Frasier Getting His Own Sitcom Wasn't The Original Plan For Post-Cheers Kelsey Grammer
When you think about it, "Frasier" is one of the most unlikely success stories in TV history. Running from 1993 to 2004, the show is one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time and has recently returned some 20 years after it went off-air for a revival series currently streaming on Paramount+.
But a lot had to happen in order for this impressive multi-decade run to pan out. After the show on which Frasier Crane first debuted, "Cheers," almost crashed and burned during its first season, it went on to become the most celebrated sitcom of the '80s and still enjoys a legacy as one of the finest TV shows ever. In season 3 of the series, we were introduced to Dr. Crane for the first time. Originally intended to be a character that appeared in a few episodes as a way to further the will-they-won't-they romance storyline between Ted Danson's Sam and Shelley Long's Diane, Frasier was made a recurring character after the show creators, Glen Charles, Les Charles, and James Burrows were impressed with actor Kelsey Grammer's performance.
Frasier remained part of the show's central cast right up until it ended in 1992. By that point, Dr. Crane and his wife, Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) had not only become integral to "Cheers" but had even showed up in the sort-of spin-off "Wings" in an episode entitled "Planes, Trains, and Visiting Cranes." All of which would suggest that Grammer and the "Frasier" writers knew exactly what to do when Paramount offered the actor a new show to follow "Cheers" — i.e. give Frasier his own show. Oddly enough, the original plan for Grammer's post-"Cheers" series was actually completely different.
The Kelsey Grammer sitcom that never was
When "Cheers" finally ended after 11 seasons in 1992, it brought in almost 100 million viewers for the series finale. In other words, the show's popularity can't be overstated. Even President Bill Clinton requested a cameo appearance in the final episode — though he ultimately stood the producers up. So, taking a beloved character from an even more beloved series and giving him his own show seems like it would have been a no-brainer.
But, as the Vanity Fair oral history of "Frasier" shows, things didn't quite work that way. Evidently, before the end of "Cheers," Kelsey Grammer had signed a deal with Paramount to develop a new series, and enlisted writer-producers David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee to help develop it. The trio had previously helped develop the character of Frasier himself and seemed perfectly placed to contribute to whatever Grammer's new show was going to be. Oddly enough, however, while Angell, Casey, and Lee would go on to co-create "Frasier," their initial idea for Grammer's solo series had pretty much nothing to do with Dr. Crane at all. As Casey told Vanity Fair:
"We created this high-brow, eccentric multi-millionaire publisher, a Malcolm Forbes–type, who gets into a motorcycle accident that paralyzes him from the waist down and forces him to run his empire from his Manhattan penthouse bedroom with the help of a Rosie Perez–type live-in nurse."
Sounds like a cross between "Rear Window" and "The Upside." What would that even be like? Well, thanks in part to then-Paramount TV President John Pike, we'll never know.
'I think a sitcom should be funny'
You might think that Kelsey Grammer's paralyzed millionaire show surely couldn't have been as miserable as it sounds. But judging by the "Frasier" star's comments to Variety, it really was a dour affair. Not only did the actor and his writing cohorts create the idea for this bizarre "Rear Window" sitcom, they actually wrote a script, which was summarily dismissed by the then-head of Paramount TV. As Grammer put it:
"John Pike, Paramount TV's president, read the script and invited me to dinner. After our first cocktail, he looked at me and said, 'Kelsey, I think a sitcom should be funny.'"
Not only do we have Pike to thank for killing the apparently unfunny sitcom before it could get off the ground, we should also be praising him for giving us more Frasier. According to the Variety piece, it was Pike who told Grammer "that he should simply keep playing Frasier," which turned out to be a stroke of genius. In much the same way as we only have "Dancing in the Dark" because Jon Landau convinced Bruce Springsteen to write a hit single for his album, it seems this is one example of when studio intervention actually works in a project's favor.
Still, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't part of me that wonders what a Kelsey Grammer and Rosie Perez-starring sitcom about a paralyzed man stuck inside the whole time would be like. We do know that when it came time to make "Frasier," Grammer was hesitant to cast Jane Leeves as Daphne, the live-in housekeeper. Perhaps he was still wondering how he'd play off a "Perez-type."