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Color Page 2 • Terre Haute Tribune-Star • October 8 - 14, 2023 There's been room for "Frasier" ever since the original series end- ed, so there's certainly space for a revival. After winning four of his five Primetime Emmys for playing the title part, Kelsey Grammer returns as the high-minded psychiatrist in a new Paramount+ version of "Frasi- er" that starts streaming Thursday, Oct. 12 (CBS will give the reviv- al's first two episodes a broadcast run Oct. 17.). Originated by the actor as a supporting character on "Cheers," Dr. Frasier Crane returns to that show's Boston setting, with an outline of that city replacing that of his hometown of Seattle (where the first "Frasier" took place) in the opening credits. Also mostly new is the sup- porting cast, which was the case when Grammer initially transferred "Frasier" into his own show. Such figures as Frasier's brother Niles, played by David Hyde Pierce ("Julia"), who chose not to return, and his father Martin, played by John Mahoney, ("Moonstruck," 1987) who died in 2018, are now absent, as are Martin's caretaker and Niles' eventual wife, Daphne (Jane Leeves, "The Resident"), and Martin's frequent-Frasier-nemesis dog, Eddie. However, Peri Gilpin ("Scorpion") and Bebe Neuwirth ("Julia") — alias, respectively, Fra- sier's radio show producer Roz and his ex-wife Lilith — will be back on a recurring basis. Among actors joining "Frasier" for the first time are Jack Cut- more-Scott ("Oppenheimer," 2023) as Frasier's son, Freddy, and new actor Anders Keith as David, the son of Niles and Daphne (born in the finale of the original "Frasier"). Nicholas Lyndhurst ("Only Fools and Horses") is also a regular cast member as a college pal of Frasier's who is a professor now. Among the aspects retaining familiarity, though, will be a new rendering of the theme song ("Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs") recorded by Grammer, who also remains an executive producer. The first "Frasier" continues to be seen regularly in repeats, and having yielded more than 250 epi- sodes over 11 seasons, its successor has a long and celebrated legacy to live up to – encompassing its Primetime Emmy wins for out- standing comedy series for five consecutive years (1994-98). Much as the first show was, the new one is an exploration of Dr. Crane starting over. When last seen, he was headed for Chicago, presum- ably for him to be together with the girlfriend he had at the time (played by guest star Laura Linney, "Ozark"). That became his destina- tion after he let go of a San Fran- cisco television job he had gotten. Putting Frasier back in Boston is bound to give interesting twists to the premise in which viewers first got to know him. At least on a steady basis, he'll be without Sam Malone (Ted Danson, "The Good Place"), Diane Chambers (Shelley Long, "Modern Family") and the others he commiser- ated with regularly at the bar "where everybody knows your name." Much as he did upon his move to Seattle, he'll be surrounded by a fresh group that the new "Frasier's" makers clearly hope will catch on with viewers in the same way Niles and others did. coverstory BY JAY BOBBIN Kelsey Grammer, Jess Salgueiro and Jack Cutmore-Scott in "Frasier" The doctor is in again: Kelsey Grammer returns as 'Frasier' Still one of movie history's greatest comedies, though it has its share of pathos as well, "The Apartment" claimed the Oscar as the best picture of 1960. An MGM+ Drive-In attraction on Monday, Oct. 9, and Tuesday, Oct. 10, director and co-writer Billy Wilder's tale casts Jack Lemmon as an office drone who's quite popular with much of the management at his workplace … thanks to his relatively tiny apartment, which he loans out to the bosses so that they can have romantic trysts there. The company's main chief (Fred MacMurray) discovers what's going on and cuts himself in, but his affair is with the office building's elevator opera- tor (Shirley MacLaine) – who is greatly liked by Lemmon's character, forcing him to develop more of a conscience about what he's been facilitating. This simply is a great film that not only has held up on its own over 60-plus years, it also inspired the hit stage musical "Promises, Promises." The excellent cast also includes Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen and Edie Adams. Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine in "The Apartment" "The Apartment" remains well worth visiting classiccorner BY JAY BOBBIN "Murder on the Orient Express" (Paramount+, streaming): Director Sidney Lumet's wonderfully stylish 1974 version of the Agatha Christie mystery is — just as the ads promised — "the who's who in the whodunit," encompassing everyone from Albert Finney (as master sleuth Hercule Poirot) and Sean Connery to Lauren Bacall and Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman. The story has been told in other screen versions as well, but the sheer style and elegance of this rendering is hard to top. "How the West Was Won" (Turner Classic Movies, Monday, Oct. 9): Launching a two-night "National Parks and Landmarks" event that concludes the following Monday, this 1962 epic han- dled by multiple directors (John Ford among them) originally used the Cinerama process to tell several stories of the Old West, underscored by truly majestic settings. Spencer Tracy narrates the picture, whose huge cast includes James Stewart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Debbie Reynolds, Karl Malden, Robert Preston, Gregory Peck, Carroll Baker, Richard Widmark, Carolyn Jones and George Peppard. more retro rewinds