The “Frasier” reboot, which arrives on Paramount+ on Oct. 12, will find the pretentious shrink back in Boston surrounded by a new cast of characters, including his son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), and an old colleague, Alan Cornwall (Nicholas Lyndhurst).
But the writers are not going to ignore Frasier’s history, most notably his father, Martin, a retired cop who was played by the late John Mahoney (who died in 2018). Often, reboots erase or downplay elements from the original series if they don’t fit into the new setup.
For one thing, Martin is embedded in the premise of the show, as Frasier moves to Boston hoping to spend time with his son because he has lost his own father. At the end of the pilot, there is an emotional scene that pays tribute to Martin. And then Frasier’s son, who is now a firefighter in his 30s, is not unlike his grandfather. “There’s a lot of Martin in Freddy,” James Burrows told Entertainment Weekly. The famous TV director helmed the first two episodes of the reboot.
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Also, the new “Frasier” doesn’t find Dr. Crane returning to the Cheers bar where we first met him. Instead he goes to a neighborhood spot, which has a familiar name: Mahoney’s.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at matthew.gilbert@globe.com. Follow him @MatthewGilbert.