We will acknowledge that Kelsey Grammer has, technically, spent more years than many actors playing a man with a medical license—albeit one that probably should have been revoked by, like, the third time he’d committed some farcical felony in pursuit of impressing the members of the local wine club. Even so, it’s fascinating to learn that our current little renaissance of medical dramas, largely kicked off by the massive success of HBO’s The Pitt, has now come for Grammer, as Deadline reports that the former sitcom star is at the center of a new in-development series for NBC titled Pops.
As the name (and, honestly, the casting) suggests, the series is poking the ol’ “Generational Issues” button, with Grammer set to play “the title character, a man aged out of a successful career who, in desperate need of a fresh start, jumps into the chaotic world of emergency medicine alongside first responders half his age.” (And given that Grammer’s 71, even that “half his age” line feels, uh, generous.) To be clear, the show—which is being developed by Chicago Med‘s Danny Weiss—is being pitched as a medical drama, and not a comedy; the series is apparently based on the real-life story of Ed Levien, a Maryland man who became an EMT in his 60s.
So, yeah, it’s The Rookie except for EMTs. (Or maybe single-season also-ran Carol’s Second Act, if we want to confine ourselves to shows that Grammer actually guest-starred on.) Grammer’s last regular TV gig, meanwhile, was the Frasier revival, although IMDB is polite enough to inform us that he also recently had a guest star spot on The Patrick Star Show as the voice of, uh, “Mega Toilet.” In theaters, he recently popped up in Young Washington, and is expected to appear as part of the old-school X-Men cast in this December’s Avengers: Doomsday.
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