When the Paramount+ subscription-exclusive Frasier revival aired its first season last year, only two other familiar faces from the original Frasier also stopped by: Bebe Neuwirth’s Lilith Sternin and Peri Gilpin’s Roz Doyle. The latter appeared in the Season 1 finale, and once Season 2 starts airing on the 2024 TV schedule, we’ll see Gilpin reprise Roz in multiple episodes. In a conversation with CinemaBlend, Frasier’s showrunners opened up about the “organic way” they brought the character back, but I was also touched in my interview with Gilpin about the positive experience she had with her new costars.
First, when I was speaking with showrunners Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli, I asked the men if it was always the plan for Roz to be featured more if Frasier got renewed for a second season, as well inquired about how they came up with her narrative for this batch of episodes. Harris told me the following:
Kelsey and obviously Peri have such a great relationship. It was always the idea that we would bring her on a little bit more. The first season… obviously we did bring her in for the last episode, but we wanted to make sure that we established our own characters first. And then also, we wanted to make sure we had an organic way to bring her in, that it wasn’t suddenly like we were just jamming in a character from the old show for no reason. Joe, Kelsey and I, we all worked together to make sure that there was a natural reason, and what we came up with is that Roz’s daughter Alice is now studying at Risd in Providence not too far away, so she is going to be around in Boston more. We actually get to take advantage of that in some fun ways where Alice, in a couple episodes, starts to become a little bit part of the group, and we get to explore even more of this next generation of characters from the original series.
Roz’s daughter Alice was briefly mentioned in the Season 1 finale, but now we know that just like how Frasier moved back to Boston, i.e. his old Cheers stomping grounds, the young woman is also on the East Coast to attend the Rhode Island School of Design to study architecture. We’ll see what she’s like when Kelsey Grammer’s daughter Greer portrays her this season, and it sounds like romantic sparks will fly between her and Jack Cutmore-Scott’s Freddy Crane, Frasier’s son. As Chris Harris laid out, Alice’s change of environment was more than enough justification to have Peri Gilpin reprise Roz more often, and this also comes at a time when the character is considering leaving Seattle.
Whatever ends up happening with Roz in Frasier Season 2, I pleased to hear from Peri Gilpin that she had a good time with the other actors in the Frasier revival’s main cast, Toks Olagundoye, Anders Keith, Jess Salgueiro and Nicholas Lyndhurst. As she answered when I asked what it was like for her building a dynamic with these actors:
It was very fun and very different with each person, and they were really friendly and open as human beings, and also wonderful actors who… immediately we started to find ways to connect from their point of view and from mine. It’s been a great time.
Frasier Season 2 will also see the return of Dan Butler as Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe and Edward Hibbert as Gil Chesterton, both of whom will appear in the episode when Frasier Crane returns to Seattle. Additionally, Harriet Hansom Harris will reprise Frasier’s agent Bebe Glazer, who will be seen alongside her daughter Phoebe, played by Rachel Bloom. Other new faces this season include Yvette Nicole Brown, Amy Sedaris and Kelsey Grammer’s Back to You costar Patricia Heaton.
The first two episodes of Frasier Season 2 premiere on Paramount+ this Thursday, September 19, and the remaining eight episodes will be released weekly. Head to the same streaming service if you’d like to rewatch the original Frasier or Cheers.
