As the great Krusty the Clown reminded us all during the episode of “The Simpsons” where David Hyde Pierce guest-starred, “The joke’s only funny when the sap’s got dignity.” While Frasier and his brother might suffer from an overabundance of ego and a persistent lack of self-awareness, dignity might be the one thing they actually manage to pull off — at least before they invariably sabotage themselves in some ridiculous manner. Which is probably why farce worked so well throughout every season of “Frasier,” despite its otherwise more sophisticated approach to comedy. Having the dignified Dr. Crane and his brother frequently finding themselves brought swiftly down to earth was never not funny.
But in “The Ski Lodge,” everyone becomes the butt of the joke by the episode’s end, with each individual member of the group ending up in the wrong bedroom before they all discover they’ve been getting their signals crossed all night. In Yahoo!’s oral history of the episode writer/director Joe Keenan recalled the unique challenges this particular farce, with its large ensemble, presented.
As Keenan remembered, by season five, the show had never done a “full-blown bedroom farce,” and with so many players involved in the story, he and the writing team had to make sure they planned things out carefully. The idea they came up with was that Frasier would be chasing Daphne’s friend, Annie, who’d be chasing Niles, who’d be chasing Daphne, who’d be chasing Gui, who’d be chasing Niles. Unsurprisingly, writing the actual episode based on that premise proved a tad tricky.