The ’80s were packed full of sitcoms, with some reaching iconic status while others have aged horribly. Cheersfalls squarely in the former camp, as it lasted through the bulk of the ’80s and the early ’90s. Part of that was due to Cheers‘ iconic cast of characters, brought to life by future stars like Ted Dansonand Woody Harrelson. As Cheers started winding down, NBC would try to replicate itssuccess by launching a trio of sitcoms that focused on different characters from the supporting cast. Out of all three shows, only one stands the test of time, even growing to be more popular than its parent show.
That series is none other than Frasier, which follows one of Cheers‘ most popular characters. After psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) moves back to his hometown of Seattle and starts hosting a radio show, he has to deal with his salt-of-the-earth father, Martin (John Mahoney), and his younger brother, Niles (David Hyde Pierce) moving in with him. To this day, Frasier remains one of the most celebrated sitcoms to ever air on television, as it earned a whopping 37 Emmy Awards — a feat that was only eclipsed by Game of Thrones. It also managed to match, and then exceed, Cheers‘ critical reception. The question remains: what’s the secret sauce that made Frasier so beloved?
‘Frasier’ Thrives Thanks to its Character Dynamics
Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney standing in a circle toasting in Frasier.Image via NBC
Frasier, much like Cheers, is built on the rapport between its cast of characters. There’s one huge difference, though: while Cheers is mostly set in a bar, Frasier takes the time to explore all aspects of Frasier’s life and the people in it. At home, he often butts heads with Martin and Niles because Niles is even more snobbish than he is, and Martin is more down-to-earth than either of his sons. At work, he has a battle of wits with his producer Roz (Peri Gilpin), resulting in plenty of witty dialogue between the two. These dynamics helped make Frasier feel like its own show, and it didn’t hurt that the series allowed its characters to grow. A key example is Niles, who slowly starts falling for and eventually marries Martin’s live-in caretaker, Daphne (Jane Leeves).
Ironically, Frasier could have been an entirely different show. Kelsey Grammer originally didn’t want to reprise his role as Frasier, but when Paramount Television pushed for the character to headline his own show, creators David Angell, David Lee, and Peter Casey made the bold move of having Frasier relocate to Seattle. Setting the series far away from Cheers helped it develop its own identity, which may have also explained its popularity. Fans of Cheers finally got a spin-off that captured what they loved about the original show, and people who’d never seen Cheers loved the offbeat sensibilities that Frasier brought to the table.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
A Short-Lived ‘Frasier’ Revival Couldn’t Capture the Original’s Spirit
20 years after its premiere, Frasier would make a grand return thanks to Paramount+. The revival series had a fairly solid hook, as Frasier moved to Boston to spend more time with his son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), while also starting a new career at Harvard. Despite Kelsey Grammer reprising his role as Frasier and even serving as an executive producer on the series, the Frasier revival never quite enjoyed the same level of popularity as the original series. Part of that was because the dynamic between Frasier and Freddy lacked the same spark as the one he had with Niles and Martin, or because the shortened seasons didn’t give the story room to breathe.
The Frasier revival would end up canceled after two seasons, and despite being shopped around, other streamers declined to pick it up. Kelsey Grammer laid the blame at the feet of Paramount+, particularly a regime change that saw the new management not willing to expend marketing effort on the series.
“Obviously, they didn’t really promote or spend much time on it. The fellow that worked at Paramount+ when we first sold the show there left, and so it sort of fell into their laps, the next administration. So I think they gave it sort of a good try, but they weren’t particularly passionate about the project.”
Despite the revival series being short-lived, Frasier is still worth a watch, both as a great sitcom in its own right and as an example of how to craft a great spinoff. So if you want a good laugh, fix yourself a plate of tossed salad and scrambled eggs, then fire up Paramount+, which has the original Frasier in its entirety.
