First Look: ‘Frasier’ Revived After 19 Years
Kelsey Grammer is returning to his iconic comedy role as Frasier Crane after 19 years.
Paramount+ has released first-look images from its revival of the sitcom Frasier along with a premiere date: Thursday, Oct. 12.
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The scheduling move puts the streaming series right in the middle of the traditional broadcast network fall-season rollout, and back on a night where it was part of NBC’s Must-See TV lineup for several seasons of its original run. CBS will also give the show a broadcast sample airing with two back-to-back episodes on Tuesday, Oct. 17. Frasier premiered in 1993 and ran for 11 seasons.
The new series “follows Frasier Crane in the next chapter of his life as he returns to Boston with new challenges to face, new relationships to forge and an old dream or two to finally fulfill.”
Notably absent from the series is actor David Hyde Pierce, who played Crane’s brother Niles on the original show. “David basically decided he wasn’t really interested in repeating the performance of Niles,” Grammer told People.
Pierce told Vulture, “I don’t have a strong feeling that there’s anything more that I can think of that I need to say about the character. … I love those characters, but I don’t miss them.” That said, he left the door open to potentially appear on the show: “I would never disrespect that in such a way as to say just offhandedly, ‘Oh, no, thanks. I’m not going to do that again.’ It’s too valuable to me. But by the same token, because it’s so valuable to me, I also wouldn’t do it just to do it. And I believe it can be done without me, too — finding new stories to tell, in the same way that Frasier did after Cheers. They didn’t bring along the Cheers gang to make a new show.”
Jane Leeves, who played Daphne, is also not part of the revival. That said, Bebe Neuwirth, who played Crane’s ex-wife and colleague Dr. Lilith Sternin on the original show, is making a guest-star return, as is Peri Gilpin as Crane’s former radio producer Roz. John Mahoney, who played Frasier and Niles’ father, Martin, died in 2018.
Paramount+ has ordered a 10-episode season, which was filmed in front of a live studio audience at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. The new series co-stars Jack Cutmore-Scott as Frasier’s son Freddy; Nicholas Lyndhurst as Frasier’s old college buddy turned university professor Alan; Toks Olagundoye as Olivia, Alan’s colleague and head of the university’s psychology department; Jess Salgueiro as Freddy’s roommate Eve; and Anders Keith as Frasier’s nephew David.
The series is from writers Chris Harris (How I Met Your Mother) and Joe Cristalli (Life in Pieces), who executive produce with Grammer, Tom Russo and Jordan McMahon.
Frasier was the most Emmy-winning series of all time, with 37 wins, until that record was beaten by HBO’s Game of Thrones in 2016. It still holds the record for most wins by a comedy series. The original series is available to stream on Paramount+.
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