It’s been over a year since Paramount Plus gave the greenlight to a reboot of Frasier with original star Kelsey Grammer returning to the role of everyone’s favorite radio psychiatrist. According to Deadline, the reboot is getting closer and closer to becoming a reality. Grammer confirmed that the writers are “in the final stages of the final script for the first episode of the Frasier reboot.” The actor said that the script was so moving that he cried, and named October as a potential start date for production. As exciting as it will be to see Dr. Crane again, the Frasier reboot will inevitably be missing one of the key elements that made the original series such a resounding success.
At its core, Frasier is a father-son story. In the pilot episode, just as Frasier is settling into his new life as a high society bachelor in Seattle, his brother Niles tells him that their father, Martin, can’t live alone anymore. Frasier resists the urge to put his dad in a nursing home and reluctantly allows Marty to move into his apartment with his trusty canine sidekick Eddie and a hideous old armchair held together by duct tape. Initially, the two constantly butted heads as one is a snooty, pompous doctor obsessed with opera and bored by sports while the other is a down-to-earth average joe obsessed with sports and bored by the opera. But, over the course of the series, Frasier and Marty gradually warmed to one another.
There were plenty of other things going on in the show, from Frasier’s biting back-and-forth with his producer Roz to Niles’ infatuation with Marty’s live-in physiotherapist Daphne. But the emotional throughline of Frasier was the story of a father and son who’d struggled to communicate for years finally finding some common ground and forging a strong relationship as they’re forced to live under the same roof. Whenever they brought each other out of their comfort zone, like Frasier joining Marty to watch a baseball game at a bar or Marty accompanying Frasier to a fancy restaurant, they grew a little closer.
Frasier’s pomposity would’ve become unbearable if his relationship with his father didn’t give the series a sweet undertone. Living with Marty kept Frasier grounded. Part of his character is thinking that having a medical degree means he knows everything, but Frasier was constantly learning life lessons from his dad. In the season 6 finale, after all three Crane boys have suffered a heartbreak, Marty talks his sons into joining him in singing a rendition of the theme from Goldfinger with the bar pianist to cheer them up. At first, the psychiatrists dismiss the easy emotional fix and claim it won’t work, but within seconds, they’re belting out Shirley Bassey’s lyrics and having a whale of a time.
Sadly, actor John Mahoney passed away in 2018, so when Frasier returns to screens, Martin will be nowhere to be seen. Grammer is the only Frasier cast member who’s been confirmed to return for the reboot. But it’s feasible that David Hyde Pierce could reprise his role as Niles or Jane Leeves could reprise her role as Daphne or Peri Gilpin could reprise her role as Roz somewhere down the line. After Mahoney’s passing, there’s no chance he’ll appear in the reboot. So, the long-awaited 12th season of Frasier will be a father-son story without the father – unless the elder Crane boy passes on the torch and moves in with an all-grown-up Frederick.
Even if Mahoney was still around and the Frasier revival could bring back Marty, there would be reason to be wary of a reboot. Frasier is one of the greatest sitcoms ever made, and a reboot risks undoing the beautiful ending of the series in its hugely satisfying finale episode, “Goodnight, Seattle.” No new ending could outdo Frasier’s moving final monologue. If the reboots of The X-Files, Heroes, and Sex and the City are anything to go by, maybe the past is best left in the past – especially when one half of the central dynamic that made the original show so endearing has passed away.
Of course, there’s still hope that the reboot could be great. Frasier itself was a spin-off from Cheers. There were a few legacy cameos here and there, but Frasier himself was the only Cheers character who regularly appeared in the spin-off – it left behind the Boston setting, the titular bar, and the ensemble element that made Cheers a precursor to Friends – and Frasier was still a massive success in its own right. The reboot will explore a new chapter of Frasier’s life, and if the writing is sharp enough and the characters are as compelling as their predecessors, it could stand on its own two feet as a completely different but equally successful series.