Actor Kelsey Grammer has revealed why David Hyde Pierce will not be returning as Niles Crane in the upcoming Frasiersequel series. Grammer, who will be reprising his role as titular character Frasier Crane, has explained the series will tell a different story about the radio psychiatrist. In a recent interview with People, Grammer revealed that Hyde Pierce would not be returning to the series after a successful career in other acting ventures. “David basically decided he wasn’t really interested in repeating the performance of Niles,” Grammer said.
This comes after years of the producers going back and forth about who would be returning to the comedy series. “For a while, we were going to try to bring back the whole cast, the whole legacy cast,” he said, referring to Hyde Pierce as well as Peri Gilpin (who played Roz Doyle), Jane Leeves (Daphne Moon), and the late John Mahoney (Martin Crane), who passed away in 2018. After filming Frasier, Hyde Pierce switched to a thriving career in the theatre before most recently starring in the HBO series Julia (2022), playing opposite Sarah Lancashire (Julia Child) as her onscreen husband, Paul Child.
Grammer’s comment matches with what Hyde Pierce previously told Vulture about the possibility of returning as Niles Crane. “That whole time of my life, the writing on those shows, the actors I got to work with—all of that is deeply important to me. And I would never disrespect that in such a way as to say just offhandedly, ‘Oh, no, thanks. I’m not going to do that again.’ It’s too valuable to me,” Hyde Pierce said of his time on the sitcom. However, he added that because it is so valuable to him, he “wouldn’t do it just to do it.” Hyde Pierce went on to explain that he believed the show could be “done without [him]”, comparing to Frasier’s success after Cheers, where the cast only returned for single episodes. “...there was something else that needed to be said, and it needed to be said in a different way. And maybe they will find that, and I’ll be in it, or maybe they’ll find it, and they won’t need me to be in it.”
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Grammer has revealed he thinks the casting development has worked out for the best. “In a very funny way, it just took us to a new place, which was what we originally wanted to do anyway, which was a Frasier third act,” Grammer told People. “It’s an entirely new life for him.” The revival series, the details of which have been kept tightly under wraps so far, will see Frasier Crane in a new city with new characters. “He’s our brave little soldier that continues on in life, finding new challenges and a new love and new people and a new city and stuff like that,” Grammer revealed, adding that he is “really very excited about it.” The series will also pay homage to Mahoney, who played Frasier’s father in the original series. “We’ll certainly always honor the past. We have to honor the fact that John Mahoney died and that Martin is no longer with us. We’ll be dealing with that for sure.” As for the absence of key characters Niles, Roz, and Daphne, the show will acknowledge their importance in Frasier’s life but will not be the focus. “We’ll certainly be responsive about the fact that there was a brother and such. But the new world for Frasier is one of new friendships—and some new twists and turns he didn’t know were still in there.”
Frasier follows the story of American psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Grammer) who hosts a radio talk show in Seattle, as well as his interactions with his uptight brother and blue-collar father. Premiering September 16, 1993, the series was a spin-off of the sitcom Cheers. The show ran for eleven seasons, winning a total of thirty-seven Emmys, with Grammer winning four Emmys, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role as the titular character. Rehearsals for the new season will start in February, 2023, with Grammar admitting that they’ve “been working on it honestly for about six or seven years.” No release date for the new sitcom has been announced yet.
All eleven seasons of Frasier are currently streaming on Peacock. In the meantime, check out a scene from Frasier below:
