Don’t call Kelsey Grammer’s new ‘Frasier’ series a reboot

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As Kelsey Grammer returns to the small screen as Frasier Crane in the Paramount+ comedy Frasier, legendary TV producer and director James Burrows is quick to remind me that the sequel series is not a reboot.

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“I don’t consider Frasier a reboot. To me, a reboot is same cast, same characters. This is one character who is moving on to a new adventure,” Burrows says in a video call from Los Angeles. “I did a reboot on Will & Grace, but this is a further journey. This is Frasier’s travels. You’re taking one character and introducing a whole cast of new ones who hopefully will appeal to an audience the way the disparate group of the first Frasier did.”

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The comedic character made his television debut in Season 3 of NBC’s Emmy-winning series Cheers, which Burrows, 82, co-created with Glen and Les Charles.

When Cheers wrapped in 1993, Grammer transplanted the bumbling character to Seattle where his story continued in the eponymous spinoff series. Grammer is now going full circle in Season 1 of the revival as his character returns to Boston and tries to build a relationship with his his grown son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) in a story that riffs on the father-son conflict that flavoured the original series.

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Frasier was initially only set to appear in a four-episode story arc when he was introduced as the obnoxious boyfriend to Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) in the Season 3 Cheers premiere back in September 1984. But Burrows says that viewers quickly fell in love with the character and the bit part led to the role Grammer has now played off-and-on for almost 40 years.

“When we saw him in front of an audience, we thought, ‘Why not keep him on?’ After Shelley left in year five, he did all of her jokes. We gave all the Diane jokes to Frasier.”

But Burrows, who directed 32 episodes of Frasier and the first two instalments of the sequel series, says that Dr. Crane was more of a buffoon on Cheers.

“He didn’t have to be the leading man, Teddy [Danson, who played Sam Malone] was the leading man. Frasier was more the butt of a lot of people’s jokes. But he played that buffoon with such vulnerability and that made it easy for him to move into Frasier.”

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The initial 1993 spinoff, which was created by David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee, was an instant hit with audiences.

“They saw that they could take this buffoon on Cheers and turn him into a leading man, which they did, and then surround him with crazies. That was their doing,” Burrows says with a chuckle.

Since he got his TV launch with a job on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1974, Burrows has been behind the camera for Taxi, Cheers and Will & Grace, and shot the pilots of Friends and The Big Bang Theory. So he knows a thing or two about creating lasting entertainment.

But he’s not surprised that Frasier has endured for decades. “People love him. They loved him in the ‘80s, ‘90s and early 2000s, why not love him now?”

Created by Joe Cristalli (Life in Pieces) and Chris Harris (How I Met Your Mother), Grammer’s transition into this next phase of Frasier’s life in the 10-episode revamp will have viewers thinking they’ve just run into an old friend.

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“He’s just put on a few years. That’s about it,” Burrows says. “He can’t lose his soul and essence — which is this know-it-all academic who is incredibly smart, but also incredibly pretentious, yet played with vulnerability.”

Burrows returned to direct the first two episodes because Grammer wanted to make sure the show hit all the right notes.

“Kelsey called me and when Kelsey calls, you answer the call. We’ve loved one another now for 40 years,” Burrows says. “I was there to make sure the character’s integrity was maintained because he’s an endearing character to all of us.”

Although the update takes place in Boston, fans hoping to see more stories from the Cheers-verse will be disappointed. Despite appearances from Bebe Neuwirth, who returns as Lilith, Frasier’s ex and mother of Freddy, and Peri Gilpin as Roz Doyle, Burrows says a Cheers revival is out of the question.

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“The bar is closed. It’s become a massage parlour,” he says, jokingly.

Thirty years after it ended, Burrows says the Cheers finale is still one of television’s great moments and provided a fitting ending for the bunch of beer-swilling misfits.

“You’re not going to win ending a show. You just can’t. It’s like taking a childhood toy away from an audience. They’re going to be pissed that you ended a show. That’s tough to overcome,” Burrows concedes. “But I felt our ending was right for the show and respectful of the audience. We said that Sam Malone had one true love in his life and that’s the bar. So that’s how we ended the show.”

The first two episodes of Frasier are streaming now on Paramount+. New episodes drop every Thursday.

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X: @markhdaniell

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