A Frasier spin-off that never aired: Maris and Vera

[Pat]

The funniest characters on both Cheers and its spinoff Frasier were the never-seen wives of two major characters: Vera, barfly Norm’s wife; and Maris, Dr. Niles Crane’s wife. On this rare double spinoff, Vera and Maris meet in an online chat room for neglected spouses and agree to leave their husbands in Seattle and Boston, respectively, and start a new life in the geographic midpoint between those cities: Alexandria, Minnesota. Casting directors were perplexed as to how to cast the two characters who had been described in hilarious, improbable ways. The solution was that they didn’t cast anybody at all. Maris, still hysterical and impossibly thin, was only spoken of, derisively, by her co-workers at an Alexandria department store. Vera’s new boyfriend, George, complained about Vera and her nagging to his friends at a bar.

Taken directly from: http://www.funnyordie.com/lists/27cd...at-never-aired

[Pat]

Here's the most anyone ever saw of Norm's wife.

[Pat]

I know this has been kicked around a bit, but I think if there was a Niles and Daphne spin-off, the success would fall on the writers, of course. I'm saying this after reading many articles where others think that such a spin-off could not have held its own without Frasier.

[Schmoopie]

That would have been absolutely hilarious to have Vera and Maris in their own sitcom! As much as I miss Niles I don't really think a sitcom with Niles and Daphne alone would have done very well or lasted very long. I would have watched it of course, but it wouldn't have the same charm as Frasier does, IMO.

[bingbangbaby]

Originally Posted by Schmoopie

As much as I miss Niles I don't really think a sitcom with Niles and Daphne alone would have done very well or lasted very long. I would have watched it of course, but it wouldn't have the same charm as Frasier does, IMO.

I agree, it would not have lasted as long as is, and it wouldn't have had the same charm. But that is the trick in making a successful spin-off-- good writers who can change the characters just slightly enough to stand in their own show, and give it it's own special charm. After all, out of all the Cheers characters, would you ever have picked Frasier as the one to have a spin-off? And would you ever have thought it would have been successful? I know I would not have, on either question. It worked because they changed the Frasier character slightly and gave him a whole new situation and charm.
That's what they would have had to do with a N&D spinoff, and it would have had to be really smart and really fresh for it to have worked. But I do think with the right situation and the right writers, just like Frasier, it could have had just as good a chance as any to have been successful.