Frasier's Integral Father-Son Story Was Inspired By Real-Life Circumstances
When "Frasier" premiered in 1993, it somehow accomplished the feat of being a fish-out-of-water story and a homecoming all at once. The series follows Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) as he returns to his native Seattle following his tenure in Boston (and, accordingly, "Cheers"). There, the prodigal son must take in his father, Martin (John Mahoney), a former Seattle Police Department detective who caught a stray bullet in the line of fire. Frasier's pompous attitude and highfalutin tastes, however, don't align with the blue-collar Martin, and the series mines much of its humor from their odd-couple living situation.
When they were developing "Frasier," co-creators David Lee, David Angell, and Peter Casey began to formulate the show as a workplace comedy. That focus shifted when Lee's father had a stroke. "It became clear to baby boomer, only-child me that I was going to have to take care of my parents," Lee recalled in Vanity Fair's oral history of "Frasier." "I remember thinking, what if that happened to Frasier?"
For Casey, the father-son story was all the more interesting given Frasier's profession. The cop angle he borrowed from his own upbringing. "Here's a psychiatrist, telling people how to resolve their family issues, with his own family issues disrupting his life," Casey said. "His dad (a policeman like my father and grandfather), a home-care worker, a dog, and that sh***y old Barcalounger."
The disconnect between Martin and his children provided plenty of punchlines, but over the course of the series, their relationships became more profound.
Martin and his sons weren't so different after all
Frasier was initially going to be an only child, like David Lee, until a casting assistant brought in a picture of David Hyde Pierce. The resulting character, Niles, was Frasier to the nth degree — even more arrogant, and with a degree from Yale instead of Harvard.
"People always ask how Frasier and Niles came from a father like Martin," Kelsey Grammer said in the same piece for Vanity Fair. Despite their differences, he asserted, all three Crane men possess a firm moral compass. "Martin's in public service, into knowing what's right and wrong," Grammer continued. "That's exactly what his sons were. On the simplest level, he was a good man, and their hope was to become the same thing."
"Frasier" may have been a farcical sitcom, but Martin's backstory had the tragedy and intrigue of a drama. "The guy's lost everything he's loved — his wife, job, independence," added "Frasier" writer and producer Joe Keenan. "He has nothing left but his dog, chair, and two sons he feels look down on him. Watching him warm up to them gave the show its sweetest, most hopeful long-term arc."
Indeed, the father-son dynamic is so central to "Frasier" that it became the guiding force behind the ongoing reboot series. The new show reunites Frasier with his estranged son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), who takes over Martin's post as the de facto blue-collar member of the family.