Frasier Crane - Background

Background

Frasier Crane is a licensed psychiatrist who is, as Kelsey Grammer described, "flawed, silly, pompous, and full of himself, kind vulnerable". He is "a child prodigy", theatre enthusiast, and "frequent target for bullies". He earned his undergraduate degree in Harvard University and a graduate degree in Harvard Medical School.

The character of Frasier Crane was created in the third season of Cheers (1984–1985) by series creators Glen and Les Charles as Diane Chambers's (Shelley Long) "romantic and intellectual ideal" following her breakup with Sam Malone (Ted Danson). Frasier Crane is considered Sam Malone's rival and opposite, and part of the love triangle, "a different form to the Sam-Diane relationship", said Glen Charles. The show's writers saw the character as "the role Ralph Bellamy used to play in Cary Grant movies—the guy the lady falls in love with but it isn't real. You just know he doesn't have the sexual dynamism Grant does."

John Lithgow was originally chosen by Cheers producers for the role, but turned it down. Grammer believed that he had failed the audition because no one laughed, but was chosen because of the quality of his performance with Danson. Frasier was supposed to only appear on a few episodes before Diane left him, but Grammer's performance was praised by series executives, leading to an extended role in the series. His character was not universally popular, however, for coming between Sam and Diane; a fan approached Grammer asking "Are you that pin dick that plays Frasier?", and the show received fan mail denouncing Grammer. More seriously, Grammer believed that Long hated his character for the same reason, and wrote in his 1996 autobiography that she "relentless"ly attempted to get him fired from the show. Long denied this, and the two actors reconciled after Cheers ended.

According to Peter Casey, a writer on Cheers and co-creator of Frasier with David Lee and David Angell, Frasier has depths within the last three years of Cheers (1990–1993): he is "very complicated, very intelligent but also very insecure". He "supposedly all the answers" but not for himself. Initially, the creators did not plan a spinoff from Cheers out of failure concerns. Instead, they wanted to star Kelsey Grammer as a different character who would resemble Malcolm Forbes, "a magazine mogul" and "a motorcycle enthusiast", and then would have been paralyzed by an accident. The idea was deemed a failure and then scrapped. Then the creators decided to move Frasier Crane out of Boston to avoid any resemblance to its predecessor Cheers. The spinoff idea would have focused on "his work at the radio station", but they found its eventual resemblance to the older sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati. Therefore, they decided to add in his private life, such as his father Martin and brother Niles.