Explaining Frasier's (From the The Sitcom) Wealth

[PurgedVoter]

Like I do, I read an odd article that came up.

https://www.gq.com/story/how-did-frasier-afford-his-apartment?utm_source=pocket-newtab

It questioned Fraizer's ability to afford his apartment. It did not mention the possible wealth inherited from his mother as a source, but that is a possibility. There is also the MST3K explanation : It is just a show and I really should relax. But this is the era of Covid so I will not just relax!

I thought about it and followed the clues. One, Fraizer (At least the actor) is a Republican. The second clue is the secrecy about where the money came from.

It is pretty simple. Fraizer was a psychiatrist in Boston (Cheers) before he moved to Seattle. It is quite likely that a psychiatrist would have heard something from a wealthy or wealth related patient that was one of those things that overcame the patient-doctor tradition of secrecy.

So here is my script for the conversation.

Fraiser: During the treatment of your niece a bit of information came up that I am duty bound to hand over to the authorities. I am disgusted by it all, but I thought I would give you a chance to explain before I handed the information over, as is my duty.

Wealthy Scion: I thought you were a bit more discrete. Now I regret ever sending my niece to you. How much money do you want?

Fraiser: Madam, I am disgusted that you would think that my duties and oath could be for sale. There are things an honest practitioner does not do and things that a professional psychiatrist is duty bound to do.

Wealthy Scion: Is five million enough?

[Polly Hennessey]

1. Odd, yes. Plausible, yes.

Frasier: greedy and selfish.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. I watched that show despite Frazier

I liked Dad, Niles, Daphne, and Roz.

After awhile the show's fallback formula of 'someone refuses to be honest/tell someone else something that they really should, and chaos ensues' got on my nerves I can tell you that.

[LisaM]

13. All shows do that.

At the end, I was watching to catch glimpses of Daphne's family.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

19. Yeah, mom and brother Simon were pretty great ...

Anthony LaPaglia is pretty much always great.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

23. Oh, also ... yeah, they do, and it nearly always gets on my nerves ...

It's such a 'cheap' way to set up a storyline for one thing, but also so often the person's reasons for being dishonest/withholding info to set the story in motion are SO shallow and/or illogical ... which was esp. true on Frasier a lot of the time.

It was a still a pretty damn solid show overall though.

I also liked the Mercedes Ruehl character, the station boss for a little while. And the trekkie nerd. And Bulldog. I mean I didn't LIKE him like him, but he was fun on the show. The actor was great.

[Karadeniz]

2. I never noticed the incongruity!

[LisaL]

4. It's a sitcom.

Lots of sitcom characters live in places they could never afford in real life.
Like friends, who are supposedly always broke.

[hlthe2b]

5. or maybe he was just a very well-paid, successful clinical psychiatrist that likewise invested well.

His brother, Niles, likewise a clinical psychiatrist also seemed to have a lot of $$

[LisaL]

7. Niles had rich first wife.

NT

[hlthe2b]

11. True enough...

[Hugh_Lebowski]

12. His wife during most of the show, the never-shown Maris, was loaded (nt)

[Dem4Life1102]

14. Maybe Lilith was rich too

And he got a generous divorce settlement.

[Skittles]

10. yes

Frasier is also very vain and into keeping up appearances so he lives high on the hog.

[LisaM]

15. Psychiatrists make good money!

I work with lawyers, also handsomely paid, and many of them could have afforded that place.

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Didn't He Have A Radio Show, Too?

I'd think a radio show in a major city would pay pretty well.
I didn't watch it much, but if my recollection is correct, the apartment didn't seem out of line with the probable income.
The piece in the OP seems a reach.

[gratuitous]

6. Isn't his character a syndicated national radio show host?

Yeah, yeah, I'll go back to watching MST3K.

[Aristus]

22. No. It was a local talk radio show.

Callers were mentioned calling from the Greater Seattle area. But even an attempt to take the show regional was treated as a big deal. He never went national. That definitely would have earned him millions.

On-air talent at a local talk show might net you $30,000 a year if you're lucky.

[ProfessorGAC]

30. While True...

...here in Chicago, there are 6 sports talk folks who make $600k or more. One long time daytime host on the most listened to sports station was making almost a million in a 2014 report.
Doubtful he's making much less now.
So, local radio folks can make a bundle.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. If mom had been wealthy wouldn't the money have gone to Dad?

And if so, he wouldn't need to live with Frasier, right?

I don't recall, were Dad and (offscreen) Mom divorced prior to her passing?

I think the idea was supposed to be that he was successful as a shrink (which is a good paying job), and in turn his radio show was successful enough that he could continue the lifestyle afforded by his previous job.

It is a bit of a stretch though given how nice that apartment was, in downtown Seattle.

[LisaM]

16. No, the mother had died.

They did a flashback once and she was played by Rita Wilson.

[LisaL]

17. No, Fraiser's mother died, his parents were not divorced prior to her dying.

Dad had to live with Fraiser not because of money issues but because he was injured, as I recall.

[MiniMe]

32. Correct, Dad was a cop who got shot in the hip. Thus the cane.

[nolabear]

9. Dangerous game, that.

Not that I don’t appreciate how compelling it is to make psychiatrists/therapists evil. I mean, Dr. Lecter...but as a retired therapist with a gazillion psychiatrist friends, the reward isn’t worth the cost and the likelihood of getting caught is REALLY high.

That said, there are some truly pompous asses in the ranks and I can imagine both the money and the fame being very important to flaunt.

Bob Newhart might be closer to the average. But damn, is Frasier funny.

And I lived in Seattle for years. Ain’t no human way he could afford that. 😄

[LisaL]

18. It's not wise to count money of fictional sitcom characters.

[Shermann]

20. There is a problem with TFA

"The average radio announcer salary in 1994 was merely $27,901."

It was clearly demonstrated in the show that Frasier was a local celebrity. In the entertainment business, incomes rise exponentially as the celebrity factor increases. It is a pyramid scheme of sorts. So this average may be a poor indicator of what his income from that "radio announcer" job was.

[Girard442]

21. I never thought Fraser was incongruously wealthy.

Those "Friends" folks, on the other hand definitely had some major side hustles going.

[PSPS]

24. One of my clients is a dentist and lives in a $2-million+ condo on the shores of Elliott Bay.

And such accommodations have a much better view and are far more expensive than "Frasier's" Queen Anne locale.

[regnaD kciN]

37. Precisely...

Frankly, the article that is the source of this discussion is just plain silly. The main character is a psychiatrist and talk-show host, which means he's pulling down a pretty hefty income (incidentally, quoting the average salary for a radio announcer as opposed to a host of one's own show, even if it's just for one metropolitan area, as as absurd as questioning how Taylor Swift can afford her lifestyle, seeing as the average income for a singer is barely poverty-level). And Seattle, at that time, had a pretty low cost of living. If he had previously had a successful practice in Boston, where living costs were much higher at the time, he could have probably sold his condo/whatever there, bought the one on Queen Anne, and made a decent profit from the exchange.

[dsc]

25. Actually Frasier is way less egregious in this respect

than many other shows. He is a practicing psychiatrist, a radio personality, and an author. I can easily see him affording his lifestyle.

[regnaD kciN]

38. A better question is how could the twits from "Friends" have afforded their apartments...?

Sure, one of them was a paleontology professor, but the rest of them? An aspiring actor, an inept new-agey folksinger, and a low-level management type on the ground floor of her career? Maybe Chandler was getting paid a ton for playing with his WENUS, but that's about it.

[dsc]

39. yeah Friends was by far the worst

though Jack on Will and Grace also pretty bad.

[bluedigger]

46. You think there's money in paleontology?

He didn't even have tenure. They all should have been living in Queens.

[Clash City Rocker]

26. Now explain how the family in Full House could live there

The actual house they used for the show sold for $5 million.

It’s best with TV shows to assume everyone inherited their home. That’s the only thing that ever makes sense.

[DrToast]

45. Full House was in the 1980s

Early 1980s San Francisco real estate wasn't what it's like today.

[Arkansas Granny]

27. There's a perfectly simple answer. It was in the script.

[leftieNanner]

28. For subtlety's sake

I would change that last line to:

Wealthy Scion: You're moving to Seattle? I have a lovely apartment there that I'm not needing any more. And it's available for purchase at a VERY REASONABLE price.

[Xavier Breath]

31. Before we can even address Frasier's illogical wealth

we must first address the continuity issue surrounding his parents' vocations. In an early Cheers ep, Frasier states that his parent's are both psychiatrists of some renown. We even met his mom (played by Nancy Marchand) when she threated Diane's life if Diane didn't stay away from Frasier. I could never see that woman married to Marty. But, I digress.

So, how did Frasier's esteemed psychiatrist father become Marty Crane, retired cop, anyway? Perhaps they thought a show about three such professionals would be a bit too much and they needed the meat-and-potatoes Marty to offset the fussy Niles and Frasier. I can see that, but I hate the continuity issue.

And, I know Kelsey is a conservative tool, but God help me, I loved that character on both Cheers and Frasier.

[LisaL]

40. Fraiser, being as pretentious as he is, could have lied about his father's profession,

not wanting to admit his father was a cop.

[Dem4Life1102]

41. The continuity issue was explained in an episode

that guest starred Ted Danson. When Sam meets Marty he says to Frasier, ‘You told me your father was dead’. Frasier to Marty, ‘You just called me a pompous ass and hung up on me, I was still mad’. Then Sam says ‘you also said he was a psychiatrist, not a cop’. Frasier says to Marty, ‘You were dead, it didn’t matter’.

[Xavier Breath]

44. Interesting. I remember Sam visiting

now that you mentioned it, but I must have forgotten that detail. Ok, thanks for the closure.

Now, please help me unravel why Hawkeye Pierce's mom and sister vanished into the the ether in later seasons.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

33. What's this all about? Did that Republican douche Kelsey Grammer get arrested again?

[MiniMe]

34. Stop trying to make sense of fiction

Supposedly, the Friends group could afford the apartments because of rent control. I think they are much more out of line than Frasier.

[jalan48]

35. Never thought about it. He was a professional person who made good money-I'm sure a

psychiatrist can afford a chi-chi condo in Seattle. Great show though.

[Freddie]

36. FYI there's a double-header of Frasier every weeknight on Cozi

I didn’t catch the show back in the day but I’m hooked now. They started showing them in order from the beginning a couple weeks ago.
Frasier is a thoroughly dislikable egotistical, pretentious, self-centered blowhard. Niles is almost the same with some self-doubt thrown in, plus he eventually falls in love with Daphne, his complete opposite. That’s what makes the show so good - the contrast between the brothers and the salt-of-the-earth Marty, Daphne and Roz (and Eddie).

[Dem4Life1102]

42. Also, the yellow sun wouldn't make Superman invulnerable,

super strong or allow him to fly. There is no such thing as warp speed. Delorean’s can’t time travel. And Dwayne Johnson will never be a candidate for president.

[Demovictory9]

43. tv show wealth... soap operas and life time channel movies. no need to go to work everyday..magic $