On 9/11, the cast of Frasier was left heartbroken over the death of co-creator David Angell, with Jane Leeves recalling how her co-star was the one to push everyone to keep going.
The hit sitcom began in 1993 and ran until 2004, with creators Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee. Leeves joined Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the “Dinner’s on Me” podcast to talk about everything regarding the Emmy-winning sitcom. One topic of discussion was one of its darkest moments behind the scenes, when they lost Leeves and his wife to the attacks on 9/11.
“How are we going do this? How are we going to do comedy now? How the hell are we going to do this?” she found herself asking.
As the team of Frasier was left wondering how they could continue the sitcom without one of its pivotal creators, it was David Hyde Pierce who uplifted the cast and crew. Leeves recalls that it was a letter he read that made everyone realize their sitcom meant something to so many people in their darkest moments.
“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, who played the role of Daphne Moon, added that the words Angell’s had written had “comforted people in his absence.” The actor recalls it being “very profound,” and the importance of TV comedies had grown. People looked to sitcoms like Frasier as a way to “escape” because they needed a good laugh to take their minds off reality.
Angell and his wife, Lynn, were on board American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston on Sept. 11, 2001. They were headed to Los Angeles when five men hijacked the plane and diverted its flight path to New York, where it crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Angel was 55 years old when he died in the crash, and his wife was 52.
Leeves called his death a “tough one” and called him a “remarkable man.” She explained how Angell had a “quiet, stealth humor” to him that was professional, wearing 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,” said Leeves.
Following the co-creator’s death, Frasier dedicated the two-part episode “Don Juan in Hell” to him. The sitcom also named Niles Crane (Pierce) and Daphne’s newborn son, David, in Angell’s honor. Angell and his wife had no children at the time of their deaths.
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