Niles takes offense when Martin suggests that his son never had a rebellious stage as a child. Unfortunately, Niles' attempt to prove that he has a wild side backfires and leaves Martin dazed and confused. Meanwhile, Frasier is coping with the fact that his son Freddy has gone goth and would rather hang out with his friends than spend time with his dad. Elsewhere, Eddie stars in a promo spot for Seattle and Roz is dating a hunky mall Santa.

that sounds really funny ill have to watch tues.

Interesting

Thats 1, 2, 4 storylines in there!
I wonder how itll work.

Frasier + Christmas = always good.

i cant wait to see that freddy...goth o thats funny

I just saw the commercial--Freddie's never looked better! (Kidding. . .)

Loved watching Martin tripping out! Freddy looked like Alice Cooper - no more Mister Nice Guy, eh? :lol: The subplot involving Roz got lost in the shuffle, sorry to say. :(

This one was a total hooooot!! Loved every minute of it. :-)
It was so jammed packed with laughs and lines I have to say I didn't really miss Roz's story about the Santa (I thought she did great with her "Niles' drug connection" role anyway). I don't think the story structure could have withstood another "plot". They made a wise decision in dropping it. This one is going on my favourite's list for the season! :-))

I liked this ep. Very funny. And the decorations looked great!

One of the best.

It was absolutely hysterical seeing Martin stoned. :lol:

This episode was insanely good! Maybe even the best of the season! SOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY AND FULL OF GENIOUS COMEDY! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, I wanna see it again!!!!!!:D :D :D :D :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I loved this episode, watching Martin freak when he turned on the tv and Eddy was doing that commercial, was the best moment. And the apartment looked really good this year decorated for christmas.

OK, I KNOW that I'm going to get heat for this, because everybody seems to have loved this episode, BUT....

I WILL admit that Martin getting stoned on a pot-laced brownie WAS funny, but that whole "Eating Niles' Pot Brownie And Then Replacing It With A Regular One" gag seemed kind of cheap to me.

"Frasier" has always been a show with superior writing, and to resort to that old bit of "switcheroo" farce just seemed beneath the series.

True, it was funny....but for some reason "Frasier" has always seemed to be above that kind of silly humor.

I agree that using that old sitcome device of switching the brownies, was beneath the usually quality of the show. I guess with this being the last season, they get a bit lax now and then.

Plain old silly farce has always - *always* been a part of Frasier. David Lee (and others on the show like David Hyde Pierce etc.) take great exception to the fact that some fans insist that Frasier be considered exclusively "high-brow" comedy with just intricate, clever word play. It isn't - and never was, in fact. There are many fabulous farce episodes. What about the "old switcheroo" of people in "The Two Mrs. Cranes" or the total silliness of "The Innkeepers" or “Look Before You Leap”? Frasier has successfully integrated many styles of writing over its eleven year history – flat out farce, satire, parody, old fashioned romantic comedy, “dramedy”, slap stick “physical” humour, silent film pantomime, sophisticated familial strife and of course, sharp-tongued, witty repartee with loads of cultural references. To quote Christopher Lloyd (from the introduction to the 1999 “scripts” book “The Best of Frasier” –

“It has always been a point of pride at Frasier that we can write – or, perhaps more properly, that the vast talent of our actors allows us to write – in a broad range of styles…”

Also “High Holidays” was not just an “old switcheroo” story either. It has plenty of sharp writing and word play integrated into the farce elements of the mistakenly consumed “pot brownie”. I urge you to revisit the episode and listen carefully to the dialogue that the characters are saying. I think you’ll find loads of double ententes, puns and other snappy exchanges between the characters (“little ghoulfriend”, “at least he isn’t dating outside the faith”, “mule is one word for it”, etc).

Lots of plots start with a cliché of some sort and it is the superior writer’s task to take that and see what they can do with it. I’d say that Chris Lloyd and the others on the writing team of Frasier did a fine job of making “High Holidays” into something uniquely “Frasier”. One of the reasons why it was so funny was watching the antics of the totally “anal-retentive” Niles thinking he was high (all the while being in the presence of his Dad who was truly high and *not* even recognizing it!), carefully planning his “rebellion”, researching it, plotting his “uninhibited” responses to his drug-induced “munchies stage” (“I’m thinking of paring this Chilean sea bass with an aggressive Zinfandel!”).

All those elements (and more) made the plot distinctively “Frasier-ian” for me. “High Holidays” beneath the standard of “Frasier”?… poppycock! It took a simple idea and molded it into a classic Frasier episode! :-)

Valma.... you really know your Frasier.
And I agree with you completely.... Frasier is the greatest mixture of all types of comedies (whereas my favorite show, Cheers, never had quite as good phsyical humor as Frasier)

Thank you! :-)) What a nice compliment. :-))

And I think maybe the reason Cheers wasn't as good as Frasier at physical comedy is... they never had David Hyde Pierce. He is a master at pratfalls and has that John Cleese/ Rowan Atkinson elasticity about his body that just begs to be toppled! It was one of the producer’s children that first suggested that DHP be tossed about with abandon – producing the classic scene where he hurls himself into the venting hood on the range in Frasier’s kitchen and ends up ricocheting about the room, ending up on the floor being soothed by Daphne. LOL!! There are sooooo many moments like this that I could spend the rest of the day listing them!!! He is a marvel! :-D