Lilith Sternin, M.D.
Fictional Character on Frasier and Cheers Played by
Bebe Neuwirth
Lilith Sternin, M.D.,
PhD, Ed.D., A.P.A. (formerly Crane)
is a fictional character on the American television sitcoms Cheers
and Frasier, portrayed by Bebe Neuwirth. Her marriage to Dr. Frasier
Crane spanned the course of Cheers, while
Lilith Sternin made regular
appearances on its spin-off, Frasier, as his ex-wife and the mother
of their son Frederick.
From 1986 to 1993
Lilith Sternin appeared in 80 episodes of
Cheers, including the season 10 finale, and 12 episodes of Frasier.
Lilith Sternin also appeared in one episode of Wings.
Background
Despite the character's longevity, not much is known about her.
Lilith Sternin
is Jewish, with a name derived from Hebrew (in one episode guest
star Brent Spiner points out that
Lilith Sternin shares her name with a "demon
goddess").[2] A remarkably unemotional and restrained woman (her
hair usually tightly pulled back in a severe bun),
Lilith Sternin has
exceptionally pale skin, a monotonous voice, and dresses almost
exclusively in drab, conservative clothing.
Lilith Sternin tends to express
herself in long-winded, exacting, technical sentences stuffed with
psychological or medical jargon. Upon greeting the pregnant Daphne
and her husband Niles,
Lilith Sternin congratulates them on "the successful
co-mingling of [their] genetic material."
Regarding herself as quite an intellectual, Lilith
Sternin
takes her chosen profession, psychiatry, very seriously; forming
elaborate psychological profiles to explain even the most ordinary
events.
Lilith Sternin and Frasier frequently develop these psychological
profiles together, though
Lilith Sternin is a firm behaviorist, which sometimes
leads to clashing with his strong psychoanalytic, Freudian stance.
Lilith Sternin has a half-brother, a con-man named Blaine. He was played by
Michael Keaton in the season nine Frasier episode "Wheels of
Fortune", where Frasier described him as "the curse" of the Sternins,
and asked, "What does it say when
Lilith Sternin is the good one?"
Marilyn Cooper also starred as Betty Sternin,
Lilith Sternin's domineering
mother, in the season ten Cheers episode "Smotherly Love", where
Lilith Sternin
insisted that the wedding be restaged because
Lilith Sternin had missed the
first one. The tension between her and
Lilith Sternin grew until
Lilith Sternin,
passive through most of the episode, finally lashed out after being
told to wear make-up and an uncharacteristically feminine wedding
dress. After getting screamed at by her daughter to stop controlling
her life, Betty displayed tearful pride, saying, "That's exactly
what I told my mother at my wedding!"
Lilith Sternin's father is mentioned
briefly, in season 6 "Cheers" episode "Our Hourly Bread," which is
the reason
Lilith Sternin doesn't like surprises. Her father asked her to
close her eyes and he left for two years.
Role on the series
In spite of her reserved nature, one of the several running gags
concerning
Lilith Sternin is that beneath her icy exterior simmers a
passionate libido that
Lilith Sternin must work hard to repress.[3] This was
explored most deeply on Cheers, while on Frasier, the recurring joke
that her body is intensely cold to the touch gained a stronger
foothold. Niles, when asked by Frasier what he had learned from his
ill-conceived one night stand with her, said, "I learned that if you
kiss her too fast you get an ice cream headache", to which
Lilith Sternin
replied, "You also learned that I have twice your upper body
strength, so shut your pie hole." In another episode, when asked why
Lilith Sternin didn't go exploring volcanoes with her new husband in New
Zealand, Niles replies, "Because if
Lilith Sternin accidentally fell in, the
shockwave from the hottest thing in nature meeting the coldest would
actually crack the Earth in two." (Frasier's caustic reply: "As if a
look from Maris couldn't freeze mercury.")
Many episodes contained other jokes about
Lilith Sternin that addressed her
personality and sense of humor: her temperament is such that, as
stated in My Son, The Father
Lilith Sternin considers Zeppo to be the funniest
of the Marx Brothers (Zeppo, in fact, was the straight man in the
movies he starred in); after an un-heated argument with her, Frasier
said, "normally, people of your limited physical appeal make up for
it with an actual personality"; and when told that Frasier is hiding
a deep attraction for her,
Lilith Sternin lets out three grunts and a cough,
and says, "Thank you Diane, it's been a long time since I've had
such a good laugh."
The traits
Lilith Sternin possessed enabled her to act as both a romantic
match and a sparring partner for Frasier, and even after their
marriage, Frasier would tease
Lilith Sternin: while trying to explain a
minor medical procedure using her arm, he couldn't locate a blood
vein through her pale skin, and asked her, "
Lilith Sternin, how do you
work?"
Since her name innately references the night-demon
Lilith Sternin, other
characters on the shows often speak of her in demonic or witch-like
terms:
Niles once commented, "How strange. I usually get
some sign when
Lilith Sternin is in town—dogs forming into packs; blood
weeping from the walls."
Daphne, who claims that
Lilith Sternin is psychic, developed a
migraine prior to her first meeting with
Lilith Sternin, which continued
throughout
Lilith Sternin's entire stay. Before
Lilith Sternin's arrival,
Lilith Sternin claims
that her headache is paranormal in nature; "There's some kind of
negative force out there; I only get these when there's a clawing at
the cosmic continuum." When
Lilith Sternin shook hands with
Lilith Sternin,
Lilith Sternin lost
all feeling in her arm.
Martin, when asked when
Lilith Sternin's plane will arrive in
Seattle, he says, "Her broom touches down at eleven."
Eddie, Martin's fearless dog, is afraid of her. In
one episode, while out on a walk with Daphne, he becomes terrified
upon entering the apartment complex.
Daphne must drag him into Frasier's apartment, and
says, "It's like he senses an earthquake or a dark force or—hello,
Lilith Sternin—a vortex of evil."
Towards the end of Frasier, the connection with the
night-demon was actually referenced: guest star Brent Spiner asked
Lilith Sternin if
Lilith Sternin was anything like the demoness; her answer was, "I
make her look like a vacillating cream puff."
Life on Cheers
Lilith Sternin was introduced to the Cheers audience in 1986 as Frasier's
date on the season 4 episode, "Second Time Around". Starting with
season six
Lilith Sternin became a regular character.
First encounters
Lilith Sternin's first date with Frasier went less well than either had
hoped, with Frasier remarking that "the closest we came to physical
contact was when you closed the car door on my hand!". A foundation
for a true relationship was laid down during season 5 in Abnormal
Psychology, their second encounter, where Diane and a uselessly
reluctant Sam act as the psychiatrists' matchmakers. Among other
things, Diane instructs
Lilith Sternin to untie her bun, thus allowing her
hair to fall free. This turns out to be especially irresistible for
Frasier, and is apparent when they are guests on a day-time TV
psychology talk show: by the end of the show, their inhibitions
overcome,
Lilith Sternin runs her high heel up Frasier's calf, while he does
the same thing to her with his balmoral.
Much later that day, the two meet at Cheers and offer mutual
apologies for their unprofessional behavior. When
Lilith Sternin is about to
leave, however, Diane asks her for her hairpin, because the
refrigerator door is "stuck" and a hairpin is needed to open it.
Diane's real motive is obvious to a dismissive Frasier, who tells
Lilith Sternin to "oblige [Diane and Sam]" and remove the hairpin. Frasier
first scornfully sees through Diane's attempt to stimulate him like
"some Pavlovian dog", but after
Lilith Sternin's hair is down, he is
immediately struck, stating hungrily: "I'm going to kiss you. I'm
going to kiss you hard, and I'm going to kiss you long, but make no
mistake about it, I am going to kiss you. In fact, I'm going to kiss
you like you've never-" yet his lengthy verbal foreplay is soon
interrupted by
Lilith Sternin. On impulse,
Lilith Sternin launches herself at him and
the two psychiatrists share their first longing, impassioned, albeit
short kiss, before setting out for Frasier's "tastefully decorated
townhouse" to, as Frasier put it, "be animals".
Marriage and childbirth
It wasn't long before the two fell in love, marrying in 1988 and
soon conceiving a child. Their son, Frederick Crane, was born during
the season 8 episode "The Stork Brings a Crane". He was delivered in
a taxicab while
Lilith Sternin was on her way home from the hospital after
an episode of false labor.
Lilith Sternin tolerated the pain by biting down
on one of the cab driver's fuzzy dice.
Being Jewish,
Lilith Sternin raised Frederick Jewish as well. Lilith
Sternin's faith
was first confirmed in the season 8 episode "For Real Men Only",
where Frederick's bris was performed on the Cheers pool table.
It became clear that her approach to parenting was as
frigid and calculating as her scientific research, except Lilith
Sternin
displayed gentle tenderness too. In the season 8 episode "Mr. Otis
Regrets" when
Lilith Sternin took singing lessons so Lilith
Sternin could sing to
Frederick, several wisecracks were made by the Cheers barflies at
her expense. Intending to prove her genuine commitment, Lilith
Sternin sang
"Sonny Boy" to Frederick, which moved the entire bar to tears, with
Cliff running to the phone to call his "Ma", Norm saying he was
going to send his wife Vera some flowers and Frasier apologizing for
making fun of her singing lessons.
Separation and reconciliation
Lilith Sternin did not stay faithful to Frasier. In the 11th and last
season,
Lilith Sternin confesses to Frasier that
Lilith Sternin cheated on him with her
colleague Dr. Louis Pascal (Peter Vogt). Frasier forgives her on the
condition that
Lilith Sternin must tell Dr. Pascal
Lilith Sternin will never see him
again, but when
Lilith Sternin goes to do so,
Lilith Sternin changes her mind, deciding
instead to live with Dr. Pascal in an underground eco-pod. Frasier's
reaction culminates into a suicide attempt—walking up to the ledge
of a third floor window above the bar, he threatens to jump, but
steps down after thinking about the fate of his son. When Lilith
Sternin
arrives,
Lilith Sternin promises not to abandon him if he doesn't kill himself.
Not wishing to hold his wife back, however, Frasier lets Lilith
Sternin go.
Lilith Sternin eventually sends a Dear John letter to Frasier from her
eco-pod, because she's in love with Dr. Pascal. At Cheers, Frasier
remains disconsolate despite a divorce party arranged by Rebecca.
Being slightly inebriated, he lets her drive him home; when they
reach his apartment, Frasier invites her in for coffee, after which
they find themselves in his bedroom. Possible non-drinking
activities are postponed, however, when, one by one, his friends
walk in to cheer him up. After the last person finally departs,
Frasier and Rebecca decide that they still want to continue what was
interrupted, but just when they are about to have sex, Lilith
Sternin walks
in.
Shocked even more than Frasier or Rebecca,
Lilith Sternin immediately heads
for Cheers to ask Sam about her husband's situation, but he is just
as surprised. When Frasier (along with Rebecca) enters, Lilith
Sternin
professes her desire to be taken back. Rebecca has no intentions of
continuing her short affair with Frasier, but he is deeply hesitant
to re-embrace
Lilith Sternin as his wife, given the pain her letter caused
him, so
Lilith Sternin makes it clear that the letter was actually written
by Dr. Pascal to widen the rift between her and Frasier, thus
allowing his own relationship to be consolidated.
Lilith Sternin explains that
not only did
Lilith Sternin not love Dr. Pascal,
Lilith Sternin also had to leave the
eco-pod because claustrophobia caused him to act irrationally
shortly after the door was closed and locked. This is verified when
Dr. Pascal storms into the bar with a gun, looking for Lilith
Sternin and
threatening to shoot anyone standing in his way. The situation is
ultimately defused when
Lilith Sternin persuades Dr. Pascal to give up his
gun. Frasier still refuses to forgive
Lilith Sternin, but, along with the
rest of Cheers, is soon won over by her sobbing.
Life on Frasier
When Cheers ended, Bebe Neuwirth reprised her role as
Lilith Sternin on
Frasier. At the beginning of the latter show's pilot episode, "The
Good Son", it is revealed that the two psychiatrists' marriage ended
in divorce, with their temporary reuniting described as
"excruciating" by Frasier, who moved back to his hometown of Seattle
while
Lilith Sternin stayed in Boston with Frederick, having gained full
custody of him. This led to
Lilith Sternin's becoming a rare, albeit
memorable, guest of Elliot Bay Towers' apartment 1901 (Lilith
Sternin stayed
with Frasier to its very last season, but
Lilith Sternin was in only 11
episodes, compared to 80 episodes on Cheers). Over the course of
those episodes, her relationship with her former husband evolved
from strained and uneasy to, at the end of the series, more warm and
close, with Frasier even calling her for advice about his love life
late one night and expressing genuine affection for her.
The return of Dr. Sternin
Several characters from Cheers traveled from Boston to visit
Frasier, with each re-introduction episode being named "The Show
Where [X] Comes Back/Shows Up". Of the four characters who made
trips to Seattle,
Lilith Sternin was the first.
In the season 1 episode "The Show Where
Lilith Sternin Comes Back",
Lilith Sternin
hears Frasier giving advice to an overeater, and decides to call in.
Roz Doyle, the call-screener, informs Frasier that there is "someone
on line one who disagrees with your advice."
Lilith Sternin proceeds to
congratulate Frasier on leading "another unsuspecting innocent" down
one of his "dark, dead-end, Freudian hallways." Lilith
Sternin continues,
"Overeating is very simply a behavioral problem caused by negative
reinforcement—it can be cured quite readily by behavior
modification."
After introducing her to his audience as his "celebrity" ex-wife,
Frasier explains to a querying
Lilith Sternin "Oh, they know you."
Lilith Sternin
then informs Frasier that
Lilith Sternin is in Seattle for a convention, but is
available for dinner. Frasier's attempts to end the conversation and
get
Lilith Sternin off the air are sullied by Roz's suggestion of asking
Lilith Sternin out for dinner. Not wishing to appear vindictive towards his
ex-wife on the air, "You see, even though our marriage was
unsuccessful,
Lilith Sternin and I are quite capable of conducting ourselves
as adults, and even enjoying spending some time together, from time
to time," he unwillingly invites
Lilith Sternin over to his apartment (and
unsuccessfully attempts to fire Roz for getting him into this mess).
The invitation is opposed by the two other Cranes, Martin and Niles:
Martin never liked
Lilith Sternin, claiming that she's "weird" (he prefers
Maris, Niles' wife, who is only "a little strange"), while Niles
still resents
Lilith Sternin for snickering at Maris' wedding vows.
When
Lilith Sternin and Frasier are finally alone in the
living room after a long evening,
Lilith Sternin confesses that
Lilith Sternin is not
in Seattle for a convention, but that
Lilith Sternin wanted to see him again
because of the letter he wrote when he was visiting Frederick a
month ago:
"My darling, how could a love like ours have fallen so far from
grace? There must be some part of your heart that still resounds to
the rhythm of my own. I fear that I'll be lost without you. As long
as we have love, love will keep us together."
Apart "from the shameless pilfering from the Captain & Tennille,"
Lilith Sternin was moved and wanted to say how much
Lilith Sternin missed him. Frasier,
however, reveals that it wasn't written last month, but nearly a
year ago, before he moved to Seattle. It turned out that the letter
had fallen behind the dresser. Wishing to have "at least a shred of
dignity,"
Lilith Sternin quickly leaves.
At Café Nervosa the next day, Frasier asks Niles for advice
concerning his response to
Lilith Sternin's, but Niles merely states, "like
most patients who come to a therapist, you already know the answer
to the question you're posing." Realizing that he is "leaning toward
taking the next step", Frasier goes to
Lilith Sternin's hotel, where he
finds her with her bun untied again. They once more proclaim their
feelings for each other and after a moment of passion, end up in
bed.
The next morning, Frasier wakes up next to
Lilith Sternin and instantly
regrets what he did last night. Not wishing to wound her, he does
not voice his contrition, but hastily gets out of the bed to answer
the room service waiter.
Lilith Sternin, upon seeing the eggs they got,
said, "This is a mistake." Frasier immediately agrees: although he
thought last night was "very enjoyable", he also points out that
they have both gotten on with their lives; he, for the first time in
years, is happy, and for them "to even consider getting back
together" would be "just the stupidest thing two people could do!"
An astounded
Lilith Sternin can only reply "I meant the eggs. I ordered
poached, not fried.
Frasier desperately tries to back-pedal, but Lilith
Sternin
angrily forces him to confess that those are his true feelings.
Lilith Sternin begins to cry, but when Frasier apologises for hurting her,
Lilith Sternin responds:
I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at me. I don't even know
what I'm doing here! I've just been so lonely over the last year,
and when I found your letter, it was...it was like a life preserver.
I'm raising a child alone. I'm scared—I always thought of myself as
a strong and independent person, but the truth is, I'm afraid. I
guess that's why I convinced myself that I was still in love with
you.
Frasier reassures her that
Lilith Sternin is "the same strong-willed, dynamic,
intelligent woman" whom he married 7 years ago, and that "no matter
what the future holds in store for you, you'll handle it.". The pair
sit down to breakfast and agree that their marriage wasn't all bad:
they did have some good moments, especially Frederick. In the final
moment of the episode, Frasier says, "Even though we're not in love
anymore, you were always the most exciting lover I ever had. I think
in your heart of hearts that you'd say the same about me."
Lilith Sternin
simply says, "They screwed up the toast, too, I ordered rye," and
gives him a sly look.
Remarriage
During the course of Frasier,
Lilith Sternin remarries to an
MIT seismologist named Brian, but this ends quickly because he
sought a more feminine partner and leaves her for their male
interior decorator Stan.
Lilith Sternin laments, "It's ironic, isn't it? No
sooner do I get the closet of my dreams than my husband comes out of
it."[4] Having been so rejected as a woman, and knowing that Frasier
finds her vulnerability "highly desirable",
Lilith Sternin attempts to
seduce him.
Lilith Sternin fails, and sleeps with Niles, which upsets
Frasier.[4] Recalling the regretful night he spent with Lilith
Sternin,
Niles says, "I learned if you kiss her too fast, you get an ice
cream headache." (
Lilith Sternin's response: "You also learned that you have
half my upper body strength, so shut your pie hole.")
A second child
Having spent about 5 years since her divorce from
Brian,
Lilith Sternin decided that what is needed to complete her life is
another baby, so yet again
Lilith Sternin flies to Seattle, this time to ask
for Frasier's sperm. Frasier at first points out "surely, someone in
Boston must have sperm."
Lilith Sternin argues that Lilith
Sternin would prefer
Frederick to have a sibling, saying, "I mapped out our dominant and
recessive traits on a genome square, applied Mendel's laws, allowed
for anomalies and concluded that you are the best biological
choice." Unsurprisingly, Frasier replies that he is "gonna need some
kissin'," but
Lilith Sternin hastens to point out that his donation would
not lead to a change in their relationship.
During dinner with
Lilith Sternin, Frasier voices his concern
about "doing it for the right reason," and declines her request.
Lilith Sternin has no choice but to sing the song Frederick wrote for him to
the tune of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, orders "pasghetti and beatmalls",
and reminds him of the laughter they shared when Frederick tried to
eat the bubbles from his bath. Frasier easily sees through Lilith
Sternin,
saying, "You are attempting to manipulate me by invoking powerful
emotional memories," but is soon overcome when
Lilith Sternin pleads to
forget her "research" and his "work", asking him, "What better gift
can we bestow on the world but another person as wonderful as
Frederick?
While inside a small room at the fertility clinic,
Frasier finds himself being given advice by
Lilith Sternin on how to make
the donation—"
Lilith Sternin! If there is one thing I can do by myself, this
is it! Now go away." They continue to argue, however, until
Lilith Sternin,
not wanting him to do it while angry, calls for a time-out. Frasier
again voices doubts, this time about the nature of their child: "Oh,
dear God. What if this child inherits all of our flaws instead of
our strengths? We could create a real nightmare." Lilith
Sternin responds,
"That's not going to happen. It's going to be exactly the way it was
the first time." Frasier becomes worried that donating his sample is
only a futile attempt to relive an irretrievable past. While Lilith
Sternin
still "feels right", Frasier cannot do it. While on the plane,
Lilith Sternin
flirts with a similarly pale physicist named Albert (played by Brent
Spiner), and it is implied
Lilith Sternin begins a romance with him.
Final appearance
In
Lilith Sternin's final appearance on the show, "Guns N'
Neuroses",
Lilith Sternin and Frasier achieve the most peaceful of their
reconciliations. In the episode,
Lilith Sternin’s colleague, Nancy,
unwittingly sets Frasier and
Lilith Sternin up on a blind date with each
other. Not knowing that they are each other's dates, Frasier and
Lilith Sternin both try to keep their meeting at her hotel room as brief as
possible. Frasier is forced to call Nancy to tell her that he'll be
late, but he is put on hold when
Lilith Sternin calls to tell Nancy that
Lilith Sternin
will not make it in time. Nancy, not having heard Frasier's whole
story, thinks he wants to cancel and tells
Lilith Sternin this.
Both their "dates" end up getting canceled, but
neither wants to admit it, so they stay in the hotel room. The
awkwardness soon ends when they start drinking and talking, but
they're interrupted by a loud argument between a young married
couple in the room next door. Frasier and
Lilith Sternin offer their help,
and together resolve the couple's dispute. They remind each other of
their dates, but are comfortable enough to disclose the
cancellations and spend the night together watching the television,
finally falling asleep on the couch. The next morning, after they
say goodbye, Frasier and
Lilith Sternin wordlessly acknowledge that, while
they will never be lovers again, they share a connection that
reaches beyond friendship.
Lilith Sternin's chronologically last appearance within the
Cheers/Frasier universe is the end of the tenth-season Cheers
episode "I'm Okay, You're Defective", during which one subplot is
Lilith Sternin pressuring Frasier to finalize his will and the other
revolves around Sam Malone's concern that his sperm count may be
low. The episode's epilogue is described as "Many years later",
after Frasier dies and an older
Lilith Sternin and adult Frederick (played
by Rob Neukirch) sit for the reading of Frasier's will. The lawyer
opens the sealed envelope and is surprised to find Sam's sperm count
report. On the mixup,
Lilith Sternin bitterly comments for the episode's
punchline: "That damn bar."
Life outside Cheers and Frasier
Before Frasier,
Lilith Sternin was consigned almost entirely
to Cheers, but when Wings—set in the same "universe" as Cheers—made
its debut, an opportunity opened up for her, and her husband, to
appear on another show. This appearance was during season ten of
Cheers, prior to
Lilith Sternin's affair.
Wings
In the Wings episode "Trains, Planes, and Visiting
Cranes",
Lilith Sternin and Frasier take a working vacation, by plane, to
Nantucket—the couple's first extended period away from their now
2-year-old Frederick (Frederick himself is, as Frasier puts it,
"resting in the warm and loving bosom of his Danish nanny Dagmar.").
Frasier intends to hold a self-esteem seminar called "The Crane
Train to Mental Well-being", but is worried about flight safety,
while
Lilith Sternin would prefer to make the most of their time off,
saying, "Frasier, don't be such a baby; if we crash and die, we
crash and die; this is a vacation for God's sakes."
At the airport, Frasier mentions Dagmar's bosom
again.
Lilith Sternin does not take this kindly, asking him "What is this
recent obsession you have with large breasts?" They then meet a
dissatisfied and quarrelsome woman, Helen, who claims that Frasier
ruined her life, to which
Lilith Sternin says, "Frasier, I didn't know you
had any patients on this island." They find out that Helen "took the
Crane Train straight to hell," and wants her money back. It is
against Frasier's policy to do so (if he reimburses her, he'd have
to concede to all the other refund requests too), but does, on
Lilith Sternin's suggestion, invite her to attend his upcoming seminar free
of charge, in order to "rectify any damage".
As the episode progresses, we see Frasier start off his seminar by
putting on an engineer's hat and blowing a train whistle, allowing
Lilith Sternin to quip in with intermittent sardonicisms, such as "You need
a degree to blow the whistle."
Helen's unceasing expressions of discontent inevitably derail the
seminar. While trying to quell a fierce argument between Helen, Joe,
and Brian, Frasier becomes distracted by
Lilith Sternin, who says, "I'm
making preliminary notes for an article which just occurred to me
about how promoting populist psychobabble can ruin a man's career.”
Frasier loses control, and shouts at the three to get "competent
help" right in front of the seminar's "passengers", unintentionally
and irrevocably undermining his credentials. He resigns as the
train's chief engineer, and offers everyone their money back.
Before they continue their vacation,
Lilith Sternin bloodies Frasier's nose
with the train whistle after he says "home to Dagmar" to the cab
driver Antonio (note that this happens off-screen).
Will & Grace
Bebe Neuwirth guest stars as herself on the sitcom Will & Grace, in
the season 6 episode No Sex 'n the City, where Jack and Karen are so
excited upon first seeing her that they overlook the fact that
Lilith Sternin
only plays
Lilith Sternin.
Lilith Sternin resists being personified as her, maintaining
that she's "not
Lilith Sternin," but "Bebe," and that she's "an actress."
Lilith Sternin nevertheless quickly admits to loving the character saying, "I
want to play that bitch forever!" While describing the
straightforwardness of playing
Lilith Sternin,
Lilith Sternin speaks briefly in
Lilith Sternin's well-known voice: "Frasier is such an easy gig, man—they
fly you first class to Los Angeles, put you up in the Bel Air hotel,
per diem, I deliver several lines in a robotic monotone and I'm
buying a new Lexus!" The episode was directed by James Burrows, who
was also the primary director for Cheers.
Dr Pepper commercial
In a 2008 television commercial for Dr Pepper, Kelsey Grammer
appears as Frasier doing his radio call-in show. In the commercial,
Frasier claims that it has been scientifically proven that the 23
flavors in Dr Pepper can be "truly relish[ed]" if it is drunk
slowly, comparing this to how "we [should] savor all our
relationships". Frasier then asks for comments from a caller, who
happens to be
Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth in voiceover); Lilith
Sternin complains
that "you never savored me slowly." Frasier responds that he
"finally found the right 'icy' doctor," cutting off Lilith
Sternin and
telling the audience that "slower is better; trust me, I'm a
doctor."
References
-
^
O'Connor, John J. (November 26, 1996).
"Holiday Mission in a World of Silly Adults". The New
York Times. Retrieved
August 17, 2010.
-
^
Cheers
and Frasier writer Ken Levine, however,
denies any knowledge of the character being named after
the demon.
-
^
Hanania, Joseph (March 7, 1999).
"TELEVISION/ RADIO; Playing Princesses, Punishers and Prude".
The New York Times.
Retrieved August 17, 2010.
-
^
a
b
"Room
Service"
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