‘Frasier’ Reboot: Kelsey Grammer Shares Behind-the-Scenes Look at ‘Remarkable’ New Series (Exclusive)

Dr. Frasier Crane is back in the building and Kelsey Grammer couldn’t be more excited.

The upcoming Frasier reboot on Paramount+ returns Grammer to the title role of Dr. Frasier Crane as he embarks on the next chapter of his life.

In the new series, Frasier returns to his old Cheers stomping ground in Boston, with “new challenges to face, new relationships to forge and an old dream or two to finally fulfill.” Among the new cast members is Jack Cutmore-Scott, who plays Frasier’s adult son, Freddy. 

“Now is the right time to bring Frasier back because he is not the same guy anymore,” Grammer said in ET’s exclusive behind-the-scenes look ahead of the show’s upcoming premiere. “He is a little wiser, he may actually even be a little funnier, willing to laugh at himself. A little more self-aware, and he has a new mission in life.”

The new cast of characters in Frasier’s life also includes Nicholas Lyndhurst as Alan, an old college friend of Frasier’s who is now a professor; Toks Olagundoye as Olivia, Alan’s colleague and the head of the university’s psychology department; Jess Salgueiro as Eve, Freddy’s roommate; and Anders Keith as Frasier’s nephew David, the son of Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce) and Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves).

“The audience really loved the previous collection of characters, and I can’t wait for them to fall in love with this bunch,” Grammer raved. “They’re going to see some wonderful things. Things they did not expect.”

And there will be plenty of fun Easter eggs for fans of the original series as well — including the return of some familiar faces. ET’s exclusive sneak peek above offers a look at Bebe Neuwirth’s return as Frasier’s icy ex-wife, Lilith, and Peri Gilpin is also set to reappear as Frasier’s now-former co-worker, Roz.

While Grammer admits that this iteration of Frasier may be “just a little bit sillier,” there will still be plenty of heartfelt moments.

For one, there’s the matter of paying tribute to the late John Mahoney, who played Frasier and Niles’ blue-collar father, Martin. The pilot episode will feature a moment of remembrance for the actor, who died in 2018 after a battle with throat cancer.

And just as Frasier often struggled to understand his father, so too is there an emotional rift between him and Freddy.

“It starts out strange, starts out uncomfortably distant,” Grammer explained. “They’ve been apart 15 years. Freddy dropped out of Harvard, that really upset Frasier. They haven’t put that to bed, so that issue is looming in the first several shows here and it will probably continue to loom for a little bit, because it’s just hard for Frasier to understand why anyone would walk away from such an opportunity.”

“As the original Frasier did, I think we’ve identified something that maybe a lot of people in America would like to work on, getting closer with their family,” he added. “It is remarkably at the same level [as the original] in terms of intelligence and our style. We always play up to the audience.”

Ahead of the series premiere, Entertainment Tonight host Kevin Frazier will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Frasier, featuring interviews with the cast and series’ creatives. Frasier: Inside the Series will premiere Friday, Oct. 6, on Paramount+, the service’s official YouTube and Facebook pages, Pluto TV and Mixible, before airing on select CBS stations on Saturday, Oct. 7. (Interviews for the special were conducted prior to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.)

And, of course, there’s the iconic theme song. Grammer re-recorded a new version of “Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs” for the new series, naturally switching the finale line to “Goodnight, Boston!”

Frasier‘s 10-episode season will premiere in the U.S and Canada on Thursday, Oct. 12 with two episodes, and internationally on Friday, Oct. 13. New episodes will then drop weekly on Thursdays, exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and Canada, and on Fridays internationally. 

The first two episodes will also broadcast on CBS on Tuesday, Oct. 17 starting at 9:15 p.m. PT/ET, following a super-sized new episode of Big Brother.

The original Frasier series is currently streaming on Paramount+ and Pluto TV.

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