TV Talk: ‘Frasier’ revived; James Burrows on Pittsburgh-set ‘Back to You’

While some TV reboots exist for creative reasons, others are merely a cash grab.

Paramount+’s “Frasier” sequel is primarily a cash grab, but also manages to wring some additional humor out of familiar situations and relationships even though Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) is the only returning series regular character from the 1993-2004 NBC sitcom — which itself was a spin-off of “Cheers.”

Frasier’s now-adult son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott, evincing no hint of his native British accent), has a personality closer to Frasier’s late father, Martin (the late John Mahoney), than to Frasier, with the occasional hint of his mother Lillith’s (Bebe Neuwirth, back as a guest star in one episode) sardonic wit. The show is able to play the aesthete vs. blue collar theme again this time with the father as the snob and the son as the salt-of-the-earth character.

Then there’s Frasier’s nephew, David (Anders Keith), who shares persnickety personality traits with his father, Niles (David Hyde-Pierce, who does not return in this new season).

Repeating character archetypes from the original “Frasier” certainly make this follow-up comfortable. But unlike the original “Frasier,” which tonally was completely different and fresh compared to “Cheers,” this spin-off lacks much in the way of originality.

For viewers, that’s probably OK in the short-term: They’re getting a “Frasier” that feels warm and familiar. But will that lack of newness prove limiting over the longer term?

The new “Frasier,” now streaming its first two episode on Paramount+ (those episodes will also air back-to-back on CBS at 9:15 p.m. Oct. 17), begins by essentially undoing much of the original show’s finale where Frasier moved to Chicago to be with Charlotte (Laura Linney, also not returning). In that finale, Frasier also lined up a new job as a TV show host. The new “Frasier” dispatches with that relationship and career in a couple of lines of dialogue and lets viewers know that Martin recently died back in Seattle.

The new Frasier is set in Boston, the home of “Cheers,” where Freddy lives and David is a student at Harvard in a class taught by Frasier’s old Oxford chum, Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst), who is often at odds with his department chair, Olivia (Toks Olangundoye, “The Neighbors”). Olivia’s barbed quips give off Roz vibes (Peri Gilpin, who guest stars in one episode), another example of showrunners/writers Chris Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”) and Joe Cristalli (“Life in Pieces”) delivering comfort comedy for returning “Frasier” viewers.

In a Zoom interview last week, Harris said the writers didn’t approach the new “Frasier” seeking out “replacement characters” for the original show’s cast.

“Freddy couldn’t just be Martin again, because that would be boring,” Cristalli said. “He’s got that blue collar work ethic, he’s grounded, he doesn’t deal with his dad’s highfalutin ways but also he’s Ivy League-educated, so when Frasier jabs him, Freddy can stay on his level intellectually in a way that Martin never could.”

The premiere and second episode, directed by veteran “Frasier” director James Burrows, introduces the new characters while reestablishing familiar relationship beats and a farcical tone that is classic “Frasier.”

Early episodes lean heavily into the similarities between Frasier’s son and Frasier’s late father and there are some great gags, particularly involving Frasier’s new dining room table as selected by Freddy.

Through the first five episodes, the new “Frasier” proves adept at the classic sitcom form and it’s certainly funnier than many of the CBS comedies viewers have seen in recent years.

One episode fills viewers in on Frasier’s TV show, “Dr. Crane,” which devolved from serious to an over-the-top extravaganza that he’s now embarrassed about, particularly the time he “hawked a moisturizer with the tag line, ‘I’m glistening,’” a play on his old “I’m listening” catchphrase from his radio show.

With Frasier back in Boston, why doesn’t he visit Cheers? The practical reason, of course, is they’d have to convince some of the “Cheers” cast to return and rebuild the set. Until that happens, it will always seem odd that Frasier doesn’t return to his old stomping ground.

“We have at least one story that we love that we’d love to bring back someone from ‘Cheers’ for and absolutely at some point or another Kelsey has got to walk through those doors,” Harris said of possibilities for potential future seasons. “Whether its Cheers or [it’s now a] Sunglass Hut or something else we … couldn’t be more excited for that moment.”

Burrows on ‘Back to You’

Acclaimed sitcom director James Burrows (“Will Grace,” “Friends,” “Frasier”), 82, said Grammer had no difficulty getting back into character as Frasier.

“It was like putting on an old shoe, a shoe so old the laces were gone,” Burrows joked in a Zoom interview last month. “Kelsey looks the same in the show as he did 40 years ago – a little older in the jowls – but it was not difficult [for him] at all.”

Since “Frasier” ended in 2004, Grammer and Burrows worked together on the one-season-and-done 2007-08 Pittsburgh-set Fox sitcom “Back to You” where Grammer and Patricia Heaton (“The Middle”) played Pittsburgh news anchors.

Burrows accepts the general theory that “Back to You” was more of a CBS show at heart and on the wrong network but he also suggests the series didn’t entirely work.

“It was okay. It was missing the sparkle in it that you needed. And I think it was possibly because it was set in Pittsburgh,” Burrows said, jokingly. “No, I love you. I love your Steelers. I’m not so fond of the Pirates but I love the Steelers and my oldest friend is from Pittsburgh.”

Channel surfing

A corrupt digital file resulted in distorted audio and video for “Professor T” on WQED-TV Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. The episode will be rebroadcast in its entirety at 6 p.m. Oct. 15 on WQED. … The upcoming third season of Netflix’s “Vikings: Valhalla,” to debut in 2024, will be the show’s final season. … The 2002-09 USA Network series “Monk” gets a new movie, “Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie,” premiering Dec. 8 on Peacock. … The final season of Netflix’s “The Crown” will be split into two parts debuting Nov. 16 and Dec. 14.