producers saw his headshot and commented on how much he looked like a young Grammer. Unlike Frasier, part of whose background comes from Cheers, Niles's background is established over the course of Frasier.

Pierce has said that his character was originally explained to him as "what Frasier would be if he had never gone to Boston and never been exposed to the people at Cheers." Anita Gates of The New York Times wrote in 1998 that "the difference between the brothers is that Frasier knows they're