Jane Leeves recalls how David Hyde Pierce rallied “Frasier” team after losing series co-creator David Angell on 9/11
Jane Leeves and David Hyde Pierce on ‘Frasier’Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via GettyKey Points
Jane Leeves says David Hyde Pierce was pivotal in rallying the Frasier team after a close-to-home death on 9/11.
Series co-creator David Angell and his wife, Lynn, were aboard the first plane to strike the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
Leeves recalls Piece reading a letter from a friend attesting to the value of comedy amidst tragedy, which struck a “profound” note with the cast and crew.
Through the darkness, let David Hyde Pierce light the way.
Pierce’s Frasier costar, Jane Leeves, recently looked back on a sad chapter in the Emmy-winning sitcom’s history. The English actress joined Jesse Tyler Ferguson on Tuesday’s edition of the Dinner’s on Me podcast, where she dished on all things Frasier.
The 11-season spinoff of Cheers, which also enjoyed a two-season revival from 2023-2025, remains one of TV’s most beloved sitcoms. Though it wasn’t without its serious moments, Frasier generally kept it light, even by sitcom standards. But Leeves was unafraid to venture into the dark, revisiting a storyline she wishes she’d never acted out and the death of a close collaborator that rocked the Frasier family.
After the sudden passing of co-creator David Angell on 9/11, Leeves found herself asking, “How are we going do this? How are we going to do comedy now? How the hell are we going to do this?” It was Pierce who supplied the answer.
David Angell and David Hyde Piece on the set of ‘Frasier’Credit: Alice S. Hall/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
“David Hyde Pierce said, ‘I want everyone, crew and everyone, to come to the set because I’ve had a letter from a dear friend of mine,’” Leeves recalled. “The letter, in essence, said, ‘I never thought I would feel normal again. I never thought I would laugh again. And I found myself watching an episode of Frasier and laughing... There is value in what you do because it took me out of this horror.’”
Leeves explained that the Niles to her Daphne had shown the whole crew how “the words that David Angell had written had comforted people in his absence. [It] was very profound. TV comedies saw a huge upswing, because people just needed to escape. They just needed to laugh.”
David Angell and his wife, Lynn, boarded American Airlines Flight 11 at Boston Logan International Airport the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. They were heading to Los Angeles, but were diverted when a group of five men associated with the transnational militant group Al-Qaeda hijacked the plane and steered it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City.
Both Angells died that day — David was 55, and Lynn was 52.
“That was a really tough one, because he was one of our creators and executive producers, David Angell. Just a remarkable man,” Leeves shared. “Just quiet, stealth humor, that kind of — he looked very professorial. Loafers and shirts, and then he would quietly say something that was just the funniest thing you’d ever heard. But also, quietly went about the business of bettering so many lives, which we didn’t know anything about until they were gone.”
The cast of ‘Frasier’Credit: David Rose/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
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David and Lynn celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary the year they died, according to their obituary. David broke into the industry by writing an episode of Cheers that went on to win an Emmy. He, Peter Casey, and David Lee then created Frasier in 1993. The series won Angell a number of additional Emmys throughout its run on NBC.
You can watch Leeves’ full interview on the Dinner’s On Me podcast above.
Source: Entertainment
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