How Frasier Ripped Us Off!

Ya know kids, good stories don’t just fall out the sky. Sometimes you have to work really hard… and ACTUALLY write them yourself. 

Like the stories WE wrote and officially submitted to Paramount+ which they totally ripped off and aired on their network without our consent or any form of credit or compensation!

Back in 2021 my husband Adam and I applied to be writers on the official Paramount+ Reboot of Frasier. During that process we were in communication with the head writers and executive producers of the reboot Joe Cristalli and Chris Harris (How I Met Your Mother). We sent them LOTS of original material that we had written for our version of the Frasier reboot. 

Please check out these videos that further explain our journey of applying for writing positions and our communication with the executive producers. 

I also made a visual mockup for some of the material we provided that you can view here. It outlines our concepts for the reboot, the official submitted material and some more insight into our creative ideas and the reasoning behind our creative decisions.  

The fulls scripts are also available to read through this blog! 

So after sending in our material we were completely ghosted and heard nothing back, like at all. We reached out to other members of the project to no avail and we just kind of let go of things from there. That was until we recently watched the first two episodes of the Frasier reboot…

We instantly noticed some very strong similarities between the material that was aired in comparison to what we submitted and we just have to talk about it! 

So we are gonna take you through a side by side comparison of what we submitted to Paramount+  versus what was actually aired on their network. And we really want to know what you think about it! 

Warning!

There are gonna be some spoilers ahead for the reboot. We’re gonna do our best not to spoil the tossed salad and scrambled eggs for ya, but if you haven’t seen the reboot yet, check it out on Paramount+. 

The themes below are just some of the major comparisons that we noticed when watching the Frasier reboot. There were definitely more smaller, coincidences that we picked up on but we will go over that later. 

For right now, we are going to focus on the bigger, more noticeable similarities between the material.

The left-hand side is going to show you material that was actually aired through Paramount+. The right hand side is going to show you a visual, mock up of the material we created and submitted to Paramount+.

1. The Skyline 

Paramount+: Personal moment looking over the Boston skyline. 

Kim & Adam: Personal moment looking over the Seattle skyline. 

This was a big similarity that we noticed right away. 

There was a small moment in the reboot, where Fraser steps off of the plane as he arrives in Boston. He walks by a poster in the airport that shows a Boston skyline and then he has a moment to himself when he looks at the skyline.

We wrote a very similar scenario in our material. We wrote that Frasier returned to Seattle and the first stop he makes is at Martin and Ronee’s apartment. When he enters the apartment he looks out the window and sees the Seattle skyline. He then has a silent moment to himself where he smiles, and says the line “hello again, my old friend”.

  

When we wrote this moment, it held some major significance, because our storyline outlined Frasier's returning to his hometown. So him looking out over the skyline upon his return, was going to have major significance not only for him, but for the storyline as well. It was also meant to set the tone of the location for the audience. 

So, although it was a small moment in the reboot, that was a very significant moment to us, especially when you compare it to the material we presented to them and why we made that choice. 

2. The TV Host

Paramount+: Famous TV Host who becomes a writer.

Kim & Adam: Famous writer who becomes a TV Host. 

On the Frasier reboot, they wrote that Frasier is a very rich and famous TV personality in Chicago and that’s what he’s been doing for the past 20 years. Following his fathers funeral, he is now traveling and on his way to Paris where he plans to research material for his new book. But instead, he ends up reconnecting with old friends and family during his visit in Boston and decides to permanently move there. 

So what we wrote was basically an inverted version of their backstory, with the same overall story arch and character struggle. 

We wrote that Frasier didn’t move to Chicago, he ended up in San Francisco where he had a successful private practice. He also became a distinguished writer; writing three books in five years and recently was added to the NYT Best Sellers List. 

Frasier visits Seattle following the immediate news of his father, Martin’s death. 

He then reconnects with his family (Niles, Daphne and their children) and his old friend Roz who is now a powerful TV executive and runs a famous morning talk show in Seattle. After spending some time with his family and getting pestered by Roz to be a guest host on her show, he eventually decides to permanently move back to Seattle. 

 

So we thought it was interesting that Paramount+ wrote that Frasier is now a famous TV Host when our story outlined the journey of Frasier becoming a famous TV Host. We also thought it was pretty interesting that Frasier is now on his way to become a successful writer when we write his backstory was as an esteemed, award winning writer. 

It’s so weird, they literally flip flopped our back stories.

3. Martin’s Funeral 

Paramount+: Frasier returns from Martin’s funeral; Freddy did not attend. 

Kim & Adam: Frasier attends and speaks at Martin’s funeral; Freddy did not attend.

 

They wrote that Frasier visits Boston returning from his fathers funeral. Fraser is upset that Freddy did not attend the funeral and the first episode centers around Frasier and Freddy reconnecting and working through their differences. 

Now, our first episode was basically focused around Martin’s actual funeral and Frasier reconnecting with his family (Niles and his family) as well as Roz, and some other core characters. 

We didn’t write Freddy being at the funeral either, but we had different reasons that we did not disclose to Paramount+. Because we planned on using that material later in the season if we were actually hired. 

 

But we did write some really nice material to commiserate the loss of John Mahoney, with a beautiful eulogy that Adam wrote to honor his memory. 

So, we’re gonna ease up on this comparison, because the loss of Martin, Frasier’s father was an obvious and unfortunately true element to Frasier’s storyline and franchise that had to be addressed. 

But still, a similarity is a similarity right? And Martin’s funeral was definitely a recurring theme in both of these stories. We just addressed ours differently.

And from here on out, is where things get really interesting. 

4. The Job Offer 

Paramount+: Olivia is a department head at Harvard and wants to hire Frasier as a guest professor to boost her career. She is domineering and reluctantly hounds Frasier until he accepts her job offer and he relocates. 

Kim & Adam: Roz is a powerful executive at a local TV Station and runs a famous morning talk show. She wants to hire Frasier as a guest host on her show to boost her career and the stations ratings. She is domineering and reluctantly hounds Frasier until he accepts her job offer and he relocates. 

 

Olivia is a powerful department head at Harvard. She is a domineering girl boss and offers Frasier a job teaching that he is initially reluctant to. She is very persistent and head strong and continually pesters him throughout the episode until he accepts her position and officially moves to Boston. 

We wrote that Roz was a powerful executive who runs a really famous morning talk show in Seattle. She reunites with Frasier at (and after) Martin’s funeral and offers Frasier his own segment on her show. He is hesitant to the idea, but after reevaluating his life and being hounded by Roz, he ultimately accepts her offer and moves back to Seattle.

 

We thought these similarities were pretty clear. 

You have the strong female boss archetype who is driven by success and strives to have Frasier be a guest spot in her organization to boost their ratings and notoriety. Frasier is initially resistant to the thought, but after spending some time with his old friends and family he reprioritizes his goals, accepts the job; eventually relocating.

Um, yeah… pretty straightforward. 

We also thought it was interesting how Olivia was described in her introduction as “an absolute terror” because we wrote some great material for Roz where she lays down the law in her executive role. 

 

The parallels between Roz and Olivia were pretty evident to me personally. Although I think that Roz is a lot tougher and more confident in her presence. 

(I wrote a lot of Roz’ dialogue so I take pride in the character dynamics I created.)

So now I’m pretty curious to see what kind of “absolute terror” comes out of Olivia’s character in the future, considering she was obviously influenced by our version of Roz and her overall vibe. 

5. The Fancy Dinner 

Paramount+: Frasier makes a fancy dinner for Freddy that gets interrupted. 

Kim & Adam: Frasier makes a fancy dinner for Niles’ kids that gets interrupted. 

 

So this one is also pretty obvious in my opinion. 

They wrote that Frasier comes by Freddy’s apartment with a bag of food, offering to cook a fancy dinner. He says his fancy food line and then ends the moment with a simplified.. “Steaks! I have steaks!”. The fancy dinner gets interrupted and they don’t actually get to eat it.  

So what we wrote in episode two of our material was that Frasier babysits Niles’ and Daphne’s kids for the weekend. While they’re away he cooks the kids a fancy dinner. He says his fancy food line and you guessed it… the dinner gets interrupted and they don’t actually get to eat it.  

Now, we wrote that Frasier cooks duck o’lagrange (a staple for anyone who watched the original show) and the kids freak out when they realize he cooked a duck, like the ones they feed at the pond. 

To calm the crying tantrum he stumbles, grabs the phone and clamors “Pizza, yes! We’ll order pizza!”. 

 

Although the scenes were very different we felt this was a pretty clear comparison and an obvious influence to what they wrote. 

6. The Messy Apartment 

Paramount+: Frasier unexpectedly arrives at Freddy’s apartment to find that it’s disheveled. It’s revealed a baby lives with him and kids stuff clutters up the space. 

Kim & Adam: Frasier unexpectedly arrives at Niles home to find that it’s disheveled. Niles has four children and kids stuff clutters up the space. 

Paramount+ wrote that Frasier arrives at Freddys apartment when he looks around and starts sneering and critiquing his home for its condition and for Freddy’s obvious lack of wages. It’s later revealed that Freddy is hiding from Frasier the fact that a baby lives with him in his apartment. Once disclosed, they live openly with the baby and the living environment becomes cluttered and chaotic. 

So we wrote the messy apartment in a few different, but extremely similar ways. 

 

First we wrote that when Frasier arrived at Ronnie and Martins apartment he looked around her place all snobby because it was cluttered with boxes and stuff everywhere. 

We didn’t write that in as a way to insult anyone, but more so to showcase how Ronee is an older woman, who just lost her husband and now her home, like her life, is cluttered up. We also wrote this great bonding moment between Frasier and Niles later on in the episode where they are going through boxes and reminiscing about their father. 

 

We also wrote that Niles is a father to younger children and his home has completely been overtaken and cluttered up by kids stuff. Sound familiar? 

Frasier shows up to Niles’ house unexpected one morning catching him off guard. Niles tries to shoo Frasier away, to hide the fact that his house is in shambles. Frasier comes inside seeing the condition of Niles home and has some comedic dialogue about the state of things.  

The messy home and the kids clutter was a very strong theme in our material. We wanted to showcase actual living conditions, give some real insight and commentary of what parenthood and being on budgeted incomes can look like. 

It is undeniable to me that those themes were also a heavy influence to this reboot as well. 

This next one is just… wow! 

7. Baby Johnny 

Paramount+: Freddy’s roommate Eve, has a son. A baby who is named John. 

Kim & Adam: Niles has two sons. The baby, is named Johnny. 

 

This one shocked the heck out of us! 

As previously mentioned, it’s revealed on the reboot that Freddy’s roommate is a single mom and her infant son is named John. 

Which I’m assuming is a nod to John Mahoney because we literally wrote the same exact thing and told them that! 

 

So not only did we submit four official scripts to Paramount+ during this application process, we also sent in a bunch of other material outlining the characters, backstories and reasoning for our decisions as artists. 

In the original series Niles and Daphne had two children. So we added two more and disclosed that and our thought process for doing so when we submitted the actual scripts. 

We wanted Johnny to be a Pre K, Dennis the Menace kind of kid who was there to honor John Mahoney. His simplistic and childish energy was designed to be a way to balance and counteract the constant genius and pretentiousness of his family. His character was also designed to be an ‘ice breaker’ character so to speak; that innocent, sweetness or obnoxiousness vibe to keep everything in check. 

So we were completely stunned when we saw this because in my opinion, that was a blatant rip off. 

I also think it was interesting how the character Alan, had four kids. Which again is the very backstory we wrote for Niles. 

 

Pretty interesting huh? 

8. Messy Homes, Frustrated Parents. 

Paramount+: Freddy’s apartment is overrun with kids stuff. He and Eve are burnt out. Frasier offers to help.  

Kim & Adam: Niles home is overrun with kids stuff. He and Daphne are burnt out. Frasier offers to help.  

 

So after its revealed that Eve and baby Johnny are living with Freddy, his home becomes over run with kid stuff. Eve and Freddy have obvious reactions to the plight of parenthood and express their frustration to Frasier. 

Frasier, taking stock of the situation sees the obvious overwhelming state of their lives and offers to help by paying their rent and moving Freddy into his apartment. 

Which again, is exactly what we wrote… but for Niles. 

 

We wrote that Niles is an exhausted parent off four. He went from Dr. Decadence for Dr. Dad and can no longer afford the luxurious lifestyle he could once had. 

One morning Frasier pops in unexpectedly and sees the actual condition of Niles life - his home cluttered in kids stuff, his obvious lack of control, the tension between him and Daphne and the overall pressures of life. 

Frasier consoles Niles, allowing him to vent his frustrations when he offers his help. Instead of buying him an apartment building, he offers to treat Daphne and Niles to a long weekend away and babysit the kids while they’re gone. 

Again, we felt this our material had an obvious influence to what they presented once you break down these comparisons. 

9. The Baseball Bat 

Paramount+: A singing baby chair goes off, startling Freddy. He grabs the closest item - a baseball bat, to hit the chair. 

Kim & Adam: A pair of ferrets scurry by, startling Frasier. He grabs the closest item - a baseball bat, to hit the ‘rodents’. 

 

On the official reboot, they wrote a scene where Freddy, Eve and Frasier keep triggering a kids chair that plays music. The music startles Freddy who then grabs a nearby baseball bat in defense to the sound. He hits the chair with the bat to stop the music, looking frustrated. 

That is basically the same situation we wrote for Frasier when he visits Niles. 

 

In our scene Frasier shows up one morning to Niles home surprising him. Frasier realizes that Niles home is in disarray and is reacting to the cluttered environment. As he is taking in the situation he hears a scurry and sees a pair of ferrets run across the floor. 

He comically responds screaming “you even have rodents!” He then grabs the closest item to him. Yep, you guessed it… a baseball bat… to defend himself from the ‘rodents’. 

Our baseball was more of a kids baseball bat, comically large and inflatable. We wanted to give Frasier a big, funny moment here where he was basically playing whack a ferret with this giant, squeaky kids bat. We were going for the big laughs here. Sorry, baby shark… 

 

Jodi (Niles daughter) then runs in to protect her pet ferrets, which we named Moose and Enzo. 

We purposely named her pets after the dogs who Played Eddie in the original series. We put A LOT of thought into the material we presented and explained those decisions when we were in communication with Paramount+. 

So we were really surprised when they also used the named Moose in their production, which was the name of Freddy’s firefighter friend.

Again, their material was executed differently but our material was very much an obvious influence to what they aired. 

10. Moving Day 

Paramount+: Frasier moves back to Boston and the episode ends in his new apartment filled with moving boxes. 

Kim & Adam: Frasier moves back to Seattle and the episode ends in his new apartment filled with moving boxes.

 

 

Frasier ends up surprising Freddy with the news that he’s moved back. Freddy and Eve enter his new apartment and see boxes and moving stuff everywhere. 

Which is really similar to what we wrote at the end of our episode one. 

We wrote a very similar ending. 

At the end of our episode Frasier moves back to Seattle. During the Tossed Salad & Scrambled Eggs bit we had Frasier in his new apartment unpacking moving boxes. We wrote this tasteful scene where you see a photo of Martin on the shelf and as Frasier unpacks, he places a photo of Eddie next to Marty’s picture. 

Coincidence? You tell me. 

11. Oh No, You Didn’t!   

So leading up to this point, Adam and I were both fully convinced that our content was in fact mined for influence on this reboot. There were just too many noticeable comparisons between the materials that were too persistent to be ignored. And now, after all this time it FINALLY made sense to us why they ghosted us. Like seriously, we didn’t even get a thanks, talk to you later… nothing! We sent them our stuff and then they totally flaked out on us. 

Needless to say by this time, we were totally pissed. Because it was completely obvious to us that they ripped us off!  

And I think this next part will show the world just how obvious it is too… 

This is the actual title card that was aired on episode two of the official Frasier reboot. 

When I saw this on my screen, I felt like I was just punched in the gut. And it only got worse when I saw the following scene.

So Frasier and Freddy are in his new apartment and they are drinking Freddys cheap scotch. They make jokes about how terrible the drink is when Frasier grabs the bottle and reads the label. He then says the condescending line… 

“DISTILLED IN ORLANDO?!” 

Ok, I’m sorry? 

What in the actual fuck did he just say???

So for those of you who don’t know, we are from Orlando! 

Highland County, the reference to that title card, is just outside of Central Florida which is where Adam and I both grew up. 

 

And, yep. They totally knew that! 

We even wrote a little sprinkle into our material that name drops Orlando because this is our hometown and we wanted to show some love to our city. 

Ouch! Like, seriously ouch. 

So after going through this experience and seeing the material they presented and how it was obviously influenced by what we submitted, we are having some emotions. 

Not only did they clearly ghost us so they could use our FREE material as a buffet for their creation, but then they completely bastardized our hard work and publicly dissed us by name dropping our city and state as the butt of a bad joke. 

Ew dude, that’s just gross. For shame… 

But regardless of that obvious burn, I think the line ended up being true after all. This material was in fact distilled... in Orlando. 

Looking back at the entire story line and each comparison within them, it’s just crazy how we got ourselves here.

What’s even crazier is that during our communication with Paramount+ one of the executive producers Chris, even stated in one of our conversations that for legal purposes he wasn’t even allowed to view Frasier related content. He then claimed to delete the Frasier material we sent him. So we then sent him a fourth script that was our original concept for a separate project called Kim & Adam!

 

Considering the material we provided Paramount+ was legally protected and supposedly deleted, can someone please explain to me how these similarities (and more) were clearly evident in the material that aired on this network? Like for reals, how did this even happen? 

So there ya have it kids! 

That’s the story of how the Frasier reboot  completely ripped off a couple of fans who sent them some free stories, all while stuck in the grind.

As someone once said on some famous show or something… 

“The great moments of your life won't necessarily be the things you do, they'll also be the things that happen to you.”

And that kids, is How Frasier Ripped Us Off! 

Babababababababa baba bababababa bababababababa!

So, what you do think? 

Check out my YouTube channel here for more info on this whole mess. 

Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments!

Thanks for taking the time to check out my art! 

Peace, love and punk! 

- KiMMM!