ok last night i was watching cheers and frasier was talking about how his dad died but then who the old guy on frasier i thought that was his dad

Martin is frasier's father. He was dead when cheers was on but mysteriously came back to life in Frasier. There was never any explanation of what happened but I think that Frasier just had a big fight with his dad when he said his father was dead.

It's all explained here. This is an excerpt from The Frasier episode "The Show Where Sam Shows Up" (2/21/95)

Frasier: Oh, Sam, this is my brother, Dr. Niles Crane.

Niles: Pleasure to meet you. [shakes hands]

Sam: Yeah, you too. Wow... man, this is freaky. [to Frasier] He looks just like you did when I met you. What happened, huh?

Frasier: Wasn't exactly a health club you were running there, Sam. [walks over to get a drink]

Sam: [to Niles] This is strange. I gotta tell you, I didn't know he had a brother.

Niles: [glares at Frasier, then] Frasier, I don't mind telling you I'm a little offended that in all the time you spent swapping bon mots with the beernut set, you never once mentioned you had a brother.

Sam: Well, you know, the truth is, I bet he said something, it's just that when Frasier gets going you kind of have to tune him out.

Niles: That's a good slogan for his radio show - "Dr. Frasier Crane: when he gets going, you have to tune him out."

Martin: Hey, what did he tell you about me, Sam? His father, the old cop?

Sam: Oh, yeah, you I remember. Um, he told me you were dead.

Martin: [turns to Frasier, stunned] Dead?!

Frasier: Well, we had had an argument. You called me a stuffed shirt and hung up on me. I was mad.

Sam: You're a cop? [to Frasier] You told me he was a research scientist.

Frasier: [off Martin's glare] You were dead, what did it matter?

lol now that i think about it Niles does look ALOT like Fraiser did back in 1983, when Fraiser was a prestigous and brillliant psychiatrist who was even INVITED TO SPEAK at the UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA!!!! and now......(smug smile) he has a "radio talk show".....

now it all makes sense, i was wondering that too

For everybody's FYI David Hyde Pierce was the first choice when they were casting, if you buy the DVD of Frasier you'll learn more about it