Bring Back Frasier!
More Kelsey Grammer is the moral cause of our time...
I don’t usually do a lot of “Save my favorite show!” petitions, but I’m making an exception in this case. The reboot of Frasier has been canceled from Paramount+. Like the clubbing of harp seal babies, this is a world calamity. As of this writing, the Frasier reboot is being shopped around to other potential platforms, but its fate is uncertain. This is a tragedy of epic proportions. Forget wars in the middle east, the plight of the homeless, or the US’ apparent impending trade war with our eternal enemies in…Canada(?)…this is the cause of our time!
The current reboot is the 3rd iteration for Dr. Frasier Crane, played by Kelsey Grammer1. I generally don’t much like comedies (particularly movies…I kind of hate watching comedy movies which mainly seem like goofball, unserious efforts with forgettable characters2), but Frasier was a rare exception.
It’s been ages since I watched Cheers, where Frasier Crane was introduced at the beginning of Season 3. As a teen, I watched reruns of Cheers and mainly found the show to be “eh”. Most of the characters were unlikeable. The central character of Sam was a dumb, narcissistic womanizer, whereas Diane was priggish and self-centered. Carla was just mean, Cliff was obnoxious. There were a few relatable characters like Norm but with, honestly, such an unpleasant cast I’m kind of surprised the show ever took off (I don’t remember it being unusually funny, but most 80s sitcoms weren’t).
Frasier himself began as a stiff, overbearing academic type, obviously meant to be unliked as a rival to Sam for Diane. But, then left at the altar by Diane, the show’s producers went with the insightful decision of making him likeable. This was clever…Diane herself was such an unlikeable character, who cared what fool “got” her? Ironically, Diane made Frasier sympathetic given her mistreatment of him.
After 11 seasons, which saw Frasier marry the icy Lilith (also unlikeble, but well played by Bebe Neuwirth) only for her to cheat on him, Cheers raised their last glass. Frasier picked up where Cheers left off in the life of Fraser. The original Frasier spinoff remains one of my favorite TVs shows ever. Frasier followed the titular character’s move back to Seattle and, unlike Cheers, featured a very likeable if eccentric group of characters. It’s also a surprisingly funny show, much of which is due to Grammer’s particular bombastic delivery. It’s about the only sitcom I’ve binged multiple times.
I eagerly awaited the reboot. Now back in Boston, teaching at Harvard, with a new cast of characters (they generally stuck with the eccentric but loveable format of the first Frasier rather than the despicable nature of so many of the characters on Cheers), the first season was good and familiar, but lacked the gut-busting hilarity of the original series. But Season 2 truly recovered the laughter and was as classic as the original run. So, the reboot is just coming into its own and I’d love to see more.
So, let’s work to get it picked up by another distributor. Call your favorite streaming platform and let them know you want them to pick up Frasier. Call your Senator, your Priest, your yoga instructor, anyone with influence. Drop your charity work for world hunger, the whales can be saved another day…this should be our priority! Let’s protest before the White House! Ok, maybe we won’t do that…we’re couch potatoes after all.
Together…with the love of Heaven…we can do this!
Grammer himself has lived a fascinating and remarkably tragic life, experiencing the murder of his father, the kidnapping, rape and murder of his sister, the death of two half-brothers in a SCUBA accident, as well as substance abuse and tummult in his own personal life. Grammer has also survived as a conservative in Hollywood…no mean feat.
It was probably Austin Powers that broke movie comedies for me for ever. No I don’t like the Mel Brooks stuff, Princess Bride veered toward insufferable (though mainly due to promoting decades of unnecessary, insidious quoting by fans) and before you say, “Wait, wait, what about this one…”, no I probably don’t like that one either.