Frasier goes through multiple wardrobe changes while preparing for his first-day teaching at Harvard. Freddy mocks him for it taking all of a minute for him to mention he’s now teaching at the prestigious university. Frasier shoots back that a minute is just a little longer than Freddy attended there.

David is going to escort Frasier around the campus on his first day, even though Frasier graduated from Harvard.

Olivia gives him a replica of the “thinking cap” Frasier used on his talk show, but he is reluctant to use it. He wants to move on.

The students treat the class like it’s his TV show, not a college class. When Frasier makes it clear that’s not what will be happening, half the class leaves.

Olivia says Frasier has to make his numbers and that students today expect a little more entertainment than they did decades ago when he was a student. She suggests that Frasier and Alan co-teach until Frasier gets the hang of it. Alan asks for more pay if he’s going to have to do more work. Olivia offers to let him bring his cat, Margaret Scratcher, back to his office. He agrees, but it turns out he always has the cat in his office; he just hides it from Olivia.

Frasier is depressed. He doesn’t want to be seen as nothing more than a dancing bear. His show devolved into talk show drivel for ratings. Now that he’s at Harvard, he wants to do something of substance.

For the second class, Olivia sets up the classroom to look like his old TV show, and Frasier walks out. Frasier refuses to be the dancing bear, but that’s why Olivia hired him. She wants to use Frasier to beat her sister, who is the provost at Yale.

When Frasier considers quitting Harvard, Freddy takes the opportunity to mockingly give Frasier the same speech he gave Freddy when he decided Harvard wasn’t right for him.

Frasier decides he needs a “student” to ask serious questions to get other students involved. David thinks that should be him, and he is furious when Frasier hires Eve to pretend to be a student and blows her cover. As things quickly devolve into an argument that has David announcing to the class that Frasier pays for Eve and her baby’s apartment, Frasier uses the thinking cap to distract everyone and avoid disaster.

The class is a success, but Frasier is despondent. This isn’t what he wanted. Alan points out that he’s rich and famous, his students love him, and he actually got 20 minutes of real teaching into his class, and the students listened. But Frasier wanted to make a difference in the world.

Olivia tells him that she bought that thinking cap when she saw his show live years ago. She was a fan, a Craniac, and ran one of his fan clubs. That’s what inspired her to go into psychology as a profession. Frasier feels like maybe he did inspire people without knowing it and is relieved. But Olivia admits to Alan that at least part of the story was made it. Frasier did inspire her, but she recently bought the thinking cap. She’s not above using showmanship, either.