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8 stories from NBC's days of 'Must See TV'

From 'Friends' to 'Seinfeld,' Warren Littlefield delves into the world behind NBC's blockbuster Thursday night comedies in 'Top of the Rock.'

5. 'Frasier'

Reed Saxon/AP

  • By Molly Driscoll

Actor David Hyde Pierce remembers watching his co-star Kelsey Grammer rehearse with guest stars before an episode. "Kelsey's approach is very cavalier," he said. "He would be running the lines in the makeup room the night of the show, and you'd watch the color drain out of the guest star's face, because it seemed like Kelsey didn't know anything. But he'd get it in his head. He believed firmly in the spontaneity and an actor thinking as a real human being, which is what happens when you're coming up with what you're going to say in real life as opposed to having memorized it." 

Pierce says he's determined never to do a reunion of the show. "Frasier was important for me," he said. "The people I got to work with, the time we spent. I don't want to mess with that.... I don't want people to see us and say, 'Wow. What happened?' It's bad enough when people see reruns and ask me, 'Wow. What happened?'"

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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