Can Frasier afford his apartment?

There’s a fun article that a number of people have sent me by Gabriella Paiella of GQ called “How Did Frasier Afford His Apartment?”   By doing some research and crunching the numbers she determined that Frasier could not meet the mortgage payments of his condo.   Of her numbers she compiled, the only one that was way off was his salary as a talk show host of a Seattle radio station.  She claims he would have made $27,000 a year.  I was announcing for the Mariners in the ‘90s and can tell you it would have been considerably more.  Probably $100,000 and I suspect even more. 

Ms. Paiella then consulted longtime FRASIER writer/producer, Joe Keenan who reasoned that Frasier invested well.  That sounds legitimate.  No one ever brought this subject up the many times I was in the FRASIER writing room, but I totally buy it. 

You can read the article here.

My alternate answer though, would be: No one in sitcoms could afford their apartments.  

Unless a downsized apartment or house was necessary for the premise (e.g. ALL IN THE FAMILY, THE MIDDLE, or ROSEANNE), viewers gladly sacrificed reality.   Good luck doing THE HONEYMOONERS today. 

Sitcoms, for the most part, have to be inviting.  I contend that the big reason TAXI did not get the love and audience it should have was because it was set in a grimy garage.  People didn’t want to see that every week.   Even though MASH was set in a war zone, it was single-camera, brightly colored, and had scope. 

What could the FRIENDS apartment in Manhattan cost?   Monica would have to be making Courtney Cox money.  And whenever a character is supposed to be single and starting out they invariably live the coolest loft that city has to offer.   If apartments or lofts aren’t big, they’re super fun cozy with lots of levels.  There are landings, and alcoves, large picture windows, and all have high ceilings (which accommodate the stage lights). 

There’s another reason for this besides just the aesthetics.  Larger apartments are easier to shoot.  Since most of these shows are shot before a studio audience, cameras are rolling during the action.  If sets are too small you can’t get good shots of faces.   You’ll notice that apartment sets are wide, they’re never deep.  And if they are somewhat deep (a la FRASIER), it’s easy to roll cameras up into the set.  There are also “ports.”  These are panels in the side walls of sets that slide out so a camera can peek through.   So Frasier and Niles can be way up by the balcony and we could shoot them.  Just a side note:  I think the Frasier apartment is the single greatest multi-cam set ever.  It was created by Roy Christopher. 

The point is a lot of thinking goes into designing these home sets.  Last on the list is whether the character can afford it.  Which is good because none of them can.  


from By Ken Levine