An old master brings “Frasier” back

Life has a special place for the masters of the old arts.
There are the blacksmiths, the locksmiths, the whatever-smiths. There are the keepers of native tongues and the cousins who memorized grandma’s recipes. And there’s James Burrows.
At 82, he retains a special skill – directing situation comedies that are filmed before a studio audience. We’ll see that when the first two episodes of the “Frasier” revival (shown here) debut Thursday (Oct. 12) on Paramount+, then rerun at 9:15 p.m. Oct. 17 on CBS.
After that, Paramount+ will have a weekly episode for eight more Thursdays. Burrows won’t direct those; he’s used to setting a show’s tone and then stepping aside.
No one – including Burrows himself – seems able to define just what makes his shows click. He tends to start with witty scripts, add some sight gags (large and small) and mold characters that can last.
He directed great pilot episodes – “Friends,” “Frasier,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Big Bang Theory,” many more – and turned the shows over to other directors. But he also stayed to direct most episodes of “Taxi,” “Will & Grace” and “Cheers” … which is how the character of Frasier Crane began.
That was in the third “Cheers” season, as a device to get Diane (Shelley Long) back to the bar. Kelsey Grammer had been doing a Broadway musical (“Sunday in the Park with George”) with Mandy Patinkin, who recommended him to a casting director.
“We all started laughing when we saw his audition,” Burrows wrote in “Directed by James Burrows” (Ballantine Books, 2022). “We hired Kelsey for four episodes. He drove out from New York and for a time was living in his car on the Paramount lot.”
Those four episodes grew into 21 seasons as Frasier Crane – the final nine years of “Cheers” … the 11 of “Frasier” … and this new “Frasier,” which took some detours.
In his book, Burrows wrote: “A ‘Frasier’ reboot has been announced, which will reunite Kelsey, David, Peri and Jane. I look forward to seeing how that develops with this great and talented group.”
Except it didn’t turn out that way. Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and Daphne (Jane Leeves) aren’t in the first season, but their son is. Roz (Peri Gilpin) shows up at least once; Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) may, too.
Mostly, this is new turf. Frasier returns to Boston, where his son and nephew live. The show has new writers, producers and (after the two episodes) directors … but it has Grammer, which is what counts.
“Kelsey has a stentorian voice, an incredible stage presence, is extremely smart and skilled and can play a pompous (jerk) who’s also sympathetic better than anyone I know,” Burrows wrote.
That was something people realized gradually. As his fourth “Cheers” episode was being crafted, Grammer wrote in “So Far” (Dutton, 1995), writer-producer Les Charles “told me it was too bad they hadn’t known me better before they planned the season. The character of Frasier was much more interesting than they’d anticipated, and it was a shame I’d have to go.”
But he didn’t have to. As Grammer tells it, Shelley Long (who played Diane) hated the idea of Frasier. She pushed to have his best lines removed; instead, writers doubled down on making him funnier. “She had made it so much fun for everyone to keep me on the show.”
Long left after the fifth season; Grammer stayed six more years, then went directly to “Frasier.”
Along the way, Frasier became deeper. Yes, he was pompous, but there was a sweet core. He was “always insecure and angry,” Burrows wrote, “but with the foundation of warmth annd decency.”
Plus surprising fragility. “He loved fully, wholly, deeply,” Burrows wrote. “He fell hard.”
That set up the contrast in many episodes, Burrows wrote: “A typical ‘Frasier’ story would have Frasier falling on his face, with his pomposity getting in the way of his life, while always being sweet at heart.”
In the two decades since “Frasier” ended, Grammer has starred in three comedy series and a drama, none lasting long. He’s also played two Georges (Washington and Patton), King Herod and Scrooge, plus (voice only) the Tin Man, a troll, Abraham Lincoln and Sideshow Bob.
Now he’s back to his best turf. He’s being Frasier Crane, in front of a studio audience. That’s a fading art form, but he will – for a couple episodes – be directed by a master.