Nearly twenty years after Frasier finished its eleven season run in 2004, its long-awaited reboot has just had its first teaser trailer released, alongside an official release date of 13 October on Paramount+. The reboot follows the cliffhanger of the final episode, in which Frasier decides to follow his flame Charlotte to Chicago instead of moving to San Francisco, with the screen fading to black on the line “wish me luck.”
The teaser trailer does not give much away about what the revival’s plot, instead focusing on a new start for the iconic star. Featuring the trademark theme tune that any Frasier fan will remember, re-performed by an audibly older Kelsey Grammer, he ends the tune with the new line ‘Frasier has re-entered the building’. This is the biggest sign of this reboot’s aims, to forge a new path for the character that, whilst paying homage to the original show, seems intent on forming its own identity.
Whilst this first teaser trailer does lean on the iconography of the original, for a reboot teaser this is to be expected. The show needs to attract old viewers by reminding them of their nostalgia whilst being its own thing. Based off this teaser, the Frasier reboot seems to be striking a good balance between these two points.
This new push might be necessary, with few of the old guard returning for this new reboot. As reported by Collider, David Hyde Pierce (who played Frasier’s brother, Niles) will not be returning. Hyde Pierce defended his decision not to do the reboot, stating “That whole time of my life, the writing on those shows, the actors I got to work with—all of that is deeply important to me. And I would never disrespect that in such a way as to say just offhandedly, ‘Oh, no, thanks. I’m not going to do that again.’ It’s too valuable to me”. Niles Crane was always a valuable character in the show to play off of Frasier’s occasionally smarmy intentions, and Hyde Pierce’s sharp comedic timing will certainly be missed. Coupled with the passing of John Mahoney in 2018, who played Frasier’s dad Marty, this reboot will have to make do without the faces returning fans loved.
All this being said, it is important to remember that Frasier was in its own right a spin-off of Cheers (1982-1993). With this, Frasier has proven that it can evolve out of the shadow of its more well-known brother. With the legacy of Frasier’s acclaimed run, Paramount+ will be hoping that they can repeat this successful evolution when the reboot begins streaming this October.
Words by James Evenden
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