Ever with the zeitgeist, on 7 July 2018 I decided to watch Frasier, a programme which had been out of production for 14 years. I’d only ever seen bits of the highly rated series, and find it easy to squeeze 20-ish minute programmes into my life from time to time, so it seemed like a good match.

Five years and 264 episodes later, I’ve finished it. I mostly enjoyed it: it had a serious dip in quality about two-thirds of the way through the series. The characters began acting in oddly uncharacteristic ways, which made me wonder about the relationship between actors who have played characters for years and writers who come to a series later on. It also seemed to lose its humour. But the final series was worth waiting for, a marked recovery which contained some of my favourite episodes.

Of course, in the time I’ve been watching, a revival has been announced which is scheduled for release later this year. Therefore, my claim to have watched every episode of Frasier is only temporarily true… though I suppose my completionist tendencies will mean I’ll end up watching in any case.

I’ve been wondering today whether I’ve sat through 264 episodes of any other scripted TV series.

In terms of long-running comedies, I watched all the American version of The Office, but that’s only 201 episodes. I’m uncertain whether I’ve seen every episode of Modern Family, but there were only 250 in any case. I gave up on Scrubs when they ditched most of the cast, and it only lasted 182 episodes anyway. It’s possible, but far from certain, that I’ve 264 episodes of The Simpsons, though I haven’t watched it in years.

Dramas are generally more my thing. The West Wing was a paltry 154, though as each episode was twice the length, I guess I’ve spent more time with those characters than Frasier’s. Six Feet Under was, somehow, only 63 episodes. I gave up on 24 after a few series, and even if I’d seen it all, it stopped at 204.

The obvious contenders would be soap operas, but I don’t watch any of them. But I probably watched 264 episodes of Neighbours when I was growing up.

I suppose what I’m trying to confess here is that Frasier probably now occupies a bigger slice of my cultural awareness than it ought to. At least watching it was fun.