The Return of Frasier

Kelsey Grammer holding my cartoons in his hands

If you follow me on Instagram you saw over the weekend that Kelsey Grammer was literally holding my cartoons in his hands.

Obviously, I rolled over and died. Frasier knows my name! Even if only for 5 minutes! Send me to Cafe Nervosa because I need some caffeine to wake me up from this dream!

To be clear, I did not meet Kelsey Grammer, a wonderful Substack supporter (Thank you ED!!!) brought him this cartoon at an event last weekend and told Mr. Grammer how much Frasier art I make.

If you’ve been here long enough, you know that I have a deep obsession/love/codependency with Frasier. It all began when I was about 7 years old and my parents got me a little TV in my bedroom that could play 3 channels and had a built in VCR. Sometimes I was lucky enough to turn my TV on at night to find a fascinating show with soothing orange and brown colors and a lot of back and forth one-liners. I had no idea what anyone was talking about but I knew I was hooked. Frasier was my friend.

Cut to me moving to New York in my 20s and the only thing keeping me sane at night is falling asleep to Frasier. After running around the city all day between random nannying, bartending, and PA jobs, Frasier was what I came home to. It was the ultimate safe space, like so many 90s sitcoms now are. A pre-9/11 calm yet slapstick world to step into to forget all my blues. I had a parent, a friend, a lover, and a dog, all set against some fantastic furniture in Seattle and a warm jazzy soundtrack. The palette of Frasier is so idyllic that it became a subculture on the internet (and in the world) known as Frasurbane. While I was drawing doodles about the show, I was so excited to find out that I was not the only 90s baby worshipping Niles, Marty, and Daphne. Turns out, there were a lot of us falling asleep to Frasier.

When I moved in with my now best friend Kelsey years ago to what became our home for the following six years, she had not really seen Frasier. Or she had seen it awhile ago, but she didn’t quite remember much. I was shocked and told her she had to put it on, to experience it’s aura. Kelsey watched it one night by herself and to no one’s surprise, she was hooked. Our apartment became a Frasier apartment. If you were lonely, watch Frasier. If you were buzzed, watch Frasier. If you were having an existential crisis, watch Frasier.

When I first broke into The New Yorker in 2016/2017, one of the first cartoons I sold was of this exact sentiment.

Over the weekend when I was flipping out about Kelsey Grammar knowing my name, I googled myself with the word Frasier, simply looking to find the above cartoon, when I stumbled upon Ken Levine’s blog. Ken is a wonderful TV writer, working on the best of the best: Everybody Loves Raymond, The Simpsons, and of course, Frasier. He liked the cartoon, but the comments section devolved into people debating whether or not I’m as hot as Peri Gilpin (ultimate decision, no I’m not).

I stared at these comments for an unhealthy amount of time, maniacally laughing but also probably hurt on an unconscious level that I don’t want to admit. I mean I’m truly honored to be discussed in any fashion, especially by Frasier fans(!!), but also I deeply considered writing back (6 years later), “I’ve lost weight” just to see if they would please reconsider my hotness?

It’s funny how much my love of Frasier has legitimately influenced my life. Not only is it in so much of my work, like the punchline of this long New Yorker Daily Shouts, How To Cure Hiccups in Millennials, it was also a core bonding point that began my previous relationship that lasted many years. When we first met, he told me he loved Meg Ryan movies, country music, and falling asleep to Frasier. I thought he was kidding, and asked him who put him up to this?? Because why else would a straight man list my three favorite things…what was he trying to do, get into my PANTS!? But he was serious. In the first few months of us dating, I painted him the Empty Set of Frasier which ended up making me a lot of money as a very popular print. It’s currently out of stock but if there’s enough interest I would consider getting a new round of prints made.

I used to make a lot of jokes that I would die when they took Frasier off Netflix.

EXHIBIT A!

But then they actually took Frasier off Netflix.

Don’t worry, I have all of Frasier on DVD (my ex and I both bought it for each other one Christmas), and now we know you can also find it on Hulu (but with ads, those fuckers) and Paramount+.

I believe it was two years ago when I started to hear the rumbles of a Frasier reboot. As a massive fan I thought, oh please dear god no. Don’t ruin it. Don’t bring that liberal pithy elitist dialogue that exists in a perfect 90s vacuum into our year of 2023. It just won’t translate! He’ll just be an asshole! I mean he was always an asshole, but it was ok back then. And a show without Marty? And possibly without Niles? What would the point be??? I prayed they would realize it was a very bad idea, and shelf it, like they do with all the TV shows I write. But weeks ago the announcement was real. Frasier would be returning, back in Boston, without Niles, without everyone really. And I don’t know how to feel. Will I watch it? Of course. I’ll watch the whole thing front to back and all over again. But will it be good? Will it all have been worthwhile? I want to believe it’ll be good, like the way I want to believe wine is good for me.

I spent all last week worrying about Frasier’s return, until a friend sent me a text with this image.

Tears filled my eyes. “Life’s Calling Again?!” IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. IT WAS MY EVERYTHING, IT FELT LIKE I WAS SEVEN AGAIN! That giant ad entering my life as a 32-year-old literally gave me hope. And I know that’s exactly what the advertisers want from me. They want me to get all fucking excited over their retro billboard and get a Paramount+ subscription and watch the show even if it’s not that great because how could it be, and dammit, it worked.

Frasier returns to the little screen on October 12th. I will be watching, and sharing my thoughts here. Will you watch with me?? Are you a Daphne or a Roz? A Niles or a Bulldog? Or are you just a regular ol’ Eddie!

Thank you for reading! New posts every Friday!

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• ICYMI: I’m at Brooklyn Book Festival this Sunday! It’s free!

• Just watched: Dumb Money!

• Obsessed with: finishing an old movie of mine

• On repeat: honestly, Frasier

• Most of the cartoons in this newsletter are available on Etsy!

• Are you using your What Did I Do Today? journal? I would love to hear from you!