The ‘Cheers’ Cast at the 75th annual Emmy Awards.Photo:VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty
VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty
They really are always glad you came.
The cast ofCheers, includingTed Danson,Kelsey Grammer,Rhea Perlman,John RatzenbergerandGeorge Wendt, reunited last month at the 75th annualPrimetime Emmy Awards, and Grammer he felt the love from the audience.
Grammer, who received the festival’s Legend of Television Award, said he “sort of” stays in touch with his castmates from the ‘80s sitcom.
“We visit all the time,” Grammer explained. “I still talk to Ted all the time. I see Rhea shopping sometimes. John I bump into out in Palm Springs, and George and I went to one of those signing things in Pittsburgh a while back. And I seeWoody [Harrelson]all the time, actually. We’re still in each other’s lives.”
The ‘Cheers’ cast.NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Thefather of sevenbrought hisCheerscharacter Dr. Frasier Crane back to the small screen when a new season ofFrasierpremiered on Paramount+in October.
“There are differences between network and streaming obviously, but I think the audience member who finds the show is the same audience,” Grammer said. “They’re there because they love it. They love this character. They love a former kind of style of comedy that they’ve missed. And we’re back.”
He thinksFrasierrepresents a “more innocent and not so jaded” type of television show.
“We’re purists” Garmmer said. “We love the people we play. We’re not out to hurt each other. WhenFrasierwas first on television, the only shows that sort of really took a bite out of our viewership were shows likeWhen Animals Turn on their Masters— just the weirdest, meanest stuff. And we could never go there.”
Derek White/Getty
Grammer believes the audience has matured sinceFrasierfirst aired from 1993 to 2004.
“It’s like the whole country matured a little bit into a world where they think, ‘Maybe we could be nice to each other again, have some fun root for somebody. Love the people we love to watch, love to laugh with them, not because we want to see them fail, but because we want to root for them,’” he said. “What you get from the audience now forFrasieris, they’re really rooting for him. And it’s a wonderful thing. They’re also nostalgically kind of re-immersed in a world that they liked seeing.”
While accepting the Legend of Television Award,Grammer teared uptalking about injecting that spirit of love in his career.
“If you know the William Faulkner’s acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize for Literature, he gave advice to a young writer and he said, basically, ‘If you don’t write about matters of the heart, then you’re writing about nothing,’” Grammer said. “And I said, ‘It means nothing if it doesn’t connect to the human heart.’ So that’s the business we’re in. Its design is to let the human spirit soar. If it’s acting, it’s to let the human condition sing its song and connect us all together.”
Grammer choked up before concluding, “Yeah, that’s it.”
Jack Cutmore-Scott (left) and Kelsey Grammer on ‘Frasier’.Paramount+
Paramount+
He got emotional again during a panel withFrasiercastmates Jack Cutmore-Scott, Anders Keif, Toks Olagundoye and Jess Salgueiro while discussing bringing Nicholas Lyndhurt onto the show for its latest go-around.
“Him coming and joining us was one of the greatest privileges in my life and one of the greatest things, I think for him,” Grammer said.
The five-time Emmy winner called Lyndhurst, 62, “one of the funniest people that ever lived.”
“Nicholas of course is, might be one of my best friends,” Grammer continued. “I don’t want to be corny and say he’s my best friend because then he’d say, ‘No, I’m not.’ But he’s certainly one of them. And to see him in this show is just magnificent and he’s just a gift to everybody that sees him.”
“This show’s about love,” Grammer said. “The love we discover. The love we have. The love we’re looking for, the love that just dropped in our laps. And that’s what we’re going to keep it about … providing somebody loves us enough at Paramount.”
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Frasieris streaming now on Paramount+.
source: people.com
