Kelsey Grammer is back once more as the iconic Frasier – and nothing appears to have changed at all.
Paramount+ launched the official trailer for the much-anticipated reboot today, which gives us our first glimpse at the snooty Frasier as he returns to Boston to try and rebuild his life there.
“Frasier is back… and he’s basically the same,” the trailer teases, alongside clips of the iconic shrink criticising his son Freddy, drinking beer and complaining about the cheap scotch that he’s been forced to drink. And of course, he’s still showing off to his friends, telling his drinking buddy Alan that “I feel amalgamated with the hoi polloi.” Ah, the memories.
Top priority will be rebuilding his relationship with Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), but of course there are new friends too – such as the iconic Nicholas Lyndhurst, who set the internet ablaze when a picture was published of the Only Fools and Horses star having a drink with the main character. Are they friends now? Apparently so: Lyndhurst plays Frasier’s old friend turned university lecturer Alan.
Joining them will be Toks Olagundoye as Olivia, Alan’s colleague and head of the university’s psychology department; Jess Salgueiro as Freddy’s roommate Eve; and Anders Keith as Frasier’s nephew David (born in the series finale to Niles and Daphne).
Despite the buzz around the show, some familiar faces will not be returning – specifically David Hyde Pierce, who played Frasier’s brother Niles, and Jane Leeves, who played Daphne. John Mahoney, who played Martin, the brothers’ father, also died in 2018.
The revival itself was written by Chris Harris, the brains behind How I Met Your Mother, and Joe Cristalli, who wrote Life in Pieces; the first two episodes of the reboot will premiere on Paramount+ on Thursday October 13, with episodes dropping weekly after that.
The original run of Frasier is one of the great sitcoms of the Nineties, and this autumn marks thirty years since it first debuted in 1993. Initially created as a spinoff of the hit sitcom Cheers, it became a behemoth in its own right, introducing the world to a series of iconic characters – psychiatrist Frasier, who moved to Seattle after the breakup of his marriage; the snobbish Niles, his brother; eccentric Brit Daphne and the laid-back Martin.
Over the course of its eventual 11-season run, it racked up a stunning 37 Emmy wins and 107 nominations, making it the most-decorated TV series ever. The season finale ran in May 2004 – in other words, plenty of time has passed for Frasier to get himself into a whole new load of scrapes.
