Head Game

Season 4, Episode 5, Aired

Episode Summary

EDIT
go
Netflix
Subscription
Amazon Prime
Free Trial / Subscription
9.0
out of 10
EPISODE RATING: Superb
59 votes
  • Your Rating: 10
    "Perfect"
  • Your Rating: 9.5
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 9
    "Superb"
  • Your Rating: 8.5
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 8
    "Great"
  • Your Rating: 7.5
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 7
    "Good"
  • Your Rating: 6.5
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 6
    "Fair"
  • Your Rating: 5.5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 5
    "Mediocre"
  • Your Rating: 4.5
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 4
    "Poor"
  • Your Rating: 3.5
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 3
    "Bad"
  • Your Rating: 2.5
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 2
    "Terrible"
  • Your Rating: 1.5
    "Abysmal"
  • Your Rating: 1
    "Abysmal"
Rate Now!
Niles is the talk of Seattle after a brief session with the local basketball team's slumping star turns the player's fortunes around. Justifiably proud of himself, Niles is mortified to learn that Reggie believes his good luck is due to Niles' hair.moreless
WRITE A REVIEW

Cast & Crew

See All EDIT

Watch Online

Netflix
Subscription
Amazon Prime
Free Trial / Sub...

Fan Episode Reviews (2)

See All

  • N.C. is in the zone!!!!....

    7.5
    "Good"
    By uk6strings, Jun 03, 2009
    When Frasier goes on an out-of-town radio psychiatrist convention, Niles fills in on Frasier's show. At the radio station, Niles bumps into a Seattle Supersonics guard Reggie McLemore who needs some help because he has been in a slump lately. After nonchalantly rubbing Niles' head, McLemore plays a great game and begins to think that Niles' head is the key to his game. "Head Game" is pretty funny - Niles at a basketball game has been funny each time they use it on the show. Frasier himself, Kelsey Grammar, is only at the very beginning of the episode because Grammar was being treated for drug problems at the time. His absence is particularly noticeable in this episode - unlike season three's "Moon Dance" when he appears only at the beginning and the end because that is simply a better episode. But, "Head Game" is a fun episode - there is a terrific taken-out-of-context gag between Niles and Reggie and the scene were Daphne helps Niles understand b-ball vernacular by comparing it to a symphony experience is especially funny.moreless

  • Niles fills in for Frasier while he is in Aspen.

    10
    "Perfect"
    By Bountyhunterc28, Apr 28, 2007
    Niles fills in for Frasier while he is at a radio psychiatrist convention in Aspen, while filling in, he has a brief session with a basketball payer, who has been playing crappy, and after taking with Niles he begins to play well.

    Niles then becomes the talk of Seattle, getting tickets to every game, cheerleaders hanging all over him, and Niles enjoying all of it, until he finds out that it wasn't anything that he told Reggie, that helped him to play better it was rubbing Niles' hair that Reggie thinks is why he's playing better.

    So Niles tells him he can't come to anymore games, and Reggie has to stop rubbing his hair he then agrees to give him a session before the game Reggie agrees, but takes a pare of scissors with him.

    This episode cracked me up, I love how neither Niles nor Frasier know anything about sports, and when they try to make sense of it, they always make fools out of themselves.moreless
WRITE A REVIEW
 

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

See All

FILTER BY TYPE

  • TRIVIA (6)

    ADD TRIVIA

    • At 17:12 in the episode, Niles enters Frasier's apartment while Martin is on the phone. Standing just to the left of the door is a crew member in gray slacks, almost entirely visible.

    • During Reggie McLemore's TV interview, you can see a strip of black electrician's tape over the brand name on Frasier's television so that there is no free advertisements on the show.

    • During the basketball game, Reggie comes up to Niles to ask him about his poor shooting game despite hearing the players moving and the ball hitting the rim off screen and there was no mention of timeout. In a real game of basketball unless there was a timeout or he was being subbed, no player in their right mind would just walk off and start discussing something with someone during a game.

    • In the scene at the basketball game, the "S-U-P" in the floor to begin the word "Supersonics" suggests that Niles and company are sitting near the sideline. But there is way too much space between the sideline and the 3-point line for an NBA court. In fact, there's too much space between them for a college court!

    • Niles acts like he hates doing Frasier's show, but he was having a ball doing it in the episode "Frasier Crane's Day Off".

    • Ma Nature was one of the shows vying to replace Frasier's show in the episode "Agents in America, Part III". She apparently is the replacement for Father Mike, who was fired in the episode "She's the Boss".

  • QUOTES (3)

    ADD QUOTES

    • Niles: Does one still wear a white sweater jauntily tied around the neck to these things? Roz: If one wants to get the crap beat out of one.

    • Reggie: N.C., you made it. Niles: I beg your pardon? OK, N.C. I thought you said nancy. For a second it was prep school all over again.

    • Niles: Do people really care this much about a basketball game? Roz: Are you kidding? This is Seattle, it rains 9 months out of the year. We take our indoor sports very seriously. Niles: Well, I know you always have.

  • NOTES (2)

    ADD NOTES

  • ALLUSIONS (5)

    ADD ALLUSIONS

    • Second Title Card: AY, THERE'S THE RUB This is taken from the famous "To be or not to be..." soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet: Act III, Scene 1.

    • Niles: (while counselling Reggie McLemore) Take a moment - think of something comforting from childhood - a stuffed animal... a dog-eared copy of Middlemarch. Middlemarch is a classic novel by George Eliot.

    • Scene Two Title: STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND This is virtually the same scene title as one used in Season Two's "Retirement Is Murder" (except that "STRANGER" was pluralized). It is, of course, the title of the sci-fi classic by Robert A. Heinlein.

    • This episode bears a strong resemblance to an episode of The Bob Newhart Show. In Season One's "You Can't Win 'Em All", psychologist Bob helps a Cub's Pitcher achieve a shutout. In an after-game on-air interview the player comments that it was all thanks to his psychologist Bob Hartley which then makes Bob the center of attention.

    • Niles: (speaking to Frasier) ...I couldn't presume to fill those big, floppy red shoes of yours. This is referencing Sideshow Bob (The Simpsons), of whom Kelsey Grammer is the voice. Three months after this episode aired, the episode from The Simpsons "The Brother from Another Series" aired, in which David Hyde Pierce voiced Cecil Terwilliger (brother to Sideshow Bob Terwilliger).

Frasier Forums


Add a Topic See All
Last Activity
Replies

Watch Frasier Full Episodes

See All

Related Shows

Season 4 Episodes

See All
Ep 24
Odd Man Out
Ep 23
Ask Me No Questions
Ep 22
Are You Being Served?
Ep 21
Daphne Hates Sherry
Ep 20
Three Dates and a Breakup (2)
Ep 19
Three Dates and a Breakup (1)
Ep 18
Ham Radio
Ep 17
Roz's Turn
Ep 16
The Unnatural
Ep 15
Roz's Krantz & Gouldenstei...
Ep 14
To Kill a Talking Bird
Ep 13
Four for the Seesaw
Ep 12
Death and the Dog
Ep 11
Three Days of the Condo
Ep 10
Liar! Liar!
Ep 9
Dad Loves Sherry, the Boys...
Ep 8
Our Father Whose Art Ain't...
Ep 7
A Lilith Thanksgiving
Ep 6
Mixed Doubles
Ep 5
Head Game
Ep 4
A Crane's Critique
Ep 3
The Impossible Dream
Ep 2
Love Bites Dog
Ep 1
The Two Mrs. Cranes

Contributors

Become a contributor
More
Less

TV Listings

Full Listings
TV.com Properties | Shows | Videos | News | Listings | Forums | People | Photos | TV.com Blog

CBS Entertainment | About TV.com | About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Ad Choice | Terms of Use