9 Of The Best Latecomer TV Characters

1) Frasier Crane – Cheers

There can’t be a better show for latecomer characters than Cheers. The key to the sitcom’s success was that it knew when to inject some new blood to keep everything fresh. There was Kirstie Alley’s Rebecca Howe who arrived in season six as the replacement for Shelley Long’s Diane, and there was Lilith, Frasier’s ice-queen girlfriend and later wife. But the one who takes the top spot has to be Frasier Crane himself.

Frasier is such an icon of comedy and television in general that it’s easy to forget he didn’t appear in Cheers until 44 episodes in, at the start of the show’s third season. The psychiatrist who can’t sort out his own issues and neuroses was the breakout star of the show, eventually starring in his own eponymous series Frasier. That show is a rare spinoff that is not only just as popular as its parent series, but probably better than it, too.