‘Frasier’ gets a top-flight send-off

The Museum of Contemporary Television Art launched its first show on May 5 -- and its last, as a hangar at Santa Monica Airport was transformed into a gallery/farewell party for the cast, crew and friends of “Frasier.” A maze of galleries, “MOCTA” was filled with flat-screen TVs playing classic “Frasier” episodes, artifacts on pedestals with informational texts tacked alongside (“Martin’s Cane, Artist Unknown, Steel and Rubber, 1993”) and tiers of glass shelves displaying the show’s 31 Emmys.

“I have lived a dream, I really have,” said “Frasier” co-creator Peter Casey, as television royalty James Burrows offered congratulations.

“It’s fabulous, fantasy-land stuff, the sort of stuff that actually happens when you’re part of this show,” Peri Gilpin said of the outsized Warholian silk screens of her and the other “Frasier” cast members that hung over the entryway. “A few years ago, we had a Hirschfeld.”

Jane Leeves was looking artful herself, in a black dress with a neckline to her navel and a slit up to her hip. Who made it?

“It’s Yah ... kah ... zazawa .... I don’t know,” said the actress, as a friend fetched her a vodka martini. While Leeves said the end of the series had left her “actually physically ill for a few days, and emotionally exhausted,” she would have no reservation about jumping into another. “Absolutely I’d do TV again, in a second,” she said. “It’s wonderful for women. The parts are better, it’s a better schedule for moms -- I have two kids. But I think I’ll take a year off from TV and cleanse the palate.”

“I can basically drink all the time now,” said David Hyde Pierce, well known for his avocation as an oenophile, adding that he was “particularly fond of French whites these days.”

“Well, at least they’re all grown up,” president of NBC entertainment, news and cable Jeff Zucker said when asked whether, with “Friends” having signed off just a week earlier, he was experiencing empty-nest syndrome. “It’s a very bittersweet week for us. Is it scary? I think we’re well positioned to move into the next era, but obviously, it’s not easy to lose two great shows.”

Arriving on the late side, Kelsey Grammer appeared the personification of relaxation. “I no longer have to prove myself,” he said, holding the hand of wife Camille. “I can sneak off to the hinterlands and do whatever I want.”

Where, exactly, are the hinterlands? “They are a provincial state of mind where we imagine it’s better,” said Grammer, sounding like the therapist he played for 20 years, beginning with “Cheers.” And speaking of that role, did he think that anybody, anywhere, would ever see him as anyone else but Frasier Crane?

“Oh, I think so, if I pick the right parts,” he said, adding that next up for him is Scrooge. “I love the role, because it’s about the resurrection of a lost soul.” And that will be out come Christmas? “No, Halloween,” said Grammer, poker-faced.

As for the series ending, he exuded similar goodwill and mischievousness. “It feels like the day they kicked me out of college. I was so excited, I thought, ‘I never have to go back to school again,’ ” he said. “And I’m very excited about the final show. I think we’re getting out in a very stylish way.”

Stylish too were the big band that played “The Way You Look Tonight,” and the guests who danced cheek to cheek, and the revelry more contented than self-congratulatory, and the final cast poster overlooking it all. No sentimental smiles, no signature hairstyles, simply five actors gathered in an affectionate knot, next to the copy: “ ‘Frasier’ has left the building. Thanks for 11 unforgettable years.”