[This story contains spoilers from the season two finale of Frasier.]
Midway through the first episode of Frasier’s second season, star Kelsey Grammer picks up an Enchanted Snooker Ball — think of a British Magic 8-Ball — and asks, “Does Frasier Crane still got it?” The answer — “Indubitably” — does the opposite of comforting him as he continues settling into life back in Boston. Instead, it sends Dr. Crane on a warpath. His anger is warranted, because moments earlier he discovered that the toy gave the same answer to his son when he questioned quitting Harvard to become a fireman. Frasier frantically shakes the ball again, asking if his curmudgeon best friend Alan Cornwall (played masterfully by Nicholas Cornwall) used the same toy to give his son the advice. The ball answers, “Obviously, you bloody fool.”
The joke lands so well that the laughter from the live audience can still be heard long after the scene ends.
For Frasier showrunners Joe Cristalli and Chris Harris, crafting Dr. Fraiser Crane’s second act has been as enjoyable as watching the original series, which ran from 1993-2004. Cristalli, a self-described superfan wrote a Frasier parody feed on X, formerly Twitter, called “Frasier for Hire” long after the show ended, and Harris watched in real time as Dr. Crane first appeared on Cheers in 1984 and then in its spinoff, Frasier. Their revival, which just wrapped its second season on Paramount+, centers on Frasier’s attempt at reconnecting with his blue-collar adult son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) and his life in Boston, where he’s returned as a Harvard professor. This second season found Frasier playing a text savvy Cyrano, a Regency-era sleuth and a fake twin to secure an author’s blurb for a memoir.
“That might be one of the best moments we’ve done,” says Cristalli of Grammer pulling double duty in episode seven, “My Brilliant Sister.” “On the page, it seemed like such a stupid joke. I cannot believe how good it was. I don’t know if we scripted him actually changing his clothes, but boy, [Kelsey] even changing his voice a little, and putting on the glasses. Then Alan’s big thumbs up. Oh, that was enjoyable.”
The showrunners even found joy in the season’s humbling moments off camera. Costar Toks Olagundoye, who plays Frasier Harvard dean Olivia Finch, was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and underwent three surgeries and chemotherapy. “What was lovely to see was, even though we were only a few episodes into the season, everyone came together because it was clear we give Toks everything she needs. The most important thing was that Toks was all right,” says Harris. This season also saw the return of memorable faces from Frasier’s past life: Roz (Peri Gilpin), Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris), Bulldog (Dan Butler) and Gil (Edward Hibbert), along with the introductions of comedic legends Amy Sedaris and Patricia Heaton.
Below, Cristalli and Harris speak with The Hollywood Reporter about filming KACL’s reunion in Seattle, exploring grief and reconnections and why, after 40 years, Dr. Crane’s comedic charm is sharp as ever.
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The revival continues the Frasier tradition of a memorable holiday episode. This season two finale, “Father Christmas,” takes a more emotional tone than last year’s. Have the previous holiday episodes been as dramatic, or has it always been about the comedy?
JOE CRISTALLI It goes back and forth. I know some have been more emotional than others, but one of my favorite Christmas episodes is where Niles wants to get high and Martin accidentally eats a pot brownie. That one’s played for big laughs, but I feel like they go back and forth. If there’s a great emotional story, they’ll lead into it. But if there’s a big comedic set piece, they’ll lead into it too. You can’t just do a Christmas episode, like put a bunch of lights and say, “We don’t really know what the story is, but look, there’s reindeer and stuff, so everyone’s going to enjoy it no matter what.” I’ve done that kind of episode before, I’ve been on those shows. But this one, it feels like we found an interesting story to tell and the idea of Christmas only bolstered the story. It wasn’t just an extra.
CHRIS HARRIS I would agree and say that I feel like we’ve tended to gravitate a little bit more towards some of the emotion. [The original] Frasier picked their moments and I think, as we’ve been finding our own voice for this version of the show, Joe and I, and Kelsey too, we’ve been excited to lean into that a little bit more. I don’t know if that’s a reflection of the times or the stage of life that the character is at. But we come from shows that aren’t afraid to wear their heart on their sleeve… We’re softies. And so that’s been something that we’ve liked and have enjoyed bringing to this new version.
In finding the cadence from the first season to now, do you feel like you found your rhythm?
HARRIS Definitely. The first season for every show is about finding the characters and realizing, “Oh, we thought this character was here, but it’s actually over there.” Or, “we thought that these two had a sniping relationship, but it’s one of mutual respect.” Our show was not one of the few shows that came out of the gate knowing exactly what every character was, like the original Frasier. But for the most part, that first season, we feel good about having found where the center of the show is. And here we got to dive in more, explore a little bit more Eve’s situation in life and how she’s doing. Alan, especially as you saw in the Christmas episode, give him some depth so he’s not just the boozy guy lobbing verbal grenades into the conversation, but he’s a real person with some issues of his own. And that’s been our favorite part of season two.
CRISTALLI And what’s nice about the rhythm is it feels like the audiences are so much savvier now. I keep, very trepidatiously, wandering into Reddit to see what they think. Most of the Reddit subreddits I’m on are the Frasier superfans, because that’s who you impress. But when episode four or five of this season aired, somebody there was like, “Oh, this is the best one they’ve done.” And then the next week I see them say, “Oh, no, wait, this is the best one they’ve done.” And then one after that was like, “Oh my God, they figured it out.” Obviously that’s a small sample. We found, hopefully, the footing in the voices of a lot of these characters in a way that’s starting to gel that even the most skeptical Reddit user hates to admit, and that it’s okay.
Last year, you both were clear that this Frasier was not a revival of the original series. But this season, fans have loved the episodes where many of the old characters return — especially when Frasier and Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) go back to Seattle and say goodbye to KACL. Why did you decide to lean into having the characters return?
CRISTALLI It’s hard because in some ways, you don’t want to lean on the old show so much. It’s very easy to be, “Well, we’re doing this episode where Roz does this thing. It’s going to be funny because somebody already loves Roz.” But on the other hand, so many people want to see Bulldog and Gil and Roz, Niles and Daphne. So yes, we love bringing those characters. We’re not being led in shackles to put these characters on TV. We’re excited to do it, but we know there’s such a checks and balance. There’s such a balancing act of how much can we do that isn’t, “Well, they’re just riding the coattails of the old show,” versus, “I hate this new show. Why will they bring the old characters back?” So it’s planning that happy medium, which I think we’re skirting on.
HARRIS Personally, our journey during that KACL episode was a little bit like the characters. Very much like Frasier in that episode where, what a joy? How exciting to go back and bring in Bulldog and Gil and see the radio station. But on some level, we had a little bit of a feeling that you can’t really go back. We’ll never be the original Frasier because, most importantly, we’ll never have John Mahoney. Now it feels like this was a wonderful place to visit. But we also loved the next week when we got back to our home sets and had our characters all brought together, because it felt like, well, that’s the time of life we’re really exploring now. That’s where Frasier is now.
Speaking about Bulldog, there was mixed criticism of his character (played by Dan Butler) coming out on the show. (Butler publicly disclosed his sexuality in 1994.) Was that something Dan wanted to incorporate into his character?
CRISTALLI We had a funny idea. We ran it by Kelsey. Kelsey ran it by Dan, and everyone just thought, “Yeah, this is delightful.” I don’t know if it was a big push from anyone’s part. We came up with the joke first. I was like, “Oh, well, this works with the character.” This is a fun way to bring the show into the current culture, and this feels organic and true. It all just lined up really nicely in a fun way.
Very prominent this season were the show’s guest stars: Patricia Heaton, Yvette Nicole Brown and Amy Sedaris. Even Kelsey Grammer’s daughter Greer made an appearance. Frasier’s agent Bebe Glazer, played by Harriet Sansom Harris, made a glorious return that fans loved. What was memorable about making that episode, “The Squash Courtship of Freddy’s Father”?
CRISTALLI Everything. We wanted to do an episode like that in season one. Harriet wasn’t available. We knew we’d want to do it in season two. She couldn’t make the first table read. Harriet phoned in and she was killing everything over the phone. It’s like, “Oh my God, if she’s so good on the phone, I can’t wait to see her in person.” She just kept delivering. Harriet’s got the same cadence, she’s got the same spark. Everything about her is exactly the same. The pressure on us to come up with a script that kept up with her and Kelsey, and even Rachel Bloomberg, who played her daughter, who was fantastic. The level that they were on the trapeze was so high that we were just trying not to screw it up. It was so cool and fun to watch. It just all clicked in a great way.
This season also saw the exploration of Eve’s (Jess Salgueiro) grief of her partner. Do you work with grief counselors as you shaped her arc this season?
CRISTALLI It wasn’t so much grief counselors, because there’s such a wide range of voices in the writers room. A lot of people had personal experiences, maybe not exactly the same as what Eve’s character went through, but a lot of people have dealt with grief. Even the story of spending the day came from one of the writers who had a story about their mom dying and they went through a special day doing all this stuff that their mother loved doing. That very much inspired Eve’s story going through Adam’s old stuff. For these stories to work, they have to feel authentic and real. The only way that happens is when the writers room is able to open themselves up with real stories and real anecdotes people might have a difficult time reliving and rehashing, but they really make for interesting storytelling because it’s just so real.
It’s the 40th anniversary of Frasier’s character, who appeared for the first time on the series Cheers in September 1994. What about him has remained timeless and how has he evolved?
CRISTALLI He has the same hairline. That character has always been probably the smartest, most evolved person in the room. He’s just changed with the times and culture. At one point when wearing Italian suits and leather loafers was the way to go, now it’s jeans and expensive sneakers. It goes much deeper than what he’s wearing. That character is always, as Kelsey has said, and what he’s basically pounded into us for the entire time, is that this character loves with their whole heart. He does not condescend people. He may come off as condescending and pompous, but that’s just not who the character is. He has to be — which is crazy to say — super vulnerable. You somehow feel bad for him, even though he can do these horrible, pretentious complaining that his $9,000 caviar shipment was a day late, you still somehow feel bad for him that his party accidentally had a train run through. It’s a character who endures because you see yourself or somebody like that character, and you feel for them because they’re trying to do their best..
Towards the end of your first season, the writer’s strike began. This time around the impending sale of Paramount Global, the parent company of the series, made headlines. How did you all stay the course and keep true to what you wanted to deliver for this season?
HARRIS I’ll say that Paramount and all of their branches, obviously they’re going through a lot. We worked directly with some people who were laid off, and that’s awful and can be devastating. We’ve been very fortunate in terms of they’ve let us focus on the work of the show itself. They’ve been really good, they’ve been great partners, both creatively and in terms of making sure we have everything we need. Not always everything we want, but everything we need in terms of making the show. What happens with Paramount and what happens with our show are tied together in a real way. But as far as our work with the show is concerned, they’ve been incredible partners letting us stay focused on making the best show we can.
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Frasier season two is now streaming on Paramount+.
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