‘Don’t make Frasier best friends with Elon Musk!’

[TMC]

Writers and comics offer their reboot tips:
theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/feb/27/frasier-reboot-kelsey-grammer-elon-musk-seattle-niles-trumpist

Two decades after his beloved character signed off the airwaves, Kelsey Grammer is finally serving up second helpings of tossed salad and scrambled eggs. The Frasier revival is now in production, after nearly a decade in development – despite some crucial absences. David Hyde Pierce has declined to return as Frasier’s neurotic brother Niles, while John Mahoney, who played their irascible but charming ex-cop father Martin, died in 2018. Factor in Grammer’s outspoken Trumpism, which complicates the legacy of his defining role, and fans may be forgiven for feeling trepidatious. But early reports suggest there may be reasons for optimism over the return of TV’s favorite Freudian.

After 11 seasons set in Seattle, in an apartment overlooking the city’s Space Needle no less, Frasier is returning to Boston, to reconquer his old Cheers-era stomping ground. “He left with his tail between his legs a little bit,” Grammer said in a recent interview. The 80s bar-room sitcom’s co-creator James Burrows, who also directed the original Frasier pilot, is confirmed to direct the first two episodes of the revival – but the rest finds the good doctor on pastures new.

Co-starring is Only Fools and Horses actor Nicholas Lyndhurst, who appeared alongside Grammer in the English National Opera’s Man of La Mancha in 2019. According to a report in Variety, Lyndhurst will play Frasier’s “old college buddy” Alan, a boozy British professor whose “mischievous streak might be just what Frasier could use to shake up his routine”.

Meanwhile, Jack Cutmore-Scott, who starred as a magician consulting for the FBI in ABC’s Deception, will play Frasier’s son Freddy. Now grown up, he’s a firefighter seeking “a chance to repair old wounds” with his dad. Jess Salgueiro, known for Canadian comedy drama Workin’ Mums, is Freddy’s roommate Eve. And, while Niles and Daphne may be absent, their son will make an appearance instead, played by newcomer Anders Keith.

The elements are there; hilarity may well ensue. But what made the original series such an enduring hit – and is it even possible for a revival to recapture the magic? We asked top writers and comedians, all of them super fans, to respond to Frasier re-entering the building.