Any sitcom worth its salt has its share of running gags, and some are darker than others. One of Frasier's best was its references to Niles' wife, Maris. Despite being mentioned constantly, and eventually being involved in a messy divorce with Niles, she never appeared on screen during Frasier's eleven-season run.
Many fans thought the joke was a homage to Cheers, given Frasier's status as a spin-off. In Cheers, one of Frasier's fellow barflies, George Wendt's Norm, had an oft-mentioned, never-seen wife. While the gag worked out that as a tribute, that wasn't what Frasier's creators originally intended.
Frasier's creators did have Norm's wife Vera in mind when they introduced Maris. Their idea was to play with the audience's expectation that Frasier would follow in Cheers' footsteps and repeat the same gag with Maris. After a few episodes, they would "pull a fast one," as co-creator David Lee told Yahoo!, and introduce Maris as an on-screen character. The seeds were planted in the pilot episode when Niles asked Frasier whether he liked Maris. Frasier replied, "I care for her from a distance, you know, the way you like the sun. Maris is like the sun. Except without the warmth."
As Maris' character was sketched out via the other characters' descriptions, the show's producers changed their plans. According to Lee, they realized the character they'd established was too strange to cast. Given that she was capable of things like walking on snow and leaving no footprints, it makes sense. Therefore, the producers decided that Maris would never appear on screen.
While viewers never saw her, they were given a vivid mental picture of Maris over the years. She was always described as being extremely pale and thin. One episode midway through the show's run illustrates how Frasier visualized Maris without ever showing her. In the Season 5 episode, "Voyage of the Damned," Roz asked Frasier why Maris wore a black dress and a veil on a cruise. Frasier said she had no pigmentation and likened her skin to ahi tuna. He said it would sear if she spent more than three minutes in the sun.
Later in the episode, Frasier goes to Maris' room to apologize on Niles' behalf for a misunderstanding. He was joined by his co-worker Roz, who, like the audience had never seen Maris' face, and his father Martin. Thanks to a maid, they're able to get into her room before she does. When they think Maris might have brought some company back with her, they hide in her bathroom. Peeping out of the bathroom door's keyhole, Roz spies what she thinks is a coat on a hat rack. When Frasier tells her to look closer, she realizes it's actually Maris. With the trio hidden behind a show curtain, the audience is given a glimpse of Maris' shadow while they react in horror to Maris' oral hygiene routine.
While Maris' elusive status on the show was similar to Vera's on Cheers, it wasn't identical. Vera physically appeared in one episode of Cheers, the holiday-themed "Thanksgiving Orphans." However, a pie thrown by Shelley Long's Diane Chambers obscuring her face. Her voice was also heard off-camera in multiple episodes, provided by George Wendt's wife, Bernadette Birkett.
With Frasier being rebooted at Paramount+, the possibility that viewers may finally see Maris is back on the table. It likely depends on whether the rumor that David Hyde Pierce will reprise his role as Niles turns out to be true. The producers might finally be able to find someone who could live up to the Maris fans have had in their heads for nearly 20 years, even if Pierce made a good point when he said, "I don’t think anyone would actually want to work with the person who would be right for that character."