TEXT: ACT ONE Scene One - Café Nervosa Niles comes into the Café just as Frasier is saying goodbye to another man, who leaves. Frasier: Hello, Niles. Niles: Frasier, was that the author Dr. Gordon Edelstein? Frasier: Yes. Niles: I wasn't aware you knew him! Frasier: Yes, well, we just met. You see, the station is hiring another call-in psychiatrist for a one-week trial period, and they've asked me to choose among the finalists. Niles: Well, he'd be wonderful! I just finished his book on the victims of obsessive-compulsive disorder. [wiping down his chair] Poor, tic-ridden devils! [sits] Frasier: Niles, before you take out your utensil chamois, I've got to tell you I have another interview in just a few minutes, all right? Though it's going to be tough to top Dr. Edelstein. Niles: I must say, you're taking this rather well. Frasier: What do you mean. Niles: Many people in your position would feel threatened at the thought of... well, another cat sharing the litter-box. Frasier: Your flattering analogy aside, Niles, I take it as a tribute. Obviously, the station is so pleased with my show that they're looking for more of the same. They could hardly ask me to do another three hours. Imagine how exhausting that would be. Niles: And for you as well. Anyway, moving on to me, what's the verdict? Frasier: Verdict? Niles: On my new look. I must say, you deserve some of the credit. Frasier: Really? Niles: Well, yes, you keep saying I should accept Daphne's relationship with Donny and find a paramour of my own. Well, the hunt is on! I thought to bolster my self-esteem I would adopt this raffish new look! Frasier: Well, it suits you. Dashing, and yet understated, and, uh... oh, I give up, what are we talking
SUMMARY:
Frasier is in Café Nervosa interviewing candidates for a new radio psychiatrist at KACL, whose show will run alongside his own. He thinks he has found an unbeatable contender (Dr. Gordon Edelstein), and Niles, who knows his work, expects him to be right. In the end, however, he recommends Dr. Nora Fairchild, who spends most of her interview paying him compliments, even pretending to think Niles is the older brother. Frasier feels proud to have a protégé, until he actually hears her in action. She turns out to be an advocate of old-fashioned values, condemning pre-marital sex, divorce, single parenthood and the like, and her approach to therapy is not so much constructive criticism as outright abuse. Frasier is embarrassed and angry and withdraws his recommendation, however it turns out that this is no longer a factor; Dr. Nora attracts so much attention (positive and negative) that Kenny wants to keep her on and decides to make her a permanent fixture. When she openly criticises Frasier's advice to one particular caller on air and makes clear her intention to undermine and embarrass him at every opportunity, he and Roz decide on a declaration of war. Roz is able to find proof that Nora is a hypocrite and doesn't even have a medical degree of any kind- she is a gym teacher instead, but Frasier has second thoughts about stooping to Nora's level. Fortunately, Niles has been listening to this caller and the way Dr. Nora dealt with her, and he has a more subtle way of approaching the problem: find her mother and use her to find the problems with Nora's abusive approach. That turned out to be a terrible idea as she reveals herself to be much, much worse than Nora, abusing her on the air and causing Nora to scream and cry bloody murder out of KACL with her monstrous mother in pursuit, with it heavily implied to have happened dozens of times before.