Niles Was Barely A Character When David Hyde Pierce Auditioned For Frasier

Prior to its debut, producing “Frasier” sounds like a bit of a nightmare. Not only was Kelsey Grammer hesitant to cast Jane Leeves as housekeeper Daphne Moon, the whole show itself was a last-minute pivot. After Grammer and writers David Lee, David Angell, and Peter Casey pitched a show about an ailing millionaire stuck in his high-rise apartment, then-Paramount TV head John Pike nixed the whole thing, forcing Grammer and co. back to the drawing board to work up their Frasier Crane spinoff.

At least it can be said that casting David Hyde Pierce was relatively easy. In Vanity Fair‘s oral history of “Frasier,” David Lee recalled how casting assistant Sheila Guthrie stopped by his office and said, “Have you guys thought of having a brother? This guy looks a lot like Kelsey did when he was younger.” The guy in question was, of course, Pierce, who according to Lee, the producers “just fell in love with.”

With Niles being somewhat of a hasty addition to the show, it’s no surprise that the writers didn’t have much for Pierce to work with when the actor first met with them. According to the 1996 Washington Post article, when Pierce first auditioned for Niles he didn’t read any lines because there wasn’t even a script yet. The actor told the outlet:

“I met with the producers and we just talked for about 45 minutes, about what the brother might be. He was going to be a Jungian and Frasier was going to be a Freudian. Things like that were tossed around. I went back to New York, and not long after that they offered me the part. And I thought, ‘What part?’ I hadn’t seen a script.”