HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — When Paramount+’s “Frasier” revival debuted in 2023, producers said relocating the show’s setting from Seattle to Boston was necessary because Seattle without the original show’s characters would feel empty and because Frasier’s son lives in Boston. But producers didn’t rule out a return visit to Seattle, which will occur in the Oct. 31 episode.
Airing as the eighth episode of the second season of the “Frasier” sequel series, Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) returns to Seattle to help Roz (recurring guest star Peri Gilpin), now the general manager of KACL-AM, organize a station tribute special, leading to appearances by Bulldog (Dan Butler) and Gil (Edward Hibbert) on reconstructed sets from the original “Frasier.”
“Frasier” executive producer Chris Harris attributed the idea for the episode to series star Grammer.
“Kelsey felt like (Frasier) had some unfinished business there,” Harris said during a visit to the show’s set on Stage 18 at Paramount Pictures as part of the Television Critics Association summer 2024 press tour. “It kind of feels like (Frasier) romanticized Seattle in his head, but obviously, it’s just not the same place. … Finding an organic reason to go to Seattle — helping Roz organize a KACL tribute special — was helpful. And then seeing all those friendly faces and seeing Café Nervosa and seeing McGinty’s was just fun.”
Grammer said the return to Seattle idea came to him as a way to give Roz closure in Seattle and get her moved to the East Coast, where her daughter is in college.
“Let’s take the actual show to Seattle and have that be the jumping-off place for saying to Roz, ‘You can’t go home again. It’s time to leave Seattle for you,’ ” said Grammer, who also directed the return-to-Seattle episode. “So that’s the real thrust of the piece, to get Roz on the East Coast.”
Grammer said cast and crew who worked on the previous iteration of the show were particularly moved by seeing the sets from the original “Frasier” again, even if he was not initially.
“People that were in the show before, some of the camera people and some of the tech people, support staff, they said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s so emotional to walk by that old set.’ Of course, it wasn’t the old set. It was a replica that we had to rebuild. But I said, ‘Well, it’s just a set.’ Nothing was really happening for me, but when we performed it and I sat down in that (radio studio host’s) chair … ,” Grammer said, his voice trailing off, overwhelmed with emotion.
Gilpin found the placement of the KACL set disorienting because it was different on the soundstage. As a one-episode “swing” set for the sequel series, it was off to the side of the stage.
“Things get ingrained in your head, but for this the radio station was not facing the audience,” Gilpin said. “When we walked on the stage and saw it, we were just all, like — I don’t even know how to describe the feeling. It’s indescribable. It was just unbelievable. When do you get that in your life, to revisit something and especially with your buddies, right?”
Harris notes that the draw of half-hour comedies is the relationships viewers develop with the characters and their appreciation of the “family” that develops within a show. He said it’s the reason sitcoms rerun so well, even on streaming.
“One of the amazing things about getting to continue the story of Frasier Crane is that we have such a world to draw from, both in Seattle and from Boston,” Harris said. “We are excited to, as we go through the seasons, bring in more people from the past, bring in more people and catch up with some of the other people that are legendary and that (viewers) have known for decades.”
In addition to revisiting “Frasier” characters this season — Harriet Sansom Harris returned in a recent episode as Frasier’s agent, Bebe Glazer — Grammer would like to bring in characters from “Cheers,” where the Frasier character originated.
“I have always nursed a longing for doing a show with Shelley Long to have closure with Diane in some strange way, to just sort it through and be thankful to one another that we knew each other,” Grammer said. “I’d love to see that happen. We have a couple of ideas about maybe a Ted (Danson as Sam Malone) show. We have to sort that out with him, of course, if we can do it. There’s a world of this character’s past that needs to be put to rest, which I think actually helps to fortify the reason why he’s in Boston.”
