Yes. I panicked. I never once went to an Orange Julius. I don't know. I assume this felt like juice. I said Dairy Queen. You're the one that said Orange Julius. Well, I guess we're meeting there, so we'll get to find out what wares they have, if any. Yes, and I believe this bit has run its course, but I will propose one anyway. Forevermore, all stores, especially the food court, but all stores must offer a free sample. Oh, that's a good one. I second that. Ratified approved, I think. I love the samples so very much. The best part of any mall experience, isn't it? Totally. Could you imagine if you'd go to like Hollister and there's someone outside with cheese? I have a proposal. The court will hear it. I propose that Spirit Halloween must be open 365 days of the year. I'm not seconded to that, Rat. What will it do the rest of the year? It will take up space that would otherwise be an abandoned spot in the mall. Most people won't buy anything there. The stock will just live there. Seconded. I'm excited to see what they'll do in their off months. They'll have some sort of weird thing going on. I don't really understand how they only exist for part of the year. How does that possibly work? They must make bank in October. Sure, but like, I don't, like, they're just like, hey, we're only going to use this store for part of the year. The rest of the year, it will be nothing. Okay. They've got low overhead because they're only renting like one month's worth of retail space. The retail space never becomes like an office max after that. It just is Spirit Halloween for a little bit and that is nothing. What's the point of that? They get it on the cheap because it's a spot that literally nothing wants to live there. Well, yeah, who the fuck can rent out something for 11 months of the year? Doesn't make sense. This episode is coming out on October 28th. So right on the cusp of Halloween. So I feel like we did a good service here. Great. All right. Before we go, does anyone have any closing sentiments? Walk like a champion. Walk like a winner. Join our walking club. Oh, is it a walking club? Is that what this is? We lost the concept a long time ago, so it was fine. My sentiment is, if you want to avoid moldy shoes, walk inside. Walk in the mall. Don't try Orange Julius when there's a free teriyaki sample five feet away. Well, it has been a grand adventure. But will we experience a grand adventure next week when we get the previous episode? It's season eight, episode 17. It takes two to tangle. With Daphne's continued absence, the boys get very into slinkies. I hate that. You hear the word tangle and you invoke slinkies that are good for five minutes after you get it on Christmas morning and then is ruined for the rest of your life. I want to point out, I tried very hard to think of what tangled could mean. We have little kids in this house. I've seen the movie Tangled a thousand times. Never once occurred to me that it could possibly be anything like hair related. I was like, the only thing I know of that gets tangled is slinkies. I would rather have like matted tangled hair than a tangled slinky. You're speaking as someone whose hair has never been more than like, you know, stubble. I'm not saying it's a problem. I'm just saying I'd rather have that. Definitely a not you problem. Uh, well, that will do it for us. Thanks to Gavin McLeod for our theme music and thank you for listening. I suppose you don't really care if this podcast is successful. You would never take five minutes out of your precious day to go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. You don't use Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram, or TikTok. You aren't curious what happens if you search for reverse psych pod? Lord knows you can't be bothered to shoot us an email at reverse psych pod at gmail.com. For myself, for Ryan, and for Brad. Bad morning. We get a title card. Actually, do you guys know how to pronounce Onol? Is it Onology? O-enology? Genuinely do not see the title cards anymore. Like, I know we have a bit that I don't see dogs. I literally don't see the title cards at all anymore. I block them out. We get a title card. Onology for dummies. Wait, did you pronounce analogy? Is that how you're saying analogy? It's O-E-N-O-L-O-G-Y. Oh, that's not a word. Right? I could have looked it up, but I didn't. That was a typo. They did a typo. But that's on them.