Frasier Crane Was Originally Offered to John Lithgow — How Kelsey Grammar Won the Role
The NBC comedy Cheers led to the hit spinoff Frasier. Even when Cheers called last call, fans hadn’t had enough of Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane, and Grammer is working on a Frasier revival now. But, if the original choice had accepted the role, John Lithgow would be Frasier Crane.
Cheers co-creator and director James Burrows was a guest on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast on Sept. 4 to discuss his book, Directed By James Burrows. Burrows told O’Brien the original casting for Frasier Crane and why Grammer ended up with his signature role.
John Lithgow wasn’t doing television when ‘Cheers’ was casting
Lithgow would eventually headline his own sitcom, 3rd Rock from the Sun in the ‘90s. Cheers added Frasier to the cast in season 3, in 1984. Around this time, Lithgow would be doing Footloose, and he always did theater in between movies.
“Kelsey owes his career, and I’ve told him this, to John Lithgow,” Burrows said on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. “When the boys wrote Frasier Crane, they went to Lithgow who would’ve been great. John didn’t want to do a series then and so we looked at a lot of people.”
Kelsey Grammer landed ‘Cheers’ because of a VHS tape
Back in the ‘80s there was no Zoom, and there weren’t even iPhones. Casting directors pored over VHS tapes submitted by agents. Grammar’s tape got him seen by Burrows and Glen and Les Charles. As soon as he filmed his first episode, they knew he’d become a regular.
“Then Kelsey’s face appeared on a tape from New York City and we started laughing,” Burrows said. “He was 28 years old and we brought him out. I think he lived in his car for a little bit until he got going, but he was amazing. He was a four show arc to get Diane back in the bar but once that first show happened, we knew we had to keep him.”
The Cheers Season 2 finale broke Sam and Diane up. Diane returned from being institutionalized, and in love with her doctor. She would, of course, ultimately leave Frasier too.
“At the end of the second year when Diane flips out and goes into a looney bin, in the first episode of the third year she brings her doctor into Cheers who has told her to go back and confront your demons,” Burrows said. “And the doctor was Frasier Crane.”
James Burrows watched Frasier Crane rise
When it came time to spin Frasier off, it was not Burrows and the Charles brothers, Glen and Les, who did it. David Angell, Peter Casey and David Lee created Frasier, and cast the extended Crane family.
“Their genius was they took an actor, Kelsey Grammer, and made him Sam Malone and made David Hyde Pierce Frasier,” Burrows said. “That’s how good an actor Kelsey is that he could go from kind of a strange dude on Cheers to the center of a show. They could bring David in to play Frasier.”
