Diane Meets Mom

Diane has dinner with Frasier and his mother (Nancy Marchand). Diane is her usually pretentious self. The world renowned psychologist takes an immediate dislike to Diane and threatens to kill her if she continues the relationship. There are a couple pretty interesting moments. There is also Norm getting hit with a cork from a champagne bottle after he "announces" his birthday.

Cheers definitely had good luck casting the mothers of its characters. First came Glynis Johns as Diane's high-strung, manipulative "Mummy". A few years after this episode, Frances Sternhagen embodied Ma Clavin, the walking, talking explanation of why Cliff is so weird. Here we have Nancy Marchand as the formidable Mother Crane.

Marchand later became known for playing another domineering mother, namely Livia Soprano. Here she seems to be channeling Mrs Pynchon, her patrician character from Lou Grant. Hester Crane is a well educated blue blood whom Diane tries desperately to impress. The more Diane tries, however, the more Mother Crane detests her, to the point of threatening her life.

Diane spends the rest of the episode trying to deal with Hester while simultaneously trying to prove to Sam that she's not crazy. Sam does his best to mess with Diane's head, and it all comes down to a confrontation between Diane and Hester, with Frasier as the reluctant referee.

Diane is the star of this episode, but Frasier shows he's a character worth keeping around. Sam takes a secondary role for once, and seems to be having a ball goading Diane. Another decent outing.