Kelsey Grammer Wants Shelley Long To Return As Diane In 'Frasier' Reboot

Yesterday, Kelsey Grammer went on The Kelly Clarkson Show to talk about the Frasier reboot on Paramount+. Full disclosure: I’m a massive OG Frasier fan, and have yet to muster up the courage to watch the new show. That 59% on RottenTomatoes is not encouraging. Neither is the feedback on the Frasier subreddit. Or the glaring absence of Niles. Still, Dustin gave it a good-ish review, so maybe I should try it…

The reboot’s ten-episode season finished airing in December, and, so far, it hasn’t been renewed. But Kelsey is confident it will return. Kelly Clarkson asked him if any Cheers characters might show up in the future. After all, the show is set in Boston, and Roz (Peri Gilpin) and Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) popped by in Season 1. Unfortunately for Cheers-heads, Kelsey replied in the negative: “The bar is closed, the bar went out of business.”

But then the 68-year-old Trump supporter backtracked, and admitted he’d like Shelley Long to reprise her role as Frasier’s ex-fiancée, Diane Chambers:

But I would like to see Diane come back. For one of those reasons of… Frasier being able to put something to bed. To end up with a nice thing between them.

When I first got the role, the key to Frasier for me was that he loved her with his whole heart, that he loved with all of his being. And that actually defined who he is. He’s been that way ever since. He just goes in wholeheartedly with everything and that’s what makes him funny.

Shelley made three guest appearances on the original Frasier. Twice as a dream figure, and once as the real Diane in “The Show Where Diane Comes Back”. In that episode, she stages a play based on her experiences at Cheers. It’s basically all the men at the bar declaring their undying love for her. At the end of the ep, Diane apologizes to Frasier for leaving him at the wedding altar, postpones her play, and returns to LA, where she’d been working as a TV writer.

Here’s Kelsey on Kelly Clarkson. The pair talk Diane and Cheers around the 5:20 mark:

Kelly and Kelsey also performed a duet of the Frasier theme song, “Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs”:

Damn, every song Kelly touches turns to gold. What a talent!