Kelsey Grammer Talks Future For ‘Frasier,’ Possible ‘Cheers’ Crossover, ‘Girlfriends’ Reboot & More: The Deadline Q&A
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Nearly four decades after playing Frasier Crane in the third season of Cheers and thirty years since Frasier Crane got his own show, Kelsey Grammer is back with a Frasier revival, currently streaming on Paramount+.
The series takes fans on a new adventure with the titular Frasier, older and wiser with hopes of fixing his relationship with his grown-up son Frederick “Freddy” Crane, played by Jack Cutmore-Scott, whom he shares with his ex-wife Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth). Oh, and all of this is taking place in Boston, a change from Seattle where the original spinoff series was set but where everything began for Frasier.
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Grammer spoke to Deadline about why the new series’ focus was the perfect next chapter, reuniting with both Neuwirth and director James Burrows, and more.
DEADLINE: Your return as Frasier Crane looked effortless. How easy is it to slip in and out of this character?
KELSEY GRAMMER: It’s just a button, you just push and you’re there. Granted, it probably wouldn’t have been there if I was 18. I’m considerably more advanced in years than I was then and I know my craft. It’s pretty much like starting up a car you haven’t driven in about 20 years but it still runs great.
DEADLINE: I spoke to James Burrows before the revival premiered and he said working with you is effortless. What does the shorthand look like between you two?
GRAMMER: Jimmy and I just… I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s our similar backgrounds and, in certain terms, the world we grew up in with musicals. His tradition is of course, much more profound because of his dad [Tony & Pulitzer Prize-winning director, writer and composer, Abe Burrows]. He really lived the high life of Broadway and the New York theater community. I was on the outskirts of that, and I arrived at it a bit later in life.
The thing that distinguishes us from one another is Jimmy just got me. He would walk over to me and say, “Kels, [points over to the side],” and I got it. He would just point his hand and I [understood what he meant]. And the rest of it is just a huge trust thing; I trusted him. He always had the camera ready to get the performance and that was the big thing. He always knew I’d show up when it was time to show up.
DEADLINE: Can you share an example?
GRAMMER: I’m a little bit stingy about the full-blown performance until the cameras are actually rolling. I rehearse by marking where you are going to be. Kirstie [Alley] used to have this great thing she did when there was a kissing scene. She just said, “Kiss Kiss.” Until the cameras are on, you don’t kiss anybody. If you kiss before the cameras are on, she said it was cheating and I love that. You don’t have to rehearse a kiss. As long as it’s on camera, it’s fine and not cheating; it’s part of the job. I love that about her – kiss kiss. I love Kirstie and I love Jimmy for the same reasons. He’s just a pro. We’re friends and we were always friendly. I remember when we went through a few things personally. He had some low times and I had some low times but we were always there for each other.
DEADLINE: The return of Frasier brought you and Mr. Burrows back together and the character is funnier than ever.
GRAMMER: The spirit of love has always been in Frasier. When I first read the sides I thought to myself, “Well, the key to him is how he loves'” and that became the key for the character. He does everything with his whole heart. He doesn’t do things half-heartedly. And so, he’s always being taken advantage of or he’s going in too deep or he falls in love too fast. Or maybe he figures out something too quickly and he can’t overlook a certain issue without telling the truth about it. He lives on the edge of putting his foot in his mouth all the time because he cares so deeply about everything. Maybe nobody else cares as much as he does? That’s what’s funny about him, but it’s also what makes him lovable.
DEADLINE: Frasier has an all-new cast. Jack Cutmore-Scott is really holding his own and making the Freddy character his own. What can you share about their casting?
GRAMMER: Jack was a terrific choice; he was wonderful in the audition. It was as simple as this: Jimmy [Burrows] was in on the audition, and he said, “Well, he did make that joke work.” We knew he looked kinda like me and that he could actually be my son, so that was easy. He’s attractive and he’s tall enough. We wanted him to be a believable fireman and that all fell into place naturally. Same thing with Jesse [Salgueiro] actually, who plays Eve. She did this one thing, a little jump and we [knew that was Eve]. With Toks [Olagundoye], she had this magnificent stature and a very high-tuned sense of humor and about herself as well. It’s a great tone to have on the show because what could be a sort of imperious and sort of humorless person is not. Her performance is terrific.
And then, of course, there’s Alan, played by a dear friend of mine, Nick Lyndhurst. He’s stealth warfare. He is just the sneakiest most talented actor I’ve ever worked with. We worked previously together in London on the musical, Man of La Mancha. We made plans to get [our partners] together and we became best friends. So when the idea of Frasier having a best friend came into the mix, it was always Nicholas. I asked him when we were back in England before we even started if he would like to be in the new Frasier. He said, “Are you kidding? I would do anything to work with you again every day for the rest of my life.” The feeling is mutual.
DEADLINE: Going with this new storyline seems like the natural progression for the show. He was a son and a brother in the original Frasier and now he’s a father trying to mend his relationship with his son. Was this always the idea?
GRAMMER: We always knew it couldn’t be the same show. We never wanted to try to do the same show, even when we were talking about keeping the whole legacy cast together, which was my original intent. Of course, everyone should be part of the party if they want to come. It was decided after a couple of years of kicking around ideas that that wasn’t going to happen. So that’s what gave birth to the idea of going to Boston.
DEADLINE: Going back to Boston has been a full-circle moment for fans who get to see baby Freddy all grown up. It also makes many of us feel quite old.
GRAMMER: [Laughs] That’s great. What’s fun about that is that it’s full circle for everybody, but for Frasier, it’s a return to a place where he felt like he didn’t quite finish. He didn’t get to where he dreamed of being when he went to Boston as a young man. That’s a wonderful element in it. But with Freddy, it’s his chance to become the father he’s learned to be from his own dad who is gone now. [Choked back tears]
Editors Note: John Mahoney, who played Frasier’s dad in the original spinoff series, died in 2018. The new bar Frasier frequents in the revival is named Mahoney’s after him.
DEADLINE: I’m so sorry.
GRAMMER: It’s okay. But he has this new role model that he has to become, and what’s wonderful is how delightful Jack is as a son. And what’s even weirder is he doesn’t really look like the old Freddy, the little boy that we used in Cheers. But there are moments now when I’m standing there performing with [Cutmore-Scott], and I think, well, there he is. He grew up into that guy, but I still see the little boy and it all looks similar to me. It never occurred to me before but in the playing of it, something’s happened where it’s almost as though he’s morphed a little bit into what would be the natural growth pattern of that young boy. It’s been really wonderful to work with him and to discover him and really, discover them all. It’s been a great thing.
DEADLINE: Seeing you and Bebe Neuwirth reunite as Frasier and Lilith Sternin was great but can we discuss that moment when they share a kiss? It leaves us wondering what would’ve happened if Freddy had waited a bit longer to come in.
GRAMMER: [Laughs] Nothing is going to happen because it’s television and we have to keep things G-rated. Yes, they still have a sort of smoldering passion for one another somewhere in there.
DEADLINE: It’s this love-and-hate thing, no?
GRAMMER: They’re the two most exciting people they know.
DEADLINE: I know you both have stayed in touch throughout the years, but what was it like returning to the roles that helped catapult your careers?
GRAMMER: That’s true. She was on Cheers first and that was her first big breakthrough gig, at least in terms of American awareness, and for me too. TV is a very powerful medium. So yeah, we carried on our love as we have throughout several iterations. She’s a wonderful character to spar with Frasier as well, because he’s still so full of his commitment to people. The disappointment of them not working out is still sort of in him, which is nice.
DEADLINE: Any chance Frasier could revisit the Cheers bar now that he’s in Boston? Also, any plans to have other characters from the series appear in the new show?
GRAMMER: I’m not sure the guys who wrote Cheers would want us to go back to Cheers. It’s like, let’s let that be where it is. It’s a monument in the minds of television history. But is it possible we might see someone from the old days at the bar? Maybe. I was just spitballing a little while ago about how it might be kind of fun to do a Christmas show next year, the Christmas of Cheers Past. Frasier could revisit scenes that he lived out before like when he had made a mistake. What could he do to fix it? [Laughs] I don’t know, it just seems like a good idea and it would be really funny. And [the original cast] wouldn’t even have to appear; it would just be old clips. But we’ll see. You know, I love Ted [Danson] and working with him, so I’d love to do something with him. We just haven’t broken that idea yet.
DEADLINE: Do you have any plans yet for what we could see in Season 2?
GRAMMER: We’ve been kicking around some ideas but they mostly revolve around the idea of Frasier finding happiness and becoming a good father and having breakthroughs at college. Maybe Frasier could become an important person in somebody’s life [as a professor]? He’s always getting into trouble in one way or another so I’m sure that’s going to continue to happen. Who knows what’s gonna arise? We do have really talented writers who will come up with some ideas and we’ll discuss it. It’s a collaborative effort and I think we’re going to be fine but I have no beans to spill at this point.
DEADLINE: Is there any chance we could see an appearance from David Hyde Pierce at any point?
GRAMMER: Well, I suppose there’s a chance but I’m the wrong guy to ask.
DEADLINE: With the success of Frasier, are there any other shows you’ve starred in or produced that you’d like to revisit?
GRAMMER: You know what? We’ve always wanted to go back and revisit Boss and finish that out. Who knows if it’ll happen? But we had a wonderful series of ideas to finish that story and it didn’t happen for reasons that are sort of inside baseball kind of stuff. Who knows? It might still have a life in some way. I would love to do that. We have been talking about a new show set in Brighton Beach in the ’90s but we will have to wait before talking about that one.
DEADLINE: Any update on the Girlfriends reboot?
GRAMMER: I would love to reboot Girlfriends. Of course, it would probably be a different kind of show, but we got The Game back on and that was wonderful. I don’t know if Paramount+ is gonna grab another season of that but you never know. I think they should because I know many people who love that show and love those characters and would like to see them continue. We’ll see what happens. But yeah, I would love to reboot Girlfriends and I would love to see Tracee [Ellis Ross] in that role again. She was terrific in that. The show was a wonderful opportunity to see all those young women start out. It’s such a beautiful ensemble effort and I was very proud to be connected to that.
DEADLINE: Do you have a message for anyone who has yet to check out the new Frasier?
GRAMMER: I want to encourage people to take a look at us again. Frasier has grown beautifully, I think, and it’s all still just fun. There was this thing people used to do before if they’d see me at a bar or somewhere else. They’d say they didn’t really like the [original Frasier] which they’d admit they’d never watched. I’d encourage them to give it a look and they’d always come back and say they enjoyed it.
Arguably, we were a little bit stuck up in the old show and maybe a bit full of ourselves. Like, “Oh God, we’re the best and blah, blah, blah.” [Laughs] I never really cared for that tone. Everybody thought [the original Frasier] was too precious to touch again, and I said, nothing’s that precious. This is about a guy who’s still doing his best to make his way in life and he’s funny doing it. I even hired new writers, Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli, who I thought were just a little sillier and who wouldn’t take themselves quite so seriously. I think it’s been a benefit for the show. It’s been a great idea for the show to have a sort of slightly younger mentality crafting the storylines.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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