Though it’s becoming tedious and sterile that absolutely everything has a new chance in the 21st century, in the case of Frasier Crane I accept it with the illusion of a child. Winner of 37 Emmy Awards, Frasier is by far my favorite show from the ’90s. I always tell it: When I was pregnant with my daughter, I only had two big food cravings. Watch NBA games and Dr. Frasier Crane. It made my life happy.
The revival of Frasier, due out this year, is the comeback of this family made up of two snobbish and very crazy brothers, an adorable ex-cop dad who confronts them about their origins and turns them on a thousand times in wisdom (even) (although he knows nothing about French wine or Eames chairs), a very funny British employee and a dog that resembles exactly the ones I like: with the looks of a sly buzzard, capable of sitting down with you to watching TV and keeping you company.
The new Frasier only repeats Kelsey Grammer, who has returned to Boston, the city where he was born in Cheers and where his son will also be. John Mahoney, who played the father, died in 2018 at the age of 77, and David Hyde Pierce (Niles) has not joined the new project that will leave behind those happy ’90s in Seattle, then the capital for me in the world . dr Crane wasn’t nearly everything I liked back then: grunge, piercings, plaid shirts, but nothing made me laugh anymore.
My Smartest Friends came from Seinfeld, the Nothing series that still has a legion of fans to whom it hasn’t lost its grace nor its crude philosophy of life. Recently, New York Times columnist Maya Salam described it as the cultural product about four horrific characters who portrayed “an irreverent version of adulthood where everyone laughed and no one took themselves very seriously.” It’s true that on these shows, and since Frasier and Seinfeld are similar, the characters were very imperfect in the first place. Precisely because of all their neuroses, they lived trapped in the present, in touch with the world, unafraid of its many shortcomings.
Actually, that was the point: we’re all human beings with big flaws, so you were taught to laugh at yourself. Can you be dumber than Frasier Crane? That will not do. But it was merry and amusing nonsense, that of a squeamish idiot with airs and graces who ended up loving madly.
Obviously, my favorite character has always been the one with common sense, the father, played beautifully by Mahoney, a retired ex-cop who lives in the home of his eldest son, whom he resented with his cheeky dog and that awful armchair, but very much comfortable. That ugly piece of furniture was the show’s constant gag, this silent member of the family who was basically each chapter’s white elephant, a bundle that wrecked Frasier’s nerves and OCD and the harmony of his deliciously decorated apartment.
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