Going in a Different Direction
The original pitch for “Fraiser” was completely different from the end result. Peter Casey, a writer for “Cheers,” came up with the idea for Grammer to play a Malcolm Forbes-esque character who owned a magazine empire. The character, a motorcycle enthusiast, would have suffered a tragic accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down and cared for by a “street-smart nurse in a Manhattan penthouse” according to Mental Floss. NBC was taken aback by the idea and President of Paramount TV John Pike regarded it as “one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard in my life” and considered the pitch “not funny.”