Occasionally, Hollywood presents up two tasks with almost equivalent premises at the very same time. Volcano and Dante’s Peak each got here out in 1997, Armageddon and Deep Affect additionally hit theaters in 1997, and the autumn of 2006 discovered NBC airing each Studio 60 on the Sundown Strip and 30 Rock — though, to be honest, the latter contained zero scenes wherein Liz Lemon’s dad and mom guilted her for not serving in Afghanistan.
A much less well-known instance of this phenomenon occurred again in 1993. Everyone knows Frasier, the enduring present a few fussy psychiatrist who’s compelled to dwell together with his curmudgeonly father. However simply 10 days earlier than it aired on NBC, Fox premiered a sitcom known as Daddy Dearest, all about… a fussy psychiatrist who’s compelled to dwell together with his curmudgeonly father.
What’s most notable about Daddy Dearest is that it starred the late Richard Lewis within the Bizarro Frasier position, and legendary insult comedian Don Rickles as his dad. After all, there are some essential variations between the 2 sitcoms. As an illustration, Lewis’ Dr. Steven Mitchell doesn’t have a radio present, and lives together with his younger son (as a substitute of simply abandoning him in Boston, like Frasier). And Rickles character Al isn’t a wounded cop, he’s simply separated from his spouse (and, judging from the pilot, far more uncomfortably sexy than Martin Crane).
Nonetheless, it’s fairly odd that these two exhibits with almost the identical setups ended up debuting lower than two weeks aside. As only one instance of the shared narrative DNA, early episodes of Daddy Dearest targeted on how the primary character’s single life was continuously being upended by his father’s intrusive presence.
Which clearly turned a serious element of Frasier as nicely.
This community synchronicity didn’t go unnoticed by the press on the time, both. An article in The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported on the competing exhibits’ “equivalent premises.” They even identified that Dr. Mitchell, not not like Dr. Crane, had a “wimpy brother,” and famous that “usually TV waits for an thought to be a success, earlier than it rips it off.”
From all accounts, Daddy Dearest was simply an instance of parallel considering. “What are the percentages?” requested creator Billy Van Zandt, when he found that his present (initially titled My Son the Bastard) was so just like NBC’s Cheers spin-off.
Stranger but, Daddy Dearest almost shared a plot level with one other NBC comedy. In response to Van Zandt, Lewis’ character was initially presupposed to be divorced as a result of his spouse had come out as homosexual, anticipating Ross’ backstory in Mates. However, on the time, Fox advised him, “Coca-Cola sponsors gained’t purchase any time if she’s a lesbian.”
A overview in The New York Day by day Information singled out one enormous distinction between the 2 exhibits: Whereas Frasier was “terrific,” Daddy’s Dearest was “horrible.” In the long run, Frasier ran for a complete of 11 seasons, and Daddy Dearest solely lasted 11 episodes.
At the very least the theme tune for Daddy Dearest wasn’t full nonsense.
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