Frasier

In the end, they played it safe. Answering one of TV's most-asked questions since "Who shot J.R.?" NBC execs announced yesterday that the two nitpicking shrinks from Seattle would replace the four nitpicking neurotics from New York Thursdays at 9 p.m., starting next fall. In choosing "Frasier" to replace "Seinfeld," NBC passed over "Just Shoot Me," an up-and-comer that will move back to Tuesdays to anchor that night and "Friends," which will stay on Thursdays at 8. For NBC, it's a move that makes all kinds of sense.

And the winner is: Frasier. NBC announced yesterday that the veteran comedy will take over the Thursday-at-9-p.m. slot vacated by Seinfeld next season. NBC went with a wizened pro to propel its crucial Thursday-night juggernaut, and put a sharp youngster up against ABC's imposing, but tiring, Home Improvement. The edgy comedy Just Shoot Me will move into Frasier's current 9 p.m. Tuesday slot. NBC yesterday disclosed plans for four new sitcoms, two new dramas, and one more tired installment of Dateline - bringing that show's presence up to five hours a week.

The graying of America becomes tangible on TV this fall, as the networks wholeheartedly embrace drama in their new programs, and cut down the kiddie corps of sitcoms. The graying may be accelerated by a wholesale shuffling of existing prime- time shows. The networks have created scheduling conflicts that will leave either tears in the eyes of viewers forced to miss favorites, or furrows in their brows as they wrestle with the VCR. Roseanne will fight Frasier. The Simpsons conflicts with Lois & Clark, seaQuest and Murder, She Wrote.

Proust on the WB Network? All right, we'll bite. Introducing the classic French author, albeit in a somewhat sophomoric joke, undoubtedly makes Kelly Kelly the most intellectual sitcom yet to appear on the fledgling network. And, though this may be damning with faint praise, Kelly Kelly may also be the best sitcom the WB has yet produced. Don't get me wrong, Kelly Kelly (9 p.m. tonight on Channel 17) is not yet scratching on Frasier's door, but it is a show with legitimate laughs and even characters that are mostly realistic.

Philadelphians of a certain sort may have run into David Hyde Pierce long before he turned up on Frasier, as the well-pressed but psychologically rumpled psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane. He was a security guard - all 6 feet and 160-odd pounds of him - at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Upstate New York. "I was the single most ineffective security guard in history," he recalls. Actually, Pierce was just fine when the New York City Ballet or the Philadelphia Orchestra, in its late Eugene Ormandy era, were in residence.

YEAR ONE, 1982-83 Sam Malone hires Diane Chambers as a waitress at Cheers after her fiance jilts her. Carla Tortelli becomes pregnant by her ex-husband Nick. U.S. Rep. Tip O'Neill visits. Sam and Diane fight their desire for each other, but end the season in a passionate embrace. YEAR TWO, 1983-84 Sam tells Diane, "I love you. " Carla gives birth to her fifth child. Ex-hubby Nick marries Loretta. Norm and Vera separate, reconcile. Diane poses for an artist over Sam's objections.

Yeah, hi, Dr. Crane. I'm a big fan. My problem is this: I'm starring in a top-rated sitcom, but I had a pretty crazy childhood, and I have a history of substance abuse problems, and, ah, the women I surround myself with tend to be exotic dancers, and last night I racked up my $66,000 sports car after I'd had a few. Any thoughts on what I should do next? The wise Dr. Frasier Crane, radio psychiatrist, would undoubtedly suggest professional counseling for his troubled caller.

The supporting cast of the CBS sitcom "Becker" has gone to Los Angeles Superior Court to fight for a raise from Paramount Network Television, which produces the show. In more than one respect, this is a Paramount error in tactics and judgment. Without question, the subordinate players on "Becker" are entitled to ask for more money, especially since the series, about to begin its fourth season, soon will be sold in the lucrative syndication market. Just as unquestionably, executives at Paramount are free to entertain or reject such requests - and if there's ever a case to reject outright, this is it. Ted Danson, the star and title character of "Becker," isn't involved.

AGOURA HILLS, CALIF. GRAMMER ARRESTED ON DUI SUSPICIONS Kelsey Grammer, star of NBC's "Frasier," rolled his red Dodge Viper, cut his forehead and was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, the California Highway Patrol said. Grammer was alone when he demolished the $66,000, 450-horsepower V-10 sports car Saturday night near the driveway of his home in Agoura Hills, about 40 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. The actor crawled out of the wreckage and was treated at a hospital and released.

Kelsey Grammer, who hit 40 on Tuesday, isn't expected to appear at the New Jersey courtroom where a grand jury is considering whether to hit him with sexual assault charges. The prosecutor, who began a formal investigation yesterday, says that decision will be made on the "evidence in the case," not on who Grammer is. Meanwhile, life for "Frasier," a TV shrink, goes on big time. Grammer's real-life fiancee, Tammi Alexander, threw him a party - he made like a chef at the barbecue - at their L.A. digs on Saturday, even though her darling is accused of having sex with a teen-ager who is testifying.

Beach-reading recommendations are a summer tradition: With vacations offering extra leisure time, everyone wants to know what books will help them pass the hours. But many pop-culture fans now devour television with the same kind of intensity: They buy boxed sets, Netflix, or download whole seasons, treating TV series such as The Wire and Breaking Bad as if they were meant to be watched in five-hour stretches. Claire Danes, who began her career in My So-Called Life and returns to TV this fall in Homeland , pinpointed the phenomenon recently.

Someone needs to develop an app to count the number of times individual celebrities have gotten married. The tally for Kelsey Grammer , 55, of Frasier fame, will be rising to four. His rep, Stan Rosenfield , says that the Emmy winner is engaged to British girlfriend Kayte Walsh , 29 (a 26-year difference for those who care). "They are engaged. They never really announced it, they are very happy and very much in love," Rosenfield told RadarOnline.com. Grammer and Wife Number Three, Camille Donatacci Grammer , 41, a star of Bravo's The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills , filed for divorce in July and aren't officially un-wed yet. Because reality TV is all about, well, reality, the breakup of Grammers III will be part of the show.

HOT IN CLEVELAND. 10 tonight, TV Land. PERHAPS NOT even Drew Carey could have predicted it, but one of the hottest shows of the season is set in Ohio. It is not, alas, TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland. " Not even Betty White, the 88-year-old actress who's lately done everything short of leap a tall building in a single bound - or sing on Fox's Ohio show, "Glee" - could push this cheesy dish past warm. And yet the "Golden Girls" alum has pretty decent company in a show written by "Frasier" vet Suzanne Martin and produced by Tony host (and "Will & Grace" star)

If the role of Marsh McGinley, a blithe and blithering sportscaster on Back to You's fictitious WURG-TV nightly news team seems tailor-made for Fred Willard, well, it is. Not just because the Wednesday-night Fox sitcom's cocreator, Steve Levitan, wrote the role for the veteran TV and film actor - famous for playing grinning knuckleheads in Christopher Guest's ensemble spoofs, and for assisting Jay Leno on something like 90 Tonight Show comedy bits....

Frasier went out with a bang Thursday. The finale of the 11-season NBC sitcom scored the series' highest ratings since Oct. 24, 2000, knocking CBS's usually invincible CSI out of first place. An estimated 25.4 million people watched in nearly one-fourth of all U.S. homes watching TV as Kelsey Grammer's Frasier Crane flew off to Chicago in search of true love, Martin Crane (John Mahoney) married too-young girlfriend Ronee (Wendie Malick), and Niles and Daphne Crane (David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves)

In the next two weeks, NBC will serve up supersized send-offs for a pair of TV's longest-running and most popular sitcoms, Friends and Frasier. We don't want to spoil the valedictory mood in advance of their respective May 6 and 13 finales. But as those comedy cornerstones enter the realm of eternal reruns, we can't help wondering if they stuck around a little bit too long. The answer: Of course they did. They're TV series, the showbiz equivalent of tiresome dinner guests.

BOB HOPE'S FUNNIEST OUTTAKES, 8 p.m. tomorrow, Channel 10. He broke ratings records in radio and revolutionized television by perfecting the opening monologue. Bob Hope's 60-year broadcast career at NBC was marked by more high points and memorable moments than anybody's. From his early years in vaudeville and radio to movies and television, Hope was an unparalleled success due to a carefully honed persona that included a sly, speedy delivery, relaxed personality and topical gags that let audiences feel they were in on the joke.

The supporting cast of the CBS sitcom "Becker" has gone to Los Angeles Superior Court to fight for a raise from Paramount Network Television, which produces the show. In more than one respect, this is a Paramount error in tactics and judgment. Without question, the subordinate players on "Becker" are entitled to ask for more money, especially since the series, about to begin its fourth season, soon will be sold in the lucrative syndication market. Just as unquestionably, executives at Paramount are free to entertain or reject such requests - and if there's ever a case to reject outright, this is it. Ted Danson, the star and title character of "Becker," isn't involved.

Picture this: You're watching a rerun of Gilligan's Island, and waving from the bow of a ship threatening to rescue the castaways is none other than one of those little walking, talking M&Ms of TV commercial fame. Such may soon be reality. Princeton Video's new "virtual product placement" technology enables the digital insertion of product images into existing television series episodes. Reruns of Law and Order soon to be shown on TNT, for example, are a possible target for virtual additions - say, a soda machine sporting the Pepsi logo in a police station, or a shot of Colgate toothpaste in an officer's medicine cabinet.

When we left Niles and Daphne on NBC's Frasier last spring, they were sitting side by side in a Winnebago. She had just escaped her own wedding through the window of the loo. Three days married to someone else, he was ready to drive her off to a little house on the prairie, or, more likely, a deluxe condo in a city with a world-class opera and a restaurant where the chef knows how to saute sweetbreads properly and present them in a rare, ethereal, pink...