‘Frasier’: Kelsey Grammer on Peri Gilpin’s Return & Freddy’s Gift in Finale (VIDEO)
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the first season of the Frasier revival.]
Frasier caps off its returning season with Kelsey Grammer‘s titular character and a heartfelt, emotional, and very festive Christmas episode, one that remembers the loss of Martin (the late John Mahoney) and shows how far the father-son relationship at the center of the Paramount+ revival has come.
With the holidays approaching, Frasier digs out his dad’s old Christmas decorations, including the dancing Santa. Later, after his party goes horribly wrong — he orders too many trees and too few chairs, overwhisks the eggnog, and hires an elementary school string quartet, the goose is delivered alive, and the guests move over to the much more fun festivities in Eve’s (Jess Salgueiro) apartment — he takes a moment with that Santa. “Dad, I really miss you,” he says.
“What’s wonderful about this new incarnation of Frasier is that we don’t have a time limit,” Grammer tells TV Insider in the video interview above. (Executive producer Chris Harris tells us that allows moments like that to breathe.) “The emotion is very important for this show. It was important for the previous show, too, but especially in this very first season, to return to this character, you have to understand what his life was, what he cared about, and his dad was a big part of the show.”
It’s after that moment that the gift that Frasier’s son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) arranged for him arrives: Roz! And Peri Gilpin and Grammer seem to fall right back into their characters’ dynamic.
“She’s a pro. She walked in and delivered everything perfectly. It is like slipping into a pair of clothes; they’ve been hanging in a closet for a while, that’s all,” Grammer raves, admitting, “I teared up when I saw her.”
While he’s talking about Freddy’s arranging, the actor gets a bit emotional. “It shows a depth to him that maybe wouldn’t have been there before if Frasier hadn’t decided to stay in Boston,” Grammer explains. “And it means that they’ve grown together some already, and it’s a wonderful indication of where they’re headed and of what a remarkable young man Frederick is.”
Watch the full video interview above for much more, including Grammer talking about reuniting with Bebe Neuwirth as Lilith earlier in the season, the story he’d want to tell if David Hyde Pierce does ever return as Niles, and the absolute delight that is Frasier and Alan’s (Nicholas Lyndhurst) friendship.
Frasier, Streaming Now, Paramount+
