Original Frasier reboot plans scrapped after iconic actor refused to return

Kelsey Grammer has revealed that the plans for the revival had to be completely overhauled after one of the biggest stars didn’t want to come back.

The original series served as a spin-off of Cheers, and ran on our screens for 11 seasons between 1993 – 2004, following stuffy psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey) reconnecting with his equally snobby brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and father Martin (John Mahoney) in his hometown of Seattle.

In the reboot, which is currently streaming on Paramount+, he returned to Boston and took a teaching position at Harvard to grow closer with his son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott).

While some of the cast, including Peri Gilpin and Bebe Neuwirth, who played Roz Doyle and Lilith Sternin, have popped up in the Paramount+ reboot, David and Daphne Moon actress Jane Leeves decided to step back, leaving fans devastated.

In a new interview, Kelsey shared that they had a completely different idea in mind for the titular character, who was set to be surrounded by his old pals.

‘Originally, we had him moving to a whole other city,’ the 69-year-old told Radio Times. ‘That’s when we were going to try and do the whole legacy cast and introduce some other characters as well – but that started to be too cumbersome, and David didn’t really fancy being part of it any more.

‘So we took him at his word and we thought, “Well, wait a minute, Frasier has unfinished Boston business.”’

Niles hasn’t been forgotten entirely in the new run – in the latest episode, Frasier announced that his sibling had swapped Seattle for Sedona and has his very own vineyard in the area.

Elsewhere in the chat, the Simpsons legend confirmed that there are no plans for Frasier and co to visit a certain bar in Boston where everybody knows his name, and is ‘pretty dedicated’ to that idea.

But he did tease that there may be a ‘character or two’ from that era who pops into his new local for a visit.

Another aspect of the reboot that Kelsey wants to change is just how short the seasons are – they currently come in at 10 episodes, compared to the original run which had 24 instalments for each of the 11 seasons.

‘We’re going to try to get more shows in a season – ten is a little silly,’ he insisted. ‘I would say 16 to 18 episodes per season would be really perfect. I’ve got about 100 stories in my head…

‘There’s a whole bunch of things I have in mind that would be really fun to do, but it’s mostly to keep discovering this character and who he is today.’

David has been vocal about his decision not to return to the role that made him a household name, after playing Niles to perfection for more than a decade.

Speaking to Metro earlier this year, he teased what it would take for a comeback, explaining: ‘I think right from the beginning, when we talked about it, if the idea of had we been we were going to do a one-off special episode, or something that would have been very easy to commit to.

‘It isn’t so much about not doing that show, it’s about the other opportunities that I have that I don’t want to turn down.’

‘We were, as obviously many successful shows are, a family on that show,’ he reflected on his time on set. ‘We were all very close. We were at each other’s weddings and birthings and passings and everything in between.

‘But also, even though it’s been about 100 years since Frasier was on, people still come up to me and tell me how much the show means to them.’