Frasier is back on the air, but it certainly doesn’t resemble the Frasier that ran from 1993 to 2004 on NBC. In addition to the Paramount+ revival taking place in Boston (where Cheers was also set) rather than Seattle, Kelsey Grammer is accompanied by all-new faces in Frasier’s main cast, although we will be treated to guest appearances from Peri Gilpin’s Roz Doyle and Bebe Neuwirth’s Lilith Sternin later in the season. As it turns out though, there was a plan for the new Frasier that originally involved Niles in a major way, but that had to be tossed aside once David Hyde Pierce declined to reprise the role.
Although the original Frasier ended with Grammer’s title character moving to Chicago shortly after Niles and Daphne’s son David was born, Joe Cristalli, who showruns the new Frasier alongside Chris Harris, shared with Vulture that an earlier incarnation of the revival would have seen the brothers going back into business together, with Cristalli saying:
For a long time, the idea was that Frasier and Niles were going to run a black-box theater, like how they bought that restaurant and brought it back to life. But it’s hard for Frasier and Niles to run the theater when you don’t have Niles, so we had to step back from that.
Christalli is referencing the original Frasier’s 23rd episode from Season 2, titled “The Innkeepers,” when Frasier and Niles purchased a restaurant that was about to close and tried to breathe new life into it.As one would expect from such a Frasier premise, opening night went horribly, and the brothers’ dreams of being restauranteurs were quickly dashed. However, evidently their black-box theater endeavor would have lasted longer than one episode since it sounds like this would have been a big hook for the revival.
In the end though, David Hyde Pierce wasn’t interested in playing Niles again, though Cristalli made it clear in this interview that the actor is “not the bad guy in this, and he was so lovely about it.” Still, that that obviously necessitated the revival’s remise be changed, and the final version of the show now depicts Dr. Frasier Crane living with his son Freddy and teaching at Harvard. The new Frasier is certainly accessible enough to newcomers, and the aforementioned Roz and Lilith appearances look to be the only original Frasier appearances lined up. However, if the show is renewed for another season, Harris is open to more Cheers and Frasier characters stopping by.
Paramount+ subscribers can catch new episodes of Frasier on Thursdays. After you’re done checking it out and the other best Paramount+ shows, our 2023 TV schedule is available to peruse so you can discover what shows are left to be released this year.
