Kelsey Grammer has said that he “did his best” to convince David Hyde Pierce to return in his role of Niles Crane for the recent Frasier reboot.
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In a new interview with Variety, Grammer revealed that he made every effort to talk his former co-star into coming back, but that it fell on deaf ears.
“I really wanted David Hyde Pierce to join us,” he said. “And I did my best to have him come along for the ride. And at one point, he finally just said, ‘I don’t really want to play the character anymore’. And that was fine.”
“I mean, we have Niles’ son on the show. It would be nice to have that happen. We won’t force it; we’ll see what happens. We can certainly write to it. There’s arguably a lot of people in the world that have seen Frasier, and would really sort of celebrate seeing him again.”
Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce (Credit: Alamy)
In October, the creators of the show revealed that their original idea for the return also involved David Hyde Pierce returning.
Kelsey Grammer is the only core cast member who reprises his role in the Paramount+ sequel series, which follows Frasier as he teaches at a university in Boston – the setting where the character was originally introduced in 1980s sitcom Cheers.
Showrunners Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli originally approached Pierce “a couple of times” about returning to play Frasier’s brother Niles before he declined, which changed their approach to the revival.
“He was in a tough position,” Cristalli told Vulture. “Everybody wants to see him as Niles, but he doesn’t want to step back into those shoes. He felt like he didn’t have anything new to bring to the character. He read versions and gave us notes and thoughts, and he acknowledged it was funny and we found the tone the original did so well. It just wasn’t for him.”
Cristalli explained that Pierce’s decision gave them freedom to take the revival in a new direction, adding: “Yes, we have to live up to the incredibly high standards of Frasier, but with a little more leniency. This can live in the same universe as Frasier and Cheers without being Frasier or Cheers.”
Alongside Grammer, the revival stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as university 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 review, NME wrote: “Yes, the genius that is David Hyde Pierce’s Niles is sorely missed, but Frasier is still as tasty as a tossed salad and scrambled eggs.”
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