David Hyde Pierce, who played Frasier
Crane's fussy brother Dr. Niles Crane for 11 seasons on the hit NBC
comedy Frasier, says that the show's gay-themed jokes poked
fun at the “preposterousness” of gay stereotypes.
Pierce, who won four Emmy Awards during
the show's run, came out gay in 2009 with the announcement that he
had married TV producer Brain Hargrove a year earlier in California.
“The reason they had those gay jokes
in Frasier, especially about Niles and Frasier, was it was
examining stereotypes and those two were very neat and persnickety
and it was acknowledging the fact that a lot of their behavior,
[like] wine tasting and going to the opera and all, would be seen as
gay by a lot of people,” Pierce said during an appearance on
HuffPost
Live.
“It was never jokes at the expense of
gay people. We had gay people on staff. David Lee, one of the
creators on the show is gay. And so, to me, it was always
acknowledging the preposterousness of stereotypes.”
“It is a reflection of something that
was more of a conversation at the time than it would be now,” he
added.