How to Bury a Millionaire (Frasier)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “How to Bury a Millionaire” | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frasier episode | |||||||
| Episode no. | Season 06 Episode 07 |
||||||
| Written by | Lori Kirkland Baker | ||||||
| Directed by | Pamela Fryman | ||||||
| Guest stars | Michael McShane (Frank), William Dennis Hunt (Mr. Draper) | ||||||
| Production no. | 40571-128 | ||||||
| Original airdate | November 12, 1998 | ||||||
|
|||||||
"How to Bury a Millionaire" is the seventh episode in the sixth series of the American NBC television sitcom Frasier.
[edit] Main cast and characters
Kelsey Grammer – Dr. Frasier Crane
David Hyde Pierce – Dr. Niles Crane
John Mahoney – Martin Crane
Jane Leeves – Daphne Moon
Peri Gilpin – Roz Doyle
[edit] Plot outline
Driving to Niles' apartment at the Montana with the intention of taking him to dinner, Frasier and Martin are astonished to see Niles drive past them in a cheap hatchback; when Niles sees them, he makes haste to get away from them as quick as possible. Bewildered by his actions and incensed by his bare-faced claims that he is in his apartment when calling him on his car phone to question him, Frasier eventually gets Niles to admit that he has been forced by his on-going divorce from Maris to buy a cheaper car, as his Mercedes has been repossessed. Back in his apartment, Frasier suggests that they make a list of his expenses in order to enable him to economise; it soon becomes apparent that his apartment is by and far his greatest expense. Although Niles insists that it is a modest apartment (despite having three floors and possessing a library, a study and a gift-wrapping room) and pleads that his ability to get into the Montana was a necessary ego-boost after his wife's abandonment, Frasier eventually convinces him that he has no choice but to move out in order to avoid bankruptcy.
Taking pity on his brother, Frasier allows Niles to stay at his apartment; after two weeks, however, Niles' picky habits have started to wear on the nerves of everyone else present. After a job interview is ruined when Frasier over-sleeps as a result of his brother's fussy and annoying bedtime routine when sharing a room with him, Frasier is incensed to learn from Roz that Niles has been going to the cinema instead of apartment-hunting as he claimed. It is the last straw; outraged that Niles has been taking advantage of his sympathy, Frasier vows to help Niles find an apartment. To that end, after a long day of apartment searching, both men find themselves at the Shangri-La, a cheap bachelor's apartment complex that falls well below their high standards; unfortunately for Niles, however, it is the best that he can afford, and upon learning that he has outstayed his welcome at Frasier's, Niles has no choice but to move in.
Later, however, Frasier feels guilty about forcing his brother to move into a substandard apartment, and he is shaken when he learns that the Shangri-La is what Martin considers an ideal apartment. When Frasier and Martin visit Niles that night, they find him wearing a Hawaiian shirt, apparently settling in and making friends with the other men in the complex. Frasier is convinced that he is merely in denial, and when Martin announces that the Shangri-La is 'my kind of place', Niles' facade shatters. Convinced that he will not be able to survive in the Shangri-La, Niles becomes hysterical and initially attempts to contact Maris to beg her to take him back, but upon hearing her voice on the phone he rediscovers his resolve not to fall under her thumb again. Frasier and Martin convince him that his stay at the Shangri-La will only be temporary, and is a necessary price for his freedom from Maris; heartened, Niles signs his lease and accepts their invitation to dinner.
