“Frasier always wanted to belong,” Grammer says later in a joint interview with Gilpin. “He always wanted to be well-liked and well-received by the world, the community, whatever. And then he realised his family is the most important thing to him. And of course, he realised that when he lost his dad.
“That is the percolating growth in Frasier, in this show, in this iteration,” he adds. “He’s becoming the father, and in a way that he never had before, and he’s the father to many now, to almost everybody else in the show. He’s playing what you would call the sacred masculine. And it’s beautiful.”
Roz (Peri Gilpin), Kenny (Tom McGowan), Martin Crane (John Mahoney) and Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) in Frasier’s first incarnation.
Leaving Seattle to move to Boston and lecture at Harvard has given Frasier new castmates, including his boss Olivia (Toks Olagundoye), neighbour Eve (Jess Salgueiro) and former classmate and current colleague Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst). Lyndhurst and Grammer became friends co-starring in Man of La Mancha in 2019 at the Coliseum in London and he’s the actor most likely to crack up the star.
“Now, because I’m a little bit more active in cutting the shows together and stuff like that, as soon as I know the camera is moving to Nick, I know I’m going to hear something funny, and that’s been great,” says Grammer, also an executive producer.
Grammer directs the Valentine’s Day episode and plays Cyrano to two friends. As Frasier speed-crawls around a restaurant, he reminds us that this series always nailed the physical comedy.
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There’s an easiness among this cast. Old friends Gilpin and Grammer still ring in New Year’s Eve together at his house party. Their challenge as actors is how to show the characters’ today while staying true to their essence.
Gilpin considers Roz, quick with a comeback, prowling for men, and how she’s changed.
“I’m still trying to find that,” Gilpin says. “I mean, I am a different person, so I feel like it’s the way I’ve evolved right now, but I’m still trying to figure that out because the things that I’ve done in the show have been reacting to things and doing what I need to do, to be helpful or to react to whatever’s going on. I haven’t really instigated anything yet.”
Is Frasier still a randy fellow in search of a brilliant, beautiful, opera-loving woman who appreciates only the finest? Is he still a fussy know-it-all? Yes, and that’s part of his charm. Despite his exaggerated foibles – he may have invented mansplaining – Frasier, at heart, is a good fellow.
“Frasier is just like I am,” Grammer says. “He’s out there making the best of it every day, and he didn’t quit. And so going back to him as a character was completely natural and just as interesting as life itself, and maybe a little bit more because it is heightened, and it is funny.”
”How have they changed?” Grammer adds, musing about Frasier and Roz. “Well, I’m not sure it’s a profound change. We see great friends from our youth and we always think, if they were really close to us, that they are the same person, and in so many ways they are. Hopefully, they take things a little less seriously from day to day and moment to moment. If not, then that’s kind of a shame. You know, hopefully we mellow just a bit.”
Pondering how Frasier and Roz changed over the years, Grammer – an erudite man who plays the piano and has logged many hours performing Shakespeare – steers this in a philosophical, and personal, direction.
“Are their dreams the same?” Grammer asks. “I think they are. Herman Melville had over his desk written – he’s one of my favorite writers – ‘Do not forget the dreams of your youth.’ And I think that’s our job.”