David Hyde Pierce has revealed why he turned down the opportunity to join the reboot of sitcom Frasier.
Pierce played Niles, the brother of Kelsey Grammer’s psychiatrist Dr Frasier Crane, on the original Frasier from 1993 to 2004.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times about his decision not to return to the show, Pierce said: “I never really wanted to go back.
“It’s not like I said, ‘Oh, I don’t ever want to do that again.’ I loved every moment,” he added. “It was that I wanted to do other things.”
Pierce, who also plays Paul Child on the Julia Child biopic series Julia, explained that he also had existing commitments.
“When we got into real talks about the reboot, I had just started on the Julia TV show and was working on a musical and going to do another musical,” said Pierce. “I just thought, ‘I don’t want to be committed to a show and not be able to do stuff like this.’ And I also thought, ‘They don’t actually need me.’ Frasier has moved on to a new world. They have new characters. And I think I’m right. It’s doing great. And the new people they have are great.”
Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane and David Hyde Pierce— (Paramount/Getty)
It had previously been reported that the creators of the Frasier reboot originally intended for Pierce to return as Niles.
Speaking to Vulture, showrunners Joe Cristalli and Chris Harris revealed that they had initially planned for the new series to focus on Frasier and Niles running a theatre together.
“For a long time, the idea was that Frasier and Niles were going to run a black-box theater, like how they bought that restaurant and brought it back to life [in the season two episode ‘The Innkeepers’],” said Cristalli.
“But it’s hard for Frasier and Niles to run the theatre when you don’t have Niles, so we had to step back from that.”
The writers said they discussed making Niles “the new Maris”, but decided it would be too “weird”. In the original Frasier, Maris is Niles’s wife, who is often mentioned but is never seen onscreen.
They also revealed that the first act of the reboot’s premiere was also meant to take place in Seattle, where the original series was set, and was to depict the funeral of Martin Crane. However, the absence of Pierce and Leeves meant that it “would’ve been heartbreaking and silly to try to explain it”.
The finale of the Frasier reboot aired earlier this week. Along with Pierce, fellow Frasier regular Jane Leeves also declined to return. However, Peri Gilpin, who plays Roz, and Cheers star Bebe Neuwirth, who plays Frasier’s ex-wife Lilth, both made guest appearances. John Mahoney, who played Frasier and Niles’s father Martin, died in 2018.
