While the latest images from Frasier’s upcoming reboot do feature a bar, it is thankfully not the titular neighborhood haunt seen in Cheers. Cheers was a successful sitcom that utilized its location to ground each episode’s story. Although Cheers had a large cast, the fact that the action of each episode was mostly relegated to the eponymous bar meant that the series never got too ambitious for its own good. Cheers was one of the most popular sitcoms of the ‘80s and the series made stars of Ted Danson, Shelley Long, and Woody Harrelson, as well as spawning the phenomenally popular spinoff Frasier.
While Cheers was well-loved, Frasier was a rare spinoff that equaled and arguably even outdid its predecessor in terms of success. As such, the news that Frasier is receiving a reboot didn’t come as a major shock. The series moved the womanizing, neurotic psychiatrist from Boston to his hometown of Seattle where he worked as a radio show host. Although Frasier did feature occasional references to the events of Cheers, mostly, the show focused on its own story. With an ensemble cast that included Frasier’s aging father Martin, his sardonic brother Niles, his producer Roz, and Martin’s caretaker Daphne, there were plenty of new characters to populate the spinoff.
Frasier Has A New Hangout In His Upcoming Reboot
The first images from Frasier’s new reboot see the star of the series hanging out in a bar, but viewers who were worried that the show would be full of unnecessary nostalgia bait can rest easy. The bar from the Frasier revival is not Cheers, meaning the show won’t double as a comeback for its predecessor. While a Cheers revival is unlikely to ever happen, Frasier’s reboot could easily have become a continuation of both shows if the series brought back the iconic setting. However, this would have been a bad idea for numerous reasons. For one thing, there were too many Cheers characters for a Frasier reboot.
To do justice to the ensemble appeal of Cheers, Frasier’s reboot would have needed to bring back all of the show’s surviving cast members. At that point, Frasier’s follow-up would have effectively become a Cheers revival as its focus on Kelsey Grammar’s title character would inevitably have been diluted. The bar setting of the Frasier reboot’s first promotional images does prove that the lead character hasn’t changed too much in his decades off the small screen as he is still hanging around Boston bars. However, steering clear of Cheers as the show’s central location was a wise choice while the reboot attempts to develop a unique voice of its own.
How Frasier’s Reboot Bar Is Inspired By Cheers (& Cafe Nervosa)
While Cheers was a setting so iconic that it leant the show its name, Frasier’s coffee shop Cafe Nervosa was almost as important in the show’s spinoff. Like Central Perk in Friends, Frasier’s Cafe Nervosa was a meeting point where many of the show’s major stories were discussed and dissected. Thus, it makes sense that the unnamed bar seen in Frasier’s reboot already looks like a blend of both Cafe Nervosa and Cheers. It is evidently a bar rather than a coffee shop and has that Boston warmth. However, the books in the background lend the location a more intellectual air that connects to Frasier‘s Cafe Nervosa.
It would be impossible for the Frasier reboot to simply bring back Cafe Nervosa since the new series is set in Boston and the original show was set in Seattle. However, by introducing a new setting that takes elements from both Cheers and Cafe Nervosa, Frasier’s reboot makes it clear that the series will not be a carbon copy of either earlier show. The Boston setting means that the upscale coffee shop is replaced by a bar, but the years that have passed since the Cheers series finale have clearly impacted the feel of the show’s version of Boston. The new bar doesn’t look the same, and nor should it.
Why Frasier Returning To Cheers Wouldn’t Work
Frasier could never have returned to Cheers since this approach would be too distracting and, ironically, would the story away from Frasier. If the series was intended to be a Cheers revival, that would be different, but the point of bringing back Frasier was for viewers to see what the character had been up to during his long absence from the screen. As such, turning the reboot into a Cheers reboot would be both misleading and a wasted opportunity. Since Frasier was able to outdo Cheers in many respects, the last thing the show’s reboot needed was to be outshone by its own predecessor.
Frasier’s revival also couldn’t be set in Cheers since this wouldn’t reflect the character of Frasier himself. While the caddish, nervy antihero was hardly a changed man by the end of the series, he did improve during Frasier’s lengthy run. Frasier inevitably matured as the series continued and was less obstinate, arrogant, and boorish than his Cheers incarnation by the spinoff’s ending. As such, it would be a shame if the reboot planted him back among the patrons of Cheers. The rest of the show’s characters often brought the worst out in Frasier and, while this was undeniably funny in small doses, it wouldn’t work with him as the show’s lead.
Frasier’s Reboot Still Needs To Address Cheers
While Frasier’s reboot couldn’t be set in Cheers, the revival is also stuck in something of a catch-22. After all, the series can’t outright ignore Cheers either, since this would be as distracting as focusing on the setting. If Frasier returns to Boston and doesn’t at least mention Cheers, it will seem like something terrible must have happened offscreen in the intervening years. Much like The Conners mentions Roseanne from time to time, Frasier’s Boston-set reboot must at least acknowledge the existence of his old haunt.
Luckily, there is a fitting way for the series to handle this. Since a Cheers revival is extremely unlikely, Frasier could reference the fact that Cheers was resold, rebranded, or demolished and replaced by a contemporary bar during the time he spent in Seattle. While this would be bittersweet, it would allow Frasier to reflect on the ways that Boston has changed since he lived there and the fact that one can never truly return home. This sort of tragicomic storyline is perfectly suited to Frasier, and would be a fitting canonical end for the famous setting of Cheers.
