Here’s How Frasier Revival Pays Tribute to John Mahoney (Warning: Spoilers)

Though the late John Mahoney passed away years before a Frasier revival was a gleam in anyone’s eye, his spirit is still very much present in the new episodes.

Kelsey Grammer returns as the titular psychiatrist in the Paramount+ revival — debuting Thursday, Oct. 12 on the streamer — but Mahoney, who passed away in 2018, won’t be able to reprise his role as Frasier’s dad Martin Crane. The revival does include a sweet tribute to him, though: The neighborhood bar is named Mahoney’s, EW.com reveals. The premiere also has a scene that honors the character of Martin, director James Burrows hints: “It’s a wonderful scene at the end of the show… It’s about two and a half, three minutes without any laughs. You’ve got to be brave to do that.”

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The Frasier revival will feature a complicated father-son dynamic, but this time, it’s between Frasier and his son Freddy, now a Boston firefighter in his 30s played by Deception‘s Jack Cutmore-Scott. Frasier moves back to Boston — where we first met him on Cheers — to fix his strained relationship with Freddy, but it won’t be easy. “There’s a lot of Martin in Freddy,” Burrows teases, adding that the writers wanted Frasier to deal with Freddy “because the relationship with Kelsey and Mahoney was wonderful. So they tried to tap into that, and I think they succeeded.”

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When we meet Frasier Crane again in the revival, he “is a little looser than he used to be, a little more comfortable,” co-creator Chris Harris (How I Met Your Mother) explains. “He’s done well, he’s had some success, and the pilot is about realizing that one part of his life where he might not have been as successful as he thought he was and what that means to him going forward.”

Will you be tuning in to get reacquainted with Frasier? Give us your take on the revival in the comments.

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