Reports are saying that Kelsey Grammer’s delightfully pretentious therapist could well be coming back to our screens. But does the world really need another resurrected sitcom?
The revival plans are still in the exploratory stage, but apparently this is just a formality. And there seems to be some sort of rule this year that all sitcoms made in the past need a reboot, so it looks like a certainty!
Any arguments about creative redundancy withered on the vine when Roseanne came back, died a pitiable death, and then returned once more as a spin-off show. Now anything goes!
There is no point in whining about the preservation of integrity when it comes to television shows, because money talks, and Frasier’s return will make the right people the right amount of money, so there is no question that we’ll be seeing him again soon.
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It’s Good News for Grammer
If you ignore your reservations, the idea does make some sense, primarily to the star of the show. Frasier ended 14 years ago, and Grammer has not managed to find a role to rival it since. Back to You, Boss, Hank, and The Last Tycoon all disappeared without a trace after just a few episodes.
At the moment, he’s voicing Blinky in Netflix’s Trollhunters cartoons. If you were him, you’d be behind a reboot too. Unless he takes up NZ sports betting, and manages to make a good-enough living from it, what’s the poor man to do?
But I can also see the worth of a reboot, if it’s done right, because of just how incredible Frasier was. It was highbrow and pompous in a way that none of today’s biggest shows are and was not afraid to handle episodes like grand repertory stage farces when the storyline called for it.
A New Show, With New Writers
If reports and film reviewers are to believed, this remake won’t be a straight one but will be a brand-new show with new writers at the helm, providing a new tone and a new setting.
As risky as this is, it is exactly what the first Frasier was all about: he started off as a fussy side-character on Cheers and went on to become a far richer, much more interesting man when he moved to Seattle. The character leapt to huge success once before, so who is to say that it won’t happen this time round as well?
A Few Worries
The biggest problem will no doubt be the fact that John Mahoney, Martin Crane in the show, passed away in February. It is not possible to overstate how important his character was: the classic counterpoint, a blue-collar flipside to his milquetoast offspring.
Without Crane to ground Niles and Frasier, the reboot may well simply twist in the wind and won’t reach the lofty heights of its arty predecesor.
Grammer himself presents a bit of an issue too. We can’t forget that he’s a Trump-endorsing supporter of the Tea Party who once took to Instagram to show off a T-shirt likening abortion to gun violence. He’s not a safe bet, but in this wide and wicked world, what is? We’ll just have to wait and see if Dr Frasier Crane has managed to retain his magic.
