Streaming services have attempted to bank on reviving TV shows from basic cable and network channels — Netflix bringing back "Arrested Development" and "Full House" ring a bell? Since then, there haven't been a ton of successful reboot examples, or sequels to famous shows, and Paramount Plus is attempting to buck that trend by bringing back "Frasier."
Does it work? Depends on who you ask.
Kelsey Grammer, Bebe Nuewirth and Peri Gilpin are the only returning actors from the original series, and Frasier is joined this time by newcomers Nicholas Lyndhurst, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Anders Keith, Jess Salgueiro and Toks Olagundoye. The new "Frasier" premieres on October 12, 2023. Here's what the reviews say about this seq-boot (we did not coin that phrase).
The premise
"Y'all know how this goes" is how the revived version of "Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs" now begins. Kelsey Grammer, his voice a little lower with age, then kicks into a new version of the jazzy closing theme song to "Frasier," and it feels like a sign of the entire show as much as anything else. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the 11-season NBC spinoff that aired from 1993 to 2004, or of Dr. Frasier Crane as a character, will have a general sense of how the reboot goes. Airing on Paramount+, the new "Frasier" mostly avoids bringing back too many returning characters, but in doing so, it highlights two sides of the reboot coin. When you reboot an iconic show, you not only have the chance to keep telling a beloved story, but you inadvertently have the chance to emphasize to viewers what really worked about the original. Kelsey Grammer has now played Frasier Crane in four separate decades, and it is no surprise that returning to the character proves to be enjoyable.
Everyone you loved from the original is gone
This show really is "Frasier" in name only. John Mahoney, who played Frasier and Niles's father Martin Crane, passed away in 2018. (The series does pay tribute to him in the premiere.) It kicks things off in the wake of Martin's passing... without the presence of Niles or his wife Daphne, as neither David Hyde Pierce nor Jane Leeves returned for the revival. So far, the only non-Grammer "Frasier" names set to make appearances are Frasier's ex-wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) and former radio show producer Roz (Peri Gilpin). And despite the Boston setting, it appears that no "Cheers" patrons are waiting in the wings either. So filling out the roles of "legacy" characters for this "revival," in addition to Frasier, are Freddy and David (Anders Keith), Niles and Daphne's son.
Straight off the bat we learn that Frasier's father Martin Crane passed away (and in a lovely nod to the late John Mahoney, who played him, the bar where some of this new show's action takes place is called Mahoney's). There's also no sign of Niles, Frasier's equally pompous younger brother, or his English wife Daphne. But we do get David (Anders Keith), their son, who is in Frasier's psych class and is every bit the mini-me Niles you'd hope for (he carries a laminated plastic card with all his food allergies, naturally).
With this multigenerational ensemble, Harris and Cristall seem intent on replicating the dynamics of the canonical Frasier cast without actually bringing back Grammer's old co-stars. (Peri Gilpin is slated to guest star at some point in the season as Frasier's producer Roz, but she wasn't in any of the five episodes sent for review.) Once again, there are the effete snobs and the salt-of-the-earth people who tolerate them. Freddy is the show's answer to Martin, a retired cop. The actress he lives with, Jess Salgueiro's Eve — a character whose backstory I've been asked to avoid discussing, not that it makes for an especially exciting reveal — is the Daphne-like ingénue. Olivia drives the status-conscious Harvard plots, like a Type A Roz, restoring the original show’s balance of family and workplace comedy. David, a delicate soul prone to fits of anxiety, and Alan, a sometimes rival who's quick with bon mots, fill in for Niles.
The newcomers may not become instant fan favorites
Fans of the original will also, however, find it hard not to draw parallels between New "Frasier" and Old "Frasier." Really hard. We spent the first few episodes, in fact, trying to determine who's the new Daphne (the most likely contender was Nicholas Lyndhurst's Alan Cornwall, solely because... well, because he's British), the new Niles (obviously Anders Keith's David, a.k.a. Frasier's nephew and Niles' familiarly fussy son), the new Marty (Jack Cutmore-Scott's Freddy, Frasier's son, has grown up to be a beer-swilling, no-nonsense fireman, so our money is on this guy). There's even a contender for the new Roz in the form of not just one, but two new characters: Jess Salgueiro's Eve (Freddy's roommate) and Toks Olagundoye's Olivia (Frasier's new boss).
Those reminders spark a moment of joy, but they also underscore that this "Frasier" is not that "Frasier." The original series boasted one of television's all-time greatest ensembles, a group of extraordinary actors who shared an uncommon chemistry from the very first episode. The revival's cast suffers by comparison — as almost any sitcom cast would. The actors are all perfectly likable, but they're not quite able to operate at Grammer's comedic level. (Again, very few actors can.)
Some will gripe that the new characters are merely imitations of old ones, and it's true that there's a familiarity to the dynamics — when Freddy and Frasier move in together, it's inevitable that the former will install an air-hockey table with which to appal his old man. There's also only so many scenarios in which the good doctor can be plonked for comedic effects, and so in the first five episodes we see Frasier taken to somewhere he perceives as base and common (a firehouse; and if you were wondering if someone ends up going down the firepole, then you've never seen a sitcom before) as well as somewhere incredibly snooty where he's desperate to make an impression (an elite members-only club, where a farce unfolds involving a medieval combat gauntlet). But if this is hardly ground-breaking, the strike-rate of the jokes is pleasingly high, and the whole thing is powered by the performance that matters most.
Kelsey Grammer has still got it
At the heart of the show, of course, is Grammer's Frasier; a character he has played since September 27, 1984 when Frasier was introduced in "Cheers'" third season premiere. In the nearly 40 years since that moment, Grammer has perfected not only Frasier's comic delivery but also that unique mix of pretentiousness and vulnerability. Frasier can be so hilariously condescending with both his word choice (he prefers cassoulet to chili) and with his barbs ("Hope you're hungry, because this irony is delicious"). But underneath it all is a man who wants to be a good father and a good friend. "Sorry I let you down. Promise, I'll do better," he says to Freddy.
To say the new "Frasier" is jinxed or cursed would be a step too far. Through five episodes, it's perfectly fine. Frasier's exploits befit a man of his stature, and Grammer slips into his character's charming pomposity as smoothly as he does those finely tailored suits. Far from a catastrophe, the revival is still a disappointment (unless recent experience has taught you to lower the bar all the way to floor) because it so clearly lacks, for starters, the original's zany energy. "Frasier," at its peak, has a remarkably quick wit, deploying a flurry of jokes and quips that undercut the Crane brothers' pretentious tendencies via their escalating embarrassments. But far more noticeable in its absence is the camaraderie that Frasier inherited in "Cheers" and came to love in "Frasier"; the stand-out supporting characters that have not only always been there for Frasier, but that Frasier has relied on to make his life — and his shows — that much better.
That's largely thanks to Frasier himself, a role that still fits Grammer like a glove. All of the old mannerisms are still there: the sly smirk with which he tosses droll one-liners, the petted lip when someone sends one back, the furious glare when confronted with a crime against fashion or furnishing. And when the series becomes more reflective — like when Frasier talks about the passing of his father in a moment that also plays as tribute to the late actor John Mahoney — he can still cap 20-odd minutes of zany sitcom antics with a moment that rings true and sincere.
TL;DR
All that effort just to bring back this?
How one longs for Niles.
The whole endeavor feels like a very superficial read of what makes the character, and what made the Nineties version of "Frasier," work.
To put it bluntly, this version of "Frasier" is the kind of sitcom that the original "Frasier" was the antidote to.
Sweet, sad, nice and a tad dull.
[Image: YouTube]