Kelsey Grammer reminisces about doing "Cheers" which led to his own spinoff "Frasier".

[Music] when did you first hear about the name Fraser crane when did that name first come across your uh I was doing a play in uh New York City uh musical called Sunday in the park with George by uh stepen stime and I was also covering another play called Hurley Burley um and so I was an under study there and I was I was doing the rehearsal for the other show at the same time and I went to lunch with a girl named Gretchen renell who was casting director for Paramount Pictures mhm and she said Mandy Patinkin told me that you're a funny leading man type I said yeah I guess he's right about that and uh that's what got me this audition to come in and do what they call a personality piece basically you'd go on video M and uh talk about you know 10 things that you liked or whatever they did this with me for this character called Frasier NY at the time and I don't know if you remember Louie NY of course but I I thought Fraser NY was probably the wrong name so they ended up making him crane after that but uh so you said nigh doesn't sound right n doesn't sound right they came with something else yeah but but they came up with crane oh okay but um so I went on camera and I I wore these yellow Christian Dior golf pants that my mother had bought me and uh because for some reason I thought he might wear something like that a black blazer and a white shirt and uh they said when they saw the tape they said that guy's pretty funny so a few weeks later I was hired to do cheers that's our Frasier they basically said that at what point did you realize I am part of something that is historic well you know what honestly I realized it when we were doing cheers that there was something great there um what's funny is you know shelle long decided she was going to leave the show in the fifth season uh so once that was done I thought to myself wow that's really weird this show is really popular really successful and they've brought this new girl in ciry alley and I thought this has the potential to be one of the greatest shows ever now because Midstream it's you can't tell where it's going so we could go forever of course they did 11 seasons and uh it turned into this fantastic fantastic show and it was a good show before that I'm not questioning that it's just uh it was that I think that sort of creative jolt that it got that made it another show a new show put sort of put it on steroids and it was great and you know obviously the sports angle of it too there was always an interesting cross well it was an interesting Cross of of pop culture in that respect that there was a Red Soxs uh sort of concept was all based upon the three guys Jimmy Burrows and the two Charles brothers sitting in that bar in Boston saying this this town we want to do a a show up at this town and its love of sport it's always was always about and the cameos of people that would come in oh huge yeah yeah bug came in yeah lovely guy was he was a great guy and then then he got traded to the Yankees I think uh that was devastating blow I know but sure he's a lovely guy and I tip O'Neal that's right was on the show uh General schwarzkoff was on the show oh no no no Admiral crra ad ad crra when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs Kevin M I think came Kevin M came in and then and uh Woody got to do like a basketball play with him it fun really it was really very excited fun and then uh Kelsey gram on the Rich Eisen show then Frasier yeah comes into being were you concerned at the time like hey that that was a great character we did it on Cheers but yeah no actually I wanted to kill Frasier I thought it's it's time for him to end cheers is over let's do something else cuz I had a deal with Paramount they said we're going to do another show when cheers is over with you right I'm said cool so I I approached the guys from wings and uh that was Angel Casey and Lee David Angel you know died in 911 911 and um we uh talked about doing a show about a guy in a motorcycle cuz I used to ride a motorcycle and they thought you know let's take something from real life who's bedridden because he's had a terrible accident that was not part of real life okay but um the president of Paramount John Pike at the time said this is not funny he said you know what I think a sitcom should be funny so what do you say we do Frasier and I said well okay mhm and uh I I I did say at the time said uh no kids no dogs well that that didn't last no wives right so uh we got rid of Lilith not not because it wasn't possible to do that show but it didn't seem to me to have the legs that you'd need to get further along because I thought we were kind of a one joke couple and you know BB came back and did a couple of shows for us but that was the right stuff the dog I lost on the kid I lost on it's okay but we didn't do a lot of shows with that well but and so interesting you said that the original name was Frasier NY is that where Niles came from no that's completely mutually exclusive uh okay can walked in with a picture of David Hy Pearson said if you're thinking of putting a brother in the show this is the guy and it was looking at like you know and then the dad John Mahoney John Mahoney had done an appearance on one of the final episodes of Cheers he was so funny in it I so so enjoyed spending time with him during that uh period that when we finished the pilot script I called him and said uh would you have a look at this I want you to play my dad and uh he called a day later and said I'm in it's fantastic and you know he played um he was in one of the one of the better Sports movies of all time Eight Men Out he played the the manager of the black sock and he was terrific in that I mean where are they now he was just terrific in yeah I know he was terrific in everything that he did he you know the rich Isen show weekdays at noon Eastern on audience

Channel: The Rich Eisen Show

Views: 1,343,363

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Id: BEv6ihs2KpM

Length: 6min 0sec (360 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 28 2016