Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) is heading back to Seattle in the revival’s second season (premiering on Thursday, September 19 on Paramount+), but it’s not just for nostalgia’s sake.
Frasier is all about the old and the new this season, with that trip part of that. And there are plenty of relationships—both romantic, potentially romantic, and platonic and familial—to love with the new characters who have been introduced for the revival.
Read on for scoop from the stars and executive producers. (There’s more to come!)
What the Seattle Trip Means to Frasier and Roz
Ahead of the season, it has been announced that Frasier will be returning to Seattle and his radio roots, as part of a tribute special to KACL. That brings back characters from the original run like Gil (Edward Hibbert) and Bulldog (Dan Butler), in addition to Roz (Peri Gilpin, who’s recurring this season).
“We’re leaning in pretty hard to [the nostalgia],” executive producer Joe Cristalli tells TV Insider. “But we’re still doing a story that is important to Season 2 of the current show, but if you’re in Seattle, you‘ve got to be in Seattle. As much as we could keep [characters] onscreen, we did because you’re not going to get to go to Seattle very often. Probably my guess is not again. It’s going to be hard to justify doing it, so we had to take advantage of it and it was very fun to do.”
Chris Haston / Paramount+
For Frasier, it’s also about showing his son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) the city. “Frasier really wants to show Freddy what that time of his life was like and for him. Freddy obviously visited, but he was younger and it might be that Frasier feels a little bit of guilt about how much this part of his life took him away from raising Freddy,” says executive producer Chris Harris. “So what we like about that is that it is a nostalgia trip, but it is also talking about their relationship.”
Harris also notes that the trip to Seattle affects Roz, who has been living there. “Frasier coming in has a little bit of a fresh perspective on what her life is like,” he offers.
More Fun With Frasier & Freddy’s Relationship
The revival began with Frasier seeking to reconnect with his son, and the first season of it left them in a much better place. Because of that, in the second, they can lean into the more fun aspects.
“We’ve got our solid base. They’ve reconnected. Now, we get to pull the threads out and have a lot of fun figuring out their little idiosyncratic similarities and differences and why they butt heads over this silly, stupid stuff without worrying that everything’s going to dissolve or blow up,” Cutmore-Scott previews. “As a result, this season was just a ton of fun. We got to have the same little squabbles and whatever and keep developing that relationship while knowing that there is that foundation of love, which it is a much more fun place to play from.”
Is There a Romantic Future for Freddy & Eve?
Sure, they’re just friends and his late best friend was the father of her baby, but it does feel like the show is heading in that direction. After Season 1, Harris told us that it’s something they’ve thought about and Cristalli noted, “It feels like you can’t really do anything for a couple seasons. You can maybe give some hints, and maybe if it’s there, it’ll blossom.” But is there anything coming this season?
Chris Haston / Paramount+
“Part of what makes for a great relationship is a strong friendship, is a strong basis in that connection,” points out Cutmore-Scott. “I think that’s really what we are developing this season, is seeing how much they rely on each other, how much they can rely on each other, and how much fun they can have together as well. And there’s a deep, deep, deep fondness and love there for sure. Whether that evolves into a romantic level or not down the line, we don’t know. But for right now, it’s been really nice seeing how much they mean to each other and exploring that.”
We’ll especially see that in an episode early on in the season dealing with their grief over their mutual loss. “They’re going through some of Adam’s stuff together and reflecting and releasing a lot,” shares Jess Salgueiro. “I think you could just see that they’re ready to let go of some things, and I think it also just strengthens their friendship.”
Adds Cutmore-Scott, by working through that shared loss, “we get to explore the other elements of their relationship, their friendship, and while they are still fundamentally very strong support systems for each other, we also get to have fun. Freddy comes and works at the bar for a bit for one evening. It was a ton of fun figuring out the other layers.”
Meet Olivia’s Sister
Yvette Nicole Brown is coming in as Olivia’s (Toks Olagundoye) “perfect older sister,” this season, and there will be some competition between the two, as a result of Monica being at Yale and Olivia at Harvard. “You really get to see the dynamic of a younger sister who turns into a little kid when her older, more successful sister is around,” Olagundoye teases. “But you also get to see what Frasier always does and always brings it back to as a show, is you get to see the love between two family members. Yvette is just so much fun. It was just such a fun episode.”
She also praises director Kelly Park for her work. “It was a bear of an episode,” she says. “She did an amazing job. That was the first time that we ever got to do one of these episodes from beginning to end. She had us just go through it once and then we went back and did it again. So it felt really like a play that night.”
That’s due to the setting of the episode, Olagundoye explains, calling it, “one of those classic Frasier farcical episodes. Everyone’s walking in and out, and this person exits and the camera catches the other person coming in. It was just easier for the flow of it to go all the way through. And we had some spectacular guest stars—we always do—for that episode. It’s a classic Frasier party as well. It felt like one. We were having a blast.”
Frasier’s nephew, David (Anders Keith), will be part of what we imagine will be plenty of hijinks. “He’s making himself useful as always, socializing throughout the party,” Keith says.
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A New Side of Alan
One of the great additions to the world of Frasier with the revival is the friendship between the titular character and his old college friend Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst). There’s a bit of a change there this season, with some exploration for Alan’s relationship with his daughter.
“In the first season we saw what a good friend Alan can be to Frasier and one of the things we set out to do with this season was show that it goes the other way, too. We want to see Frasier being a great friend to Alan and also show another side of Alan,” says Harris. “He is not just the the boozy guy throwing quips left and right, but he also has some heartbreak and some challenges in his own life. Frasier is going to see that his friend is in need.”
A Much-Needed Girls’ Night Out
As the trailer shows, there’s an upcoming girls’ night out with Roz, Olivia, and Eve—one that Eve, especially, needs since she’s been raising her son alone. It’s something Salgueiro says her character wouldn’t have realized without Roz pushing the issue.
“I think Eve genuinely didn’t acknowledge how overwhelmed she’s been. And having Roz take Eve out is just so perfect on so many levels,” she explains. “I didn’t even realize it until I read the episode where I was like, of course they’d have so much in common. They’re both single mothers. They’re both hustling. Yeah, that episode was really special to shoot. It was really, really fun.”
Eve’s not the only one who may need it. This season is also about Olivia figuring out quite a bit in her life. The first season ended with a surprise romance for Olivia with firefighter Moose (Jimmy Dunn), and Olagundoye teases that there’s more of that relationship coming this season.
It’s also about Olivia seeing what she wants “when it comes to everything,” Olagundoye says. “I don’t think she’s ever been in this position before. I think she is a nerdy overachiever who wanted to be head of department at Harvard and now she’s there and I think she’s realizing she got her dream professor there, somebody who influenced and inspired her. Now, I think she’s realizing, wait a minute, I can maybe be one of the cool kids. And she’s got these new friends and she’s actually getting a bit of a social life, which I think is really new to her and she’s really enjoying it. It’s been really lovely to see.”
David’s New Stance
At times, it can feel like the others take advantage of David. Will that change? “We do get to see that,” Keith confirms. “He learns a little bit how to speak his mind—maybe a bit too much. He’s figuring it out.”
What are you hoping to see this season? Let us know in the comments section below.
Frasier, Season 2 Premiere, Thursday, September 19, Paramount+
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