Contains spoilers for “Frasier” Season 2, Episode 8 — “Thank You, Dr. Crane”

Everything changes, and everyone changes. “Frasier” proves that adage true when Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) heads back to Seattle to take part in KACL’s anniversary celebration. Not only does he meet with a former call-in patient named Lou, whose entire life has been poorly shaped by Frasier’s advice, but he also reunites with an old radio station colleague.

While fans know what happened to Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin), in “Thank You, Dr. Crane,” we learn that Bulldog Briscoe (Dan Butler) has come out of the closet in the years since Frasier left Seattle. Frasier initially thinks that Bulldog long-repressing his homosexuality is what resulted in his toxic masculinity, but Bulldog gives a shrug and says he’s the same person — he just openly pervs on men now. He even doubles down on that statement by pulling out a pin-up of a man.

While Bulldog’s charms might wear a hair thin for Frasier, this isn’t the only change everyone’s favorite journeyman psychiatrist is confronted with during his return trip to Seattle. His beloved Café Nervosa is now neon-washed, and his father’s favorite Irish pub, McGinty’s, has become a gay bar — where Bulldog frequently visits. But while expressing his sexuality is new for Bulldog, Dan Butler has long been an activist in the LGBTQ community.

In real life, Dan Butler has long been out and proud and has acted as an activist for the queer community. He wrote a play entitled “The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me,” which is a one-man show about his life, and performed it in Vermont in 2023. He lives there with his husband, Richard Waterhouse.

A writer, director, and producer, Butler’s activism stretches back decades. He has worked with suicide prevention charities that focus on LGBTQ teens, and he was the National Coming Out Day spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign in 1995. “I think sometimes it’s the way you live your life,” he told the Huffington Post in 2012. “I’ve been politically active in the past with the Human Rights Campaign and Act Up. Right when the Trevor Crisis Line formed I worked the lines for Trevor and The Suicide Prevention Center in Los Angeles for about six years. So now I think it’s by example. I believe in that Gandhi quote, “Live your life as if the changes you hope happen, have already occurred.” While Bulldog might not be the best role model, it’s clear that Butler is someone to be admired.