Whenever a beloved show like “Frasier” is revived, it’s easy to anticipate skepticism from the original iteration’s diehard fans, given the challenges of living up to its predecessor with new characters and storylines.
But with the first installment of the Paramount+ series under their belts — and the show set to return for Season 2 this week — co-showrunners Joe Cristalli and Chris Harris told TheWrap they’re feeling less pressured and more excited for an “even more fun” and “sometimes convoluted” new set of stories.
“The first season was really about catching us up with Frasier, where he is in life, and establishing the world and introducing these characters to everyone,” Harris explained. ‘In Season 2, we’ve had a lot more fun playing with these characters and showing their interactions with each other. It’s really just deepening the world and a couple things that we held back on in the first season.”
“We didn’t want to do too many returning characters from the original series, because we wanted to make sure that it would stand on its own. We wanted to get some solid stories under our belt before trying a full-on farce in the classic ‘Frasier’ tradition,” he added.
In addition to the return of Peri Gilpin’s Roz Doyle, Season 2 will see Dan Butler and Edward Hibbert reprise their roles as Bulldog and Gil Chesterton, respectively, as well as Harriet Sansom Harris’ Bebe Glazer. Meanwhile, new guest stars in Season 2 include Patricia Heaton, Amy Sedaris, Rachel Bloom, Yvette Nicole Brown and Greer Grammer.
“It’s like a cheat code, because when you bring a guest star in, you have to explain who the guest star is in the first act. But these characters are all so well defined and ingrained in people’s minds,” Cristalli said. “You don’t have to introduce Bulldog, you don’t have to introduce Gil or Bebe, they’re all fantastic already. So it’s just finding something fun for them to play that maybe you haven’t seen before. We’ve been very lucky to have insanely talented guest stars this season who are just a pleasure to write for.”
Butler and Hibbert will appear in an episode where Frasier returns to Seattle and KACL.
“He’s going back for an anniversary show. KACL could use a boost in the ratings because its radio, and it’s maybe not on the best footing right now. So we get to do a story where Frasier gets to go back and show Freddy his glory days, even though maybe he doesn’t need to live in the past anymore,” Cristalli said. “It’s fun to see him back in those sets in the radio station and Cafe Nervosa and McGinty’s and just getting to reminisce with his son, who’s now an adult and getting to be by his dad for all these things he used to do. It was very fun and very surreal.”
In addition to Season 2 bringing back familiar faces, the Paramount+ revival will also honor the original sitcom’s tradition of using the farce comedy style.
“We do two or three farces this year. So those are extremely hard to shoot because it’s all timing and it’s all choreography, but they were executed pretty flawlessly. My personal favorite moment is we do a murder-mystery party episode, with everyone in full murder mystery-themed clothing and a big scene where we find out the murderer,” Harris said. “I don’t know that I’ve ever laughed that hard. Watching the actors and the direction of all of it was just very fun and I’m excited for people to see that one.”
Kelsey Grammer told TheWrap that the use of “highly-stylized” farce comedy always seemed like a “natural” fit for Frasier.
“He’s so highfalutin, that’s where he lives anyway. The situations were set up in a way that the absurd would make sense and that kind of comedy was justified by how much those people cared about it,” he explained. “We’re in the same situation now. Frasier is still a high end nutcase, so you can elevate the comedy to that outright farce or even just slapstick in some cases and it’s justified. If you don’t earn it, it’s never going to be funny. But you earn it with those people.”
At the same time, audiences can expect the relationship between Frasier and his son Freddy to remain the bedrock of Season 2.
“He’s got more of an edge to him, his sense of humor is coming to the forefront more this season, whereas I feel like in season one, it was a lot more about that conflict and resentment with his dad. Now we still have that conflict, but it’s more fun, there’s a lighter tone to it,” Jack-Cuttmore-Scott told TheWrap when asked about Freddy in Season 2. “We’ve got that basis now that they’re back together, they’ve been reunited, they have that confidence in their relationship. It’s solidified a bit. But of course, they’re still going to drive each other crazy and go toe to toe all the time, butting heads constantly. So we get to have all of that fun while knowing that they love each other and this is a solid relationship.”
“Obviously they started at an impasse and there were walls between them. And over that first season, you started to see the ice melts a little bit,” Harris added. “In this season, they’re in a much better place. And one of the fun threads that we’ve realized, almost without intending to, is a little bit of a runner about how now that Freddie is a little more comfortable with his dad, maybe they share more similarities than than he thinks they do. Obviously, he’s his grandfather’s grandson in terms of his chosen line of profession and outlook on the world, but he might have more of his dad than he would like to admit.”
New episodes of “Frasier” drop every Thursday on Paramount+.
