Frasier writer clears up decades-old plot hole ahead of new reboot

For years, Frasier fans have wondered how the show’s title character became so wealthy. Now, a writer on the show is setting the record straight.

The hit sitcom, which starred Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane, aired for 11 seasons from 1993 to 2004.

Later this month, a 10-episode revival will see Grammer reprise his role as the titular therapist as he returns to Boston, where his son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) has just started college.

Ahead of the forthcoming reboot, writer and executive producer Joe Keenan has shed some light on the original show’s enduring mysteries.

Across the programme’s original run, viewers grew accustomed to seeing Frasier’s lavish lifestyle, which included incredibly expensive bottles of sherry and endless designer suits, prompting raised eyebrows from fans questioning how the character could afford these luxuries.

Frasier works for a radio station, KACL, as the host of his own psychotherapeutic radio show titled The Dr Frasier Crane Snow.

In an interview with Metro.co.uk to commemorate the show’s 30-year anniversary, writer and executive producer Keenan addressed the debate, stating: “The question has come up.”

Keenan explained: “We think Frasier made a lot of money in private practice in Boston, and he has investments.”

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The writer did, however, admit that they perhaps overestimated how much a radio presenter would be paid for his work.

“What we imagined to be the salary of a local radio personality was perhaps a little bit inflated,” he told the publication.

Keenan went on to compare Frasier’s apartment to that of his brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce).

“When you looked at Niles and his house with Maris, this baronial mansion that Niles lived in, Frasier’s apartment didn’t seem all that,” he said.

Keenan went on to defend the size of Frasier’s apartment, stating: “In addition to it, we’ve lived on that set, and it wasn’t that big when you actually stepped onto [it]. You were surprised at how much smaller it was to navigate than it looked on camera, and how narrow some of the passages were.

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“His dining room only seated four people. That apartment, without that view [of the Seattle Space Needle], would not seem that astonishing. It was the view that made it seem fabulous.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Keenan addressed the character’s famous charm with women, explaining that his “insane flirtiness” was used as a shortcut for storytelling so that he would meet new people quicker.

“You’ve got 20-22 minutes to tell the stories so you find yourself cutting a lot of corners with meet cutes, and people seeing somebody at a party and immediately going up [to them],” he said.

Keenan continued: “If there’s something that we always laughed at in the room, it’s how rapidly women are charmed by Frasier, who wouldn’t be charmed in real life by the corny, flirtatious things he’ll say and the compliments he’ll say.

“That whole highfalutin, chivalrous thing he’ll play when he’s trying to get a woman interested, I don’t know if people would be offended by that as much as they find it ham fisted.”

The reboot of Frasier is scheduled to premiere its first two episodes on Paramount+ in the UK on 13 October, followed by a weekly release of new episodes every Thursday.

CBS will later broadcast the first two episodes on 17 October.

Speaking about the reboot in a June interview with The Independent, Grammer opined that “it may be funnier than the original”.

“Frasier’s going to explore a true friendship, which we never had him do before,” Grammer explained. “David Hyde Pierce as Niles was his go-to – that is not available now. So the idea of a great friend became really appealing and new to Frasier. That’s a brand new world for him.