Did Frasier's First Teaser Hint at a Return to Cheers?

'Frasier' is back in Boston -- does that mean he will be back at Cheers?

By Russ Burlingame

Yesterday saw the release of the first teaser trailer for Frasier, along with a handful of images of the new series, which will see esteemed psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) relocating to Boston,  where his story with the audience first began. One question fans have been asking is whether a return trip to Boston will mean a return to Cheers, the familiar watering hole where Frasier's life went off the rails for a few years. After all, numerous Cheers cast members showed up in the original Frasier series, even though one character or the other had to travel cross-country to do it.

That question got a little more interesting yesterday, when the first teaser trailer for Frasier featured a simple line that moved across the screen making drawings. It created an image of Frasier, followed by tossed salad and scrambled eggs (the name of the show's theme song, which Grammer sings, is "Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs"), and finally, a stein of beer.

Grammer's character on Cheers and Frasier rarely drank beer, opting instead for "fancier" drinks like sherry and port. It could be argued that it's equally likely that the line drawing (seen below) represents a fancy coffee drink -- something that did show up in nearly episode of Frasier -- but that's an awful heady, runny drink for coffee, and the handle is pretty large relative to the size of the cup if it's anything but a beer stein.

frasher-trailer-beer.png

So far, there have been no credible reports of Cheers veterans returning to star in Frasier, apart from Bebe Neuwirth, who played Frasier's ex-wife and professional rival Dr. Lilith Sternin. It feels difficult to believe that a twist as big as returning to Cheers could be kept secret -- but there's also the built in question of why, after years of friendship with Sam Malone and company, Frasier would move back to Boston and avoid the place entirely.

One of the preview photos released yesterday showed Frasier's nephew, David (Anders Keith) carrying a light-up "beer" sign through what appears to be Frasier's apartment, with Frasier looking mortified by it. It seems likely that, given David's working class mother (the character was born to Frasier's brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and his wife Daphne (Jane Leeves) in the original series finale), it could be that Frasier is being saddled with a nephew who upsets his life's balance in the same way his father did in the original show. The beer stein could be emblematic of David in that case, but again, it's hard to shake the feeling that prominently featuring that image says something more about the revival's plans.

At the end of Cheers, the long-standing "will-they-or-won't-they" between Sam (Ted Danson) and Frasier's ex-fiancee Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) was resolved when Sam left Diane behind for "his one true love" -- the bar. It's difficult to imagine a world where a trip back to Cheers, then, wouldn't also mean seeing Sam again, which might be a tall order (no pun intended). It might not, though; during an episode of The Good Place, Danson made a cameo in which he channeled Sam again, throwing a towel over his shoulder and wearing a flannel shirt to dispense some wisdom from behind a bar.

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Frasier will premiere on Paramount+ on October 12th in the US and Canada, and a day later (October 13th) in international territories. There will be 10 total episodes in the season. Past episodes of both Frasier and Cheers are available on the platform already.

In addition to the streaming premiere, Frasier will have its first two episodes air back-to-back on the CBS network, on October 17th starting at 9:15pm ET/PT, so that viewers who don't have a Paramount+ subscription can get a taste of the series, as incentive for signing up. 

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