Two decades after his beloved character signed off the airwaves, Kelsey Grammer is finally serving up second helpings of tossed salad and scrambled eggs. The Frasier revival is now in production, after nearly a decade in development – despite some crucial absences. David Hyde Pierce has declined to return as Frasier’s neurotic brother Niles, while John Mahoney, who played their irascible but charming ex-cop father Martin, died in 2018. Factor in Grammer’s outspoken Trumpism, which complicates the legacy of his defining role, and fans may be forgiven for feeling trepidatious. But early reports suggest there may be reasons for optimism over the return of TV’s favourite Freudian.
After 11 seasons set in Seattle, in an apartment overlooking the city’s Space Needle no less, Frasier is returning to Boston, to reconquer his old Cheers-era stomping ground. “He left with his tail between his legs a little bit,” Grammer said in a recent interview. The 80s bar-room sitcom’s co-creator James Burrows, who also directed the original Frasier pilot, is confirmed to direct the first two episodes of the revival – but the rest finds the good doctor on pastures new.
Co-starring is Only Fools and Horses actor Nicholas Lyndhurst, who appeared alongside Grammer in the English National Opera’s Man of La Mancha in 2019. According to a report in Variety, Lyndhurst will play Frasier’s “old college buddy” Alan, a boozy British professor whose “mischievous streak might be just what Frasier could use to shake up his routine”.
Meanwhile, Jack Cutmore-Scott, who starred as a magician consulting for the FBI in ABC’s Deception, will play Frasier’s son Freddy. Now grown up, he’s a firefighter seeking “a chance to repair old wounds” with his dad. Jess Salgueiro, known for Canadian comedy drama Workin’ Mums, is Freddy’s roommate Eve. And, while Niles and Daphne may be absent, their son will make an appearance instead, played by newcomer Anders Keith.
The elements are there; hilarity may well ensue. But what made the original series such an enduring hit – and is it even possible for a revival to recapture the magic? We asked top writers and comedians, all of them superfans, to respond to Frasier re-entering the building.
‘Bring back Lana the vulgar prom queen’
James Graham, writer whose recent hits include Sherwood and Tammy Faye: A New Musical
Like everyone else watching Frasier, I just wanted to live in that apartment. My God, that view! Growing up, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you where Seattle was, only that it was where Frasier, Martin, Niles and Eddie the jack russell terrier lived. I grew up in a working-class house but, for some reason, we too drank sherry by the gallon. Frasier and Niles’s obsession with it made me think it was so refined, even though ours was £5 plonk.
I became a hardcore fan more through the endless repeats. Giddy moments of joy include: Martin’s Hot’n’Foamy shaving cream exploding over Niles: any time Frasier purses his lips in bashfulness; and the beach-house gourmet party where the brothers have to remove a rotting dead seal, dropping it back in the sea weighed down with a lamp that turns on or off should anyone clap. My favourite guest character, in an incomparable roll call, was Jean Smart as the loud and vulgar prom queen Lana. Please bring her back!
• Sherwood is available on iPlayer
‘Grammer’s Trumpism makes me uncomfortable’
Josie Long, comedian, actor and TV panellist
Some people say Frasier went downhill after Daphne and Niles got together but I don’t think so. I love those characters. I love to sit with them and enjoy their story again. There are so many wonderful episodes. It’s so rich in its plotting and farce. I’d love to see more. However, Grammer’s flirtations with Trumpism make me slightly uncomfortable. You do wonder how it might come out in the reboot.
I rewatched it all recently and it still felt very contemporary. The stances taken are thoughtful and progressive. While the characters are privileged, they’re not the cast of Succession: these are middle-class people with cultural capital. That’s who the right now consider to be “elite”, especially in the US. I hope that the reboot doesn’t come with some new agenda, like Frasier telling “home truths” about how young people are clueless, and if they’d just work harder they’d be successful. Nor would I like to see Frasier being best friends with Elon Musk, or criticising “wokeness”.
That would all go against the original, which celebrated intellectualism and high art. Sure, Frasier and Niles might have been pompous and pretentious, but the show was still saying that opera, ballet, literature and classical music are important. It would be great, in this day and age, to have a mainstream sitcom whose characters unashamedly love those things. And as psychologists, Frasier and Niles always took their work – helping people – seriously.
Those are the Frasier values, which the right today is against. In its day, the series felt unifying, something progressives and Conservatives could enjoy equally. My grandma was a Tory and she loved Frasier. But politics has changed, inequality is so much sharper. The Crane brothers were supposed to be middle class, but the number of people who are middle class in that way in the UK today is tiny, while the majority are struggling. Those points of overlap aren’t there any more.
However, while Frasier was a beautiful, warm-hearted, caring show, Frasier himself was among the less caring characters. Especially in the later seasons, he was getting more self-absorbed and absurd. It does leave me wondering how they are going to get the magic back, that sweetness.
While the reboot’s certainly not going to be the same, it could still be lovely and warm-hearted. I’m going to hope for the best. It could take on the culture war in a way liberals might agree with. The Frasier of the past would not have tolerated bigotry. He would be defending the arts and funding for opera. When all’s said and done, Grammer brought that character to life. I assume he still has love and enthusiasm for him. So of course I’m going to watch it. Even if it’s absolutely shit.
• Josie Long is touring the UK with new show Re-Enchantment
‘Let’s see him tackle today’s mental health issues’
Emmanuel Sonubi, former bouncer nominated for best comedy newcomer at the 2022 Edinburgh fringe
When I heard about the revival, I immediately began bingeing the original. The jokes are still hilarious. Not once did I think: “That was funny for the time, but you couldn’t do that now” – unlike with some other shows. (You know what I’m talking about: a hit series that ran for 10 seasons and had a wishy-washy character whose name rhymes with Cross.)
Frasier still holds up, in comedy and relevance, because many of the topics, even in the first season, are still discussed today: trolling, mortality, partnerships, regret and the public perception of oneself. As a writer looking at it through the lens of 2023, I’d stick to what has worked – making it about the characters. My first thought was if he would still be a radio host, or would be focusing instead on making his new podcast climb to the top of the Spotify charts?
This could be an opportunity to be more controversial. It would be interesting to see Frasier’s approach to modern discussions of mental health, influenced by his late father, sadly no longer seated in that armchair. Rarely does a spin-off surpass its original, but I reckon Frasier has this in the bag. I just hope they keep their tradition of amazing cameos.
• Emmanuel Sonubi is touring the UK from April
‘Will he cry a single hot tear for Lilith?’
Imogen West-Knights, writer shortlisted for the 2017 Portobello prize
I never know how to justify the degree to which I love Frasier. Perhaps love isn’t even the right word. It’s more that I am in a dysfunctional thrall to the show. If I find myself watching Frasier, all is not well in my life. I’m watching the show because I need to be whacked around the head by something soothing and familiar. I put it on, hear Grammer singing that ridiculous song and think: “Here they are, my snooty little family.”
Perhaps I do not need new episodes. I fear the worst for this reboot. Admittedly, part of Dr Crane’s charm was that he was a little out of touch with the modern world. But he would be in his 70s today. Are we expected to endure Frasier’s opinions about how kids these days all claim to have ADHD? Or worse, about “ethical non-monogamy”? Or worse still, OnlyFans?
My real dread, however, is about the rest of the cast. Niles isn’t going to be in it. No Daphne either. The actor who played Martin has died. Even the dog has died. How will the show explain that Frasier doesn’t see his brother, with whom he used to be joined at the hip? Can these absences be anything other than depressing?
Are we to see Frasier in a box at the opera, turning to remark that American productions so rarely understand the particular Mitteleuropean humour of Die Fledermaus – and the light leaving his eyes as they land on the empty seat next to him? Will we see him at his ex-wife Lilith’s funeral, insulting her unconvincingly under his breath as a single hot tear rolls down his cheek? Is he going to fail to connect with his grown son, who is either a miniature Crane brother and ghostly reminder of Niles’s new distance, or like really into crypto? Baby, I hear the blues a-callin’.
• Deep Down, Imogen West-Knights’ debut novel, is published by Fleet in March
