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Why Frasier Never Showed Niles' Wife Maris, According To David Hyde Pierce

Frasier recreated a running gag from Cheers by never showing Niles' wife, Maris - but David Hyde Pierce says that wasn't the writers' original intention.

In an interview with The Washington Post all the way back in 1996, David Hyde Pierce revealed that there were actually originally plans to introduce Maris at some point, but they ended up going in a different direction. "Frasier" was a spin-off of the wildly successful sitcom "Cheers," on which bar regular Norm (George Wendt) often spoke about a wife who never appeared on-screen. That's right, originally the writers had planned on introducing Maris after a few episodes in order to avoid comparison to Norm's wife — but "Frasier" soon grew successful enough in its own right that they didn't have to really worry about it.

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