After 9/11, Jane Leeves recalls returning to 'Frasier' set, questioning comedy itself

When Frasier went back to work after September 11, 2001, Jane Leeves says the cast and crew gathered on their stage not knowing how to proceed. David Hyde Pierce pulled everyone together and read a letter from a friend who’d unexpectedly found comfort in the show in those first raw days.

“And the letter in essence said, you know, I never thought I would feel normal again. And I found myself watching an episode of Frasier and laughing. I was in shock. I was like, I'm laughing. He said, ‘There is value in what you do because it took me out of this horror. ’”

Leeves shared the memory on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast Dinner’s On Me, adding that before that moment she’d been asking herself, “how are we going to do this? How are we going to do comedy now?” Hearing that message, she said, helped the company find a way forward — and, once filming resumed, the cast and crew came together on set to honor the show’s late co-creator David Angell.

Remembering David Angell

Angell, a co-creator and executive producer of Frasier who had also worked with Kelsey Grammer on Cheers, was killed along with his wife while traveling from their home in Cape Cod to Los Angeles for a table read for an upcoming episode. They were aboard American Airlines Flight 11, which struck the World Trade Center.

Grammer told Deadline he wasn’t on set that morning — the show wasn’t filming — and a friend woke him with the news. He had spoken to Angell shortly before the attacks, and later joined producers and colleagues at a gathering to pay tribute.

“He was a terrific writer. He was also a really nice guy. It was great to know him, and so losing him was something everybody felt like a gut shot,” Grammer said.

Leeves said the team learned of Angell’s death after initially returning to work in shock. In the days that followed, the Frasier family marked his memory together before carrying on with the season.