Why Ben Gazzara Was Never Seen on a ‘Frasier’ Episode: His Spectacularly Weird Request
The NBC comedy Frasier had plenty of A-list guest stars. Many Cheers cast members visited Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) in Seattle. Patrick Stewart, Bill Gates and Laura Linney were among other Frasier guest stars. One guest star, however, ruled himself out of a Frasier episode with his weird request.
Frasier writer Ken Levine discussed the episode and guest star in question on an episode of his Hollywood & Levine podcast. Here’s why you never saw Ben Gazzara on an episode of Frasier.
The ‘Frasier’ episode they wanted to cast Ben Gazzara for
Gazzara was a film and television actor from the ‘60s through his death in 2012. Though he starred on three seasons of Run For Your Life, it was 2003’s Hysterical Blindness that finally landed him an Emmy. Gazzara also appeared in legendary movies from Anatomy of a Murder to Road House and The Big Lebowski.
“There was a part for Martin’s partner,” Levine said on Hollywood & Levine. “Martin of course was the dad played by John Mahoney. In the series, he was supposed to be a former cop. He was a cop on the beat, a uniformed police officer. So somebody in the room got the idea of Ben Gazzara. I go, “Oh, that sounds really interesting.’”
Ben Gazzara blew his chance to be on a ‘Frasier’ episode in a spectacular way
Usually when a guest star agrees to do the show, that’s good news. For Frasier, Gazzarra had a strange request.
“So they call up Ben Gazzara and Ben Gazzara says, ‘Okay, I’ll do it but I want to play Ben Gazzara,’” Levine said. “And they said, ‘Well, wouldn’t that be kind of weird? How do we explain that the character has the same name as you and looks just like you?’ And he goes, ‘No, no, I would play myself.’”
You’ve heard of method acting, but Gazzara was going too far for a traditional sitcom like Frasier.
“They said, ‘Yeah, but see the part is you’re supposed to be a police officer in San Francisco,’” Levine said. “And he goes, ‘Yeah.’ But you’re an actor. He says, ‘Yeah, well, I could sell the fact that I did both.’ Wait, so when you’re done filming your John Cassavetes movie, you go up to San Francisco and give out parking tickets? What?”
They said no to Ben Gazzara
Ben Gazzara, the actor as Martin’s old partner, would have required a major rewrite. Not only were the Frasier writers unwilling to put in the work to accommodate Gazzara, they just knew it was a bad idea.
“That’s the only way that Ben Gazzara would do the role,” Levine said. “Needless to say they passed.”
