‘Frasier’ Reboot Being Explored By Kelsey Grammer & CBS TV Studios

Deadline ^ | July 25, 2018 | Nellie Andreeva

[EdnaMode]

Another beloved sitcom is plotting a possible return. I have learned that Frasier star and executive producer Kelsey Grammer is fielding interest to put together a new Frasier series.

Unlike the slew of recent revivals of comedy series with the original cast and original creative auspices, including Will & Grace, Roseanne and Murphy Brown, I hear that Frasier is envisioned as a reboot, likely set in a new city, with the title character, played by Grammer, as a possible link to the Emmy-winning 1993 series.

Psychiatrist Frasier Craine already made a cross-country move once. He was introduced on the Boston-set NBC hit Cheers before getting his own spinoff series, Frasier, on which he returned to his hometown of Seattle to start a new life as a radio host and to reconnect with his father and brother.

I hear Grammer is currently meeting with writers who are pitching different concepts for the potential followup series. If the producers settle on a writer and a premise, the project could move beyond exploratory stage. Reps for Grammer and CBS TV Studios declined comment.

Frasier, created by the late David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee, is one of the most celebrated comedy series of the 1990s and 2000s. The show, produced by Grammer’s Grammnet Prods. and CBS TV Studios’ predecessor Paramount Network Television, ran on NBC for 11 seasons, from 1993 to 2004, and starred Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves, Peri Gilpin, and the late John Mahoney.

Frasier set a record for the most Emmy Awards won by a scripted series at the time, 37, including five consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series.

With Paramount Network TV/CBS Studios, where his Grammnet was once based, Grammer produced such successful series as Medium, Girlfriends and spinoff The Game. As an actor, following his 20-year stint as Frasier Craine on Cheers and Frasier, Grammer has largely stayed on the drama side in TV, most recently with a starring role on the upcoming Fox legal drama Proven Innocent.

[Blue Highway]

I know he was going bald in the 80s on Cheers and that was 30+ years ago.

[Blue Highway]

So both Leeves and Mahoney had English accents in real life? I never heard a hint of it at all on the show. Pretty impressive.

[Blue Highway]

I figured he was late 70s on the show. Wow.

[Blue Highway]

Who is this bulldog you speak of? Frasier’s father’s dog was a terrier.

[warsaw44]

He was a bald headed character who had his own radio program at the same station Frasier broadcast from.

I think he was introduced fairly late in the series but really, the acting and shtick was so bad I am surprised you don’t remember him.

I’ve had to deal with a person professionally who I’d swear was the Bulldog character was based on.

Unpleasant.

[Maris Crane]

OMG...this is the best news I have read in a long time!!!

Now, I’ll read the article and hope there is a chance that Fras will return...…

I only read the headline.

[Blue Highway]

I think I only watched Frasier until the mid 90s. so I never saw the series in its entirety.

[MarkL]

WHY?!?!?!?!?!

More dollars, of course. The networks don’t make as much money on syndicated re-runs.

Just about the funniest TV episode of any show I ever saw was an episode of Frasier, where there’s a new radio station program manager, and Frasier wants to set him up with his father’s caretaker. It turns out that the new PM is homosexual, and thinks that Frasier is hitting on him.

Mark

[MarkL]

Adored David Hyde Pierce as Niles Frasier’s brother.

DHP's character had a comedy style reminiscent of Jack Benny's. Impeccable timing, he was incredibly funny NOT saying anything, just using his face and body to tell the story.

Mark

[MarkL]

So both Leeves and Mahoney had English accents in real life? I never heard a hint of it at all on the show. Pretty impressive.

Another impressive example is Hugh Laurie of "House." Check out an interview with him some time.

And then there the cute zombie/coroner from iZombie. She's a Kiwi, but you'd never know it. I only brought her up because she's gorgeous, and I have a huge crush. ;-)

Mark

[Political Junkie Too]

No, not really.

I read that Mahoney lost his accent years ago; he trained himself to lose it.

It's kind of the opposite of Jonathan Harris, who was raised with a New York Bronx accent, but trained himself to adopt a British-style accent in later life.

-PJ

[Buckeye McFrog]

Mahoney was gay,too. Also the actors who played Niles and Bulldog. (At least that’s what I heard when I was living in CA.)

The actors who played Niles and Bulldog were out of the closet and pretty open about it. Not sure to what degree Mahoney was. He did serve in the military though, he said he thought it was the right thing to do for his adopted country.