David Hyde Pierce had to be rushed to hospital while filming an episode of Frasier, after a worrying fall.
The actor played Niles Crane to perfection across all 11 seasons of the original sitcom, which ran between 1993 and 2004 – and followed Frasier Crane’s (Kelsey Grammer) return to his hometown of Seattle, where he reconnected with his family,
The series was a spin-off of Cheers and recently sparked a revival on Paramount+, but David is yet to reprise his role in the reboot.
The 65-year-old delighted viewers with his efforts at physical comedy, including the infamous Valentine’s Day episode where he innocently ironed his trousers and ended up hurting his finger, before setting the sofa on fire.
However, executive producer Joe Keenan revealed that it wasn’t all fun and games behind the scenes, as he suffered a bad injury on set during a season 10 episode.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk for the recent 30-year anniversary, he was asked whether there were ever any accidents when it came to the more physical scenes.
‘Yeah. I wasn’t there – it was season [10] and David was all wrapped up for a spa,’ he recalled. ‘He fell off the table and hit his head, and had to be taken to the hospital. There was a huge anxiety.
‘I wasn’t there at the time, but I remember we were on the lot, Chris and I, and I remember people being very concerned for David.
‘He was okay, but it could have been bad.’
The episode in question was titled Door Jam and aired in January, 2003, as part of season 10, showing Frasier and Niles ‘accidentally’ intercepting a neighbor’s invite to a luxury spa and treating themselves to luxurious pamper sessions instead.
However, their greed gets the better of them when they discover a premium gold tier of the facility and try and get themselves included on the list – before they end up desperately vying for an even more exclusive level.
Coming from men who pay an extreme amount for caviar, sweaters made of only the finest chin hairs from Andalusian mountain goats and have bespoke bath salts with a ‘little Tahitian vanilla’, flashing the cash on a swanky spa trip is practically nothing…
Viewers are more than aware of Frasier’s wild spending habits after he spent 11 years dropping a fortune on sherry, priceless works of art and designer suits from every high-end brand you can think of, while seemingly living on the salary of a part-time radio host.
Joe also took a moment to shed some light on how the stuffy psychiatrist managed to get so rich, squashing the fan speculation once and for all.
‘It’s funny, Frasier’s level of fame fluctuated madly,’ he joked. ‘He’s either having the whole town turned out at the Space Needle for his 1,000th episode or he can’t scare five people up as a fan club.
‘We think Frasier made a lot of money in private practice in Boston, and he has investments.
‘What we imagined to be the salary of a local radio personality was perhaps a little bit inflated.’
Comparing Frasier’s standard of living to that of his brother, Joe insisted that the KACL legend’s lifestyle wasn’t completely out of sync.
‘On the other hand, when you looked at Niles and his house with Maris, this baronial mansion that Niles lived in, Frasier’s apartment didn’t seem all that…,’ he added.
‘In addition to it, we’ve lived on that set, and it wasn’t that big when you actually stepped onto [it]. You were surprised at how much smaller it was to navigate than it looked on camera, and how narrow some of the passages were.
‘His dining room only seated four people … That apartment, without that view [of the Seattle Space Needle], would not seem that astonishing. It was the view that made it seem fabulous.’
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