Episode 5 Of The Frasier Revival Uses A Cheers Joke To Shed New Insight Into Dr. Crane
Watching the "Frasier" revival series is genuinely uncanny. The show has exactly the same comedic beats of the original sitcom, which aired from 1993-2004. The studio audience laughs, gasps, and hoots with the same cadence as their '90s equivalents, while the actors deliver quips and one-liners with a similar familiarity. And yet, here it all is in 2023, as if preserved in an early-2000s stasis and presented like some sort of museum exhibit. It's not bad, necessarily — just weird.
TV and our general comedic sensibilities have evolved so much since the golden age of sitcoms, but you wouldn't know it watching "Frasier" 2023. That said, it's not as if the writers haven't tried to update Frasier Crane with this latest nostalgia-leveraging project.
After everyone, including Niles actor David Hyde Pierce, decided not to come back for the "Frasier" revival, star Kelsey Grammer had to completely change the premise of the show. That resulted in the titular psychiatrist heading back to Boston, where he first started out on "Cheers," to reconnect with his son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) and start a new chapter of his life. Sans the original supporting cast and with a new (old) city as its backdrop, "Frasier" 2023 feels, if not entirely fresh, at least different from its predecessor. Thus far, that's allowed the writers to try to delve into parts of the doctor we haven't yet explored, as was the case in episode 5, in which we learn a little more about Frasier's desire to belong.
Frasier just wants to fit in
In the fifth episode, things have settled into a more classically grounded "Frasier"-esque groove after the slightly too ridiculous shenanigans of episode 3, in which we learned our beloved Dr. Crane had hosted a "Dr. Phil" style daytime TV show in years between the original series and the reboot. This latest installment sees Frasier invited to the "Founders Society mixer" where he has a chance to join the, as Toks Olagundoye's Olivia Finch puts it, "extremely selective group of Harvard's brightest minds who help shape the university's future."
Frasier attends the mixer with Olivia and his former Oxford University pal and fellow Harvard professor Alan Cornwall (British comedy legend Nicholas Lyndhurst). Prior to the event itself, we learn that Alan and Frasier were members of Oxford's infamous Bullingdon Club, a real-life group for little posh boys that was the basis for 2014's "The Riot Club" and boasts such former members as ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Founders Club isn't necessarily anything like that particular coterie of toffs, but it is similarly "pretentious," to use Freddy's words.
Once at the mixer, Frasier finds himself locked in the wine cellar with Alan, hashing out some issues in their friendship. When Alan says he's always wondered why Frasier takes things a little too seriously, the doctor responds with, "The thing about me is, I've always wanted to fit in somewhere, you know. Even when I was back in Boston I was a regular in a bar, and yet ..." "Nobody knew your name?" Alan quips. "Not exactly," Frasier says, "but I've always wanted to find the place where I belong." The "nobody knew your name" line is an obvious nod to "Cheers" and its famous theme song, but under the surface, there's a little more to this interaction.
Exploring the psychology of the psychiatrist
It's been 40 years since Frasier debuted in the 1984 season 3 premiere of "Cheers." Since arriving in back Boston for the "Frasier" revival, the doctor has been poking fun at his origins, delivering a lines about spending too much time at a "certain bar..." But in episode 5, it seems the writers are using Frasier's genesis to explore more of his psychology. After all, we've now seen the character in Boston, Seattle, and caught a glimpse his "Dr. Crane" years in Chicago. Now, we're seeing him return to Beantown after the breakdown of his marriage to Charlotte Connor, who he pursued to Chicago in the season finale of the original series.
All of which is to say that Frasier has never really settled anywhere. While the character's inability to stay put has made for great TV, it's never really been explored too deeply. But now, the "Frasier" writers seem to be using existing character history and lore to deepen Dr. Crane's psychology and endear audiences to a new version of Frasier, setting this revival apart from its predecessor.
They also finally added a bit of depth to Nicholas Lyndhurst's character, Alan, who up until now has been a bit one-note with his disinterested comments about just wanting to get drunk or how he has nothing but contempt for his students. In this episode, however, Alan reveals that he's quite fond of Frasier, even if he seems like he doesn't care about much else. None of this is enough to rekindle the magic of the original series, but it's nice to see the writers trying to retain some of the heart that made "Frasier" so beloved — even if it is within the anachronism that is the sitcom in 2023.
New episodes of "Frasier" premiere every Thursday on Paramount+.