It’s easy to groan – or roll your eyes in a Niles Crane-like way – about the new series of Frasier being yet another spin-off, or a case of streamers desperate to hook viewers pining for the good old days. But in American sitcoms, spin-offs go back a way. In the 1970s, All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show had multiple spin-offs and, of course, the original Frasier was a stepchild of Cheers. Somehow, the further adventures of Kelsey Grammer’s Dr Frasier Crane became the greatest sitcom spin-off ever.
In Cheers, Grammer was cast as the highbrow love interest to Shelley Long’s Diane. Only she jilted him at the altar, and he soon married the amusingly stern Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth). Frasier had him shifting to Seattle to live with his ailing retired cop father, Martin (John Mahoney). He’d also become a psychiatrist call-in radio host, dishing out advice on – oh, the irony – relationships.
Frasier soon started its run as the winningest sitcom in Emmy history, up against the likes of Seinfeld and Friends. It has remained on permanent rerun somewhere – YouTube has endless best-moment clips – ever since its 11th and final season in 2004.
That enduring appeal may be because it was made for adults and wasn’t bound to its time. It did follow sitcom rules – it was mostly set in a lounge – but bent them a little. It was derivative yet different.
That Frasier and brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) were uptight, liberal-elite snobs made them sitcom originals, even if their relationship suggested The Odd Couple with two Felix Ungers. Both Cranes being psychiatrists and the radio station backstage stuff suggested The Bob Newhart Show and WKRP in Cincinnati might also be in Frasier’s DNA.
Many of the long-arc stories were about the Crane brothers’ love lives, which helped create quite a guest list, with Laura Linney, Jean Smart and Patricia Clarkson among Frasier’s many flings. Occasionally, Frasier and his ex would try to rekindle their relationship, but her visits ended after she slept with Niles.
As Niles, Hyde Pierce was Frasier’s greatest performer. Not just as an arch comic foil to Grammer’s blowhard but in his unrequited love for Daphne (Jane Leeves), the kooky English caregiver to Martin. But when it came to a 12th season revival nearly 20 years later, Hyde Pierce opted out. One story has him holding out for too much money (he was doing just fine on Broadway). Another that, as much as he loved his time on the show, he just had no urge to revisit his best-known character.
Grammer has mainly played Frasier-like blowhards in comedies ever since, so a return to the original was always going to appeal. And no Niles, he has said, was a blessing in disguise – Frasier could make a fresh start as he’d done after Cheers.
Mahoney died in 2018. If his ex-cop character provided a salt-of-the-earth grounding to the Cranes’ high-brow life, the new series has another one. Frasier’s grown-up son, Freddie, is a Boston firefighter. He’s one reason for his estranged father’s shift back east. Despite being at least 70, Frasier gets a Harvard teaching job that reconnects him with old friend Professor Alan Cornwall (Nicholas Lyndhurst). If Freddie is the new Martin Crane, Lyndhurst (from Only Fools and Horses) is possibly the new Niles.
Veteran Cheers creator James Burrows has directed the first two episodes but nothing in the new show’s dozen writers’ past credits inspires much confidence that Frasier II won’t be an Archie Bunker’s Place or AfterMASH afterthought to the original.
Still, it seems Frasier has embraced the present – the trailer for the season of just six shows has more non-white people in it than possibly featured in the original 264 episodes.
Frasier, TVNZ+, Friday October 13th
Season 3 of Frasier is showing on Sky’s Comedy Central and Sky Open.
