Parnell: Can Frasier and friends save the humble sitcom?

Kerry Parnell is hopeful the Frasier reboot will prove sitcoms haven’t gasped their last breath and revealed the others that she’d like to see receive the same treatment.

This week a trailer for the upcoming reboot of Frasier dropped online and, just from the credits, I’m in. Reuniting with the radio psychiatrist after all these years, is like popping on a comfy pair of slippers.

If anyone can revive the TV genre, it would be our favourite head doctor. Perhaps he can analyse why we all turned our back on it in the first place?

Sitcoms once dominated TV – from Seinfeld to Friends, they were our regular comforting check-in with familiar characters. Everyone watched them; they were something to bond over, creating catchphrases, jokes and water-cooler chat. All that’s gone now.

Thanks to the rise of streaming services, sitcoms now no longer have an obvious home – channels aren’t likely to give them time to develop over a few series, which is what most need. Ironically, streaming services then pay big bucks for the old ones – Netflix famously spent $US100 million to air Friends for one year.

Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green in Friends. Netflix famously spent $US100 million to air Friends for one year. Picture: NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Then there’s the problem of jokes – and how to make them – in 2023. Even Jerry Seinfeld put himself in jail at the end of his long-running series in 1998 for comedy cruelty – imagine if it was launching today.

However, I’m hopeful Frasier will prove sitcoms haven’t gasped their last breath. Has there ever been more need for humour? There has not.

Kelsey Grammar in Frasier. Hopefully the reboot will prove sitcoms haven’t gasped their last breath.

Here’s what else I’d love to see back on screen:

Cheers

The original cast of Cheers.

The forerunner to Frasier, based in the famous Boston bar, aired from 1982-1993. Despite anyone never likely to top the Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane (Shelley Long) tension, I’d love to see it return. Even if a new generation doesn’t much visit bars today, they’d go to this one.

Flight of the Conchords

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement in Flight of the Conchords.

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are no longer “the almost-award-winning, fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand”. But, oh, how I long for them to pull on their business socks and give us another tune in the comedy series which ran from 2007-2009.

The Golden Girls

Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty and Betty White from The Golden Girls.

Incredibly, we still haven’t seen another sitcom about funny older women to rival The Golden Girls, and it launched in 1985. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, it ran until 1992. And Just Like That is giving it a go, but needs to up the humour standard if it’s going to succeed.

M*A*S*H

Actors Alan Alda and Gary Burghoff in M*A*S*H.

It was an unlikely setting – the Korean War of the 1950s – but this hit series starring Alan Alda, Loretta Swit and Harry Morgan was a classic. It aired from 1972–83 and pretty much never stopped since. A period-comedy-war sitcom seems impossible now, but I’d love to see someone try.

Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards of Seinfeld. Picture: Sony

The sultan of sitcoms was, of course, Seinfeld, which ran from 1989–98, despite being a show about nothing. Following the exploits of Jerry Seinfeld, Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George Costanza (Jason Alexander) and co as they navigated New York. If Jerry’s jeans and trainers are back in fashion, then surely the stand-up is too?