David Hyde Pierce snubbed the ‘Frasier’ revival to focus on “other things”.
The 64-year-old actor played Dr. Niles Crane – the brother of Kelsey Grammer’s character Frasier Crane – on the classic sitcom between 1992 and 2004, but he decided against reprising the role for the recent revival.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, he explained: “It’s not like I said, ‘Oh, I don’t ever want to do that again.’ I loved every moment.
“It was that I wanted to do other things. And when we got into real talks about the reboot, I had just started on the ‘Julia’ TV show and was working on a musical and going to do another musical, not this one.
“And I just thought, ‘I don’t want to be committed to a show and not be able to do stuff like this.’ ”
As well as his hectic schedule, David also didn’t think the revival needed him to be involved.
He added: “I also thought, ‘They don’t actually need me.’ Frasier has moved on to a new world. They have new characters.
“And I think I’m right. It’s doing great. And the new people they have are great.”
Kelsey previously opened up on David’s decision not to return.
He told People last year: “David basically decided he wasn’t really interested in repeating the performance of Niles.”
The initial idea for the revival – which had been in the pipeline for “six or seven years” – was to bring back all the so-called “legacy cast”, including Kelsey and David, as well as Peri Gilpin (Roz Doyle), Jane Leeves (Daphne Moon) and the late John Mahoney (Martin Crane), who passed away in 2018.
However, Kelsey admitted David’s decision change their plans for the Paramount+ series.
He said: “In a very funny way, it just took us to a new place, which was what we originally wanted to do anyway, which was a Fraser third act. It’s an entirely new life for him.”