Kelsey Grammer to return as Frasier in reboot of hit comedy
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The hit 90s TV comedy Frasier, starring Kelsey Grammer as a snobbish radio advice-show host, is to return to television nearly two decades after it last aired. Grammer said he would reprise his role in a revival of the series, which ran for 263 episodes between 1993 and 2004.
Frasier, a spin-off of the TV series Cheers, was one of the most successful shows of the 90s and 00s, winning five consecutive Emmy awards for outstanding comedy series and running for 11 seasons. The series followed Grammer’s character, who returns to Seattle to care for his elderly father, with his pretentious psychiatrist brother, Niles Crane.
“There has long been a call from fans for its return, and that call is now answered,” David Stapf, president of CBS Studios, said in a statement.
Grammer added that he “gleefully [anticipated] sharing the next chapter in the continuing journey of Dr Frasier Crane”.
The series, produced by CBS Studios, will air on the new streaming service Paramount+ in the US, with a date yet to be confirmed.
In 2018 it was reported that Grammer was pitching a reboot to studios, which would see his character return in a new setting. In an interview published that year, Grammer said the series was “not going to be [set in] Seattle. It’s not going to be the same Frasier. It’s going to be the man in his next iteration. Hopefully that’ll be something people like watching. But I think it’ll be funny.”
No mention was made in Wednesday’s announcement of whether his co-stars David Hyde Pierce (Niles Crane) or Jane Leeves, who played Daphne Moon, would be joining the revival. The British actor John Mahoney, who played Frasier’s father, Martin, died in 2018 of complications from throat cancer.
Grammer, Hyde Pierce and Leeves reunited with their fellow cast members Peri Gilpin, Dan Butler and Bebe Neuwirth in April 2020 for an hour-long interview to raise money for performers affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Frasier made its debut in 1993 and concluded in 2004. Its return is the latest in a series of revivals and reboots of hit TV shows from two or three decades ago, including Sex and the City, Dexter, Roseanne, Gossip Girl, and Will & Grace.