Kelsey Grammer talked about the “Frasier” reboot in People magazine, and maybe it won’t be as bad as I was expecting. Instead of reviving the show, as first planned, and bringing back the same cast (without John Mahoney, who died in 2018), Grammer is now coming up with a new situation and city for Frasier Crane.
We have David Hyde Pierce to thank for foiling Grammer’s plan. “David basically decided he wasn’t really interested in repeating the performance of Niles,” Grammer said. That pushed him into reconsidering the entire project. “In a very funny way,” he said, “it just took us to a new place, which was what we originally wanted to do anyway, which was a Fraser third act. It’s an entirely new life for him.”
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Grammer said that “our brave little soldier” — yeah, fussy Frasier — will find “new challenges and a new love and new people and a new city and stuff like that. I’m really very excited about it, and we’ll certainly always honor the past. We have to honor the fact that John Mahoney died and that Martin is no longer with us. We’ll be dealing with that for sure.”
The series begins rehearsals in February. It will run on Paramount+.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at matthew.gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.