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I thought the show weakened a little in season 5 but really started to falter in season 6. That was the season when NBC moved it to Seinfeld's old slot on Thursdays at 9 (hence the in-joke that season 6 begins with Frasier talking about filling the shoes of his predecessor: it's a reference to the shows that occupied that slot before, Seinfeld and Cheers), and it seemed, rightly or wrongly, like they weren't sure how to handle the bigger audience, going overboard with wacky storylines, obvious jokes, and cheap laughs like Frasier going to an interview with his fly open. And I think some of the most acclaimed bits from the season, like the Niles sequence in "Three Valentines," are more silly than funny.
Seasons 1-4 are the peak years for Frasier as far as I'm concerned, seasons 5-7 are the "faltering" years, seasons 8-10 are the outright weak years, and season 11 was an improvement but still not at the level of the first 100 or so episodes.
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