Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier Crane is finally back with his pretentious quips and drinking sherry wine in Boston.
The Paramount+ revival of “Frasier” premiered Thursday — with one original character noticeably absent.
The late John Mahoney — who portrayed Frasier’s retired police office father Martin Crane in the 1993 series — wasn’t sitting in his iconic yellow stripped chair anymore.
The famed actor, known for “Say Anything,” “Hot in Cleveland,” and his stage work, died in 2018 at the age of 77.
However, his legacy stayed strong, and the revival paid tribute to him in the pilot episode that dropped on Oct. 12.
In the premiere, Frasier explained to his friend and former mentor Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst) that his father recently died and his son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), did not attend the funeral.
Cut to the last few minutes of the show where Freddy and Frasier have a heart-to-heart over why his son did not go to his own grandfather’s burial.
“I was about to get on the plane and I was thinking about grandpa,” Freddy says, as he begins to sob. “I…I just couldn’t do it.”
“I was in a bad place,” he recalls, as Frasier wonders why he didn’t reach out to him for help.
Freddy then opens a gift that Martin wanted him to have — a flag that was flown over the state capitol in “honor of Detective Martin Crane for his service to the nation and his beloved city of Seattle.”
“I’m gunna miss him,” Freddy says.
Frasier replies: “Me too. He was a hell of a guy.”
The episode ends with an in memoriam title card that reads “In Loving Memory of John Mahoney,” alongside an old clip of Mahoney as Martin from the original series.
James Burrows, who directed the first two episodes of the revival, told Entertainment Weekly last month how the show honors the British-born actor.
“There’s a lot of Martin in Freddy,” the “Cheers” creator said. “[Showrunners] Joe [Cristalli] and Chris [Harris] specifically wanted Frasier to deal with his son… because the relationship with Kelsey and Mahoney was wonderful. So, they tried to tap into that, and I think they succeeded.”
The Boston neighborhood bar that is shown in the pilot episode is also named Mahoney’s as a tribute to the late star.
“It’s a wonderful scene at the end of the show,” Burrows said. “It’s about two-and-a-half, three minutes without any laughs. You’ve got to be brave to do that.”
The “Frasier” revival will be a 10-episode season. The first two episodes are now on Paramount+.
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