Tim Allen, Roseanne Barr Inspired Kelsey Grammer’s FRAISER Reboot
By Movieguide® Contributor
Kelsey Grammer returned as Dr. Fraiser Cane on Paramount+’s reboot of the 1993 sitcom FRAISER, and the actor recently shared who inspired his comeback.
“I wanted to prove to myself and to other people, of course, that FRAISER was still interesting and still watchable and still funny. Those were important parts of it. But also, I thought there were more stories to tell about this character because there’s more stories to tell in our own lives,” he told Fox News Digital.
While initially hesitant about reprising the role, the actor was inspired by Tim Allen’s and Rosanne Barr’s returns to the screen.
“The fact that Tim was still on a show and then started another show, LAST MAN STANDING, I thought, ‘Son of a gun. He knows how to do it, man,’” Grammer expressed.
“He’s one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met in my life,” he continued. “He and Robin Williams. Those are the two — I think the two funniest people ever lived. And I consider that high praise, indeed.”
“And I would lavish Tim in praise,” Grammer added. “I would. I think he’s just a magnificent character and person and performer and comedian.”
Allen shared that LAST MAN STANDING took notes from what made his previous sitcom, HOME IMPROVEMENT, successful.
“We did the same thing as we did with HOME IMPROVEMENT,” the actor said. “It’s all about the relationships — we don’t get into topical stuff. But [now], I’ve just got girls, so you see how a man differs in his perspective when he has so many strong women around him.”
Barr revived her 1988-1997 sitcom ROSANNE in 2018.
Grammer added that he was surprised her reboot “lit up the way it did. But, you know, she’s an extraordinary person.”
“Maybe we’re a little silly about all this stuff,” he continued. “But she is a great exemplar of comedy, of an ability to make people laugh, that you still think, ‘You know what, people always want to laugh.’”
“We [Barr, Allen and Grammer] were all sort of on the same wavelength back then,” Grammer explained. “And I thought this might actually bear some fruit if we do it the right way. It had to be right though. It had to have contemporary value. And so, we started hatching the plan.”
“And so I started to think, ‘Yeah, it’s time.’ Frasier certainly is as interesting as the Roseanne character or any number of other shows,” Grammer said. “And I thought, we can find a way for this to happen. And we had a sort of ripe field to harvest as we always thought it would be a reflection of the relationship between me and my father, between me and my son. So that was always going to bookend things. And that was the foundational principle we talked to other writers about.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Kelsey Grammer recently updated FRASIER fans on the upcoming reboot, and it sounds like it has the Dr. Frasier Crane seal of approval!
“We’re in the final stages of the final script for the first episode of FRASIER, and it looks pretty good,” he said while appearing on THE TALK. “I’ve had a couple of runs through it, and I cried, so you know, I’m happy.”
He then joked about the key ingredient to the show: “Frasier. Honestly, it was always called that, so it’s me. The key is me or I am the key.”
Production on the FRASIER reboot is expected to start this fall.
“There have been some conversations about [starting in] maybe October, maybe a little later,” Grammer explained. “There are a couple of other things coming up. We’ve developed a couple of other projects that look like they are going to shoot first.”
