[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for all of Frasier Season 2 on Paramount+.]
It seems to be a tradition now, for the Frasier revival to cap off a season with a Christmas episode. For Season 2, it was a heartwarming one.
Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst) learned his estranged daughter was in town, and everyone plotted to reunite them. While that didn’t go as planned (though meant some fun moments), it was after Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) spoke to Nora (Rayne Bidder) about absent fathers that there was a happy family reunion at Frasier’s (Kelsey Grammer) for the holiday. And now the titular character is looking forward to scheming with his son in the future.
Below, executive producers Joe Cristalli and Chris Harris break down the finale, talk Frasier and Roz (Peri Gilpin) and Freddy and Eve (Jess Salgueiro), and tease what could be ahead in a third season, should they get one.
Talk about having the season end with Alan and his daughter’s reunion, which also plays into that moment with Frasier and Freddy.
Chris Harris: First of all, we’re softies, so we knew we wanted to end with another Christmas episode and we love diving into the emotional side of things. We both come from shows where that happens. Kelsey was excited to, for this version of the show, maybe just lean into the emotion a little more when it was appropriate; that was true for the pilot and for this season finale. We also wanted to give Alan—because Nick is such an amazing performer and actor and he gives every line his own sort of spin, which, as writers, it’s a delight to see—a little more depth. In the first season, Alan was there for Frasier through some times of need, and we wanted to show that this relationship was a two-way street. Frasier loves his friend as much as his friend loves him, and we wanted Frasier to be there for Alan in a moment of need. That’s why we wanted to show that Alan has this broken relationship with someone who’s dear to him earlier on in the season and repair that relationship as part of our finale.
Chris Haston / Paramount+
The other side you mentioned was something that we a little more stumbled into during the season, but it was this idea that Freddy has a lot of his father in him. In the first season, we saw them butting heads a lot and, oh, I’m more blue-collar, I’m more sophisticated, but the truth is they are both people who have a lot of empathy for others. They’ve each chosen careers in which they are there to help people. Over the course of the season, we’ve seen bits and pieces of Freddy and Frasier having similar drives, Frasier realizing that Freddy’s closer to him than he thought. In the finale, it’s really a little bit of Freddy deciding to meddle just like his father has done, and in our heads, it’s sweet to see this connection and the like father, like son.
Frasier is looking ahead at what they can do together. Is that what we could see going forward?
Joe Cristalli: It’s a pretty fun moment of Freddy realizing, why does this sound like not a bad idea? The idea that he could either lead the charge or join in with his dad more seems very fun to us.
You left Frasier and Holly in a good place. What did you enjoy about what you got to do with Frasier because of that relationship? And there was also a great Holly and Alan moment.
Cristalli: It’s fun seeing Frasier with somebody that’s a little different. It’s reminiscent of Jean Smart’s character in the original, somebody that you don’t think Frasier would be either drawn to or have any chemistry with. It’s fun to watch them. It’s fun to watch her take him down. It’s fun to watch him try and pretend to be a little bit different than he actually is. They’re both just comedic legends. Their timing, watching them, it’s just like, God, they’re good. So anything we can see them do.
And we didn’t even get a chance to explore a Holly and Alan relationship. Alan did something really nice and we didn’t get to see any of it. So the idea that they could have a rapport also seems fun going forward.
When you’re looking ahead, how much are you looking at Patricia’s schedule and how much are you looking at the story? You can always have that relationship off-screen.
Cristalli: It’s a good problem to have. I think it’s more of an issue of how many episodes are we going to have if we get a Season 3 and of those, how many episodes can we dedicate to [that] relationship? Maybe they’re really fun in the background of all of them. Maybe it’s fun to do two big ones and break up and then there’s a new relationship. It’s more what does best to service the Frasier-Freddy relationship and moving that forward. All of the other sort of ornaments on that tree can be rearranged based on the story we find, which we started talking about in the hopes of getting a Season 3.
Chris Haston / Paramount+
You also teased Frasier and Roz and Freddy and Eve this season a bit. First, talk about the Frasier and Roz of it. Was that just for the fun of the episode?
Harris: Yeah, I don’t know if we feel like Frasier and Roz are destined for each other. Is that okay to say, Joe? But they obviously have such rapport, such chemistry, and to us, the fun of that lifelong friendship is so powerful. She’s known Frasier longer than anyone else there—Alan has known him, too, but she knows his quirks. She knows when he’s going to mess things up. She has a shorthand with him that is delightful to see. But we think there’s definitely more fun to be had in watching what Roz and Frasier will be like in a Season 3. We are suggesting that maybe Roz is going to spend a lot more time on the east coast. We have her daughter Alice [Greer Grammer] nearby in Providence, and David’s [Anders Keith] into Alice and Alice might be into Freddy and Freddy might… There are a lot of combinations to explore. One of the things we enjoyed about that episode is Frasier and Roz and how are they viewing this next generation of characters and either helping or hindering what’s going on with them.
Cristalli: Plus, our plan has always been wait ’til we know it’s the last season of our version, bring Laura Linney in halfway through for Frasier to fall in love with again, and then they move to Chicago together.
You brought up David, so an aside: that gingerbread village!
Cristalli: It might be David’s best moment all season. Him with that gingerbread village was something incredible to watch.
There’s never been a more detailed gingerbread village.
Cristalli: Oh, the work alone he put on the vicar. That takes some craftsmanship.
Harris: By the way, for the extended release, we have about eight other jokes about the gingerbread village and little pieces about it we weren’t even able to get to for time. So yeah, it’s amazing.
Cristalli: The props department did a pretty good job on that one.
Then there’s Freddy and Eve. There seemed to be a moment in the finale with Alice there that Eve looked like she was maybe considering something. What did you want to do with them this season and what are you thinking about that relationship?
Cristalli: I feel like in this season—and correct me if I’m wrong, Chris—we accomplished what we wanted to. They were already good friends and we grew them emotionally and bonded them even a little bit tighter dealing with the grief of Adam. I think you want an idea of, oh, maybe they’ll get together, maybe they won’t. Maybe one of ’em wants it, maybe the other one doesn’t. I think the idea that in the finale, that there’s some stuff to interpret of what Jess is playing with Eve, speaks volumes to what her and Jack did with those characters leading up to that moment. Because it could go either way. Maybe she’s excited for Freddy-Alice, maybe she’s jealous because it’s not her. So I think it gives us a lot of opportunity because their chemistry is just so great. When they’re together, it just works. They’ve given us a lot of options of what we can do with it. That’s a pretty good non-answer, right? That’s a pretty good way of weaving around to nothing. [Harris laughs]
Chris Haston / Paramount+
Have you made a decision, though?
Harris: Here’s the thing.
Cristalli: Strap in.
Harris: Let the characters be the characters. We have notions, and this is the best non-answer ever. I’m going to trump your non-answer. Obviously there’s a lot to explore with them and there’s probably more both in terms of what they’ve been through together and what might happen with them in the future, and we’re still feeling it out. We’ve only done less than what used to be a full season of television with them. So we’ve purposefully stepped it out gently. We’ve seen a few steps forward here and there, but in terms of the future and the endgame, we want to keep our minds open to what we see on screen.
How are you feeling about the chances of another season?
Cristalli: We don’t really know much. We haven’t heard anything, but I feel like [with] the quality of the episodes and how the characters have grown and the scripts and the writing staff and everyone… I would argue that [this season is] better than the first. I think we’ve only improved everything across the board. I think everyone’s done a great job. I think Season 3 is only going to be more interesting and more fun and more exciting as we keep finding our groove. So I think the show can only keep getting better until you hit Season 7 and then you start phoning it in with Freddy learning how to swim episodes. But until then, I feel like we’re on a good trajectory right now, so I hope we get a chance to keep doing it. I feel like there’s a lot left to be said and to be written and to be seen. So we don’t know much. But I don’t want to speak for Chris. I know he’s perpetually pessimistic, but I’m optimistic that we could get Season 3.
Harris: I just can’t wait to get to that phoning it in part. That sounds great.
Cristalli: It’s going to be so good. We’re going to do that bottle episode where we show clips of Season 1. Ah, I can’t wait for season seven.
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This season leaned into the nostalgia. You had the trip to Seattle, you had Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris), you had mentions of Niles. Is this the balance that you’re looking at going forward?
Cristalli: I think so. As we’ve said before, you can’t lean too heavily on the old just because it becomes a crutch, but also you want to see it so badly. I mean, even in the old episodes of the original Frasier, they would do a couple of the Cheers gang gets back together, and I’m sure at the time it was like, those are the most exciting episodes. Look, Cheers is back, but I’m rewatching, it’s like, those aren’t my favorite episodes. My favorite episodes are ones about our characters and the storylines that are central to them. So I think we’re a little bit prisoner to the moment of, yes, let’s see all the nostalgia and let’s do it forever. But there’s also something to be said about these episodes in these characters standing on their own two feet. So I think there’s always going to be a balance, because what, you don’t want to see Beebe Glazer again? You don’t want to see Lilith [Bebe Neuwirth] or Bulldog [Dan Butler] or Gil [Edward Hibbert]. So we’re going to keep seeing them. But I think we’ve struck a pretty good balance of how much is just our people and then some influences from the past. …With Bebe Glazer, we’ve introduced her daughter, Phoebe [Rachel Bloom]. Maybe there’s an episode moving forward where it’s just Phoebe. We’re starting to expand the world a little bit more.
Are there any storylines you had planned for this season that you had to scrap that you can talk about?
Cristalli: Not a lot of storylines. We have a story that we really like with Ted Danson hopefully reprising his Sam Malone character. But it’s really just more, as soon as we can get Ted, we’ll be able to hopefully get to revisit that because it’d be fun to see. We’ve talked a lot about stories with Frasier sort of re-engaging with some of the old Cheers folks. The writers’ room came up with 30 episode ideas, so there’s a bunch we’d love to do, but you run out of time with 10. So we have a bunch of ideas hopefully that we’ll get to do in Season 3.
Harris: We had another farce idea, another twist on the farce.
Cristalli: We had like two or three farces this season.
Harris: Yeah, that was one thing that we checked our swing on a little bit in Season 1, knowing how brilliantly the original Frasier did it. But we’re really happy with sort of continuing that tradition in Season 2. And there was one that felt especially difficult, maybe a 12 out of 10 on the difficulty scale. The right call was to walk before we could run with farces, but we’d love to try that in Season 3.
Is there anything else you can say about what we could see in a Season 3?
Harris: Like Joe said, revisiting some of Frasier’s life during the Cheers era would be really exciting, and then there are some relationships that we’re excited to continue.
Frasier, Streaming Now, Paramount+
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