Kelsey Grammer revealed how the Frasier revival will honor Kirstie Alley’s Cheers performance.
NBC
As reported by ScreenRant, Frasier star Kelsey Grammer recently revealed how the revival series will honor the late Kirstie Alley’s performance in Cheers. Alley (who passed away last year on December 5th, 2022, after battling cancer) played Rebecca Howe, the manager of Cheers, on seasons six through eleven of the series. While chatting with USA Today, Grammer told the outlet how the upcoming Frasier revival will pay tribute to the late star’s Cheers performance. Though Alley never appeared on the Cheers spinoff, Grammer noted that the late star’s spirit would be honored on the new show.
He said, “When Kirstie died, I was pretty upset about it because I really loved her. She was a magnificent person (and gave) a wonderful performance in ‘Cheers.’ She was remarkable – I mean, the stuff she could pull off. So I did say to the writers of this incarnation of ‘Frasier,’ I said, ‘If we find a character that can do what Kirstie Alley did in ‘Cheers,’ we will be a very lucky group of people.’ So it is in the back of our minds.”
RELATED: Kelsey Grammer Explains Why Frasier Revival Heads Back to Boston
Kelsey Grammer Said Kirstie Alley’s Performance on Cheers “Lit up the Room”
NBC
Grammer also recalled Alley’s (who first appeared on season six, replacing original cast member Shelley Long) time on the series. He said, “They brought in this new girl, Kirstie, and she lit up the room. There was one ‘Cheers’ episode (in Season 11) where Frasier and Rebecca ended up in bed together, which was really funny. I just adored her.”
Grammer went on to speak about Frasier, with the actor noting that near the series’ end, there had been “a brief discussion” about doing an additional season or two, however partially due to contract issues with the writers, “everyone had decided it was time to roll ‘Frasier’ over and we were done with it. And I said, ‘OK, great, that’s fine.’ It’s all I ever wanted – 11 seasons was a perfect number, because ‘Cheers’ had 11 seasons. That’s where that came from.”
Still, with plenty of classic series finding new life in reboots, Grammer said the current trend “made me think, ‘Well, maybe ‘Frasier’ does have another television (life).’ There’s always room for funny and ‘Frasier’ is funny.”
The Frasier revival will see the title character returning to Boston, where Cheers was set. Though Grammer is returning, other original cast members like David Hyde Pierce (who played Frasier’s brother Niles) won’t come back for the new series. However, fans of the show will be introduced to new characters like Frasier’s old college friend Alan Cornwall (played by English actor Nicholas Lyndhurst).
Grammer noted that on the original series Frasier “never really had a great friend that we know about, so we’re exploring that in this incarnation.” He continued, “His chief relationship was really with his brother in the previous show, and Niles is not going to be part of it. So I’m very excited about the idea that he actually has an equal: a person who’s his pal.”
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