Frasier Stars, EPs Talk Season 2’s Return to Seattle, the Moment That Got Kelsey Grammer Emotional
Frasier is back in his Seattle radio booth — and yes, he’s listening.
Kelsey Grammer‘s titular shrink went back to his old KACL stomping grounds this week on the Paramount+ revival, accompanied by his producer pal Roz and reuniting with former colleagues Bulldog (Dan Butler) and Gil Chesterton (Edward Hibbert). And for the episode, Frasier recreated the radio set from the original series down to the last microphone cord… even though Grammer himself wasn’t moved to tears by the results.
“Everybody else” was awed by stepping back onto the radio set, Grammer tells TVLine in the video above, but “I was just like, ‘Yeah, it’s a set. What’s the problem?’ So many people coming up going, ‘Oh my God, to see this place again…’ I’m like, ‘It’s not the same place! It’s a set!'” He does admit, though, to getting emotional when he said Frasier’s signature line once again: “When I did sit down in the chair and say, you know, ‘Hello, Seattle. This is Dr. Frasier Crane. I’m listening’… that got me.”
The recreated set was all the work of production designer Glenda Rovello and her team, executive producer Joe Cristalli raves: “They didn’t have blueprints. They just watched the show, and she just recreated it, which is crazy… It felt like they just pulled them out of storage.”
But Frasier didn’t go back to Seattle just to say hi to some old friends. He wanted to show his son Freddy “what his life was then,” EP Chris Harris explains. “I think Frasier was looking for a little bit of maybe like justification… ‘Maybe you understand why I was in Seattle, versus being there with you.'” He also notes that the visit made Roz — who’s still working at KACL — reevaluate things as well, leading to “a little bit of a conversation about: What do you want at that stage of life? And a little bit of reflection there.”
Press PLAY above to hear more from the Frasier stars and EPs about Frasier’s return to Seattle, and hit the comments to let us know what you thought of the episode.
This episode has been the highlight of a much improved season 2! Hoping for a season 3 renewal!
Love seeing Bulldog back on Frasier. It was a really nice reunion episode.
Need Niles back for an episode in season 3 and Daphne. I think actor may be up for 1 epsiode from what I’ve read.
I am loving Season 2 and this episode was great. Loved seeing the old gang, again. They had not aged at all. I can’t believe Niles left Seattle, but I could absolutely see him and Daphne owning a vineyard. I am also enjoying the Alan/David pairing. Those two crack me up, continually.
This episode seems to have forgotten how MANY times Frederick visited Seattle for multiple days at a time over the original run of “Frasier”.