Since the show is enjoying a resurgence lately, I thought it’d be fun to look at how different it could have been.

>Kelsey Grammer didn’t initially want to play Frasier again and favored a pitch about a reclusive paraplegic millionaire and his street-smart live-in nurse played by Rosie Perez. Paramount insisted on a Frasier spinoff, but the producers repurposed the pitch for the characters of Martin and Daphne.

>The original pitch was set in Boston and focused on Frasier, his wife Lilith and their son Freddy. When Bebe Neuwirth, who played Lilith, declined a series commitment, the producers switched focus to Frasier’s career. Since there was already a popular sitcom about a private practice psychiatrist at the time, they envisioned a workplace comedy about Frasier starting a new career as a radio psychiatrist, based on a dropped plotline from Cheers. But there was also already a popular sitcom set at a radio station, so they downplayed that aspect in favor of Frasier reconnecting with his estranged father who never understood him, retconning the Cheers episode where Frasier claimed his father was a dead scientist.

>Grammer’s demands to accept starring in the spinoff were that Frasier didn’t get married again, that the show did not feature a kid character, and that Frasier move to a different town to avoid constant comparisons and callbacks to Cheers. Grammer said that he barely considers the Frasier from Cheers and the Frasier from his own show the same character given how different they are.

>Despite Frasier in Cheers claiming to be an only child, the producers decided to give him a sibling and initially considered a more accomplished older sister before a casting director recommended David Hyde Pierce due to his resemblance to Grammer, leading producers to repurpose the character as Frasier’s neurotic younger brother Niles.

>John Mahoney agreed to play Frasier’s father Martin in order to have the necessary steady income to devote his spare time and resources to theater. He also hated the first dog to play Martin’s dog Eddie, as it would often bite him when they had scenes together.

>Grammer wanted Rosie Perez to play Daphne as a street-smart Latina, while Paramount wanted the character to be an oddball working-class Brit, something Grammer was against as he felt it was similar to a sitcom he disliked. He only changed his mind after a chemistry read with Jane Leeves.

>Lisa Kudrow was originally cast as Frasier’s producer Roz, envisioned as a cheerful and upbeat. The producers ultimately decided Roz should be edgier and more assertive, and replaced Kudrow with runner-up Peri Gilpin.

>Grammer did not like to rehearse his scenes, claiming he had nine years of it playing Frasier on Cheers, and while the regular cast adjusted well to his method, several guest stars struggled with his refusal to run their scenes with them beforehand.

>Radio station manager Kate Costas, played by Mercedes Ruehl, was envisioned as a potential recurring character and love interest to Frasier, but Ruehl and Grammer didn’t get along, so she was written out after one season.

>Station manager Kenny Daly, played by Tom McGowan, was originally meant to appear only in a couple of episodes, but was so well received he became a recurring character up until the final season.

>Niles’s wife Maris was not meant to be an unseen character, but the writers created so many outlandish physical descriptions of her that they felt no actress would live up to them. Julia Duffy and Valerie Mahaffey were considered beforehand.

>Kirstie Alley was the only regular cast member of Cheers never to appear in the show. Word is she didn’t get along with Grammer and allegedly informed producers she would not guest star as she was a Scientologist and didn’t believe in psychiatry, only for them to retort they had no intention to ask her to.

>Roz became pregnant in season 5 because Paramount demanded she face some kind of consequence for her constant sexual escapades. The writers didn’t want to add babies to the show otherwise, and even wrote off Jane Leeves’ first IRL pregnancy as Daphne developing an eating disorder. They only wrote in her second pregnancy because it was the final season and they felt appropriate Niles and Daphne would have a baby.

>There were serious talks about Frasier and Roz ending up together, with them having sex in season 9 and Roz becoming jealous of Frasier’s relationship with her rival Julia Wilcox in season 10, but the writers ultimately decided they worked better as friends and nixed the idea.

>In addition to Roz, the writers also considered Lilith and Julia as Frasier’s final love interests in season 11, but ultimately decided Frasier getting back together with Lilith was regressive, while Julia was not popular enough with fans due to her abrasive personality and mistreatment of Roz. They ultimately decided to pair Frasier with a new character, Charlotte, played by Laura Linney.

based thread

Fun thread, thanks for posting

>>212451017
>He also hated the first dog to play Martin’s dog Eddie, as it would often bite him when they had scenes together.

Top 10 anime betrayals.

>>212450995 (OP)
Shit’s boring. Watch Cheers instead.

I enjoyed these

>>212450995 (OP)
>Since the show is enjoying a resurgence lately
Didn't the reboot flop hard

>>212450995 (OP)
Oh Christ - a wisecracking, lisping, latina maid - I'm glad he lost that one. Must have been during his coke-and-hookers phase.

>>212450995 (OP)
>Frasier claimed his father was a dead scientist.

>Despite Frasier in Cheers claiming to be an only child

Tbh this sounds like something Frasier the character would lie about.
He was embarrassed of his blue collar cop dad and comparisons with his more accomplished psychiatrist brother.

>>212453339
Niles wasn't particularly more accomplished than Frasier, though.

>>212451940
there were multiple dogs? what the fuck?

>>212453433
I distinctly remember that Niles rubbed it in Frasier's face that he was more published in scientific journals than he was, and he constantly made fun of Frasier's gig as a radio shrink as something quaint and unserious

>>212453119
Was the ditzy english maid who had psychic powers really any better?

>>212453510
That was after hitting rock bottom throughout his tenure on Cheers though, S3-5 Frasier wouldn't have had anything to be embarrassed about compared to Niles outside of Diane.

>>212453100
It did but that made people go back to the original to wash the dirty taste it left behind.

>>212451017
Everything happened perfectly

>>212453572
Maybe Maris was like a 10/10 compared to Lilith.

>David (Niles and Daphne's son) was named in memory of co-creator and producer of the original show, David Angell. David and his wife were killed in the first of two planes to hit the World Trade Centre during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
bruh

>>212453751
Lilith was hot as shit, no matter how hard they pretended she was creepy with the bun up.

>>212453751
Maris is supposed to be an unironic ghoul.

>>212451017
Good riddance, I hate Kate Costas. Too bad Kenny Daly didn't get written out too. I like the one where Frasier accidentally has an affair with his wife, but that's the only one.

>>212455199
Kenny was nice.

>>212455199
What's wrong with Kenny?

>>212453539
>Was the ditzy english maid who had psychic powers really any better?
Yes she was actually. Frasier was kind of like a kitchen sink sitcom with elements of workplace comedy, a wisecracking no-nonsense latina maid that steals every scene and constantly throws operatic fits would've tanked the show. It would've been a Dharma and Greg situation.

>>212455199
Kenny was better than the previous bosses which were all about gender comedy.

>David Hyde Pierce (Niles) was contractually forbidden from gaining more than five pounds, as producers believed even slight weight gain would ruin the "delicate neuroticism" of the character.

>Kelsey Grammer insisted that Frasier's apartment be physically built with real marble countertops and functioning plumbing, claiming it helped him "live the character’s pretension."

>Eddie the dog had a stunt double, named Bark Ruffalo, who was used whenever the scene required barking on command—Moose (the main dog) reportedly refused to "bark for laughs."

>>212453539
Yes.

>>212456238
This. It also really fit as a britbong watching the show because we're obsessed with class structure.

>>212450995 (OP)
>>212451017
>>212451047
Of all the close calls, I feel like doing the show without Niles would’ve been the worst.
Scenes with Frasier and Niles having coffee together feel like the true center of the show. Frasier would be a very lonely character without Niles, someone who completely understands.

>

>>212456472
>>Eddie the dog had a stunt double, named Bark Ruffalo, who was used whenever the scene required barking on command—Moose (the main dog) reportedly refused to "bark for laughs."
Was that also the Eddie the bite the cast members constantly? No wonder this Moose bitch wasn't in the reboot

>>212456647
Agreed. I guess that's one reason of many why the reboot hasn't worked. Niles and Frasier have the perfect chemistry, which I guess is also why that Simpsons episode with Bob and Cecil also worked so well.

>>212450995 (OP)
i'm glad things worked out the way they did!

>>212450995 (OP)
>the show is enjoying a resurgence lately
No it fucking isn't. Go dump your chatGPT garbage somewhere else, Patel.

>>212450995 (OP)
Frasier is some of the most high IQ TV out there, truly a gentleman's show

>>212456472
These are the most fake sounding ones

>>212450995 (OP)
so much careful planning and thousands of studio board room meetings, incredible ratings and great critical and public rception, but they give the part of Daphnes brother to an american whose british accent sounds like Dick Van Dyke got hit in the head with a sledgehammer and woke up thinking hes Jonny Rotten

>>212456270
The first boss was the funniest, the gay guy who thinks he's on a date with Frasier when Frasier thinks he brought him home to meet Daphne. But admittedly that only works for one episode until they resolve the misunderstanding.

>>212450995 (OP)
Would Seattle still be the backdrop of a modern-day Frasier remake?

>>212458652
It’s a sitcom you dimwit

This is the one show that is infinitely re-watchable, because of how well it was made. Quality lends itself to, and in fact is, timelessness itself.

>>212459566
And unbelievably he won an award for that performance.

>>212458652
>>212459890
kek, I remember a coworker telling me to watch Big Bang Theory because it was highbrow, intellectual humour.

>why would you watch an old show?
there are people who watch I Love Lucy for the same reason

>>212459566
>>212459979
The bad accent was part of the joke. Daphne's accent was bad too.

>>212455140
Wrong. Maris is supposed to be attractive, from a distance. Like the sun. Only without the warmth.

>>212460048
The best joke in the entire show was in the first episode. Well, now we know how it got picked up for an entire decade.