Kelsey Grammer Talks Future For ‘Frasier,’ Possible ‘Cheers’ Crossover, ‘Girlfriends’ Reboot & More: The Deadline Q&A
23.11.2023 - 02:17
/ deadline.com
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.
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