The Surprising Amount Of Times Kelsey Grammer Has Played Frasier

We've all heard of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which Marvel is currently in the process of trying to fix before it's too late. But if you happened to grow up in the 90s you might well be familiar with arguably the true forerunner to Marvel's juggernaut of a blockbuster franchise: The Frasier-verse. Ok, Dr. Frasier Crane might not be the real genesis of the gargantuan shared timeline erected by Marvel Studios over the past decade, but he was at the center of a television universe that is much larger than you might think.

Most fans will know that Kelsey Grammer debuted as the character on "Cheers," which ran for 11 seasons from 1982 until 1993, before starring in his own sitcom which also ran for 11 seasons before wrapping up in 2004. Likewise, most will know that he reprised the role in 2023 for the neither disappointing nor remarkable "Frasier" revival series for the Paramount+ streaming service. But what even some seasoned "Frasier" fans might not realize is that Grammer has actually played the titular doctor outside of "Cheers" and "Frasier" quite a bit. In fact, with the amount of times the good doctor has shown up in other venues, he's managed to construct a shared television universe that, for '90s kids at least, surely rivals the modern cinematic universes that have for better or worse come to dominate modern moviemaking.

Even if Kelsey Grammer had just played Frasier on "Cheers," "Frasier," and the revival show, he would have already made television history by portraying the same character across three series and four decades — rivaled only by his co-star Bebe Neuwirth, who made history on the "Frasier" revival when she showed up as Dr. Crane's ex-wife and former "Cheers" character Lilith Sternin. But Grammer has Neuwirth beat. The actor has quietly expanded the Frasier-verse outside of those main shows, appearing in a number of cameo roles across other sitcoms, commercials, and specials.

Frasier first appeared in the third season of "Cheers" back in 1984 as a love interest for Shelley Long's Diane Chambers in the two-part episode "Rebound." Initially intended as a recurring character who would eventually leave the series, Grammer impressed series creators James Burrows, Glen, and Les Charles enough that they made him a main cast member for the show's fifth season in 1986.

When "Cheers" wrapped up in 1993, the original plan was not for Frasier to get his own spinoff. But after NBC convinced former "Cheers" writers David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee that they should do just that, "Frasier" was born. That beloved '90s sitcom ran for a further 11 seasons until 2004, before Grammer, along with writers Chris Harris and Joe Cristali, revived the series in 2023. But throughout that 40-year time-span, Grammer also played Frasier in a number of other places, perhaps most notably in Angell, Casey, and Lee's other "Cheers"-related spinoff "Wings." To be more accurate, "Wings" was set in the "Cheers" universe without being a direct spinoff. By extension, then, it was also set in the "Frasier" universe, and in season 3, episode 16, "Planes, Trains, & Visiting Cranes," the good doctor and his then-wife, Lilith, showed up on the series.

With the debut of "Frasier" in 1993, then, Grammer had appeared as the titular psychiatrist in three separate shows set in the same universe. But that wasn't the end of his prolific cameo career.

The legacy of "Frasier" is much more than that of a classic '90s sitcom. For starters, the revival show has proven popular enough to survive for a second go-round in the streaming age, and there is an entire aesthetic attributed to the good doctor, known as "Frasurbane" — think Ivy League academia meets Barnes & Noble coffee shop. There's even an Instagram account for the look, proving that "Frasier" was about more than a tightly-written satire of silly elitist preoccupations, and actually spoke to a certain moment in time.

The span of the "Frasier"-verse is testament to the character's influence, too. Beyond his sitcom appearances, Dr. Crane has actually shown up in a surprising amount of Disney TV specials as part of the "Magical World of Disney" programming block. These include pre-"Frasier" specials such as 1988's "Mickey's 60th Birthday," a 1990 episode of "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color," and 1990's "The Earth Day Special," in which he appeared alongside an ensemble cast to talk about environmental issues.

As if that wasn't enough, in 2008 Grammer branched out from his sitcom and special cameo career to play Dr. Crane in a Dr. Pepper commercial, which also features Bebe Neuwirth voicing Lilith as a caller to Frasier's radio show. In all, then, the "Frasier"-verse now spans multiple formats across four decades which, I'm just saying, is a heck of a lot more than the MCU.