Frasier writer Joe Keenan has addressed an apparent plot hole that has long irked many fans.

The comedy series is due to return to screens this month after nearly two decades off air, with Kelsey Grammer back as therapist Frasier Crane.

One point that many viewers have questioned over the years is how the character became so wealthy on a local radio presenter’s salary, notably given his lavish apartment, and taste for expensive sherry and designer suits.

“The question has come up,” Keenan told Metro, before explaining: “We think Frasier made a lot of money in private practice in Boston, and he has investments. What we imagined to be the salary of a local radio personality was perhaps a little bit inflated.”

He further noted of Frasier’s brother Niles’s lifestyle: “On the other hand, when you looked at Niles and his house with Maris, this baronial mansion that Niles lived in, Frasier’s apartment didn’t seem all that…

“In addition to it, we’ve lived on that set, and it wasn’t that big when you actually stepped onto [it]. You were surprised at how much smaller it was to navigate than it looked on camera, and how narrow some of the passages were.

“His dining room only seated four people… That apartment, without that view [of the Seattle Space Needle], would not seem that astonishing. It was the view that made it seem fabulous.”

Keenan also spoke about Frasier’s apparent charm with women, admitting that his “insane flirtiness was as much a function of how little time you have to tell a story”.

“You’ve got 20-22 minutes to tell the stories so you find yourself cutting a lot of corners with meet cutes, and people seeing somebody at a party and immediately going up [to them],” he elaborated.

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“If there’s something that we always laughed at in the room, it’s how rapidly women are charmed by Frasier, who wouldn’t be charmed in real life by the coordinate by the corny, flirtatious things he’ll say and the compliments he’ll say.

“That whole highfalutin, chivalrous thing he’ll play when he’s trying to get a woman interested, I don’t know if people would be offended by that as much as they find it ham fisted.”

The Frasier reboot is set to follow the character during “the next chapter of his life in Boston”, with “new challenges to face, new relationships to forge, and an old dream or two to finally fulfill”.

Alongside Grammer, the revival is also set to star Jack Cutmore Scott as Frasier’s son Freddy, Nicholas Lyndhurst as university professor Alan and Toks Olagundoye as Alan’s colleague, Olivia.

The series’ first two episodes are set to launch on October 12 in the US and October 13 in the UK on Paramount+, while the remaining eight episodes will be released weekly on Thursdays.