Crock Tales is the 22nd episode of Season 11 on NBC series Frasier.
Synopsis[]
AN OLD CROCK TELLS TALES - ROSIE PEREZ ("Do the Right Thing") GUEST STARS - Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) stumbles across an old Earthenware Crock in his kitchen that brings back many tales and memories, including Roz's (Peri Gilpin) failed attempt to set Frasier up with her obnoxious friend Lisbeth, (guest star Rosie Perez) which turned into a sticky situation.
Plot[]
Frasier chips a crock-pot and is about to throw it out until he recollects the memories he had with the item. The episode then goes into flashback segments, each with an assigned year.
2003: Niles and Daphne are back from Tahiti, their honeymoon place and Roz tries to set Frasier up with Lizbeth, her friend.
2002: It's Cinco de Mayo and Roz's birthday. Niles and Daphne enjoy their active sex life.
1999: It's Independence Day and Frasier, dressed in a full Uncle Sam outfit, is about to take part in a Fourth of July parade.
1998: It's Thanksgiving, Frasier is still unemployed, making Daphne worried that she will be fired due to lack of money. Niles is finally divorced and unhappily living in the Shangri-La. Roz gets a temporary job at a phone sex line.
1996: Niles is married to Maris, Roz is single, and Frasier has more unsuccessful dates.
1993: The setting is when Frasier's hair was longer, Daphne's in a bouffant, and with all the original clothing styles. Frasier and Martin are still not getting along together fine and Kenny Daly appears as a pizzaman hoping to become big in Seattle radio.
After the flashbacks, Frasier fixes the pot and brings it to the table. Then, when all the guests have arrived, he fills it with water and it all leaks from the cracks.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane
- Jane Leeves as Daphne Moon
- David Hyde Pierce as Niles Crane
- Peri Gilpin as Roz Doyle
- John Mahoney as Martin Crane
Special Guest Star[]
- Rosie Perez as Lizbeth
Supporting Cast[]
Trivia[]
- This is, presumably, a "clip show" which is typically a cheap/easy way to add an episode to a series using flashbacks to previously-shot material. However, all the flashbacks in the episode were newly-shot with the actors made up to appear as they looked in earlier episodes, so no actual previous material is used.
- Niles scowls when Frasier's blind-date wants a wine spritzer. Twenty television seasons earlier, this was actually the first drink Frasier himself ordered at the bar in Cheers.
- Rosie Perez was the original choice for the role of Daphne until the character was changed from Latina to English, leading to Jane Leeves getting the role instead.
- Over the course of the series, neither Niles nor Roz celebrate their birthdays. However, there is a scene in this episode in which Roz walks into Frasier's Apartment to celebrate her birthday, which is May 5. She comments "Sorry, I'm late. Cinco de Mayo traffic was muy malo (very bad)."
- In 1993, Kenny Daly appears as a pizza delivery man, sporting the look of a typical rock and metal music fan with long hair and dark clothes, namely a band t-shirt, which sharply contrasts with his normal "later" clean cut appearance; he attempts to make talk with Frasier about being "in the radio game" and requests if Frasier would put in a good word for him at KACL, only to be blown off by Frasier, creating a retroactive irony where Kenny later becomes the station manager anyway, albeit as a very submissive boss to Frasier who never holds a grudge and caves to others' authority anyway.
- When playing their younger selves in this episode, the cast had to use various hairpieces, hair dyes, et cetera, to resemble their younger selves in the flashback sequences. David Hyde Pierce also wore a hairpiece for the same reason in The Return of Martin Crane.