Martin Crane

A retired Seattle cop with a bad hip and no patience for pretension, Martin moves in with his son Frasier after the job forces him out. He wants his recliner, his beer, his dog Eddie, and to be left alone about his feelings. He needles Frasier's fussiness on sight.

John Mahoney plays working-class bluntness without a trace of condescension toward the show's more rarefied jokes, which is the whole engine of the series' comedy. His gruffness is never just gruffness — there's real tenderness under it, and Mahoney lets it surface in small, unforced moments rather than speeches.