• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 9, 2023

Who knows if a revival of “Frasier” will drive subscriptions for Paramount+ or even draw substantial viewership to the streaming service?

It is an old sitcom from the era when TV networks ruled TV before streaming. And yet, to streaming it has gone.

This strategy, of launching the revival of an old network show on streaming first, seems counter-intuitive.

Doesn’t a show like this one belong first on, say, CBS, where it can be paired with, say, “Young Sheldon”?

The season of “Frasier” that is premiering Thursday (with the first two episodes) consists of 10 episodes in all. 

That’s a far cry from what was once known as a full-season order on network TV -- most often 22 episodes. 

Making just 10 episodes of a show extended from a “brand” such as “Frasier” seems like hedging one’s bets. Why make more right now? Let’s see how these 10 episodes do first.

I watched the first episode of the new “Frasier” (out of five provided) and thought it was great. In the old world of network TV, the show would have “hit” written all over it.

In fact, anyone interested in observing how a sitcom revival should be done, the new “Frasier” coming to Paramount+ this week provides a textbook example.

The thing I appreciated most about the premiere was how the show smoothly wove in Frasier Crane’s past, which is known to all who ever watched the show in its original run, 1993-2004, and first met the Frasier character before that on “Cheers.”

In the new show, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer, now 68, photo above) is seen arriving in Boston, the locale for “Cheers,” and also the hometown of his now-grown son, Frederick “Freddy” Crane (played by Jack Cutmore-Scott, also pictured above).

This ties in with the old show. As “Frasier” fans know, Boston was Freddy’s hometown. While Frasier lived in Seattle with his father, Martin Crane, Freddy was raised in Boston by his mother, Frasier’s ex-wife Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth).

When Frasier and his son first encounter each other in Boston, it is clear there is an estrangement between the two of them, something I would not have predicted based on the old show.

But another character enters the picture for comic relief, David Crane (Anders Keith), the socially awkward son of Niles Crane and Daphne Moon (both from the old show).

David is Frasier’s nephew and he has come to Boston to start his freshman year at Harvard (naturally).

Hilariously, David’s behavior and mannerisms are the spitting image of his father’s, which will be obvious to all who will watch the show. 

Indeed, Frasier remarks upon the resemblance only once, but does it seamlessly as part of a dialogue with someone else.

Frasier references the Cheers bar only once too, and then only in passing, with a faint whiff of nostalgia.

The most poignant of the tie-ins with the old “Frasier” concerns the death of Frasier’s father, Freddy’s grandfather.

It seems that Freddy didn’t show up at Martin’s funeral, and his absence has become a bone of contention between he and his father.

By the end of the first episode of the new “Frasier,” Freddy tells his father why he didn’t come and the reason makes his absence completely understandable, even honorable.

In the role of Martin, John Mahoney was the anchor of the old “Frasier,” but he passed away in 2018. 

The new show pays tribute to him at the end of the episode, but the real tribute is the way the show acknowledges his death via the death of the character he played so memorably.

Perhaps, in the final analysis, the new “Frasier” succeeds because of its polish and professionalism. In parts, it is also as funny as the old one -- which, of course, is the point of a television comedy.

At the center of it all is Kelsey Grammer, the linchpin of the whole “Frasier” universe. He is back where he belongs, where everybody knows his name.

“Frasier” starts streaming on Thursday (October 12) on Paramount+.