Kelsey Grammer has mentioned that he “did his finest” to persuade David Hyde Pierce to return in his position of Niles Crane for the current Frasier reboot.
In a brand new interview with Variety, Grammer revealed that he made each effort to speak his former co-star into coming again, however that it fell on deaf ears.
“I actually wished David Hyde Pierce to hitch us,” he mentioned. “And I did my finest to have him come alongside for the experience. And at one level, he lastly simply mentioned, ‘I don’t actually wish to play the character anymore’. And that was advantageous.”
“I imply, we’ve got Niles’ son on the present. It could be good to have that occur. We gained’t pressure it; we’ll see what occurs. We can actually write to it. There’s arguably lots of people on the planet which have seen Frasier, and would actually form of rejoice seeing him once more.”
In October, the creators of the present revealed that their authentic concept for the return additionally concerned David Hyde Pierce returning.
Kelsey Grammer is the one core forged member who reprises his position within the Paramount+ sequel collection, which follows Frasier as he teaches at a college in Boston – the setting the place the character was initially launched in Nineteen Eighties sitcom Cheers.
Showrunners Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli initially approached Pierce “a few instances” about returning to play Frasier’s brother Niles earlier than he declined, which modified their strategy to the revival.
“He was in a tricky place,” Cristalli advised Vulture. “Everybody needs to see him as Niles, however he doesn’t wish to step again into these footwear. He felt like he didn’t have something new to deliver to the character. He learn variations and gave us notes and ideas, and he acknowledged it was humorous and we discovered the tone the unique did so nicely. It simply wasn’t for him.”
Cristalli defined that Pierce’s choice gave them freedom to take the revival in a brand new route, including: “Yes, we’ve got to stay as much as the extremely excessive requirements of Frasier, however with a bit extra leniency. This can stay in the identical universe as Frasier and Cheers with out being Frasier or Cheers.”
Alongside Grammer, the revival stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as college professor Alan, Jack Cutmore-Scott as Frasier’s son Freddy, Anders Keith as Frasier’s nephew David, Jess Salgueiro as Eve and Toks Olagundoya as Olivia.
In a four-star evaluate, NME wrote: “Yes, the genius that’s David Hyde Pierce’s Niles is sorely missed, however Frasier remains to be as tasty as a tossed salad and scrambled eggs.”
