The Frasier Connection: Unpacking Bill Gates’ Cameo

<img class="gallery-image " src="https://www.slashfilm.com/img/gallery/a-billionaire-tech-mogul-helped-frasier-celebrate-a-key-milestone-with-a-cameo/intro-1729196854.jpg" data-slide-url="https://www.slashfilm.com/1691438/bill-gates-frasier-cameo-explained/" data-post-id="1691438" data-slide-num="0" data-slide-title="A Billionaire Tech Mogul Helped Frasier Celebrate A Key Milestone With A Came…ar episode aired on November 13, 2001, less than a month after that particular operating system had launched on October 25, 2001. After telling the caller that he doesn't need to make a boot disk, Gates says, "It's a feature of XP — very quick, very smooth."

The whole thing is an obvious promotional stunt, with Gates clearly doing his fellow Microsoft directors a favor by visiting the “Frasier” set and talking up Windows’ ease of use. Thankfully, writer Rob Hanning managed to insert the promo in as organic a way as possible, and Kelsey Grammer’s reaction to Gates’ hijacking his show makes the whole thing funny enough to distract from the shameless plug.

Later in the episode, Frasier discovers a tape of one of his shows is missing from his vast collection and becomes consumed by the idea of somehow replacing it, falling to pieces in front of friends and family as his obsessiveness takes control. That all makes for an amusing episode that cleverly demonstrates how Frasier is the real self-obsessed one here, and not the “ego-maniacal gasbag” Bill Gates.

Whether the new “Frasier” revival will ever get to celebrate its own 200th episode remains to be seen, but Kelsey Grammer has ambitious plans for the series’ future. If the new show does make it to 200 episodes, perhaps we’ll see Elon Musk or some other “ego-maniacal gasbag” appear to flog the latest product that brings us closer to the AI-driven garbage future envisioned by the likes of Joe Russo. For now, we can perhaps console ourselves by reliving the quaintness of a time when Bill Gates talking up Windows XP on “Frasier” was about the only time we heard from our tech overlords in person.