Frasier Crane was scheduled to appear in a few episodes of Cheers… and that was it. Yet here we are, almost 40 years later, and we’re still talking about their adventures. Are you surprised?
Yes, it’s amazing that we’re still talking about it. If I’m not mistaken, we were originally supposed to see her in about seven episodes of Cheers. The first two were fairly similar to my camera test. They told me, “If these two go well and we see the character works, we’ll do the other five.” In the middle of that time period, probably around episode six, they came back and asked me to continue. When I asked them to be another character in the next season, they readily agreed.
Doing something like Frasier (2023) was, in part, like starting over: he couldn’t rely on his chemistry with the series’ other stars, who were mostly uninvolved. Was it an embarrassing prospect? arousing? both of them?
We always wanted to bring in old actors, but at the same time there were also new signings. Unfortunately, we could not reach an agreement with the old actors. I wanted to see this as an opportunity to make a series that had its own identity, where Frasier had the only thing in common with what we’d seen before and saw him surrounded by interesting people.
Even though we can’t see him in person on screen, Martin Crane [John Mahoney]Frasier’s father, is a constant presence, and it’s very emotional.
John Mahoney has been a constant reference and we have done our best to pay tribute. The name of the child shown is John. The pub is called Mahoney’s and was opened in 1940, the year John was born. So it’s there.
Some brief returns have been possible: we’ve seen Bebe Neuwirth as Lilith, Frasier’s ex-wife, and we’ll see Perry Gilpin as Rose, his famous producer. Was it easy to go back to the old tunes with her?
I see Perry almost every year at Christmas. So it was fun to do a Christmas episode and open the door for Perry [riu]. It’s something I was going to do anyway, so why not film it? It was as simple as sitting two old friends together and letting them live together again. I would like to find a way to be present in the series; We can see her, if not in every episode, at least in a fair number.
Now that Frasier is back in Boston, what are the chances of seeing any of the Cheers characters return?
It wouldn’t be so bad. If we find a story that we think is appropriate, and that’s not just an excuse to put someone on Cheers, we’ll be very open to that. I can imagine a visit from Shelley Long’s character, Diane, who breaks his heart. Maybe Fraser can turn the page on that.
I don’t know whether in the period between the old Fraser and the new he surprised himself with the question, “What would Frasier think of this?” About changes in culture and society, about new musical styles, about Twitter, about everything.
I’m afraid he’s always thought the same way I do [riu]. I believe in change and progress, but it would be necessary to discuss how many things are presented to us as actually progress. Famed playwright and theater director George S. Kaufman has a very good line about this. He went to see a play of his six months after the premiere and left a little note for the actors behind the noisy heads: “Rehearsal tomorrow at eleven o’clock to remove all improvements which have been made to the play since the last article.”
I have a feeling that Frieza could go on for a long time – as long as new things keep happening in the world, he’ll keep getting funny reactions. What are your plans for the number of seasons?
I would like it to continue a little longer. I agree with you that Fraser is a great lens through which to observe what is going on in the world. Without much moral judgment; He’s very critical of some things, like, I don’t know, interpretations in opera, but in most things he’s another one of us.
Wouldn’t you say that this freezer is a little different from the previous one, and that it has been lightened a little?
He’s older and wiser. He’s also kind to himself. But he’s still a tortured man, because it’s funnier that way [riu].
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