TEXT: [Act 1] [Scene 1 - Café Nervosa. Frasier, Niles and Martin are all sitting at a table outside the Café. Niles is busy examining his coffee intently.] Niles: Is it me or is the foam a tad dense today? Frasier: Like a dreary fog on a Scottish moor. Niles: Rather than accent it overwhelms. Rather than flirt it assaults. Martin: [annoyed] Rather than watching the ballgame I have to listen to this. [Roz comes over to join them.] Roz: Hey, you guys. All: Hey, Roz. Roz: Frasier, don't forget your staff meeting tomorrow. It starts at... [A man comes and sits down at the nearby table. Roz just stops talking and can't take her eyes off him.] Frasier: Well, I certainly hope his tailor can fix the two holes you've just burned in his jacket! Roz: They're not in his jacket! It starts tomorrow at ten. Hey, Marty. What are you doing here? Martin: They're dragging me out to buy some new clothes. Niles: We're taking him out to Rodolfo's once-a-year sale. It's fifty per cent off. Alterations are free. Martin: Big deal. "Bud's Clothing" do that every day. Frasier: Yes, not to mention the convenience of getting your "BigFoot" pizza right next door. Martin: These guys think I have bad taste in clothes. Roz: Well, I like the way you dress. Niles: I believe that's what's called "the clincher." Shall we go? Martin: [getting up] All right. Well I'll just hit the head and we can get it over with. Niles: Dad, you could show a little more enthusiasm. Martin: OK. [fake enthusiasm as he goes inside the Café] Gee, I can't wait to hit the head and we can get it all over with. [Roz is still busy staring at the guy across the table which Niles notices.] Niles:
SUMMARY:
From an outdoor table at the Cafe Nervosa, Frasier and Niles spot T.H. Houghton ( Robert Prosky ), an author they idolised from childhood, whose one and only work was a landmark novel called Time Flies Tomorrow . Wanting to speak to him, they follow him, but lose track of him, later finding him at a sports bar talking to Martin, who he becomes friends with. When Houghton visits Frasier's apartment, he accidentally leaves his satchel behind, which contains a manuscript of his long-awaited new book. Frasier and Niles read it and consider it a masterpiece, but in trying to praise Houghton, they convince him that the novel is hopelessly derivative and he destroys it before it can be published.