As every fan knows, Frasier jumped the shark when Niles married Daphne, and the recent swan song season was a slick and standardised sitcom compared to the prickly barbs and formal daring of the early years.
Indeed, after a rather timid transitional year relocating Frasier from Boston to Seattle, the Crane family really came into its own in this second run, embracing the verbal dexterity and high farce that became the shows hallmarks.
At its best, Frasier is at once the most demanding and undemanding of diversions, as silly as it is sharp.