Frasier Crane Signing Off

Goodnight, Seattle. Frasier is about to leave the building.

But as Kelsey Grammer and company prepare to end an 11-season run with their NBC sitcom, Grammer admits he's entertaining the idea of resurrecting his Dr. Frasier Crane for another romp in TV land.

Frasier, which wraps Thursday night with a one-hour retrospective and a one-hour finale episode, is the most Emmy-celebrated show in history, winning five consecutive Outstanding Comedy statues in the '90s, and 31 total trophies, an Emmy record.

But ratings have declined in recent seasons, and an announcement earlier this year that the show would end its run was overshadowed by the hoopla surrounding last week's Friends series finale.

Still, Grammer, whose character ran on Cheers for nine seasons, making this year Dr. Crane's 20th on the tube, thinks viewers may not yet have gotten their fill of the Snooty McSnooterson shrink's antics.

Variety reported last week that Paramount, Frasier's producing company, had pitched a Frasier spinoff (with Grammer returning, but a new cast of supporting characters) to NBC, which passed on the idea.

The trade paper also suggested that Paramount might begin discussions on a Frasier spinoff with CBS, its Viacom brethren. Paramount execs denied a meeting with NBC took place, but Grammer himself isn't nixing the idea.

"It may be a possibility at some point," three-time Best Actor Emmy winner Grammer told the Associated Press. "I'm not closed to the possibility. [But] it would have to be really good."

With Dr. Crane's future up in the air, Thursday's finale will, thankfully, give Frasier fans some definite clues on what will happen when the rest of the characters ride off into the Seattle sunset. Insiders insist there is a surprise or two in store, but NBC's promos have revealed that:

Frasier's equally uptight bro, Niles (three-time Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce), and long pined-for wife Daphne (Jane Leeves) will be welcoming a baby Crane in the finale.

Frasier's wise-cracking, down-to-earth pop Martin (John Mahoney) will marry girlfriend Ronee (Wendy Malick).

And Frasier's coworker and friend Roz (new mom Peri Gilpin) will celebrate a big promotion.

As for Frasier himself, the finale will revolve around his feelings for Charlotte (guest star Laura Linney), the recent romantic interest who NBC's promos are calling the "love of his life."

Charlotte is about to pack up and return to Chicago, leaving her Seattle love in the lurch. But NBC's chatty promos may have unwittingly provided a clue to the relationship's outcome.

Potential spoiler ahead! The promo clips show Niles, in an apparent goodbye scene, telling Frasier that he will miss their coffee dates at Café Nervosa. Does that mean windbag Frasier will be heading off to the Windy City himself?

Also, about that spinoff series pitch that Paramount denies ever took place...a source says the storyline of the new sitcom was to revolve around Frasier's new life with, you guessed it, Charlotte.

Questions about the spinoff aside, the future of the show's stars looks a little more certain.

Grammer will continue to work in TV, one way or another, serving as a producer on the fall pilot Medium, an NBC drama about a mom (Patricia Arquette) who uses her psychic abilities to help solve crimes, and on Girls on Girls, an in-development Spike TV talk show to be hosted by his wife, Camille. Grammer will also star in an NBC remake of A Christmas Carol with Seinfeld alum Jason Alexander and Law & Order's Jesse L. Martin.

Meanwhile, Leeves and Gilpin are partners in Bristol Cities, a production company that will produce the upcoming flick Stories I Couldn't Tell While I Was a Pastor; Hyde Pierce, who is the voice of Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movie, is rumored to be mulling offers to star in a Broadway play; and Mahoney, who stars in the upcoming big-screen family drama Fathers and Sons, is returning to his Chicago home.

Whether or not Dr. Frasier Crane lives on in new episodes, the whole crew will also live on in syndication. A recent deal with Lifetime, which paid a hefty $600,000 per episode, will land Frasier in the cable net's daily lineup in March 2006. And fans in New York City will be able to view the show any time they visit the Museum of Television and Radio, thanks to Paramount's donation this week of all 264 episode of the series to the museum.

Of the end of Frasier's run, Grammer is rather Crane-like in his sentimentality.

"It was a series of characters who interacted and grew and loved one another and discovered how important family was to them," Grammer told reporters in a conference call last month. "[They're] kind of corny values, but, I think, in the end, it was a group of people who discovered how much they meant to one another."