The Frasier Online Guide to 'Frasier': History

This page is designed to be an introduction to the show, detailing it's history and through the use of a timeline, showing important events throughout the show's time on air.

[NB: This page is a work-in-progress and will be completed in the near future]

Before 'Frasier', there was 'Cheers'

The character of Frasier Crane began life on the very successful US sitcom 'Cheers', created by Glen Charles, Les Charles and James Burrows. Set in and around the 'Cheers' bar in Boston, the show followed the lives of the staff and regulars of 'Cheers' including Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson), Carla (Rhea Perlman), Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger), Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson), Norm Peterson (George Wendt) and many more. 'Cheers' first opened it's doors on 30th September 1982 on NBC, and was first seen here in the UK on Channel 4 on the 4th February 1983. At the beginning of the third season, Diane returns from the sanatorium with Dr Frasier Crane, the staff psychiatrist there, in tow and they fall in love and get engaged, only for Diane to jilt Frasier at the altar. Despite this, he returned to Boston and saw his love life improve after he meets and falls in love with fellow psychiatrist Dr Lilith Sternin before getting married and having a child together, Frederick Crane.

During the ninth season of 'Cheers', it was announced that the following season would be the last and with Kelsey Grammer already having a production deal with Paramount, went in search of a new show for when 'Cheers' ended, and began discussions with Grub Street Productions about possible shows. The first idea was for a bed-ridden invalid challenged by his daily life, which the studio didn't think much of, but despite Kelsey's insistence he wasn't going to play Frasier Crane anymore, the network managed to get them to change their mind and the character of Frasier Crane would continue in a spin-off of 'Cheers', but one that had a different dynamic centering on his family (brother, father) and workplace, and so just over a month after the final episode of 'Cheers' was filmed on Paramount's famous Stage 25, the pilot episode of 'Frasier' was filmed there too, marking the start of what was to become possibly the most successful TV spin-off in history.

'Frasier' - Season 1

The debut season of 'Frasier' aired on NBC in the prime Thursday night at 9.30pm slot after 'Seinfeld', beginning on September 16th 1993, and debuted on UK television on 20th April 1994. It garnered some great reviews from both sides of the Atlantic, and was NBC's best performing new show that season. In the pilot episode, we were re-introduced to Frasier Crane, having moved back home to Seattle and found himself a job as a radio psychiatrist on KACL, before meeting his psychiatrist brother Niles and his ex-cop father Martin, who ends up living with Frasier after the brothers decide he can't alone anymore after falling again in ther shower. Daphne Moon is then hired as Martin's physical therapist, while Roz Doyle, Frasier's radio producer, rounds out the core cast of the show. Over the course of the season, we get to meet other KACL staff such as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe and Gil Chesterton, and also saw the first of many return appearances of Bebe Neuwirth as Dr Lilith Sternin not to mention the first signs of Niles' growing infatuation with Daphne.

'Frasier' - Season 2

The success of 'Frasier' in it's first season made NBC make a very bold scheduling decision - it was going to move the show from it's comfortable Thursday night slot to Tuesday night where NBC as a whole made little impression against shows such as 'Roseanne' on ABC. Some of the cast and crew were a little worried by the move so soon in it's TV career, but ABC took the threat seriously enough to move Roseanne to Wednesdays and put it's then top-rated show 'Home Improvement' on Tuesday nights.