The character of Frasier Crane premiered on television in the fall of 1984, when he was introduced in “Cheers” season 3, episode 1. He remained on the show until it ended in the summer of 1993. His spinoff, “Frasier,” premiered later that same year. So, by the time it ended in mid 2004, the psychiatrist and radio host had been around for 20 years. Since then, he has lived on in syndication, streaming, reruns, DVDs, and the imagination of fans. But now, Frasier Crane has returned.
The executive producers of the “Frasier” revival, as well as Kelsey Grammer himself, have referred to the show as the character’s “third act.” But why are they assuming the character needs or has a third act worth telling? Sure, people in the real world carry on their lives, but characters live on in the stories that they appear in. Frasier has appeared in 20 seasons of television and even that was too much to keep fresh.
As beloved as the show was and is, the final two seasons were not great. Some people will argue the show took a dive after Niles and Daphne got together at the end of season seven. Others (myself included) would tell you that season eight was very strong with the ninth also being a lot of fun. That said, it is very hard to defend the 10th season as the quality really started to slip. It was to the point where when the final season brought back in veteran writers like Chris Lloyd and Joe Keenan, they couldn’t save the show from itself.
That brings us to the series revival, which is effectively “Frasier” season 12, following a roughly 18-year time jump. That time has only proven that often, the most important wisdom is knowing when to quit. While the first two episodes of this revival are a step up over most anything in season 11, they also reinforce that there is nothing more for this series to say or do. This revival is pointless tripe that almost immediately starts rehashing old storylines, except with an inferior set of characters.
The problems were apparent when the premise for the series was announced. When it was revealed that Frasier would be attempting to connect with his son Freddy, that was predictable but not necessarily a bad idea. Then it was announced that over the years, Freddy became a fireman which is where it became both predictable and a bad idea. The original series featured the dynamic about an upper-class son trying to get along with his blue-collar dad. Now we have an upper-class dad trying to get along with his blue-collar son.
It doesn’t stop at that bit of recycling either; all of the new characters are blatant rehashes of the previous cast that fans came to know and love. Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) is a painfully obvious replacement for Martin Crane, played by the late, great, John Mahoney. Roz (Peri Gilpin) was Frasier’s producer but her role is effectively replaced by Toks Olagundoye as Olivia. She’s obsessed with her job, has issues with her sister, and her love life- or lack of one- is a source of comedy. Replacing Daphne (Jane Leeves) is Eve (Jess Salgueiro) who is weird and quirky and lives with Freddy. And then there’s the fact that Niles (David Hyde-Pierce)is gone, and apparently it took two different actors to replace him. Half of Nile’s personality, the neurosis and lack of physical ability to do anything properly is given to his son, David (Anders Keith). His snarky wit, combativeness with Frasier, combined with brotherly love and respect has been passed on to Alan, (Nicholas Lyndhurst) Frasier’s old college buddy from Oxford.
Let’s talk a bit more about Alan. He falls into the category of those television characters that were supposedly very important in a person’s life for years, but was never brought up in any way until the moment they appear on camera. Yup, in 20 years of episodes, the name of Alan Cornwall was never mentioned once, yet he’s immediately introduced as a dear friend of Frasier Crane. In fairness though, many shows are guilty of this and it’s arguable that Alan receives some of the best lines in the two episodes of the revival that are currently available.
Even with that being said, the problem with Alan, Olivia, David, and Eve is that within one episode they already feel like two-dimensional caricatures. Alan is a drunken, sarcastic loaf, Olivia is obsessed with her work, David is a quirky, odd, weirdo, and Eve is a loon. At the very least Eve has the added depth of being a single mother of a child she had with a friend and fellow firefighter of Freddy’s. That depth though seems to extend about as far as it did with Roz and her motherhood; which is to say it amounts to barely anything. Now, there is a chance to develop these characters over time, but this is not a good foot to start on considering how uninspired they are. Why would you watch a muddled copy of something when you could watch the original instead?
Is there anything that works in this new series? Yes. Kelsey still is charming and knows Frasier perfectly. He hasn’t lost a step in terms of delivery, charisma, intellect, or heart. There are also some very tender moments that Frasier and Freddy share about Martin. The show picks up shortly after the elder Crane’s off-camera funeral and that event is the genesis for much of the first episode’s plot. The death of John Mahoney heavily weighs on the hearts of the cast and fans. At the very least, this helps pay tribute to one of the greatest fathers in the history of television.
That also underscores the problem here in that Kelsey Grammer has stated that what made the program successful was Frasier the character. He’s wrong. “Frasier” has always been successful because it was about the characters surrounding him and the relationship that they have with Frasier. The bond between father and son, between brother and brother; those are bonds that many of us know in our own lives and why the show remains so relatable after all these years. And even though they try to replicate that here in some way, it’s painful to watch as none of these characters are as interesting as the ones they try to imitate.
As if all this wasn’t enough though, the recycling gets even worse when we hit the end of the first episode. We don’t just find out that Frasier has decided to stay in Boston with Freddy, we learn that Frasier has bought the entire apartment complex and he and Freddy will be living in the same apartment together. Now we have the reused conflict of father and son living together and wouldn’t you know it, the second episode plays out with them fighting with each other over things in the apartment. Two episodes in and were already redoing old plotlines with slightly different characters and an air hockey table. Oh, and a fire fighter’s bar instead of a cop bar.
All stories have a natural ending point and it can be challenging sometimes to find that end. If you stop too soon you leave potential tales on the table. If you go on for too long though, you diminish the quality of the story as a whole. The revival of “Frasier” is no more guilty of the latter than season 11 was. What it is specifically guilty of is committing to the screen something that would’ve been better left to imagination. Because if you sat down to imagine what Frasier’s life would be like over the last two decades, you likely would come up with something much better than this.
Catch “Frasier” on Paramount+.
