Frasier: Season 10 (2002)

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As Season Ten of Frasier begins, Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and Daphne (Jane Leeves) have bypassed their meticulously planned wedding by eloping to Reno, leaving a multitude of hurt feelings amongst their various family members in their wake. And Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Roz (Peri Gilpin) are still trying to make sense of their impulsive romantic night together. In later episodes, newly divorced KACL radio station owner Kenny (Tom McGowan), who has chosen a reluctant Frasier as his "mentor", briefly finds a kindred spirit in Roz's younger cousin Jen (Zooey Deschanel), a woman no one else can stand. And when his son Frederick (Trevor Einhorn) asks Frasier to deliver a speech in Hebrew at the boy's Bar Mitzvah, Frasier enters into a bizarre bargain with KACL's resident Star Trek freak Noel Shempsky (Patrick Kerr). The season is highlighted by a seriocomic three-part episode in which Niles (David Hyde Pierce) comes face to face with his own mortality when he undergoes heart bypass surgery, an event that has a curious effort on Niles' marriage to Daphne (Jane Leeves)--to say nothing of his brother Frasier's radio show. Later, Daphne will become an "official" Crane by dint of her hosting one of the worst dinner parties in recorded history. And, oh yes, there'll soon be a baby on the way--just as soon as Niles and Daphne get around to conceiving, that is. Also: the episode "The Harrassed" introduces future "Desperate Housewife" Felicity Huffman as KACL's new financial analyst Julia Wilcox, who by season's end will become the latest in a long line of women whom Frasier cannot live without. Frasier's ex-wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) shows up to ask a teeny-iny favor involving artificial insemination. And Dr. Phil McGraw becomes the object of Frasier's wrath merely by hiring Frasier's former agent, the redoubtable Bebe (Harriet Sansom Harris). As for the Crane brothers' dad Martin (John Mahoney), As for Martin, he tentatively reactives his relationship with Cora (Emily Yancy), the mother of Frasier's contentious neighbor Cam Winston. In in the season finale, Roz prepares to quit her job as Frasier's producer and leave Seattle forever--a decision largely motivated by her outrage over the burgeoning romance between Frasier and Julia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi