Summary

The original plan for the Frasier revival was to have Frasier and Niles run a theater together, but since David Hyde Pierce declined to return, they had to scrap the idea. There was discussion of making Niles the new Maris, a character that is mentioned but not seen, but ultimately they decided against it. The show initially considered opening with Martin Crane’s funeral, but once it became clear that David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves wouldn’t be returning, it was no longer feasible.

The showrunners behind the recent Frasier revival, Joe Cristalli and Chris Harris, have revealed that the original plan was to reunite Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier Crane with David Hyde Pierce’s Niles Crane and would have centered on the beloved pair running a theater. Speaking with Vulture, Cristalli offered further details of their initial intention to bring Pierce back as Niles, but following the actor’s decision not to return (“He’s not the bad guy in this, and he was so lovely about it”) things quickly changed.

“For a long time, the idea was that Frasier and Niles were going to run a black-box theater, like how they bought that restaurant and brought it back to life. But it’s hard for Frasier and Niles to run the theater when you don’t have Niles, so we had to step back from that.”

The idea was even discussed to make Niles the new Maris, meaning the character would be mentioned and play a small tole but never seen.

“It would be weird to make Niles the new Maris,” says Harris, with Cristalli replying, “Which we did talk about.”

Owning a theater would certainly not be the first that the brothers Crane have attempted to work together on a project (such as buying a restaurant in the season two episode The Innkeepers or attempting to write a book in the first season’s Author, Author), with some of the best episodes being ones involving the pair getting in over their heads before reverting to childlike brotherly fighting and bickering.

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The Frasier Revival Almost Opened With Martin Crane’s Funeral & the Entire Original Cast
CBS Television Distribution

Following the death of the late, great John Mahoney, many wondered how the Frasier revival would address the passing of his character, Frasier and Niles’ father Martin Crane. While the show that emerged pays several sweet tributes to both the character and actor, the original plan was to open the show with Martin’s funeral. With the whole original cast in attendance. As Cristalli reveals:

“We saw the funeral in one version of this show. We were still in Seattle and had the whole cast. One of the jokes was Bulldog walking up to the coffin and being very sad and saying, This stinks. This is total BS. I remember being furious that that wasn’t my joke. It was Chris’s joke.”

However, once David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves decided not to return, opening with the funeral became impossible.

“It would’ve been too hard to have that funeral scene and not see Niles or Daphne. If you’re going to do the funeral scene, you have to see those people. It would’ve been heartbreaking and silly to try to explain it, “Oh, Niles is caught in a hot-air balloon somewhere and couldn’t make the funeral.” It never would’ve worked in the way we envisioned it.”

The new Frasier series has now begun on Paramount+ and finds Frasier Crane returning to Seattle where he attempts to rekindle his relationship with his now estranged son, Freddy.