“I think we should go to another 100 episodes at least,” the actor, 68, told Variety in an interview published on Wednesday, November 22. “There’s enough groundwork laid between these human beings; they are wonderful characters. I want to see where they go. And I want to see what happens to Frasier.”
Frasier initially ran for 11 seasons between 1993 and 2004 on NBC, following titular character Frasier Crane (Grammer), a successful therapist who moves from Boston to his hometown of Seattle after getting divorced. Frasier, who viewers first met as a stuffy regular bar patron on the hit sitcom Cheers, hosts his own talk show helping those in need while simultaneously dealing with his own romantic and familial struggles.
Nearly two decades after Frasier ended, Paramount+ announced plans for a revival in which Grammer would reprise his role. The series, which premiered on the streaming platform this past October, sees Frasier returning to Boston in an attempt to reconnect with his son (Jack Cutmore-Scott). The show marks a new chapter for the character, one in which he is older, wiser and, to Grammer’s delight, wearing much more casual clothing.
“I did think it was a natural progression for him,” Grammer told Variety of Frasier trading in suits for jeans and sneakers. “But also natural for me. People didn’t talk about it much during the old iteration of the show. But my feet were always an issue. And I had a couple of podiatrists years ago notice on the show, asking, ‘What’s going on with your feet?”
Grammar explained that he has a “gait issue,” and “really, really bad ankles,” so it’s “easier” to for him wear sneakers instead of a “bunch of custom-made brogues and all that.”
Another source of comfort for the Emmy winner is the return of James Burrows. One of the original creators of Cheers, Burrows, 82, signed on to direct the first two episodes of the revival, for which Grammer is extremely grateful.
“It’s a piece of personal heaven for me that Jimmy Burrows is still in my life,” Grammer said. “And I will always feel that way about him. He’s really helpful. And his loyalty to our friendship has been … He’s just aces. He’s one of the greatest people I know. Our relationship has been an extraordinary one through the years and I’m so grateful to him for being there.”
After reports of a potential revival first broke in 2018, Grammer exclusively told Us Weekly that he was talking to writers and “discussing options” about which platform would be an “appropriate” place for the show to land.
“There’s some movement; we’ll see what happens. I just want to make sure it’s really good,” he told Us in 2019, adding that fans should expect a “third act” of sorts.
Three years later, Grammer confirmed that the “final” script was in its final stage. “I’ve had a couple of runs through it, and I cried, so, you know, I’m happy,” he said during a July 2022 episode of The Talk. “The key ingredient for the Frasier is actually Frasier, honestly. It was always called [Frasier] so it’s me, the key is me.”
Although Frasier fans were also hoping that Frasier’s brother, Niles, played by David Hyde Pierce, would also be a key ingredient of the reboot, Grammer told People last February that the actor “wasn’t really interested” in “repeating the performance” of his character.
Pierce, meanwhile, told Vulture in 2022 that he thought the revival could tell new stories without him, noting that when the original Frasier spun off from Cheers, “they didn’t bring along the Cheers gang to make a new show.”
