#Nicholas Lyndhurst

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[oldshowbiz]

British television icon Nicholas Lyndhurst

[teratomat]

The thing about me is, I... I've always wanted to fit in somewhere, you know?

[24-karat-plonker]

The SWAG

[sleepydreameroncloud9]

[dannyreviews]

Frasier (1993 and 2023)

The 1990s was probably the last great era for the American Sitcom and the majority of television viewers would probably pick "Seinfeld" as their favorite. As much as I love "Seinfeld" and its brand of famous gags, one liners and character quips, "Frasier" is in a class of its own above. For 11 seasons, Frasier maintained its Moliere/Alan Ayckbourn wit and farce without missing a beat. Nearly 20 years after the perfectly written series finale, "Frasier" has been rebooted and things have changed, some for the better and the rest for the worst. Here is the rundown about what made the original series a classic and the reboot (so far) a shadow of its former self.

TV Spinoffs are usually a hit or miss affair. The hits like "Laverne and Shirley" and "The Jeffersons" managed to remove themselves from their origin and create their own brand of humor. Others like "After MASH" and "Phyllis" were tedious affairs that forgot their roots and sailed into the sunset of mediocrity. And then you have "Frasier" which took the spinoff to brand new heights. Having already been an established supporting character in another massively successful series "Cheers", Frasier Crane was engrained in the collective consciousness of the prime time audience, so that was one notch in watching the pilot of the original "Frasier". The first thing was to reinvent Frasier as a radio psychiatrist which becomes the foundation for jokes about the human mind. But then you add supporting characters that are so multi-dimensional that they have to compete with the title character for the most laughs. That came in the form of David Hyde Pierce as Frasier's equally pompous psychiatrist brother Niles and John Mahoney as their blue collar, retired, disabled policeman father Martin. Watching the difference between tasting wine and singing Gilbert and Sullivan operettas to drinking beer and watching the ballgame on TV and you have a dynamic that is another foundation of excellent writing. At the same time, there's Peri Gilpin as Frasier's producer Roz who beds every man (single or married) in town and Jane Leeves as Daphne, Martin's in-house nurse and Niles' crush. When you have several running gags all synchronized in 11 amazing seasons that never jumped the shark, the possibilities are endless. Even recurring jokes like the rivalry between the Crane brothers, the elusive identity of Niles' wife Maris, or the random actions of Martin's dog Eddie, were add ons to an already colorful mosaic of wit and wisdom. Like the Sistine Chapel, or Bach's Goldberg Variations, Frasier is several fine tuned sequences that make up a Leviathan of a presentation. What can possibly go wrong?

The reboot of "Frasier" in hindsight should never have happened because in the series finale, the viewer wanted Frasier to have a happy ending and fine true love with his last girlfriend Charlotte. That hope goes out the window and instead what we get is another chapter in our titular character's hapless life when he becomes a lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard. In the original pilot, we got to know each character's strengths and flaws in only 22 minutes. With the reboot, it takes 2 episodes just to establish each character's back story. Now that Martin is dead and Niles & Daphne are MIA, the majority of the new characters are generic, paint by numbers creations. Frasier's son Frederick (Jack Cutmore-Scott) is blue collar like his grandfather and the deja vu dynamic is not played up for laughs. You have a storyline written in about Frederick's roommate Eve (Jess Salguero) that gets too convoluted and ends up like a subplot in a cheesy soap opera. Most unforgivably, there's Niles and Daphne's son David (Anders Keith) who is supposed to be an amalgam of his parents, but instead of having headstrong principles and acerbic banter, he's just obnoxiously atrocious. This isn't the offspring of a fascinating couple, it's a clone of Screech from "Saved By The Bell". The only thing that somewhat works and has any relevance to the original series is Frasier's scenes with his new colleagues at Harvard which includes his old college friend Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and department head Olivia (Toks Olagundoye). Alan is the new Niles in how he and Frasier exchange intellectual topics and if you can close your eyes, you'd think it was the Crane Brothers. Olivia is tolerable only when she's in the same room as Alan. Otherwise, her scenes with Frasier border on cringeworthy, which goes against the original formula of all the characters mingling with indefinite punchlines. Finally, Kelsey Grammer is at the helm of a rocky boat trying to steer it through choppy waves. He hasn't lost any of his charm but he can only do so much with what's written in the script.

Only three episodes of the reboot have aired as of now (10/22/2023), and the show has a lot to live up to its source material. Roz and Frasier's ex wife Lilith are supposed to make appearances in future episodes. What will they bring to the table and will it rival the classic episodes? I'm not holding my breath, but do hope that the show improves itself.

Original: 10/10

Reboot: 6/10

[bluemoonperegrine]

Bebe's back!

"The Squash Courtship of Freddy's Father" really was the best episode yet.

Overall the Frasier return has been hit or miss. Out of all of the characters I like Alan, Frasier's long-time friend and fellow snobby Harvard professor, the best. He has the right ratio of differences and similarities to Frasier to be a good foil and an entertaining character overall. The writers gave him more depth this season, too.

Frasier's son Freddy is kinda-sorta in the Marty role. It works sometimes. Freddy's BFF Eve is the working-class character featured most often. She's okay. No shade on Eve.

Niles's and Daphne's son Daniel was supposed to be the new Niles. It didn't work AT ALL in season one. The writers seem to be trying to retool him in s2.

David is less annoying now, at least.

I wish David Hyde Pierce would return. AFAIK he has no interest. Oh well.

I keep watching for the nostalgia, Alan, and analyzing the show in general. Watching the ongoing experiment is interesting.

[isakglaser]

Frasier 2023 Season 2

The New Frasier is still rough, but finding it's way. I hope it gets renewed, I think they're on their way to finding something. I liked having appointment sitcom viewing again, and will miss it now that it's gone again. The second season I think sharpened up a great deal.

Two things will remain very funny to me about the Alan character:

Similarly to how Niles was never mentioned in the 200-odd episodes of television Frasier had appeared in before his show, Alan was not mentioned in the 400-odd episodes of television prior to appearing in the new Frasier. That's pure sitcom, baby.

It is so incredibly funny that they got a ringer for this role. Bringing in Rodney from Fools and Horses to your Frasier reboot is like if they had brought on Mr. Spock as a companion in the 2005 Doctor Who revival. Just an incredible piece of casting, that.

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[mysharona1987]

When Paramount Plus offering the entire episode of Frasier S2E1 free on YouTube as a way to induce new subscribers:

Nicholas Lyndhurst is great, as usual. And the dudes playing Freddie and David are certainly not unpleasant to look at.

Honestly the best I can say about this reboot.

[merverb]

From top, left to right: Nicholas Lyndhurst, director James Burrows, Anders Keith, Jess Salgueiro, Kelsey Grammer, Jack Cutmore-Scott and Toks Olagundoye on the set of “Frasier.” (Chris Haston/Paramount+) source: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/kelsey-grammer-frasier-reboot-more-seasons-1235805080/

[teratomat]

It's strawberries and cream, how difficult can it be?

[24-karat-plonker]

This iconic moment of Del imitating Rodney

@citrus-selfships it's your guy☺️

[sleepydreameroncloud9]

[may-moth]

He's everywhere...

[ladyofdecember]

Oh man, I love Alan's character! Super lazy and apathetic about his job, hates people and prefers to be alone, heavy drinker AND

He brings his cat with him to work secretly 😂