Despite her talent, Phyllis never really worked as a spin-off, for the same reason that, later on, Frasier did work. The self-absorbed, narcissistic character that worked on TMTMS wasn’t realigned for a starring role, whereas Frasier’s creators rewrote the Frasier character to enable him to play the lead and deliver the comedy as well as the pathos. They filled the gap with a brother character, Niles, who resembled the Cheers version of Frasier. With Cloris, they never augmented the character and centered her the way they did for Frasier.
