Kelsey Grammer's Weird Rivalry With The Dog From ‘Frasier’

It goes without saying that, these days, Kelsey Grammer is best known for his iconic portrayal of Darius Grouch the Third, AKA "The Rumble," the cigar-chomping mobster who waxes poetically about men having sexual relations with alligators in 2020’s Money Plane – you know, the movie that only narrowly missed out on being the worst thing to happen in 2020. 

But there was once a time when Grammer was most closely associated with the character of Frasier Crane; the lovably pompous psychiatrist who first appeared on Cheers, and went on to star in his own widely-acclaimed spin-off. Frasier still remains one of the best sitcoms of all-time, but back in the day, Grammer seemed weirdly threatened by one of his co-stars; Moose the dog, who played Eddie, Martin Crane’s trusty Jack Russell Terrier. 

Either as a comedically meta nod to his character’s animosity towards the popular pooch, or because of his own raging insecurity, Grammer routinely felt the need to stress to the public that Moose wasn’t a real actor the way he was. Grammer once told the Washington Post: “He's not an actor, he's a dog!” with a “hint of the Frasier sulk.”  

Weirder still, Grammer devoted a whole passage of his memoir to dispelling the notion that Moose (who we all already fully understood to be a literal dog) was a proper thespian, like him. Grammer wrote that Moose only “does tricks” while he, Emmy-winner Kelsey Grammer, has to “memorize lines.” He also proudly proclaimed that he didn’t “need a trainer standing off camera gesticulating wildly and waving around a piece of meat.” 

Of course, while this may seem slightly petty, this paragraph is but a mere flaming ember in the out-of-control dumpster fire that is the rest of Grammer’s memoir …

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter! 

Top Image: NBC Universal