Frasier Star Kelsey Grammer on Future Seasons and Cameos
Kelsey Grammer reveals Frasier season 2 plans, a potential Niles cameo, and a Cheers reunion.
Life's calling again for Frasier — and Kelsey Grammer is still listening. Nearly 40 years after originating Frasier Crane on Cheers and almost 20 years after wrapping up the 11-season, 264-episode run of the original Frasier, Grammer returns to his iconic role for Frasier's third act in the Paramount+ revival. The streamer ordered a 10-episode first season — or is that Frasier season 12? — and the new series has not yet been officially renewed. But star and executive producer Grammer is already planning Frasier 2.0 season 2.
"We've been kicking around some ideas but they mostly revolve around the idea of Frasier finding happiness and becoming a good father and having breakthroughs at college," Grammer told Deadline. "Maybe Frasier could become an important person in somebody's life [as a professor]? He's always getting into trouble in one way or another so I'm sure that's going to continue to happen. Who knows what's gonna arise? We do have really talented writers who will come up with some ideas and we'll discuss it. It's a collaborative effort and I think we're going to be fine, but I have no beans to spill at this point."
The new Frasier follows the radio psychiatrist-turned-"Dr. Crane" TV show host back to Boston, where he attempts to reconnect with his firefighter son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) after the death of his own father, Martin Crane (the late John Mahoney). He now teaches psychology at his alma mater, Harvard — not as a professor, but as an "adjunct visiting guest lecturer in residence."
"Freddy's Birthday" reunited Frasier and his icy ex-wife, Dr. Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth), and Frasier's former KACL radio producer Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin) will appear before the end of the season. While the show features Frasier's college-aged nephew David (Anders Keith) and mentions of his parents, it remains to be seen if Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and Daphne (Jane Leeves) might appear in a potential Frasier season 2.
"I suppose there's a chance," Grammer said of cameos from his former Frasier co-stars, "but I'm the wrong guy to ask."
The original show reunited the Seattle-based Frasier with his friends from Cheers — Ted Danson, Shelley Long, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Rhea Perlman, and Woody Harrelson all guest-starred — so with Frasier back in Boston, might he return to the bar where everybody knows his name?
"I'm not sure the guys who wrote Cheers would want us to go back to Cheers. It's like, let's let that be where it is. It's a monument in the minds of television history," Grammer said. "But is it possible we might see someone from the old days at the bar? Maybe. I was just spitballing a little while ago about how it might be kind of fun to do a Christmas show next year, the Christmas of Cheers Past. Frasier could revisit scenes that he lived out before like when he had made a mistake. What could he do to fix it? [Laughs] I don't know, it just seems like a good idea and it would be really funny. And [the original cast] wouldn't even have to appear; it would just be old clips. But we'll see."
Grammer added: "You know, I love Ted [Danson] and working with him, so I'd love to do something with him. We just haven't broken that idea yet."
New episodes of Frasier premiere Thursdays on Paramount+. Try Paramount+ for free here.
