ONEAlready at the top of the tiny spinoff line it shows that at least equal to his father’s longevity and legend, Frasier (NBC, 1993-2004) – born of Cheers (NBC, 1982-93) – will seek a place on an even more empty pedestal : the classic series successfully revived after a long break.
Arrested Development in the USA, and Birds of a Feather and Open All Hours in the UK achieved such a return, but these programs did not have Frasier status. Dusting the meticulous Seattle radio shrink played by Kelsey Grammer involves something like the risk of returning to the Fawlty Towers, which its creator, John Cleese, perhaps wisely always refused to do.
As is often the case with artistic successes, Frasier was not the result of planning, but of happy accidents. Cheers, set among Boston bar patrons, did not introduce the character of Dr. Frasier Crane, an arrogant psychiatrist, until the third grade; even so, he was only registered for a few episodes, as the moderator of the faltering marriage of two of the permanent cast. After John Lithgow turned down the role, the producers cast Grammer, then a 29-year-old with an emerging reputation in American theater, especially in the work of English playwrights: William Shakespeare, David Hare and Simon Gray. (There are a number of warm references to the actor in Gray’s volumes of often bitter theatrical memories.)
Such was the response of the show’s writers (and after viewers) to Grammer as Frasier, that he has remained a heavy thinker among big drinkers for the past eight seasons. But, notably in terms of what happened next, he remained a relatively minor character.
By the time Cheers was finished, it had become common for broadcasters to seek financial compensation for themselves and emotional comfort for the public, trying to spin off the main shows. The disc was mixed. The Korean War medical drama, M * A * S * H generated a small blow and two failures; Happy Days had seven children, two of whom prospered: Mork & Mindy and Laverne & Shirley.
Even while the Boston bar show was still going on, he tried to grow another golden apple from the tree, but The Tortellis (1987) was canceled after one season. Perhaps because of this, Cheers’ creators – James Burrows, and Glen and Les Charles – initially hesitated in a direct narrative continuation after Cheers ended in 1993.
Seeing something special at the Grammer, members of the writer team built a role for him as a paralyzed and irritatingly dependent on caregiver billionaire, but the network rejected him. Turning to the idea of extending Grammer’s previous character, Frasier’s creators – David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee – possibly learned from Mork & Mindy, effectively a science fiction program derived from a nostalgic comedy, that a second success is more likely with significant distance from the former. Nervous because, if the new program faltered, NBC would ask for special participation from Cheers regulars, effectively reconstituting the old program, they put Frasier on the other side of America. It was then that Frasier moved to Seattle, the character’s hometown, where he fled after the divorce and got a job as a radio host.
Some narrative trick was necessary, since, in the Cheers universe, Frasier was an orphan and an only child; but the development gave him a competitive and dyspeptic psychiatrist brother, Niles (David Hyde Pierce), and a sick father, Martin (John Mahoney), who, in the pilot episode, acquired a caregiver, Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves). As Daphne, strangely, comes from the northwest of England, Frasier is notable among the great American sitcoms in their configuration lines being spoken with a mancunian cod accent.
While British comedies are often built around catchphrases (“I didn’t get where I am today by,” “Lovely jubbly!” And so on), American comedy relies more on blunt features – Frasier’s arrogance, Niles’ harshness , visualized in his name) daffiness of Daphne. These emerge not through repetitions of the same sentence, but through new verbal expressions of the central line. In his life after repetition, Frasier easily adapted to clip and meme culture, with multiple compilations of Frasier’s best expressions of offense, Niles’ cruel depreciations, Daphne’s crazy Britons, etc.
Since Frasier is politically liberal, this inevitably caused some amusement, since Grammer’s loyalty is firmly republican and right-wing; he made pro-Trump, pro-Brexit and pro-Putin comments.
But those who find it surprising, or even hypocritical, that actors can play characters outside their own worldview, may be missing the point of a profession rooted in simulation and psychological exploration. If you dine with Sir Anthony Hopkins, he is unlikely to eat your liver with broad beans; however, brilliantly portrayed, as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, someone who would.
And regardless of their acting skills, writers, whether or not they deliberately resort to the gap between Grammer and Frasier, have given the character profound contradictions – a liberal who is a snob in culture and decor, a relationship expert who fights with family and friends. lovers. Many of the best comedies involve people unsuitable for what they do – Captain Mainwaring is not an official, Basil Fawlty has no good hospitality, David Brent cannot manage his own career. In Cheers and Frasier, Grammer’s character is a fish that feels in and out of the waters he is in. Most actors would say that a Republican playing a Democrat may find it a help rather than an obstacle.
The new Frasier will air on Paramount Plus, a streaming service. This is another example of how the fragmentation of broadcasting through digital expansion, by changing the television economy, democratized programming. An old program with a significant fan base may not fit the demographic or rating base of your original network, but it can do decent business for a niche channel. BBC One had doubts about reviving All Creatures Great and Small, but it fits perfectly into the smaller Channel 5. Even if out of curiosity or nostalgia only, Paramount Plus should have a ready market for at least the first new Frasiers.
Some show-runners are frustrated at having killed their characters in the end, forcing them into a prequel or medical or theological convolutions to bring them back. Frasier, however, fell behind tempting loose ends 16 years ago. Viewers were made to think that a plane carrying the protagonist would land in San Francisco (where there was a promise of a new job), but the runway proved to be in Chicago, where there was the attraction of lost love.
One complication of the plot will be that Mahoney, who played Martin, died in 2018, and reformulating that role would raise issues of taste and plot. (Dad must now be at least 90.)
So the writers’ room will probably start by asking questions like: where is Frasier, about 70 years old, in 2021, and with whom? Are Niles and Daphne still married? Her son, David, now in his late teens, offers another potential new line. Frasier was (in line with his time) a very white show, so diversity will have to be introduced in some way.
And since Frasier last appeared on the screen, the real America has had eight years of Obama and four of Trump as president. What did the character do about it? It can really give Kelsey Grammer something to act for.