1. Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge - Down Periscope (1996)
It's often difficult for actors and directors alike to transfer from one medium to another. By the time he came to make his feature-film debut, Grammer had nine years of Cheers and a further two of Frasier behind him; he was well-liked and widely respected, but doubts remained about his abilities on the big screen. While Down Periscope didn't strangle his film career in the crib, it is the biggest and most perplexing of all his failures, working against so many of his natural strengths. Directed by David S. Ward (The Sting II), Down Periscope stars Grammer as Lt. Comm. Thomas Dodge, an unorthodox US Navy officer who has twice failed to his bid to command his own vessel. Faced with a humiliating desk job, he is handed one last chance by Vice Admiral Dean Winslow (Rip Torn) and given command of a rusty diesel submarine, the USS Stingray, during a war games exercise. Saddled with a motley, incompetent crew that includes Rob Schneider and Harry Dean Stanton, Dodge must uses every trick he knows to win against the ruthless Rear Admiral Yancy Graham (Bruce Dern in shouty mode). Down Periscope is essentially what you would get if you put all the weaker
Police Academy films together and set them underwater. The action scenes are sub-standard, the humour is weak and the performances are thin and stereotypical. But Grammer is the biggest problem, being miscast as a happy-go-lucky maverick when he's always been at his best in straight-laced, intelligent roles. Having been given the wrong part, he gurns his way through the set-pieces, trying and failing to channel Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko, and doesn't bring any credibility to the character interactions. It's Grammer squandering his natural talent, and it remains his most embarrassing performance to date.
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