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To Freud, it defined sexual roles. (What else?) Archie Bunker made one famous, using it as a living-room pulpit to preach
his bigotries. On "Friends," Joey loved his easy chair so much that he named it Rosita.
Ah, the easy chair. The big easy. Recliner. La-Z-Boy. Chaise longue. Barcalounger.
Call it what you will. It's that oversized, overstuffed, upholstered personal retreat.
Oak Park's John Mahoney, who portrays the somewhat acerbic Martin Crane on NBC-TV's "Frasier," appreciates the
deep ties one can have to even the ugliest of chairs. Indeed, his character's favorite chair on the set of "Frasier"
is a recliner upholstered in "horrible green, brown and rust," he conceded.
"A godawful fabric but it's extremely comfortable. Everybody sits on it. When we rehearse, it would take an act of
Congress to get the grips or cameramen out of the chair. If I had a secret room, I would love it. It's truly the most comfortable
chair I have ever sat in."
Yet its days may be numbered--at least as a centerpiece in fictional Frasier's Seattle apartment. Variety, the Hollywood
trade paper, reports that the 2003-04 TV season may be the last for the Emmy-winning sitcom. Q got to thinking about that
ever-so- comfortable--if somewhat ugly--chair.
Sure, Mahoney and his pal Moose, the dog that plays Eddie, can have full post-"Frasier" lives, but after the
last episode fades, could the chair be tossed out on the street like some washed-out actress?
A spokeswoman for "Frasier" said that at this point, they don't know what would happen to it. It's not likely
that Mahoney would claim the chair. He told Q that he already has a real-life favorite chair, an antique, leather-covered
Stickley rocker.
"It's very big, has lots of woods and great, wide, wooden armrests, which are at just the right height and hold your
whole arm. Aesthetically, it's great to look at, and I sit there more than anywhere else, especially since I'm not much of
a TV watcher. I sit in it as I listen to music, relax, read and contemplate."
Which means the "Frasier" chair could be homeless--unless the Smithsonian Institution is interested. It already
has Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs from the TV sitcom "All in the Family." So why not Martin Crane's comfy throne?
"We have a curatorial staff who are always on the lookout for what represents American culture in terms of collecting
our history," said Melinda Machado, head of public affairs for Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Can Crane's chair cut the mustard and join Fonzie's "Happy Days" jacket and Klinger's "M*A*S*H" dress
among the television memorabilia?
"We would have to go to our curators," Machado said. "We usually prefer that shows are already off the
air and that we see them resonating in the culture."
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