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Kelsey Grammer's Politics Are a Problem for Paramount+

By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 4, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | December 4, 2023 |


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I’m not going to link to the trailer because I don’t want to give it any more exposure than necessary. However, The Daily Wire will soon release a movie called Lady Ballers, a terrifically mean-spirited “comedy” about a down-on-his-luck former high-school basketball coach who leads his team of men to don wigs and brutally dominate multiple women’s sports. Ted Cruz makes a cameo.

I mention this only to illustrate who the folks signing up for the animated scripted series, Mr Birchum, are getting in bed with. The series, produced and airing on The Daily Wire streaming service, is written and created by Adam Corolla. It’s based on his junior high woodshop teacher, who was popularized on KROQ radio and later Crank Yankers. The fact that Corolla is a conservative is not a surprise — everyone already knew this. In fact, most of the voice talent involved are known conservatives: Roseanne Barr, Megyn Kelly (her first role in a scripted series), and Candace Owens are among them.

But then there are those most of us may have assumed or knew were conservative but didn’t think they were conservative enough to associate themselves with an animated series from the company behind Lady Ballers. There’s Patrick Warburton — The Tick, Seinfeld — which is a bummer, and Rob Riggle, which is almost inexplicable given his association with The Daily Show, which would have destroyed Ben Shapiro on a daily basis if it had been around during Jon Stewart’s reign. I suspect that former SNL star Jay Mohr — who is now married to the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers — is supporting his friend, Adam Carolla, but still: Lady Ballers. Come on, Jay.

And then there’s Danny Trejo. You know what? I’m going to give Trejo — a lifelong Democrat — a pass because Trejo has never said no to a paycheck in his life. He has 17 credits in 2023 alone and 33 projects currently in the works. He probably has no idea what The Daily Wire is. I will blame his agent, though, for not giving him a heads-up.

Speaking of people who we already knew were Republicans but may have been holding out hope that they weren’t MAGA: The PR people at Paramount+ abruptly ended an interview that Kelsey Grammer was giving to the BBC when the Frasier star admitted that he still supports Donald Trump. That’s clearly not an association that Paramount wants fans of Frasier to have. I know that actors are not their characters, but there’s no way that Frasier Crane votes for a man who puts ketchup on his steak, does not drink, and eats at McDonald’s.

As Redmond notes, however, Paramount might be missing an opportunity to attract Yellowstone fans to the Frasier reboot, which I will begrudgingly admit is fitfully amusing. In fact, Paramount+ is looking for a potential new business merger: Maybe instead of Apple or Amazon, they should look into The Daily Wire.