A running gag pulled from real life, a season delayed by a rehab stint, and the biggest prima
donna on four legs. Here's how "Frasier" beat the odds to become one of TV's biggest successes.
Officially, the Frasier Crane character was the creation of "Cheers" executive
producers Glen and Les Charles. But writers David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee,
who later created the spinoff, played a vital role in shaping the character from his infancy.
Angell joined "Cheers" during the first season in 1983 when Casey and Lee were
still under contract at "The Jeffersons." A monologue from their first "Cheers" script,
written before the character had a name or an actor, was used for auditions.
Kelsey Grammer told GQ about his audition for the role:
"When I auditioned for the twenty people that were in the room, I didn't get a
single laugh. I thought, 'Holy s—. I'm done. I blew this completely.' I put the script down,
thanked everybody, and said, 'I'm going to go and see if I can get some laughs out on
the street.' But then they sent me a bottle of champagne and said, 'Welcome to Cheers.'"
Grammar would end up playing Dr. Frasier Crane for the next two decades.
Casey and Lee received an Emmy nomination for their "Cheers" debut. They joined the "Cheers"
staff full-time after they completed their obligation to "The Jeffersons." Eventually,
Angell, Casey, and Lee left "Cheers" to create the sitcom "Wings." And while
that series enjoyed an eight-season run, Dr. Frasier Crane would soon call upon them again.
The second season of "Cheers" ended with the breakup of Sam Malone, played by Ted Danson,
and Diane Chambers, played by Shelley Long. In the third season opener,
"The Rebound," Diane returned to the bar with a new boyfriend, psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane.
"Hello, Sam. I'm Doctor Frasier Crane. I'm sorry I startled you."
Frasier was introduced as an obstacle between Sam and Diane. He was the kind
of polished intellectual that Diane always claimed to desire. Frasier was
also the opposite of the coarse, blue-collar, wisecracking Sam.
While Frasier was pretentious, overall he was a pretty good guy. But his character served
the plot as an antagonist, a wedge between the two main romantic leads. Kelsey Grammer received
mountains of hate mail and occasional in-person harassment for keeping Sam and Diane apart.
"That's it? 'I hate Frasier Crane?'"
Frasier and Diane became engaged and jetted off to Italy to get married. But
Diane rejected Frasier at the altar, taking him out of the Sam and Diane equation. As he
struggled to pick up the pieces of his life, Frasier stuck around at the bar and took on
an identity of his own. He ultimately became one of the most popular "Cheers" characters,
earning Grammer two Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
When the massively popular "Cheers" came to a close in 1993,
NBC and Paramount Television wanted a new sitcom to retain the audience. A
new series starring a popular member of the "Cheers" cast seemed like just the ticket,
but Kelsey Grammer resisted the idea. He wanted a completely new series, character, and premise.
Grammar had already approached former "Cheers" writers David Angell, Peter Casey,
and David Lee about developing such a series. They pitched an original and bizarre sitcom in
which Grammer played a disabled media tycoon who ran his empire from his bedroom. Paramount
executive John Pike rejected this concept and convinced the team to develop a "Frasier" spinoff.
Grammar agreed on the condition that the series would not be a family comedy
featuring Frasier with his wife and son from "Cheers." This was easy to accommodate,
since "Cheers" had already put Frasier in a precarious place with his contentious spouse,
Dr. Lilith Sternin, played by Bebe Neuwirth.
"My God, woman! I'd drive a stake through your heart but I don't think anything could kill you!"
In the spinoff, Lilith and young Frederick, played by Trevor Einhorn [INE-horn], would
occasionally appear, but those relationships wouldn't be the center of the show.
One of the ways the "Frasier" co-creators distanced the spinoff from "Cheers" was
to place a literal distance between Frasier and the "Cheers'" Boston location. This would
also lessen studio or network demands to have the "Cheers" characters visit.
"Fraser" the series was going to be set in Denver, Colorado. But after the state passed
some harshly anti-gay legislation, the producers changed it to Seattle,
Washington. Seattle was a city largely unexplored as a setting on television
and was a growing center of culture that offered story opportunities for the cultured psychiatrist.
Instead of using exterior establishing shots and theme music between scenes,
"Frasier" divided sequences with clever white-on-black title cards over silence.
Sequences on "Frasier" could run as long as they were funny, despite trends of fast
gags and quick cuts for so-called short attention spans. Some scenes spanned an
entire act. Despite trends and research to the contrary, the pacing was extremely successful.
The idea of Dr. Frasier Crane hosting a talk radio show was almost a "Cheers" episode,
but it became the core premise for the "Frasier" spinoff. To gain insight into the radio workplace,
the writers visited KABC's Dr. David Viscott's show in Los Angeles. The heart
of the series was inspired by the fathers of co-creators Peter Casey and David Lee.
Casey's father had been a San Francisco police officer, while Lee's father suffered a stroke,
which brought in the issue of a child becoming the caretaker to a parent.
Since Frasier would be working at a radio studio, he would need a hand taking care of his father,
Martin Crane, played by John Mahoney. So, Jane Leeves was cast as a full-time
healthcare worker. Frasier Crane was going to be an only child until casting assistant Sheila
Guthrie suggested David Hyde Pierce to play Frasier's younger brother. The creators were
interested in the idea of having a younger foil for Frasier, essentially serving as the person
he would've become if he'd never come to Cheers, and so Dr. Niles Crane was created for Pierce.
"Frasier, you're my brother. That entitles you to my bone marrow and one of my kidneys,
but this is an imposition."
NBC happily pre-approved John Mahoney, David Hyde Pierce,
and Jane Leeves before they were even certain the actors were available. The
most difficult role to cast turned out to be Frasier's radio producer, Roz Doyle. The
producers requested a wide variety of actors to audition to see what each brought to it.
Lisa Kudrow won the role, after years of guest spots on other early '90s sitcoms,
including "Cheers." They loved her quirky persona and began to
shape the character around her. But during the first week of rehearsals,
they found that this Roz was losing her edge and could no longer go toe-to-toe
with Frasier. Peri Gilpin, another favorite from the audition, was then offered the role.
"Dr. Crane, on line two, we have Stuart, who's having a problem with delayed gratification."
"Well, he's just gonna have to wait!"
Gilpin told Vanity Fair that there were no hurt feelings between the two actors.
And things worked out fine for Kudrow, who found great success as Phoebe on Friends.
"Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer is known to be a reliable professional on the studio set. However,
his personal story is fraught with tragic and unsettling incidents. The grandfather who had
raised him was lost to cancer when Grammer was twenty-five. His father and younger
sister were victims of two separate grisly murders. He lost his two half-brothers in
a scuba diving accident. Grammar himself had a decades-long struggle with alcohol and cocaine.
During production of "Frasier's" fourth season in 1996, Grammer was in a single-car accident
while driving under the influence of alcohol. His "Frasier" friends held an intervention,
and he entered rehab at the Betty Ford Center, where he stayed for a month.
"It may be an unwise man who doesn't learn from his own mistakes,
but it's an absolute idiot who doesn't learn from other people's."
In 2016, Grammar announced himself as "a reformed alcoholic" who drinks regularly in moderation,
but he says he's given up cocaine for good.
The cast of "Frasier" got along exceptionally well, with relatively little conflict between
the actors. Even during Kelsey Grammer's personal struggles, his professional and
personal relationships among the cast are described as mostly stable and amicable.
The real prima donna in the cast was the dog. Moose was the real name of the Jack Russell
Terrier who played Martin's beloved pet, Eddie. While the onscreen Eddie seemed sweet and benign,
offscreen Moose was described in a 1994 Washington Post article as "unfriendly and
businesslike." In the DVD featurette "Behind the Couch," John Mahoney seconded that description,
adding that Moose eagerly cooperated with his trainer, Mathilde de Cagny,
but had no interest in the rest of the cast. Moose also used to bite Mahoney, according to
Kelsey Grammer, who tended to be the one with the harshest words about his canine co-star.
Eventually, Moose began to split the role with his son,
Enzo. But Moose and Enzo didn't get along very well, either.
Series co-creator Peter Casey told Vanity Fair:
"Apparently, it was one of those classic parent-child Hollywood rivalries."
One source of the series' humor is the portrayal of Frasier and his
brother Niles as having more in common with the stereotypes of a gay man than a straight one.
"I had to buy two Balinese lutes, two decoupage kits, two pairs of lederhosen."
Guest characters would often misread their sexuality,
resulting in escalating misunderstandings.
One reason why this line of humor worked was the influence of gay talent behind the scenes,
including co-creator David Lee and writer Joe Keenan. Keenan penned twenty-four episodes,
including "The Matchmaker," a farce of sexual miscues which won an Emmy,
a WGA Award, a DGA Award, and a GLAAD Media Award. David Hyde Pierce's coming out and
marriage to his longtime partner Brian Hargrove in 2008 is now common knowledge. Dan Butler,
who played the hyper-masculine sportscaster Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe,
was already out during the run of the show.
"Look, is there nothing I can do to appeal to your sense of decency?"
"I have no sense of decency. That way, my other senses are enhanced."
Series co-creator David Lee believes the joke isn't that Frasier or Niles are secretly gay,
as he feels some viewers have misinterpreted it. Instead,
the joke is that they're straight but extremely against type.
Series writer-producer Joe Keenan told The Advocate:
"They were metrosexuals a good five or six years before the term was coined."
"Frasier" came to an end on its own terms after eleven seasons in 2004.
When other '90s sitcoms like "Will & Grace" and "Murphy Brown" returned to
television and streaming services during the reboot-happy 2010s, rumblings of a "Frasier"
revival weren't far behind. It became a real possibility in 2018, when Kelsey Grammer began
to float the idea publicly and take meetings with Paramount executives.
"If anyone knows the value of restraint and taking things slowly, it is yours truly."
In 2021, Viacom green-lit a new "Frasier" series starring Kelsey Grammer on their
Paramount Plus streaming service. Other original cast members have not confirmed their involvement,
although both Peri Gilpin and Bebe Neuwirth seem enthusiastic about the
idea of reprising their roles. Jane Leeves might participate if it doesn't conflict with
her current role on the Fox drama "The Resident." David Hyde Pierce, however,
had expressed disinterest in returning, according to a 2017 Vulture interview.
"How I Met Your Mother" writer/producer Chris Harris and "Life in Pieces'' writer Joe Cristalli
were announced as showrunners, but there's no word of involvement or endorsement were
heard from surviving original series creators Peter Casey and David Lee.
When Paramount Plus officially greenlit a "Frasier" sequel series, Kelsey Grammer
confirmed that the original cast would not return. Initially, he envisioned a reunion,
but without David Hyde Pierce's interest, Grammer and the team decided to rethink the premise.
"We all knew we weren't going to stay together forever. That's not what life is about."
Grammar calls it Frasier's "third act," with new characters in a
different setting. The absence of the original series characters,
including the off-screen loss of Frasier's father Martin, will be addressed in the new series.
Just as Frasier bought a single ticket from Boston to Seattle when he left
"Cheers," Frasier will again find a new home to reunite with family members and friends.
In the new series, Frasier's son Freddie is now a young man who would rather be a
firefighter than a scholar. Played by British actor Jack Cutmore-Scott of
the ABC series "Deception," Freddie attempts to resolve his differences with his father,
much as Frasier tried with Martin in the original.
Niles and Daphne's son David, who was born during the original series finale,
is now an awkward college freshman played by Anders Keith. Jess Salgueiro of the series "Y:
The Last Man" will portray Freddie's outgoing roommate, Eve.
In addition to the younger cast, veteran actor Nicholas Lyndhurst, star of the BBC
sitcom "Goodnight Sweetheart," will portray Frasier's Harvard college buddy Alan Cornwall.
And Toks Olagundoye of ABC's "The Neighbors" and "Castle" is set to play Alan's colleague, Olivia.
Whether it's madness or sanity to expect the new "Frasier" to equal the original,
fans will be getting more appointments with the
sophisticated shrink on top of his first twenty-two years on television.