Taps at the Montana
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| “IQ” | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frasier episode | |||||||
| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 18 |
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| Written by | David Lloyd | ||||||
| Directed by | David Lee | ||||||
| Guest stars | Rosemary Murphy (Carol Larkin), Jack Sydow (Alfred Larkin), Randy Doney (Dr. MacLowery), Mimi Hines (Mrs. Latimer), Bill Morey (Mr. Probst), Nina Mann (Miss Finn), Fiona Hale (Mrs. Hawkins), Jack Donner (Mr. Hawkins) | ||||||
| Production no. | 141 | ||||||
| Original airdate | 25 March 1999 | ||||||
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| List of Frasier episodes (Season 6) | |||||||
"Taps at the Montana" is the eighteenth 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
After a meal with Frasier is ruined by the poor wine and the fact that both Daphne and Maris were seated at the tables to next to them in romantic dates with their new boyfriends, Niles reveals that he still has not moved out of the Shangri-La - although he can now afford to move back into the Montana, his apartment is currently occupied by a sub-tenant, Dr. MacLowery, whom Frasier found to move in during Niles' absence. Feeling his life crashing around him, Niles wishes to return home, and so Frasier asks MacLowery to move out early - unfortunately, both brothers discover too late that MacLowery is an avid tapdancer, and the noise from his enthusiastic dance routines have irritated and infuriated the other residents of the building. As a result, representatives from the building's board of tenants - Mr. Probst, a sour old man with a heart condition, and the elderly couple Mr. and Mrs. Larkin - arrive to tell him that the board is seriously considering terminating his lease.
In order to get the board back on his side, Niles and Frasier organise a drinks gathering for the next meeting in order to persuade them to change their minds, with Roz present to stand-in for the caterers, who cancelled. The party does not start off well, however - the guests are hostile, the hors d'oeuvres are slow to appear and Niles' attempts at wit impress no one. And much worse, Niles' pet parrot Baby - who has been trained by the other bachelors at the Shangri-La to repeat insults to Niles - suddenly drops dead after eating at the hors d'oeuvres. As they are being served to the guests, this poses a problem; just after Frasier has managed to retrieve and dispose them, however, it is discovered that the bird actually swallowed one of Daphne's earrings that had fallen out by accident. This means that new snacks will need to be prepared, and in order to distract the increasingly mutinous guests, Niles suggests that they play a party game of 'Murder', in which one guest pretends to murder another and the others must deduce who did it. Unfortunately, whilst everyone is hiding a genuine body is soon provided - selected to be the murderer, Mr. Probst's heart condition catches up with him, and he drops dead next to Roz, his pretend 'victim'.
When he learns what has happened, Niles is near-hysterical - convinced that all anyone will remember is that a guest dropped dead at his party, he despairs that he might as well move out. Frasier, however, hits upon a brainstorm - whilst Martin calls his friends on the police to remove the body as quickly as possible, he will use the game to distract the guests from what is really happening. Calling upon Martin to quickly provide another 'victim' - with Martin fortunate enough to come across a guest whose incessant (and unwelcome) flirting has been irritating him all night - Frasier manages to take the guests into the kitchen to deduce the victim. Stretching the game to its limits, he manages to distract the long-suffering guests for long enough that, by the time they finally rebel and storm out, Mr. Probst has been removed and the guests convinced that he has merely returned home, unwell. Mr. Larkin then reveals that he doesn't particularly like Probst anyway, and that he and the other members of the board were planning to vote Niles back in to irritate him anyway; Niles calls the vote for that moment, and he is voted in before the guests hurriedly depart. As they leave, Niles promises that his apartment from that point on will be the quietest in the building - just as Roz, shaken from her close proximity to the body of Probst, discovers the body of Baby in the fridge and registers her displeasure with a loud, horrified scream.
