FRASIER – Season 2 key art | ©2024 Paramount+

FRASIER, now in its second season streaming on Paramount Plus, is not so much a reboot as a revival. The comedy series picks up from the earlier FRASIER, which won five Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series, that ran for eleven seasons, 1993-2004, on NBC. (The original FRASIER was a spinoff of NBC’s also multi-Emmy-winning CHEERS, which ran on NBC 1982-1993.)

Kelsey Grammer won four Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Emmys in FRASIER’s original run as tightly-wound psychiatrist Frasier Crane. In the original FRASIER, Frasier had moved from Boston back to his hometown of Seattle, where he hosted a radio show.

In Peacock’s iteration of FRASIER, Frasier has returned to Boston and taken a position as lecturer on psychology at Harvard University. This is partly because Frasier wants to be closer to his son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), who is a city firefighter.

Toks Olagundoye plays Olivia Finch, head of Harvard’s psychology department. Olagundoye (Toks is short for Olatokunbo) was born in Nigeria, and spent her formative years there and in Switzerland and England, then came to the U.S. and studied at Smith College.

Olagundoye is best known to TV comedy audiences for her two years as the alien Jackie Joyner-Kersee on THE NEIGHBORS. She was also a regular on the last season of CASTLE, and on the streaming series adaptation of FATAL ATTRACTION, and has had arcs on series including VEEP, SHAMELESS, and THE ROOKIE. Olagundoye’s feature credits include A BEAUTIFUL SOUL and DOG DAYS. Additionally, she does a large amount of voice work for animation, including DUCKTALES, CARMEN SANDIEGO, and STAR TREK: THE LOWER DECKS.

FRASIER shoots on the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood, California. The Television Critics Association (TCA) gets a set visit and a private read-through of the script for the episode “Murder Most Finch,” concerning Olivia’s attempt to organize a murder mystery party. The episode is scheduled to run November 7.

Following this, and a Q&A, Olagundoye makes herself available for a follow-up discussion.

Olagundoye says that, although she’d been away from half-hour comedy for a while before FRASIER, she doesn’t feel the format is a great change from her other work.

“I mean, none of it is really different for me. It’s all a character, it’s all acting, it’s all what I love to do. I’m always having fun. So, the tone of the piece does not actually affect my experience or the way that I tackle it, it’s just kind of the same. I just feel lucky to do it, I always have great scripts, and great people to work with. So, I’m having a good time.”

From the start, Olagundoye was excited to work on the new iteration of FRASIER, because, she declares, the older “FRASIER is one of my favorite shows of all time. Also, working with James Burrows [who directed the pilot and three more episodes of the new FRASIER, as well as the pilot and thirty-one more episodes of the original edition], I was like,” she makes a gesture of huge delight.

“I literally got the gig the night before the first table read,” Olagundoye continues, “so I didn’t know who was in the cast except for Jack [Cutmore-Scott], because we knew each other, so he texted me. And I sat down, and I looked to my left, and Nick [Lyndhurst, who plays Alan Cornwall] is sitting there, and Nick is a national treasure in England, so I grew up watching him, so I was like, ‘Oh, no.’

“I started to get really overwhelmed, and really, really scared, honestly, and then I thought, ‘You know what? I grew up on Jimmy Burrows’s shows. I know every single episode of FRASIER, I know the tone of this, I’m just going to have fun.’ And I did. And Kelsey is incredibly welcoming, he’s incredibly gracious, he makes it very clear we’re family from top to bottom with the actors, so it’s a pleasure to come to work. We’re very lucky. He sets a tone, and he sets a good one.”

Toks Olagundoye is Olivia in FRASIER – Season 2 – “The Dedication” | ©2024 Paramount+/Chris Haston

To portray Olivia, Olagundoye employs an American accent, rather than her normal British speaking voice. Did the producers ask her to do this, as Olagundoye’s fellow English actor Lyndhurst uses his real accent to play Alan Cornwall?

“I don’t think so. I know that Kelsey had the idea from Step One that [Alan] was going to be Nick, so I’m fairly certain they were not looking for someone with a British accent [for Olivia]. I know that the other actresses who auditioned were all Americans.”

There isn’t an issue with doing an American accent for Olagundoye, she relates, “Except for one word – ‘American.’ I cannot say ‘American’ in an American accent.”

On set between takes, Olagundoye and Cutmore-Scott, who is also English, “flip back and forth” between their American accents and their real voices. Some British actors, Olagundoye is aware, prefer to maintain their American accents even off-camera if they’re playing Americans.

“Hugh Laurie does. We were working together on VEEP, he was like, ‘You keep pulling me back to a British accent!’ ‘I’m so sorry!’ I get paid to play and learn. It’s the best.”

Although Olagundoye had to audition for the role of Olivia, she didn’t have to do a screen test. “Unfortunately, originally, my agents weren’t happy with the test deal, and I was actually coming out of chemo, so I was really tired.”

Olagundoye assures concerned listeners that she is well now. “This was last year.” At that time, though, “I was kind of too tired to fight for anything, even though I really wanted it. So, I didn’t test. And apparently Kelsey really wanted me – yeah, I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy about it. So, I lucked out.”

Since Grammer hadn’t seen a screen test, had Olagundoye worked with him previously, perhaps as voice cast on an animated project? “No. We had a chat after I had auditioned. And it was a really good chat, and we really connected. I mean, honestly, I thought after the chat, ‘Well, if that’s the most I get to spend with Kelsey, then it’s fine,’ because it was such a lovely chat that we had together.”

Joe Cristalli, who co-created the new FRASIER with Chris Harris, is also an Olagundoye admirer. Olagundoye explains, “Joe was always a watcher of THE NEIGHBORS. So, he knew exactly what I could do.”

Has Olagundoye learned anything from working with Grammer?

“I learn something every single episode from him, because he’s very different from the character, so watching him approach it [is educational]. But honestly, I have never known someone to have so much fun while they’re working, and I think that’s the first thing that I get from him is, always have fun while you’re working.”

Playing the head of the Harvard psych department, did Olagundoye have to learn anything for the role, perhaps about academia?

“No. I went to Smith. My dad actually went to Harvard, so very familiar. I was originally a psychology major, so very familiar to me, and I happen to be a very high achiever who’s very awkward, so [the character of Olivia is] very familiar to me,” she laughs.

Given the plot of the “Murder Most Finch” episode, has Olagundoye ever participated in an off-camera murder mystery game?

“Sort of. The CASTLE cast and I did a murder mystery escape room together. It was supposed to be for [CASTLE] DVD extras, I think, but I don’t think it ever happened. But we had a lot of fun. it was kind of collaborative. We had to work together to make it out.”

Does Olagundoye have a favorite FRASIER episode that she’s done so far?

“I really have to say, my favorite episode so far has been the episode that we did with Yvette Nicole Brown. That was a lot of fun. I adore her, she’s a friend of mine.”

And what would Olagundoye most like people to know about FRASIER Season 2?

“Season 2 is funnier. We’re more of a family in this, and I don’t just mean as a cast, I mean as characters. The characters are more of a family. So, we now, instead of setting up their relationships, get to delve more into who they are, and see more of their families and their friends and their love lives.”

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Article:FRASIER: Actress Toks Olagundoye on Season 2 of the Paramount+ reboot of the classic 1990s sitcom – Exclusive Interview

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