Kelsey Grammer has said that he thinks the Frasier reboot “may even be funnier” than the original.
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Back in 2021, Grammer confirmed that the American sitcom was being revived on Paramount+, in which he is returning in the title role of psychiatrist Frasier Crane.
The show originally ran for 11 seasons between 1993 and 2004 after being created as a spin-off for hit ’80s series Cheers.
The reboot, however, will not feature David Hyde Pierce, who played Frasier’s brother Niles, or the late John Mahoney, who played his father Martin. New castings include Only Fools and Horses actor Nicholas Lyndhurst, and Jack Cutmore-Scott, who will play Frasier’s adult son, Frederick.
Speaking about what to expect from the reboot in a new interview with The Independent, Grammer suggested that the brand new dynamics could result in a show that “may even be funnier” than the original.
“An entire [US] audience is gonna suddenly know who this guy is, who hasn’t known before,” Grammer said of Lyndhurst, who he described as “arguably one of the great actors of the UK” and a “great friend” of his.
“So there’s a lot of positive energy around the casting of it.”
Speaking about Cutmore-Scott, Grammar recalled: “At first, you cast these people, you’ve never seen them before. And boy, by about the middle of the second show, I thought, ‘Son of a gun. He’s actually doing it. He’s like Frasier’s kid. Wow.’ So I think it’s gonna be a great discovery for people. There’s some new people on the show to really fall in love with and arguably, it may even be funnier.”
Grammer also recently praised the “gifted” Lyndhurst, and shared that he “gets all the laughs”.
Returning cast in guest appearances will include Peri Gilpin, who played Roz, and Bebe Neuwirth, who played Frasier’s ex-wife Lilith in Cheers and Frasier.
Last year, Grammer revealed why Hyde Pierce wasn’t returning for the reboot. “For a while we were going to try to bring back the whole cast, the whole legacy cast. David basically decided he wasn’t really interested in repeating the performance of Niles,” he told People.
Elsewhere, it was revealed back in February that Frasier – which is expected to debut on Paramount+ later this year – will not return to Seattle when the show is revived.