The Show Must Go Off (Frasier episode)

Infobox Television episode | Title = The Show Must Go Off
Series = Frasier
Season = 8
Episode = 12
Airdate = 6 February 2001
Production =
Writer = Mark Reisman
Director = Robert H. Egan
Guests = Derek Jacobi (Jackson Hedley)
Patrick Macnee (Cecil Hedley)
Jonathan Adams (fire marshal)
Prev = Motor Skills
Next = Sliding Frasiers

"The Show Must Go Off" is the twelfth episode in season 8 of American sitcom "Frasier". The title is an inversion of the popular theatrical saying: "the show must go on".

Cast and characters

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

Recurring cast

*Patrick Kerr – Noel Shempsky

Plot outline

While attending a science fiction convention for the benefit of his son, Frasier espies Jackson Hedley, an actor whom he remembers from childhood; it was this man who first introduced him to the delights of Shakespeare. He has long since given up the stage, and now plays an android in the television show "Space Patrol". Frasier thinks (and Niles later agrees with him) that this is a great loss to the theatre, and the brothers decide to revive Hedley's career by producing a one-man show for him. Hedley is delighted by the proposition. However, when they see him in action, the brothers start to have their doubts as to whether it is really such a good idea.

Episode title cards

*"Trodding the bards"
*"Curtains"

Cultural references

*When Frasier and Niles present him with a stage, Jackson Hedley delivers an excerpt from Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet", (Hamlet's dying words).
*On the videotape of his one-man show, Hedley performs an excerpt from "King Lear", (Lear in the storm).
*While reassuring his producers, Hedley quotes some lines ("stiffen the sinews…") from the history play "Henry V", (from the famous speech at the siege of Harfleur).
*When trying to set off the fire sprinkler in the theatre, Frasier declaims: "the rain, it raineth every day". This line comes from the end of the comedy "Twelfth Night", (the refrain of the clown's song).

Trivia

*Daphne doesn't appear in this episode as Jane Leeves was on maternity leave.
*Derek Jacobi won the 2001 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance in this episode.