Series / Frasier (2023)

"Frasier is back, and he's... pretty much the same."

"Y'all know how this goes.
Hey baby, I hear the blues a-calling
Tossed salads and scrambled eggs
And maybe I seem a bit confused
Yeah, maybe—but I got you pegged!
Ha-ha-haa!
But I don't know what to do
With those tossed salads and scrambled eggs....
Frasier has re-entered the building."

— Kelsey Grammer, a new version of "Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs", closing theme

Frasier is the 2023 revival/Sequel Series of the original 1993 — 2004 series of the same name (itself a spinoff of Cheers), once again starring Kelsey Grammer as the titular Dr. Frasier Crane.

After nearly twenty years in Chicago as the host of a television program, Frasier relocates back to his old hometown of Boston, looking to reconnect with his estranged son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), now an adult and working as a firefighter. There, Frasier takes a teaching post at Harvard, his alma mater alongside Alan Cornwall (Nicholas Lyndhurst), an old friend from his time at Cambridge, and Olivia (Toks Olagundoye), Harvard's Dean of Psychology, who's desperate to build up her reputation and become provost. Joining them are David Crane (Anders Keith), Frasier's nephew and the son of Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce) & Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves) from the original series^note Neither Pierce nor Leeves are returning for this series, at least as regular characters, an undergraduate in Harvard's psychology program, and Eve (Jess Salgueiro), Freddy's friend and roommate.

Although Grammer is the only returning cast member from the original series in the main cast ^note Freddy was predominantly portrayed by Trevor Einhorn there, Bebe Neuwirth and Peri Gilpin each made guest appearances as Dr. Lilith Sternin and Roz Doyle, respectively.

Frasier premiered on Paramount+ on October 13th, 2023, with the first two episodes airing on CBS for a limited preview a week later.

The series was renewed for a second season on February 22nd, 2024.

---

Frasier provides examples of the following tropes:

• And Starring: Nicholas Lyndhurst.
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Frasier's TV career was a lucrative one and he's now rich enough to buy an entire apartment building (in Boston, no less) on short notice. When David looks up his net worth, he describes his uncle as a Rockerfeller.
• As You Know: Some of Alan's dialog in the first scene, such as "your nephew, Niles and Daphne's son?".
• Bait-and-Switch: A double one in the first episode. At first it appears that Freddy has a boyfriend named John that he does not want Frasier to know about and that is why Eve is pretending to be his girlfriend. Then it turns out that John is Eve's baby and it seems as if Freddy is the father. The truth is that Eve is Freddy's roommate and John's father was a fellow firefighter and friend of Freddy's who died tragically.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Frasier achieved the fame and wealth he was always chasing as a Seattle radio show host as a nationally syndicated television show personality, implied to have made him a millionaire many times over. However, he lost all respectability as a pop psychologist and considers it now to be an Old Shame.
• Call-Back: The degeneration of Frasier's TV show into a lightweight talk show references the season 7 Frasier episode "Morning Becomes Entertainment", where Frasier's stint as a morning TV talk show host sees him rapidly giving up any serious ambitions to play to the lowest common denominator.
• Commonality Connection: Frasier and Olivia both have a deep Sibling Rivalry with a sibling they see as more successful.
• Composite Character: Frasier's nephew David (who was born in the original series finale) retains his father's clumsiness and his mother's Cloudcuckoolander heart. With Niles and Daphne both absent from this series, David effectively fills that role for both of them.
• Continuity Cavalcade: In “Reindeer Games”, after everyone abandons his lacklustre party for the one at Eve’s place, a hurt Frasier recounts many past dinner party disasters: Niles with a bird stuck on his head (“To Kill a Talking Bird”), a dead seal (“The Seal Who Came to Dinner”), a bed crashing through the ceiling (“Daphne Does Dinner”), and a corpse (“Taps at the Montana”).
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the pilot episode, Frasier remembers when he used to live in Boston.
    Frasier: I'm not sure I was ever my best self in Boston. I may have spent a little too much time at a certain bar.
  • Freddy briefly mentions the restaurant Frasier and Niles ran for one day, referencing the 1995 episode “The Innkeepers”.
  • David refers to the time Freddy went goth, as seen in the 2003 episode “High Holidays”.
  • Several of Martin’s old Christmas decorations can be seen in “Reindeer Games”, including the dancing Santa and Rudolph wreath. His widow, Ronee, is also mentioned as having sent them to Frasier.
• Dancing Bear: In-universe; Frasier is explicitly being hired for his celebrity status considering that he has no teaching experience and has published no papers, and both him and Olivia use the term "Dancing Bear" to describe his situation.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Frasier's opinion of Martin's parenting has increased dramatically since his death.
• Decomposite Character: Both Niles and Roz.
  • Niles's son David takes on his role as the clumsy, socially awkward, nerdy intellectual family member who makes Frasier seem relatively normal by comparison.
  • Alan takes on Niles's role as Frasier's Deadpan Snarker colleague and confidant. He also has a Vitriolic Best Buds relationship with Olivia similar to Niles and Roz.
  • Like Roz, Eve is Freddy's best friend and a single mom.
  • Olivia takes on Roz's role as Frasier's work friend who has a Vitriolic Best Buds relationship with Alan similar to Niles and Roz.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Played with; over the past two decades, Frasier has graduated from a local radio celebrity to a world-renowned television personality so he's definitely admired. However, he dislikes the "dancing bear" nature of his fame, and wishes that his students would treat him more as a serious educator
• Famed In-Story: Frasier is as recognizable in-universe as many other pop psychologist television show personalities. So much so that everyone who joins his class turns out to have been a fan of his show. This bothers Frasier because he wanted to shed his past and gain respectability.
• Gargle Blaster: Frasier and Freddy share a drink of "Scootch" which is called that because it can't be legally called scotch. Frasier compares it to solvent while Freddy semi-seriously says that it's dissolving his own glass.
• Generation Xerox:
  • Mirroring the dynamic between Frasier and Martin in the original series, Frasier now has a similar relationship with Freddy, who has since grown into more of a Working-Class Hero type who isn't overly fussy and pretentious like his father. Frasier and Freddy even have a near-exact same argument about home decorations when they move in together. Just like Frasier did on Cheers, Freddy lied to his friends about his father's job, and told them his dad was dead.
  • David shares the speech patterns and hypochondriac tendencies of his father, Niles. Frasier also notes that David has a lot of the heart and compassion of Daphne, his mother.
• History Repeats:
  • As it turns out, Freddy claimed to his buddies that his father had died years before, much like Frasier had done^note This was done in Frasier to reconcile the fact that the writers had said that Frasier's father had passed away in Cheers, with Frasier telling Martin that he'd been metaphorical because he was mad at the time.
  • Both Freddy and David had psych classes at Harvard, just like Frasier, although Freddy dropped out.
  • Like his father, Freddy has formed a deep friendship with a Boston bartender.
• Ironic Hell: Essentially what Frasier has become trapped in prior to the events of the show as he had chased fame as well as wealth for years on the previous show. He achieved all of his dreams and more on television but believes he became a joke of a psychologist and more entertaining than respected doctor.
• Jaded Washout: Alan is through making an effort as a professor and coasts along drunk and doing the bare minimum since he has tenure and can't be fired.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • While discussing the Cheers bar with Alan in “The Founders’ Society”, Alan casually asks, “and nobody knew your name?” This, of course, alludes to that series’ famous theme song.
  • The closing credits for “Reindeer Games” somewhat breaks from the established formula of a silent pantomime accompanied by the theme song, and instead has Frasier attempting to conduct the elementary string quartet playing the song In-Universe. Eventually he gives up, snaps his baton, then crumples up the score, and the recording resumes as per usual.
• Local Hangout: No, not Cheers. Mahoney's Taphouse seems to be Frasier's new watering hole upon his return to Beantown.
• Meaningful Echo: Within the titles of the episodes. The first episode of the original Frasier is titled 'The Good Son'. The name of the first episode of the 2023 series? 'The Good Father'. Both referring to Frasier himself, of course.
• Old Shame: Frasier feels this way about his TV show and past as a celebrity talk show host. He wants, instead, to shed his image as a pop psychologist and gain respectability as a Harvard professor. Unfortunately, he was hired due to his in-universe fame with his students treating his classes like an episode of his show.
• Proverbial Wisdom: Invoked by Olivia, who represents her saying that 'A no is just a yes in a trenchcoat' as this. She has apparently said it so often that Alan believes it must be a common American saying and tells Frasier such.
• Pun: When Olivia tells Frasier about her competitive relationship with her sister.
  Olivia: My sister is provost at Yale. Yale, Frasier, YALE!!!
  Frasier: DON'T YOU YALE AT ME!
• Put on a Bus: Charlotte, Frasier's final love interest from the original series, is said to have broken up with him shortly before the events of this show.
• Remember the New Guy?: Nicholas Lyndhurst co-stars as Frasier's old college friend Alan Cornwall, who was never mentioned before this series. This is lampshaded in "Freddy's Birthday", where Lilith has absolutely no idea who he is, even though he was a guest at her and Frasier's wedding.
• Ruder and Cruder: Downplayed, but Tiny, one of Freddy's firefighter friends, says "Goddamn it" in the second episode, which is stronger than any profanity used in the original Frasier or even Cheers for that matter.
• Same Character, But Different: Freddy and David were a teenager and a newborn when the original series ended, so it's no surprise that they are very different twenty years later, they're even played by new actors.
  • Frasier once made a joke about Freddy, that between being Jewish on Lilith's side and inheriting his father's athletic talent, "the NFL wasn't holding its breath." Now Freddy is a very fit firefighter.
  • Niles was worried that David would grow up to be like Daphne's brothers because when he tried to play classical music for him, the baby would kick the music player off of Daphne's belly, and her water broke the instant Niles said the phrase "open bar". Clearly, Niles had nothing to worry about.
• Seasonal Rot: An in-universe example. Frasier shows Alan clips of his TV talk-show and reveals that it started out as an earnest attempt at providing mental health advice to guests. By the show's thirteenth season, it morphed into an entertainment show complete with comedy sidekick, celebrity guests, and crazy stunts.
• Sequel Non-Entity: Both David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves opted out of the revival, resulting in Niles and Daphne not returning. Along with John Mahoney's death preventing Martin from appearing and Peri Gilpin only confirmed for one guest role as Roz, this left Frasier as the only main character^note Freddy was a recurring character in the original from the original show to appear in the revival.
• Shout-Out: One of the firefighters references Mamma Mia!
• Shown Their Work: Freddy was born in the Cheers episode “The Stork Brings a Crane”, which aired November 2nd, 1989. In this series, Freddy celebrates his 34th birthday in the aptly titled “Freddy’s Birthday”, which was released on November 16th, 2023, just a little over 34 years after his initial birth was broadcast.
• Someone to Remember Him By: The father of Eve's baby is a close colleague of Freddy's, a fellow firefighter who died in the line of duty while she was pregnant. This is partly why Freddy is helping Eve raise her baby.
• Stylistic Suck: Frasier's in-universe show in its later seasons became a pastiche of a lot of mid-2000s talk shows, complete with a corny theme song, Product Placement up the wazoo and segments that involve such things as "delving in to the mind of the world's smartest pig".
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Freddy and David bond over pressure of having to live up to their fathers' expectations and Freddy says that he was motivated to drop out of Harvard because of how miserable it made him.

---