Niles And Daphne's Son Is In The Frasier Revival – But Where Are His Parents?
This article contains spoilers for "Frasier."
Reboots, revivals, and spinoffs are odd things. So often they reek of money-grubbing creative bankruptcy, their only reason for existing being they might squeeze a bit more money out of a loyal audience before their passion slowly fizzles out. Sometimes it's clear that whoever had the most driving power behind them — the directors, the stars, usually the producers — cared only about what they could get from the new project, not about how it might retroactively impugn the legacy of the original. And sometimes, even despite all that, they still have something worthwhile to offer. Odd!
Paramount+'s "Frasier" revival falls somewhere in the vast grey area between a revivification so thoughtful and bold that it improves upon the original and a total disaster. In this very publication you can take in the range of perspectives that have generally characterized the reactions to the revival. Joe Roberts has written that "it feels like the writers have already strayed from what makes 'Frasier,' Frasier," but has also defended certain elements of the show, like the casting of the wonderful Nicholas Lyndhurst and the beautiful way John Mahoney's passing was handled in the pilot. In his review of the series, Josh Spiegel split the difference by calling it "neither disappointing nor remarkable."
One big reason the new series isn't quite measuring up to the excellence of the original is the cast: you just can't be the electric perfection of the dynamic between Frasier, Roz, Martin, Daphne, and Niles. Kelsey Grammer is of course back as Frasier and Peri Gilpin is confirmed for at least a cameo as Roz. But what about David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves? And why is their characters' son in the core cast, but not them?
Cranes: The Next Generation
Incredibly, the will-they-won't-they dynamic between David Hyde Pierce's priggish but endearing psychiatrist Niles Crane and Jane Leeves' quirky, semi-psychic physical therapist Daphne Moon endured for over seven seasons of the original "Frasier." If anything is a testament to how much audiences loved these characters, it's the fact that they tolerated them locked into an interminable holding pattern for so long.
After Niles and Daphne finally started dating in season 8 and got married in season 10, they planned to have a child together. David Crane was born in the series' final episode, "Goodnight Seattle, Part 2." It was the last we ever saw of the next generation of Cranes ... until now.
Much like the original "Frasier" did with "Cheers," the new "Frasier" has kept few of the elements that were integral to the original series. The only returning cast member is Kelsey Grammer, they've moved locations (back to Boston), and it's becoming clear that even its style of humor is distinct from the humor of the original, which delighted in snobbishness more than it put it down. I said the only cast member to return is Kelsey Grammer, and that's true. But he isn't the only character from OG "Frasier" who's back. Grown-up David, played by Anders Keith, shuttles in and out of each episode alongside grown-up Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), Frasier's son.
If you've been on any fan board in which viewers have been discussing the revival, you'll know Keith's character is, to put it mildly, widely hated. Personally I think the character has potential, and the writers just haven't figured out how to use him yet. I also have a strong feeling that fans' hatred of David is just a proxy for their grief over the absence of Niles and Daphne.
Moons over Boston
Niles and Daphne were just one of those couples. Like Ross and Rachel, Scully and Mulder, or Lorelai and Luke, the long-budding romantic tension between the characters was so palpable and believable that it lent an incandescent spark to the series at large that helped it become a smash hit. The fact that this character gamble worked on a spinoff series — one that probably never had a chance of becoming as zeitgeist-seizing or monocultural as its origin series — is simply television history. As much as we loved Martin, Roz, all the side characters, and of course Dr. Crane himself, Niles and Daphne were the reason many viewers tuned into "Frasier" at all.
Now, you could say the same about Sam and Diane, the will-they-won't-they heart of "Cheers" played by Ted Danson and Shelley Long. "Frasier" spun off from "Cheers" without either of those characters and successfully staked its claim in the competitive landscape of '90s primetime television. But the new "Frasier" isn't a spinoff, it's a revival. It's derivative by design, and that seems to be a major reason why David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves have decided not to return.
Why Leeves and Pierce didn't return
The idea for a "Frasier" revival had become a subject of serious conversation as far back as 2018. That same year, Jane Leeves landed a plum role on the Fox medical drama "The Resident," in which she plays the orthopedic surgeon-turned-hospital-CEO Dr. Kit Voss. When asked whether a revival might happen by Entertainment Weekly in 2021, Leeves responded, "I have no idea, but I won't be leaving 'The Resident' to do that if it happens," adding, "There's a lot of pieces that have to come together to make [the revival] happen."
If Leeves has deeper feelings about the notion of a revival, she's kept them to herself. But she did let on that there may be obstacles we're not seeing to getting the cast back together. To the question of whether a reunion is "a long ways away," she responded, "I would think, yeah."
Pierce has been more forthcoming in his feelings about the revival. In a 2022 interview with Vulture, he said:
"I don't have a strong feeling that there's anything more that I can think of that I need to say about the character. [...] That whole time of my life, the writing on those shows, the actors I got to work with — all of that is deeply important to me. And I would never disrespect that in such a way as to say just offhandedly, 'Oh, no, thanks. I'm not going to do that again.' It's too valuable to me. But by the same token, because it's so valuable to me, I also wouldn't do it just do it. And I believe it can be done without me, too — finding new stories to tell, in the same way that 'Frasier' did after 'Cheers.'"
It's such a well-reasoned explanation that it's hard to imagine Pierce ever agreeing to come back. That is, unless ...
'Oh, I could go back and do that'
There are two pieces of hope I can offer up to those desperate for a Niles/Daphne cameo. First, from that same Vulture interview with Pierce:
"I think if they came up with some way of telling the stories that intrigued me, then I might think, 'Oh, I could go back and do that.' But in terms of my own drive and interest, no. I love those characters, but I don't miss them.
It's not an emphatic "let's do it," but it's not an "under no circumstances!" The other comes from Grammer, who said in a February 2023 appearance on TODAY:
"If there is a spot for a one-off appearance, and they're interested, I'm sure we would do something like that. But it's a new world. It's a new life. Frasier's going back to Boston to put himself back in a place where he didn't feel like he quite made it."
Again, we're mired in a lot of "ifs" and "thens," but we're not lost in the land of No without a map. After all, Gilpin is returning, and so is Bebe Neuwirth, who will reprise her role as Lilith Sternin, Frasier's icy sophisticated ex-wife and the mother of Freddy. That appearance is likely just around the corner, as Neuwirth's character was just name-dropped on the most recent episode. Glancing references to Niles and Daphne have also littered the first four episodes of the revival, so the series' writers clearly aren't treating the characters like they never existed. Honestly, seeing David with his beloved mother and father might lend the character some much-needed warmth and likeability, but I don't doubt that'll develop on its own, with or without them. Is a Niles/Daphne return likely to happen? No. But stranger things have happened in the "Frasier"-verse.
New episodes of "Frasier" premiere every Thursday on Paramount+.