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a refinement of the classic sitcom formula The Nanny Charmed audiences around the world when Fran fine walked

into the Sheffield home she also walked into TV sitcom history as one of the flashiest stars of the 1990s now let's

learn about how Fran drer became the nanny Fran drer and her husband at the time Peter Mark Jacobson had moved out

to Hollywood to chase their dreams of being in Show Business in the late 1970s after a decade of appearing in smaller

roles in movies and television perhaps most memorably as Bobby fleckman in spinal tab Fran drer was still looking

for a breakout hit the duo decided that they needed to make something happen for themselves and started working on

creating pitches for their own project it was Fran's chance encounter on a flight headed to Paris with CBS

president Jeff sagansky that got them in the door to pitch an idea and so I started talking to him and he was

essentially a captive audience because where was he going to go coach I was telling him that we really have to come

up with a show that fits me hand and glove because I'm too unique she said

you know let me come in with some ideas of my own first show um me and my husband have these ideas and he created

some other shows and stuff by the end of this 9 and 1 half hour flight uh he said

when we both get back to Los Angeles you call me and we'll set up a meeting for you to picture your ideas speaking to

The Hollywood Reporter a few years later Jeff sansy explained she said everyone kept trying to use her as a side dish

but that she was the main course she told me she and her husband were students of the Forum that not only could she star in a vehicle but they'd

write and produce it as well I thought it was unbelievably Brazen of her at the time but damned if it wasn't true they

had their shot and all dresser and Jacobs had needed nexts was an idea while vacationing in London as part of

her trip to Europe dresser stayed with the model and actress Leslie Lawson better known as Twiggy Twiggy was

indisposed for some of dresser stay so Fran headed out to London to see the sites with twiggy's 12-year-old daughter

she says to me Fran my shoes are hurting me they're new she said well just step

on the back of them and push the ends down and she said well that'll break them and she said no that'll break them

in something seems funny in this and from there dresser and Jacobson started working on a pitch that would eventually

be the nanny with friend clearly the star of the series it would be built around her taking details from her real

life to fill out her character including her family her Jewish background and the most outrageous parts of her personality

rather than try and water down the things about me that make me unique so

that I can fit into is some kind of a mold we decided to bring it right out in the open make fun of it and talk about

it writing in her first book enter whining dresser said to this day we

refer to the nanny as our baby and I'm the cash cow that feeds it Rob sternin and pro Frasier were brought in to

Executive produce the show they had worked with drer on who's the boss including an attempt to pitch a spin-off

series that featured dresser and Donna Dixon called Charmed lives at the time they had actually approached CBS to

pitch a show starring dresser unaware she already had something cooking with the nanny sternin speaking to The Hollywood Reporter said Jeff sansy said

he needed experienced showrunners and asked if we'd be interested it was also serendipitous had we not mentioned

Fran's name Jeff probably would not have brought it up the duo is a perfect fit to join drer project and would serve as

executive producers for the Show's first four seasons Fraser said the assignment when writing for Fran is to take this

hysterical character keep her funny and lovable and in the center of things it was never a question of who Fran should

be Fran as an actress knows exactly who she is and how she's funny Fran dresser

would play Fran fine the flashy girl from flushing who goes from working at a bridal shop to becoming the nanny for

the Sheffield children Fran was deliberately collapsing the typical order of a domestic employees Dynamic by

instantly acting like she was part of the family the network didn't want originally The Nanny to come down for

breakfast in her bathrobe they thought that it was inappropriate and it was like yeah that's the point the character

also included dresser iconic voice which Los Angeles magazine once described as a bloomies perfume spritzer in heat

speaking to glamour dresser said of her voice I had to show them that it was a joke and not twist it into something

negative like oh I find her voice so abrasive we're making fun of the voice you can laugh at it too it's funny

showing your soft underbelly is a great way for you to be endearing to people although heavily inspired by dresser real life she was quick to point out

that while all of friend fine is in Fran dresser not all of friend dresser and Fran fine so it's always important to In

Spite of their similarities realize that they are two distinct women Miss fine is a very Brash woman unafraid of speaking

her mind even when she's not thinking her kindest thoughts and though she has her eye set on a better life for herself

she wants to attain it without selling out her principles she believes in not bulking at Authority the power of true

love and never missing the chance to offer fashion advice I remember when I was 14 my mother came to pick me up

after school in a Hal to top and pedal pushes oh I'm still looking for the right supp support group Charles shaes

was cast as Maxwell Sheffield a Broadway producer and Friends employer before this role shaas had spent over eight

years on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives but it was an appearance he had made on another CBS sitcom Murphy Brown

that caught the eye of Jeff sagansky he remembered me from the Murphy Brown and basically said that's the guy to find

the character shaunas had to channel his father a bit though what really want over with dressure was when during the

audition he had said American women were too obsessed with being thin and in his words if you ask me could all stand to

gain a few pounds Maxwell Sheffield or Mr Sheffield as he's more commonly called is the picture of a prim and

proper English gentleman the perfect straight man for the over-the-top Fran and a great partner for their onscreen

romantic chemistry may I see your resume please oh yeah

sure crayon lipstick of course and what a lovely

shade Nicole Tom was C as Margaret Sheffield or Maggie the eldest of the Sheffield kids prior to the nanny Tom

had appeared in the very successful Beethoven movies the original idea for the pilot only included two younger

Sheffield children but Jeff sensky suggested a third child older than the other two and making her a shy teenager

to contrast with Fran the search for an actress was lengthy though Tom was eventually chosen because dresser

believed she had a Grace Kelly quality a great fit for the timid ays taking her first steps into adulthood it's got your

personality too and your equipment Benjamin Salisbury played

Brighton Sheffield the middle child in the family he had recently appeared in the movie Captain Ron Brighton and his

younger sister Grace took their names from what Fran drer and Peter Mark Jacobson had discussed as hypothetical

names for their own children another difficult search Salisbury was originally in Los Angeles to audition

for another role but was brought into audition for Brighton on a whim and because they were having trouble finding the right boy for the role he ended up

being a perfect fit for Brighton though Brighton is a mischievous young boy who enjoys tormenting both of his sisters

while living up to his privileged upbringing boys hav't noticed me yet oh they've noticed mean that's why you

don't date The Last of The Sheffield children Grace Sheffield or Gracie was

portrayed by meline zema zema had recently appeared in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and brought a surprising

amount of sophistication to the young character my mother told me to play tulula Bankhead and um like Betty Davis

and I was you know using some of their influences when I was really really

young during the audition zema reacted poorly to a joke about Rebecca deor who she called her close personal friend she

said you know I co-starred with her in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle I'm sorry but I can't say this joke it goes

against everything I believe in at the time she was 7 years old Grace was the serious youngest child balancing her

time and therapy alongside her coloring schedule Gracie how are you doing honey

I'm feeling empty and alone you want a Tic Tac okay Daniel

Davis was cast as n The Sheffield family Butler although he had appeared in many projects before including nearly 200

episodes on the series Texas the rule he's probably most remembered for before appearing on the nanny is his guest role

as the character Professor James moriarti on Star Trek the Next Generation originally Niles was meant to

be older though Davis's audition was so strong that he was cast in the role originally from Arkansas Davis's English

accent was so convincing many people assumed he was British yeah she comes from Arkansas Little Rock Arkansas and

they thought I was faking it so I mean I didn't know what to say they say you should take lessons from the real

Englishman from Danny Davis who's English and I'm like okay as the son of the Sheffield family Butler Niles is

following in the family business though he had hoped for a different life for himself his bitterness at being a butler

often takes the shape of a Sharp insult always placed with impeccable timing he wants these contracts in London by

morning well here hop on with the time difference you'll just make it Lauren Lane was the final member of the

principal cast playing CCE Babcock Maxwell's business partner prior to the nanny Lane had appeared on La law for

several episodes CCE could hardly be considered lovable though friend dresser noted in her book that lean is the

complete opposite of her character CCE is easily the snootiest character on the show often turning up her nose at friend

barely acknowledging the children ver justing with Niles and lusting after Maxwell over the years her character

would develop including a rather interesting relationship with Niles the money people in New York coming to our

backers party and I will not have those children running loose not that I don't love them as if

they were my very own although not in the original principal cast three other very important characters would be in

the series throughout its run and I'm going to highlight them here Renee Taylor was an early choice to play Fran's mother Sylvia fine she was

modeled extensively on Fran fresser's real mother from her eating habits to her fashion sense upon seeing Sylvia on

television for the first time my mother says you know I'm so glad that you didn't exaggerate the hair we looked at

each other and went okay fresser's real life friend Rachel chagal would play Fran Fine's best friend Val toriello

although not terribly bright Val becomes increasingly less Swift as the seasons progress though she does keep Fran a

breast of all the comings and goings in her neighborhood of flushing and Morgan Gilbert friend's grandmother Yeta

Rosenberg although her mind isn't quite as Swift as it might have been in the past Yeta still has the wherewithal to

be a presence in each scene she enters she was actually in part based on a character Gilbert had developed in the

past there was this character that I'd always wanted to do was noodling around

in my head so uh I got to use her as y throughout the years the series also

included appearances by countless guest stars with Maxwell's connection to Broadway it created the perfect excuse

to to include performers such as Selen Deion Elton John and Elizabeth Taylor another major part of the series was its

look something that was incredibly important very early on we knew that we wanted her to have a specific look and I

said this is going to be a major part of the show Fran since of fashion became a major visual element of the series even

if it was a slight stretch to see a nanny wearing outfits that had price tags in the thousands of dollars we

built the set in a certain tone of color so that she'd be able to wear anything

with without the set contrasting what she wore so the whole set was designed around her wardrobe the set was put

together with pieces from several other shows that had filmed at the studio this was really just for the pilot though so

they could save some money when the show made it to series a lot of this would be redesigned as they now had a much bigger

budget for example the big round stairs that often let Fran make a big entrance were added to the living room set these

stairs though were actually from the Norman Le series the powers that be with the show cast and the sets built it was

time to fill the pilot although filmed in April it wouldn't be set to debut until November of that year that is if

CBS liked what they saw and it just so happened that the pilot for the nanny was a massive hit in testing getting the

highest Mark CBS had seen for a sitcom in 3 years with all that promise the series was advertised during the World

Series as it got ready for its big November Premiere we've been watching the World Series I've been watching the

first basem 6'2 180 lbs and what a

tush debuted on November 3rd 1993 the first episode of The Nanny was also

titled the nanny in it were introduced to Fran fine who is fired when her boyfriend reveals he's been cheating on

her and he's giving fr's job to his new girlfriend you can't fire me Danny

imperi I quit no you fired me that way I could

collect unemployment we then see the iconic animated intro for the series and it

repeats the premise of the series that that's established in the First Act of this [Music]

pilot originally the show had a live action opening sequence this was produced for the internal version of the

pilot though and was never really meant for the public I did find some footage of it online but the quality is a bit

rough that's Fran prepared for the day ahead of her and the Musical theme for it is Gwen Verdon singing if my friends

Could See Me Now from the musical sweet charity once the pilot was picked up to a series though a larger budget material

I ized and the iconic animated intro was created we also got the memorable opening theme written and performed by

Anne Hampton Callaway according Callaway when she was working on the song she asked Fran drer to distill the character

of Fran fine into one line that line was the lady in red when everyone else is wearing tan which found its way into the

song a fun bit of trivia for the first episode is that in the scene after the credits where a friend first meets

Maxwell Sheffield we hear what was the first joke ever written for the nanny you seem to have listed did the queen

mother as a reference well let me see that oh no that's not the queen mother

that's my mother from Queens as we heard in the opening theme Fran traded her door-to-door Cosmetics

job for a job as the nanny of the Sheffield kids I need a nanny this

weekend Fran immediately establishes her unconventional Nature by teaching Maxwell some Yiddish and eating

breakfast with the family in her bathrobe oh boy do you have gorgeous

chachkas beg your pardon oh you know your brick orra does collectors you know

shers are notorious for not ordering enough food booze yes but food they don't know

from Sha is that like a chachka yes but they cost a lot more and

Fran reveals she has a knack for handling the children be nicer to your sister why because we're a family yeah

yes that's right and someday your father's going to be old and sick you're going to want him to live with her Fran

gives the timid Maggie some confidence with a makeover but Mr Sheffield is quick to dismiss Fran after Maggie ends

up kissing a boy Eddie played by a young James marsten you can't fire me Maxwell

Sheffield I quit no you fired me that way I could

collect an employment Maxwell later reconsiders as he realizes this unconventional Nanny

might be just what his family needs we could give it another go are you asking

me to come back so it seems so what you're really saying is

you feel terrible about this whole damn thing and if you could you'd get down on your hands and knees and apologize Miss

fine apology accepted ma pack my things he wants me back what's perhaps most striking about this episode is how sharp

the humor is a lot of it really holds up to the the present day also noticeable is Fran's complete comfort in everything

she does one of her most endearing features is that Fran Vine is aware of who she is and doesn't make any

apologies for herself though she certainly isn't perfect and we be seen many of her flaws in the future there's

an obvious appeal to a woman living unapologetically the sheffields would be more pronounced in the episodes to come

but they're still established here very clearly in contrast to Fran Maxwell is the straight man while the children all

play off ran in their own unique ways shy Maggie unruly bright and eccentric Grace Niles is the fast friend for

friend giving her a confidant in the house and CeCe is the clear antagonist to our new favorite Nanny early reviews

for the show were positive and those were quickly folded into promos for the series look at this ground count 287 a

pound well you can't eat reviews ratings for the show were not quite so warm

though while not a flop it didn't quite live up to the expectations put on it that said the nanny would be given some

time to find its footing and become the h it's remembered as todaya is right we're nothing Something Old and Something New

alike hey Fran fine is not the first

unconventional Nanny to ever appear on screen but her analog of Maria from the sound of music is the most important

point of comparison much like Maria Fran collapses the boundaries between Nanny and family becoming much more meaningful

than a domestic worker would normally be many of the earliest episodes are about navigating this Dynamic and

understanding this new influence on the Sheffield home at first there are real attempts to make friend fit into this

High Society world in the episode my fair Nanny we see Maxwell and Niles make friend over to be more conventional in

Mr Sheffield circles and close the transformation doesn't last

and Fran's more natural self proves to be popular with partygoers in the nanny in-law Maxwell's childhood Nanny Clara

Mueller played by Cloris leechman presents another model of nanny for Fran to emulate I'm just trying to be the

proper Nanny if I wanted a proper Nanny I never would have hired you thanks by

now Maxwell is on the same page as his kids and they all appreciate how unconventional Fran is but this episode

offers a further look into the role of the nanny and wealthy families hi were all you Blue Bloods raised by nannies

what were your parents doing I don't know nannies are presented

as substitutes for mother figures in Maxwell's case his Nanny literally breathed life into him the day that you

fell in the duck pond I pull you out I breath life back into your little blimp

body Fran is eventually recognized by Clara though the stamp of approval is more often seen being given from a

mother-in-law to a daughter-in-law Fran may not be a typical Nanny but she's still serving the same role of

substitute mother figure that nannies often represent in television this reflects how conventional a show like

The Nanny is while some sitcoms get remembered for how they change the format the Nan is an example of a

classic sitcom being executed at a very high level by an unlikely star much in the same way the unlikely Fran fine is

becoming a nanny in the Sheffield home it's a very old-fashioned job being filled by someone you wouldn't expect it

to there's this uneasiness with domestic employees that gets explored in a lot of media although some shows readily put

these figures into the background there's a very common Trope to make them appear as part of the family Alice is

more than a made to the bradies and Alfred is more than a butler to Batman and Fran means even more to the

sheffields their work isn't just a part of their lives but ingrained into their identity yet the employee employer

relationship acts as a boundary to that connection unless it can be overcome somehow when the realities of that class

divide rear their head in the episode stop the wedding I want to get off we see Maxwell support his sister Joselyn

played by Twiggy when she wants to marry her chauffeur Lester played by twiggy's real life husband Lee Lawson I'm just

sorry you didn't find happiness with Lester 20 years ago who knew you could find true love on the backseat of a car

and so the show reinforces the idea that love can transcend a class divide but season 2's strange bed fellows really

hones in on the elephant in the room that is the unequal relationship that colors the whole experience fr's friend

Mona played by Ty Daly is retiring giving Fran a vision of what her life might be like in the future you give

somebody's kid the best years of your life and what do you get a pat on the back and a couple of stinking Vicky car

CDs don't you worry me and you are nothing alike I mean you chose to be a

nanny I just fell into it when my fiance dumped me Mona is miserable because she'll be

saying goodbye to the child she helped raise instead of having one of her own the years she could have had for making

a family of her own were effectively purchased by her employer Mona's eventual solution is that her boss whom

she had been pining for proposes to her Fran after her own fears of ending up like Mona revealed to Maxwell has a

different surprise waiting for her a condo that's what you want to give me

for my future oh I'll tell you I have never been so would it include competent Plantation

shuts considering what happens between these two later in the series something already being very heavily foreshadowed

in season two this is a keen opportunity to provide some kind of alternative to a domestic worker needing to join their

employer's family without actually having to go down that road in the future it may also be more realistic in

many cases wealthy families hire nannies and other domestic workers without folding them into their family in fact

that's probably what happens more often than not but the longer we see that relationship depicted on screen the

tougher it is for a television series to keep that relationship entirely professional because TV sitcoms in

particular often require emotional bonds to exist between characters so Fran could never simply be an employee or at

least if she would it would be highly unusual for a more traditional sitcom and then Annie is very much a

traditional sitcom that doesn't mean Fran is forever waiting for Max well to come sweep her off her feet throughout

the series we also see that Fran has ample opportunities to find a family life outside of the Sheffield home she

even briefly dated John Stewart who she luckily breaks it off with for obvious reasons in the episode titled kissing

cousins what are you doing what are you doing here isn't it adorable let me get

a picture of you and your cousin Bob for Fran marriage is something very

important to her happiness and while it is something of a stereotype for a woman to be pining for a husband it's still a

valid thing for a person to want in their life and what this show reflects is how that desire for the life of a wife and mother can be impeded when you

have professional obligations to play at least one half of that role for other people and this isn't existing entirely

in fr's mind as Maxwell's treatment a friend is very much unlike the typical relationship you would see between an

employer and employee this is very clear in the episode once a secretary always a secretary when Maxwell is considering

hiring a new nanny in this interview the prospective new nanny is played by Margie Martin it's really none of my

business but it sounds to me like she was more of a wife than a nanny the series doesn't offer much in the way of

easy answers regarding Fran's role in the family particularly early on she is many things to the sheffields but all

those things coming at the end of a salary makes the whole dynamic awkward to leave the sheffields would mean more

than losing a job for Fran she would be losing regular access to the people she loves although it's that love that seems

to protect her employment as doesn't do a whole lot of nannying as the series goes on if this series truly reckoned

with the reality of a nanny needing to marry into a family to avoid the lonely life of the spinster this would be a

radically different series but what we have here is a show that isn't revolutionary so much as it is a slight

deviation from the norm that is it's the old model of a sitcom with the classic depiction of an on-screen Nanny complete

with a happy ending given a very stylish coat of paint with the character Fran fine and this combination of old and new

is something we're going to see throughout the series I'm a nanny and a lot of people tell me that my life would make a great sitcom A Solid Start and a Better Future

steuarts how many hours left on this flight although it would eventually become a big hit the first season of The

Nanny wasn't met with huge rating success it premiered on Wednesday nights and while its numbers weren't terrible

they weren't great either it was CBS president Jeff sagansky who championed the show in its first year according to

show co-creator Peter Mark Jacobson in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Jacobson describes sagansky saying at

all those affiliate meetings he used to say stick by the Nanny he knew it was something special towards the end of the

first season Fran drer held a dinner party to charm some of the CBS Executives and the night took an

unexpected turn she reached over and there was a candle on the table and her shirt like caught on fire my manager

Elaine said friend you're on fire and she starts like swatting me with her

napkin she had to take off her shirt and then there she was make it with all the suits and of course we got picked up for

the second season well I don't doubt the sexual

power of Fran dresser there were probably other reasons the show got picked up for a second season and the

new season brought with it some changes the show would be moving to Monday nights where it joined other female LED

shows such as Murphy Brown and later in the season cibil the second season also marked Fran drer becoming an executive

producer on the show in an interview with glamour she reflected on that time saying I don't think think they really

knew that even though I was a woman my producing contributions weren't just going to be something they took as a

mercy they were going to be an invaluable part of the show that helps make it a hit eventually I got the

executive producer title and got to direct episodes but in the beginning I had to prove myself they weren't readily

willing to trust me good luck on your math test what's 6 * 12 72 yeah that sounds right one of the Since When Does a Nanny Watch Kids?

biggest contrast from the early Seasons to the later ones is how big a part the Sheffield kids play in the series in the

first season we saw Fran doing quite a bit of actual nannying in Smoke Gets In Your Lies she had to figure out what to

do when Brighton started smoking we are going to have to consult The High Priestess of

punishment hello ma in my fair Nanny we see her help

Maggie make some cool friends it also helps to unite against the common enemy a good choice would be your gym teacher

you make it sound like a war it's worse war is just hell this is high school the

first season also included a touching and deeply symbolic episode called I Don't Remember Mama where friend fills

in for Grace's deceased mother during a motherdaughter pageant you are not this child's mother you're her nanny yeah so

well this is a mother daughter pageant well we're very close so what if she's not my mother

what's the difference it's against the rules I don't have a mother she

died oh boy you will stop at nothing don't don't ever go out for

cheerleader this episode is about more than a little girl being treated obnoxiously by an adult though all those

other girls with their mommies just reminded you how much you miss yours but that's what's wrong I don't miss her you

don't no I I don't remember her oh how come you never talk about her well

because sometimes it's very difficult for Daddy a cute little story about a pat becomes a story about

the pain of memory and the importance of keeping a person alive through those memories even when it hurts and we do

enjoy a happy ending I remember

that friend's connection to the children in these episodes is very powerfully felt as both a standin for an absent

mother but as the part of the family distinct from the typical parental authority figure represented by Maxwell

Fran is cool and has Street smarts about her that the Sheffield kids find completely novel it's one of the more

positive intersections of class we see in the series where these kids who grew up in the upper class are made better by

welcoming someone from outside their bubble into their home not just for fashion tips and creative punishments

though but to offer love and support all while making sure they don't forget the most important things in life in later

Seasons we would see far less of these moments it does make some sense that as the kids got older they don't really

need a nanny anymore and the novelty of friend wears off as the kids not only adjust to her unconventional ways

they're even comfortable with friend's mother and grandmother who are often appearing within the Sheffield home and

who seem to fill in the space left in episodes by the less prominent Sheffield children I keep her on as a nanny and my

children could practically vote ironically The Nanny was less about being a nanny though it was always built

around Fran and it would remain fixed on her even if her nanny duties became less Central to her character the Sheffield

kids are of course still part of the show throughout its run though they would only occasionally get the spotlight such as when Maggie got a new

boyfriend Michael played by Andrew levitas oh this is what nus is all about

what's nus nus means feeling a sense of Pride oh my God he's Jewish Maggie would eventually marry

Michael towards the end of the series will you marry me Fran and Maxwell being the focus in

what would normally be a scene for Maggie really highlights how this show transformed in later Seasons while the

Sheffield kids were consistently present they would serve as complimentary to the ongoing tension between Max and Fran do

you sweep yes bless your after the move to Monday nights the '90s ratings began The Chatterbox

to really grow and towards the end of its second season it was clear that this show is becoming a big hit for CBS and

with a successful sitcom comes the inevitable attempt at a spin-off that brought us the chatter box taking place

at a beauty salon of the same name frequented by Fran fine and her female relatives the premise was that aspiring

actress Mary Ruth played by Tracy Nelson gets a job working there as a shampoo girl she takes an interest in the life

of the shop stylist Mr Anthony played by Patrick Cassidy acting as a mother figure for his son mimo played by JD

Daniels you might notice some obvious similarities to the nanny here the episode did not win over audiences or

the network and is certainly one of the least popular episodes of The Nanny while it joins a long list of failed

backdoor pilots on successful sitcoms some interesting trivia about this episode is that appearing as part of the

cast where Edward Hibert and Lauren Tom Hibert would continue to play Gil Chesterton on Frasier and Tom would

appear just 3 days later on friends in the recurring role of Julie it's quite likely they were both better served

regularly appearing on two hit shows of the 9s I think that it's important that they learn how people of other religions Fran's Faith

pick up men although Jewish characters in television weren't the most novel idea in 1993 there was something about

Fran find that made her special Fran dresser explained one of those things in the podcast The Originals I'm I am the

first starring role playing an openly Jewish character in the lead role in

prime time since Molly Goldberg in 1948 say The Goldbergs at first the network

pushed back on franf find being Jewish after pressure from sponsors I guess the network was already talking to Major

sponsors like Proctor and Gamble who said that it sounds great we'll buy the

show outright but the nanny has to be Italian not Jewish Fran fought against

the demand believing that the character would be better if it was something that spoke more to her personally I could be

very rich in specificity and I didn't have to think about being somebody that

wasn't very close to me in her book dresser also described how thinking this show was her last best shot at a major

success she wanted to do it on her terms executive producer Robert sternin also described how by making the family she

worked for British she would be more appealing as an American speaking to The Hollywood Reporter he said the idea was

to make her the American girl who happens to be Jewish rather than the Jewish girl working for the Wasps a

reaction to a Jewish leading lady wasn't entirely positive though writing for the Los Angeles Times Judith Pace called The

Nanny the most offensive example of a stereotypical Jewish American princess

whining demanding loud obnoxious and never as sexy as Gentile women this

prompted a response the next week from Fran drer also in the LA Times where she wrote I created Fran fine based very

closely upon my mother myself and all the wonderful and Rich characters I grew up around in Flushing Queens I am sorry

and sad if the way we really are yes plastic covers and all offends Pace

mainly because all her article accomplished was to reveal her own insecurities as a Jewish woman living in

a wasp culture behind the scenes the writers were tested specifically to keep the show authentic in an interview Peter

Mark Jacobson said the show has a unique specific voice many writers say think

they can do it but they usually can't they'll write in a bunch of yetish words but rarely do we use them maybe it's

because I've lived with FR so long that I know what jokes will come out of her mouth and be appealing to the public she

knows it too although it's certainly true that Jewish stereotypes can be seen in Fran it would be a bit reductive to

only focus on those and in some ways Fran drer own comments about her character's good qualities are selling

the show short Fran's Jewish identity can be noticed throughout the series and not just as a pool of stereotypes that

are pulled on anytime a quick joke is needed in addition to her frequent use of Yiddish she makes casual references

to holidays foods and other parts of Jewish culture in the episode the caner show Fran dates her Temple's caner Gary

played by Philip kasnoff only to see him leave her so he can chase a career in Show Business in this story Gary could

have been anyone from anywhere but by making him a caner it creates a logical reason as to how Fran would hear him

singing in an environment not frequented by talent scouts making him someone she discovers if she had been Christian this

could have been done with her hearing him in a church choir the story reflects a simple reality of the character that

their religious identity is part of their normal daily life in an article for Teen Vogue ulia Kavinsky wrote about

how impactful representation like this was for her highlighting the caner show episode in particular writing here was

the main character of a popular sitcom at Temple listening to a type of prayer I've rarely seen on screen and she

wasn't there to face her religiosity in any way question it or find fault with it or examine it she wasn't there to

interact with it at all she was at Temple because Jews sometimes go to Temple the way Christians can be shown

having Easter brunch without discussing the symbolism behind the resurrection of Christ it was mere background for the

comedic plot a quite ordinary occurrence in this universe the fins going to Temple felt akin to them going to Lans

and that made it feel dare I say revelatory I hadn't realized how hungry I was for this kind of representation

and how mostly absent it was nearly 30 years on kinsky further describes how the series is aggressively unself

self-conscious in its jewishness and now Fran is meant to be a sympathetic character rather than one that's mocked

one analog she brings up is the character of Janice on friends who has more than a passing resemblance to Fran

fine something deep in your soul calls out to me like a fog horn

Janice Janice unlike Fran though Janice was not initially meant to be likable

Fran does have traits that might annoy some people that could be called stereotypes but her character transcends

the to become endearing Fran's comfort in herself and authentity is just as true about her being Jewish as it is

about her being a woman and it's a type of representation that resonates powerfully one slightly odd part of the

series is that when holidays would roll around such as during the winter it was Christmas that got the spotlight

probably because Christmas episodes are something of a sitcom staple the most striking holiday episode though was the

oi to the world animated special in this one we see Fran Vine's Adventures enter the world of Animation when she and

Brighton go to the nor North Pole this handspray really does

hold we see Niles as a snowman CeCe as an evil princess and Maxwell as Chris

Kringle gee if I knew he looked like this I might have converted I'm Fran

fine the nanny the episode includes a big musical number and is probably most memorable for how big a departure it was

from the usual The Nanny Fair it was a bit strange that although plenty of Jewish Traditions are seen on the show

including traditional Jewish weddings at abris we don't see any Jewish holidays until season 4 with the past over story

and season 6 is the Hanukkah Story the fine family was not the only example of representation on the series behind the

scenes The Nanny included a large number of gay and female writers and there were a number of female directors for the episodes as well although the series

does include jokes at the expense of both groups at times the fact that women and gay people played a creative role

may explain why those respective audiences were also quite warm to the show when it comes to gay representation

on the series though it wasn't quite so kind early on in the first few seasons very few gay characters appeared and the

few that did weren't much more than stereotypes Maxwell Sheffield iing one of your

Revival 76 although season 3's ove you're gay

did offer a slightly more interesting character Sydney played by kathern Oxenberg France suspects Sydney is into

Maxwell possibly ruining France Chances with him you're gay oh thank God

[Applause] while a gay character making a move on a straight person is something of a tired

cliche it is something of a step up from the more two-dimensional stereotypes we saw in the first two seasons as the show

went along it also made a deliberate attempt to be less overwhelmingly white in an interview with Vogue Fran dresser

said there was a point where I felt like the show was too white and I wanted to infuse people of color because it wasn't

happening in the 9s when you think about friends mad about you and everybody loves and they were all very white those

were shows of their time but we were set in New York in the theater world and I wanted to bring other elements to it

perhaps the most striking example of that is in the episode fair weather Fran where Fran's grandmother Yeta introduces

her fiance

Sammy yes that's Ray Charles as yet as fiance not only do they get married but

Sammy would be a recurring character for the rest of the series and Charles even performed yish mommy at the end of his

first appearance my [Music]

yish in addition to being absolutely adorable this is quite possibly the only time we've ever seen an interracial

couple between two older folks who are Jewish and black on television I don't know if that's 100% true but I would

love to be corrected if anyone has another example although this kind of representation is in some ways mild

compared to what we would see in 2023 it was a welcome change from other show that seemed to exist in a version of New

York City populated almost exclusively by white people even with all that lovely representation I do have to

mention a few poorly aged examples the series does include a few trans jokes that would absolutely not fly today and

one of the most poorly age things in the series is from the episode not without my nanny in it Grace is invited by a

friend to the fictional country of kistan and Fran accompanies her while the Arabian knights theme is less than

enlightened it's not near nearly as bad as the introduction of the sultan who Bears a strong resemblance to Maxwell

Sheffield you know you look exactly like like you do on the back of the CH stand

shkele yes that's Charles shauny in Brown face while it wouldn't be entirely

accurate to say it's the same as blackface it's still pretty bad and it's a real shame that I'm going to have to

mention this episode later on in this video because of an important plot point there is this weird tradition of British

actors in brownface so sh to C is in good company with the likes of Alec Guinness but there's not much else to

say about this then it sucks plus I added a little seasoning to give it some flavor with what Silvia is Fat

torini to know Sylvia on the nanny is to know a few fundamental facts about her she's friend's mother she's incredibly

nosy and she loves to eat that last part in particular is where much of the comedy of her character comes from and

it's one of the most charring things to see in the show in the present day Renee Taylor's excellent performance of Sylvia

made the character increasingly prominent as the seasons went on as the Sheffield kids had less of a role in the

series as well as Yeta and V became stronger presences on the show an example of Sylvia's rise in prominence

is in the episode a fine Family Feud where an episode about Maggie's 16th birthday party becomes a story about

Sylvia's Feud with her sister-in-law Freda Freda is portrayed by Lany gazan

they threw you out of hadasa because you donated cakes with half the frosting licked off

I felt lightheaded in the car with Sylvia's increased role comes

more jokes about her love of food Sylvia is based on Fran dreer's mother and apparently a recurring theme in the

dresser family is teasing Sylvia about her love of food and it's a genuine love of food rather than just trying to label

her as some kind of unthinking eating machine even if Sylvia's love of food may be a little more complicated in real

life on the show it tends to be reduced to a series of fat jokes it would be ridiculous to single out this show in

the 9s for making fat jokes as they were a staple in sitcoms and other comedy shows and would be for some time that

said it's impossible to watch the show in the present day without noticing how these jokes start to hit differently or

perhaps more accurately a modern audience is likely more aware of how these jokes always hit differently for

certain people and being more aware of that makes it harder to laugh at something when you know it's hurting

another person I think it's really important to also acknowledge that Sylvia and by extension Renee Taylor

doesn't seem to be particularly overweight especially for a woman her age in later Seasons Sylvia goes on a

diet and there are comments about how much she slimm down but she didn't seem that big in the first place at this

point the fat jokes mercifully slowed down on the show though I imagine there weren't that many left to be made FR rer

has openly discussed her own problematic history with food describing her childhood as being filled with

overeating and then going in the complete opposite direction when she became a teenager replacing food with

cigarettes she describes her mother as part of that process and there may be deeper issues at play here than a

general discuss towards fat people and in the series there is some awareness expressed at least in acknowledging that

there is a problem with connecting food to one's well-being oh my God I'm having

palpitations quick get me my

[Laughter] medicine even so it's hard to imagine

that there aren't better ways to make these jokes instead of pointing out that Sylvia is once again eating a lot of

food and supposedly very overweight this is an example of how the show very much

adhered to sitcom norms and unfortunately it was incredibly normal for sitcoms to constantly make fat

people the target of many jokes oh look he's like a little Chestnut you should Chester

call him Chester few stars shine as brightly and steal a scen so snugly as

Chester dresser Fran dresser a adorable Pomeranian before appearing in the nanny

Chester had a breakout role in the movie Cadillac Man although he wasn't originally booked for the movie his

Charming present backstage having been brought along by Fran drer who appeared in the movie won Chester A Brief cameo

in the film Chester was undoubtedly an easy casting choice in the fourth episode of the first season the nlep and

let's be real if you have a dog this cute there's a good chance you're going to want to write him into your TV show he played the gift dog from Maxwell to

CC an engagement dog I I beg your pardon what an engaging dog

Chester doesn't have much chemistry with CCE but he does seem to like Fran you don't mind he's my dog I'll name

him Fran Jer explains how they managed to get the best out of Chester Peter and I wrote uh little jokes to build around

how we knew that he would react Chester would appear on 14 episodes of the series including one memorable episode

Frum when he's kid napped Chester was always a lovely addition to any episode

and put on a wonderful performance even at his Advanced age as he was 16 when any went off the air a few years later

sadly Chester passed away as he was approaching his 19th birthday though he did pass on in the company of Fran

dresser in her second book cancer schmancer Fran wrote ODed to Chester and

while I'm not going to read the entire poem I did want to highlight the final few lines which read after 19 years it's

still came too soon North Star Orange Sky Crescent Moon the night could not

have been clearer and I thought to myself it's the end of an era the Angels

cashed in on their loan they're making Lost in Space into a movie oh I love Niles and C.C.

that as a Child O I'm dating myself dating yourself that's pathetic even you

can do better than you Niles and CCE have a very combative

relationship throughout the series oh it'll be so wonderful to see Noel again we used to have so much fun every summer

he'd take me to the horse show did you ever win although Niles was well integrated into the nanny CeCe had a

rougher time fitting into the show she was there at the beginning pining over Maxwell but it was cce's interactions

with Niles that helped bring the character into a more prominent place we weren't quite sure what to do with her

we wanted to figure out a way to make her a very important ingredient to the

show so we had that go back and forth and back and forth they were such a brilliant couple those two it was

incredible the Big Green between Niles and CeCe is a real tree throughout the series although Niles typically got the

upper hand early on over time CeCe started giving back as good as she got

[Applause] it Maxwell your coffee's

ready although it was always overshadowed by their disgust with one another there was

also a small undercurrent of sexual tension between them servant

trop Bellboy

brunette we would even see brief signs of friendship between the two you know you're actually almost Charming when

you're not being a mean miserable old man funny I was going to say the same about

you these brief Dianes with friendship and attraction would often dissolve by

the next episode in part because the series needed them to stay angry so that they could keep the joke machine running

and generating all those zingers by the end of the show's fourth season though in France got to have it CCE believes

Niles has died after he suffers a heart attack and she reveals her true feelings I know everyone thought Niles and I

hated each other but that's the only way I can have a relationship

when you really get to know me I'm not a Well Woman the Niles n CC Dynamic reveals a persistent class tension that

the series is built on although the sheffields warm to Fran Niles and cce's constant animosity reveal how difficult

it is for those class divides to be conquered even when there's a simmering sexual tension underneath them the two

of them are almost like children teasing each other on the playground because they don't have the right framework to understand their hormones both CC and

Niles have romantic interests throughout the series so it's not like they don't know how this whole dating and romance

thing works but to be genuinely attracted to one another is Unthinkable to them you might have expected the two

of them to get together after Niles's heart attack but this show was very reluctant to let two people get together

and we wouldn't see Niles admit his feelings for CeCe until season six is the Yummy Mummy you have feelings for

Miss Babcock don't you well why don't you just come out and tell her and I mean isn't it obvious I mean what do I

have to do hit the woman over the head actually I've done that from here

things escalate quickly as Niles proposes to Cece only to be rejected because he's poor you surprise me

tonight you finally pulled off something bigger than your shorts oh yeah well you you're up you

walk like a marry me well it's always been a dream of mine

to give up my Park Avenue Penthouse and move into his room Niles doesn't quite

take the hint making four more proposals but eventually he breaks going to be 10 20 years from now you're going to be

saying Merry Christmas to your friends in rehab and wondering what might have

been this leads to them hooking up we would get closure in the story in the series finale when the two of them get

together more traditionally in an interview years later Daniel Davis reflected on Niles and CeCe getting

together I just thought this is so flipping weird I don't know what to make of it Davis has a real Point here while

NS and CeCe certainly have this sexual tension between them and it does Bubble Up throughout the series it's hard to

imagine it as anything more than that and the way CeCe goes to Niles after he tears her to Pieces reveals a strange

masochistic streak iner which would explain her pining over the completely uninterested Maxwell Sheffield for years

if the two of them didn't get a divorce immediately I imagine they would have a marriage so strange that what they do in

public would be some kind of horror show never mind what happens behind closed doors but their marriage here is adhering to

another sitcom Trope Niles and CeCe lusting after one another isn't acceptable people can't just want to

have sex with one another they have to get married and live happily ever after and this serves as another example of

how the nanny would consistently adhere to its traditional sitcom Roots a modern show might have had them become bang

buddies since they obviously can't stand one another as a product of the class divisions ingrained into them it would

be a commentary on how sometimes people's attractions are hampered by social abstractions that we place onto

one another although even if they did the work to undo that conditioning there's no reason to believe they would be a good couple wanting to hook up with

someone does not make them an ideal partner for life and Davis is very astute when he reflects on whether or

not they'd make it as a couple I think they got divorced in the limousine on the way to La The Nanny isn't so cynical

a show though so we're left to imagine what would become of CCE and Niles in the future I was working in a bridal The Nanny Meta

shop in Flushing Queens till my boyfriend kicked me out in one of those crushing scenes The Nanny was very aware

of itself as a TV show with more winks and nods to the camera than I could possibly capture in this video watch

next year she'll have her own sitcom now what makes that clip even cuter is that it was Fran drer then

husband and Nanny co-creator Peter Mark Jacobson delivering that line this show adored making meta jokes here's a

memorable one where Charles shaunessy is reminded of his Old Days of Our Lives role it hasn't been this same since

Shane left he auditioned me once with that

phony British accent and we're reminded of an Morgan Gilbert's time on the Dick

Van Dyk show I used to love that Millie Hela the neighbor she was so funny I

don't know why they never spun her off I heard she was very hard to work with

there was a joke highlighting Lauren Lan's Real Life Pregnancy I was watching this rerun of Seinfeld and Elaine must

have have been yeah I don't know 12 months pregnant and they didn't even acknowledge it they just kept hiding her

behind these huge props in the real world Fran drer and Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond

Fame were in the same high school class so their characters met on an episode of The Nanny at a high school reunion you

know Raymond in high school I had such a crush on you well who didn't everybody

loved Raymond the opening theme of the he was referenced so many times on the show you

could almost recreate the whole thing just using spoken lines from the series I was working in a bridal shop in

Flushing Queens so my boyfriend kicked me out in one of those

crushing wait was I to go what was I to do I was out on my fan a pod in my

French but I've got style I've got flare how could I become the nanny Fran

dresser even shilled her book on the show well I'll have you read this one is

a r plus it just came out on audio cassette fresser's parents made several

cameos including a recreation of their time appearing on the Ros o' Donnell show where they reviewed restaurants did

you go and eat at the early bird dinners yes yes are you kidding South Florida is

great for this the second strangest meta joke was the episode The Bobby fleckman story where fren rusher reprises her

role as Bobby fleckman from This Is Spinal Tap now they're so sweet they're so fresh come on they're the hottest

band in town don't you love wuang Clan uh with chicken or pork it's a strange

moment to be sure but even stranger was seing Fran fine run into Fran dresser in the season 6 episode the baby shower

Excuse Me Miss frand drer but I am your biggest fan oh thank you tell what's the

butler like is he as funny in person I think he steals the whole show we did that very same story story this season

really I didn't see that when was it on now and don't forget to watch the series

finale next week oh I wouldn't miss it for the world so in this world the nanny

is a show on television but there's also a real friend fine living with the sheffields it's probably best not to

think about it I can do it in two minutes well daring it has been 5 years How He Became Mr. The Nanny

by far the longest run plot line in the nanny is the will they won't they dynamic between Fran and Maxwell

originally any romance between the characters was entirely subtext such as seeing Fran pretend to be married to

Niles who's pretending to be Maxwell in the episode The Butler the husband The Wife and Her Mother we'd get our first

external sign of a burgeoning romance a few episodes later in personal

business look at us couple of nut eaters several other moments like this were

peppered throughout the first two seasons of the series revealing how there might be something more than friendship between these two in stop the

wedding I want to get off we see how their potential relationship reflects one of the themes of the series imagine

being blind to the fact that you love someone just because they work for you I know it's

unbelievable yes well good night Miss fine good night Mr

Sheffield there would also be a number of scenes where Fran and Maxwell would sometimes accidentally become physically

intimate for example in the episode close shave the two of them get very close when Fran is mistaken for a nurse

and has to prep Maxwell for his [Laughter]

appendectomy while Niles and CC represent a clash between the classes fryan and Maxwell mostly get along from

the very beginning even if their differences make it a little difficult ult for them to see what's right in front of them while it should be

mentioned that Fran does occasionally annoy Maxwell they always reconcile ensuring that their professional

relationship and friendship is preserved as well as the possibility for that to be something more Maxwell and Fran never

seem fully aware of how well they might fit together or the other's feelings and that barrier is created by their

professional relationship I need a guy that cares about what I think it's fine

what do you think what would I do without you all I'm saying is I need a guy who

needs me one thing that becomes very apparent watching Fran and Maxwell is the chemistry between Fran drer and

Charles shaunessy the two of them work very well together on screen and carry the affection of the two characters have

for one another convincingly by the season 1 episode Sunday in the park with Fran Fran and Max Hall were already

kissing oh thank you Miss fine oh

of course it wasn't exactly the kiss that comes with a confession of love and they would share many more kisses before

any Grand declaration came along in fact there were a total of seven kisses

before Fran and Maxwell expressed their feelings openly and honestly and even then in the season 3 finale a p in Paris

we needed one more kiss to get them past the finish line also the threat of imminent death I love

you but did I say Finish Line because Maxwell takes back having said he loves friend in the season 4 premiere the tart

with heart yeah you know that that I felt that way at that time in that place oh my God you're taking back the

thing if all of that sounds like a frustrating tease imagine how audiences at home must have felt watching this

unfold every week over the course of four years what kind of a dorat are you to live with a guy all those years that

keeps the fact that he loves you a secret I mean believe me I know people that live like that and by by the fourth

year well I'm sick of it one piece of intrigue was in the season 4 episode An

Affair to dismember where Maxwell's brother Nigel played by Harry Van Goram makes an appearance and Fran finds her

style starting to fall for him you are nothing like Mr Sheffield darling I am Mr

Sheffield Nigel proposes to Fran and she weighs the likelihood of Max while ever making a real move she instead decides

to take a chance on the man offering her a future but on her way to meet Nigel on his boat a series of delays keep Fran

from boarding it lady you meant to be on that ship I guess

not when Fran goes back to the Sheffield House she realizes what she has with Maxwell very soon it'll be opening night

you'll be there wearing something smashing I'll stick a couple of Tums in

your Cuma bun so when you get nervous it's fine you you all right have

you been crying I um I I went clubing with b and I hurt my

ankle don't you worry Miss fine I've got you boy do you ever up to this point a

lot of friends flirtations with Maxwell were centered around his good looks and wealth I'm certain she thought he was a

good guy and she certainly cared about him but this is the episode that really reveals the depth of her feelings as an

attraction that is more than the superficial as oblivious as he is to her she senses He does care about her in a

way he can't seem to explain to himself in part because he's still trapped by the memory of his dead wife and his need

for friend to be first and foremost a caregiver for his children in other words her role as the nanny is what's

keeping them from getting together as Fran becomes increasingly certain of how she feels Maxwell continues to dither he

takes back having taken back he said that he loves her and the two share two more kisses even tells her that he loves

her again I Maxwell Sheffield care deeply for Fran

fine and told her I love

you CCE didn't take that one so well even with all of that the confessions and the kisses don't quite get him to

commit with friend becoming increasingly frustrated with Maxwell in the season 4 finale Fran's got to have it she decides

it has to happen or not between them you know I always thought that we were going to end up together but if it ain't going

to happen now it ain't going to happen no I didn't say it'll never happen well I think that my chances are only going

to decrease as I slowly morph into Yeta fine I am not giving into my urges

the stakes are far too high I'm a bloody gentleman after all I don't quite understand Maxwell here is it being a

gentleman to say you love someone constantly make out with them and then stop yourself from sleeping with them at the very last second a more suitable

reason for them to not get together is that there's a very real problem in the power Dynamic of dating your boss that

is Complicated by friend being more like a member of of the family though dating inside the family also seems like a bad

idea at least they're not related by blood though this is how the story distinguishes itself from the strictly class-based one of Niles and CCE The

Divide exists for Fran and Maxwell but their employment relationship adds a whole other layer to it this is a very

old Trope of a powerful man falling for a woman who works for him though in this case it's made more palatable with the

person with less power doing most of the pursuing you never get the sense that Fran is being prayed upon by Maxwell if

anything you could say Fran is the one who's going after him the feelings and attraction she has for him seem real

even if their working relationship would undercut the idea of them being genuine when season 5 rolled around the Romantic

tension was milked just a little bit longer although Fran and Maxwell did start dating it wasn't quite as intense

as four seasons of buildup would suggest things go up a notch halfway through the season though when we get the

unthinkable in call me Fran first Niles gives the audience a voice I told her I

love her took it back I'm afraid of commitment I'm worried about the children for God's sake make a move do

something you pass off caps do you want to regret this for the rest of your life too and then Maxwell does the

unthinkable what are are you saying you're quitting yeah no please don't go Miss

fine Miss fine come back friend wait it's amazing how the use of a

person's name can make so much of a difference it's the dissolution of their professional relationship or rather it's

making it less important than their personal one Maxwell's fear of intimacy may be best understood that the bound of

propriety he was so afraid of Crossing was a professional one going from using Miss fine to friend symbolizes his

decision to cross that boundary and once he's done that the two of them can finally start a real relationship if

love can ever happen in this kind of employer employee Dynamic it would need to be done in a way where the power

transfers over as much as possible to the person with the least of it so much so that Fran threatens to leave her job

just to get the relationship off the ground How likely this would be in the real world though I imagine the Mast

majority of employer employee relationships aren't quite so generous and probably have a great deal of

predatory behavior in them Maxwell probably also would have gotten in trouble for all the times he kissed his Nanny before she really fell for him

that first kiss for example was him just spontaneously kissing her out of nowhere not something you should ordinarily do

with somebody who works for you things started moving very quickly between the two of them in season 5 and

unfortunately we have to go back to the episode not without my nanny luckily we don't have to talk about the character of the sultan because what matters most

is the conclusion of this episode where we see Maxwell finally tell Fran how he feels about her without any reservations

yes he said he loved her before but he's finally saying it here without their problematic work relationship being an

abstraction that really lets him commit to her friend I love

you and commit he certainly does because in the space of Three episodes we went

from seeing Maxwell use friend's first name to saying that he loves her to finally in the 15th episode of the

season the engagement he does just that this episode doesn't jerk us around with any more indecision though Maxwell just

goes for it though his plans are interrupted by a Mugger you got the time uh yes uh

8:15 you don't really want to know the time do you when Fran finds him the ring is gone and Maxwell has to improvise you

know it's all so sudden

well will you what are you think before the

wedding we get some closure regarding Fran and Nigel in the episode The Best Man Nigel has moved on to a new wife but

when the truth comes out Fran apologizes and Maxwell forgives her after it's revealed he hooked up with Mara Maples

around the time Fran nearly ran off with Nigel goodness how long ago was that now oh six seven years a year and a half oh

really and that finally finally brings us to the wedding in the season five

finale titled the wedding this two-parter gets a little weird when Maxwell is visited by the spirit of his

dead wife giving her blessing for the new marriage Fran also helpfully breaks the fourth wall to offer a Counterpoint

to a criticism of this lengthy romance it's really such a beautiful Story I

mean some say it's pathetic but you know I'm going with beautiful Maxwell's sister having had her marriage with the

limo driver crumble warns Fran about the marriage turns out mommy was right classes can't mix when Maxwell tells

Fran why he loves her her cold feet disappear and the wedding moves on you blew into our lives 5 years ago like a

whirlwind made us all feel alive again for that alone I'll love you forever a

priest and a rabbi prepare for a nupal and make it double with joint officiating of the wedding and it all

goes off without a hitch although the honeymoon doesn't get off to the best start

we find out they're just fine next season though on the other hand the nanny as a series wouldn't be quite so safe as this relationship settled into

something meaningful and real it reflects the way every one of these stories typically end on a sitcom the

boss and the worker fall in love and realize they're happier together as a couple than they are as two

professionals a more cynical reading here is that the only way to change your lot in life is to marry your boss but

another gentler one would be the Revelation that professional divisions are not as important as the love that can bind us instead it's a fairy tale

that doesn't often exist in the real world of course but so often that's what sitcoms are and once again that reflects

the conventional nature of the series regardless of the dynamic if there's any romantic tension between a man and a

woman on a sitcom especially if they're the leads they will almost always hopelessly fall in love regardless of

the boundaries in their way just when I figured out the Beday is not a water fountain by this point in the series The The Nanny Gets Her Notice

Fran and Maxwell romance was driving the show their wedding at the end of the fifth season was the highest rated

episode of the series in two years but with Fran and Maxwell happily married it raised the question of whether or not

the audience would stick around for its sixth season when a show is built around a unrequited love or love that can't

happen sexual tension sexual tension you have to keep it that way as much as you want the people to get together as soon

as they do people start tuning out and that wasn't the only obstacle the series faced for its fourth season The Nanny

was mov mov from its usual time slot on Monday to Wednesday nights which was a weaker night for the network and the

original night for the nanny in its first season where it had struggled although it initially had strong ratings

CBS failed to find other shows that could capitalize off its success and the night struggle to find a consistent

audience overall which in the long run started to hurt the nanny franer believes that Monday was being opened up

for shows favored by the new CBS president Les moonz such as Everybody Loves Raymond when moonz asked pressure

to record a promo encouraging her audience to watch the new Bill Cosby Show in her old time slot she did not

react kindly I said Les I don't mind if you shove an umbrella up my ass but when

you open it you've gone too far speaking to vogan an interview Fran dresser said I wasn't his type you know he couldn't

really control me once the show was established he just didn't feel like he needed to support a show that was part

of a different Administration he wanted his shows to have the best times slot his show is to get the big push and his

shows to be the big successes so he just buried us on another night while on Wednesday nights the show started to

struggle throughout its fifth season and the network gave dresser and Jacobson an ultimatum they called us and they said

look if you get them married and it does well we'll put you on for another year

but on that night if you don't want to get them married we'll cancel you so we

looked at each other and said you know well we're having a wedding this would explain how Maxwell and Fran went from

kind of dating at the beginning of the fifth season to getting married by the end of it because of how drawn out the

Romantic tension had been through the preceding four years things certainly needed to escalate but perhaps the

wedding was sooner than it needed to be at the very least drer and Jacobson were hoping for at least a seventh season by

the show's sixth season though the ratings were getting significantly lower it went from getting roughly just under

12 million viewers a night in season 5 to struggling to reach 10 in season 6 and as a frame of reference on Monday

nights it reliably got more than 13 billion viewers a night with the ratings slumping the network decided to pull the

plug on the show in her second book Bren drer describes how the network convinced her to say that she had decided to end

the series on the slim hope it might Garner some interest as opposed to announcing it was being canceled but

sadly the Gambit didn't work and the show's sixth season would be its last and that wasn't the last bit of poor

treatment that the nanny would face although the first 14 episodes of the six season aired as usual during the

fall and winter the next six would be pulled from the spring schedule and it was replaced by Cosby The Nanny finale

aired on May 12th 1999 while the six unaired episodes would be broadcast in

the summer of that year to very low numbers what made this particularly bad for the show was that the 90 was

building to its finale with several story arcs while early seasons of the nany were self-contained the later ones

had plot lines that built from episode to episode much like the ongoing Ro between Fran and Maxwell these season

six episodes that air during the summer included important developments in the Niles and CCE relationship the

development of Fran's pregnancy and Maggie's wedding missing all of that ahead of watching the finale must have

been disorienting for the audience tuning in to see how the Danny The Nanny Finale

[Music] ended heading into the show's finale as

I mentioned in the previous section Fran was very much pregnant something that happened earlier in season seon six at

first Fran and Maxwell planned to wait until having children back when they discussed it in season 5 I guess it's

okay if we wait a while I mean after all you don't make a baby necessarily on the first time out Fran would have a

pregnancy scare in the beginning of the six season episode I'm pregnant doc are you thinking that I might be

pregnant Maxwell isn't on the same page though oh no last thing we need right

now is a baby running around the house Anyway come on tell me what's your good

news blooming Dales is having a big Shoe Sale oh come

here it's an unusually sad ending for an episode and the next episode mom's the word is even sadder Maxwell does get on

board with having a child but it seems like it's not to be when Fran finds out it was a false positive pregnancy Dr

Reynolds thank God you're here how's the baby FR I'm so sorry

I need to clarify something the show did not do with that ending in that clip the gravity of everything really made it

seem like this was a miscarriage rather than a false positive but the next episode clarifies that Fran was never

pregnant false positive turns out you were never pregnant what while I'm sure

that's still upsetting it does seem a bit careless to end the episode as if this were some kind of miscarriage story

perhaps that was a call that was made after the fact to soften the blow of this episode and avoid the more difficult story but it seems like they

could have just established it a little more clearly here rather than ending on such a powerful note that would

ultimately be undercut in the next episode the whole experience does change the perspective of Fran and Maxwell

though and they decide to try for a child and Fran finds out she's pregnant in the episode O say can you ski oh my

God I'm pregnant and not just pregnant Fran is having twins after that gap of

six episodes that air during the summer Fran's pregnancy is very far along as we head into the two-part finale titled the

finale the episode takes place on the first anniversary of Fran and Maxwell's wedding and it largely winds down many

of the stories of the Season CCE finally gives in denials and agrees to marry him

Niles I would love to marry you yes it's so exciting a moment that everyone

nearly misses that Fran is going into labor and the twins are on their way while Fran is at the hospital we see

Niles and CC get married and we finally learn Cece's name do you Niles take Chas

CLA to be your Lily [Applause] W Fran then gives birth she names the

two children Jonah Samuel and Eve Katherine after Fran's grandparents also CCE is pregnant we then see bright and

Maggie who have decided to head off to Paris together leaving Fran Maxwell Grace and the babies to move together to

California so Maxwell can begin the next chapter in his career producing a TV series as FR prepares to leave there's

an extended flashback montage and then Fran fine closes the door to the mansion

one last time or second to last time because she forgot yet in there and she needs to get her out and then she does

it for the last time this finale is actually a bit short

for a two-parter even with that Montage they still had 2 minutes left over for a curtain call and the last we hear from

the series is with much gratitude thank you very very much God bless and think

peace good night everybody this ending follows sitcom standards to a te right

down so the door being closed one last time everyone is off to live the next chapter in their lives carrying the

memories of the time they were all family together although Fran fine was always a unique Leading Lady her sendoff

emphasized how conventional The Nanny was as a sitcom it was never intending to reinvent the wheel merely create

something that was the best version of what a sitcom was in the 9s its unique fashion sense is at odds with its very

traditional Behavior the same way a sharply dressed nanny is somehow the perfect fit for the well-bred Sheffield

kids while it was perhaps canceled too soon it's also true that it could only go on for so long at the very least

there was some desire to do a seventh season but how much longer could we have seen Fran and Maxwell go around in circles and audiences did not seem to

react as strongly to the version of Fran and Maxwell that were married the show at some point would have needed to

reinvent itself and it might have been a good thing that it never had to go through that as many sitcoms don't often

come out better after that kind of a shakeup and had it just stayed the same it might have started to feel a bit

stale the version of The Nanny we got was able to end its run without feeling like it overstay its welcome and so we

have a show that delivered on its premise so well and so consistently that we still remember it 30 years A Nanny to Remember

later the cast of The Nanny didn't vanish entirely from television screens and in 200 for Lifetime hosted a reunion

titled a nosh to remember rather than bring back the characters though we instead see the cast reunite in Fran

drer home for a large meal where they reminisce about the show and enjoy old clips it's a fun extra that reveals how

close the cast remained only Daniel Davis wasn't present because he was out of the country with an acting commitment

we'd see a few other semi- reunions over the years on other programs Charles Shawnessy appeared on several episodes

of bran dresser next sitcoms Living With Fran and happily divorced Renee Taylor and an Morgan Gilbert also appeared on

Happily Divorced in 2020 the cast also reunited for a live reading of the pilot during the covid-19 pandemic to help

raise people's spirits and bring some awareness to Fran jer's charity cancer schmancer The Nanny isn't ready to fade

away either Fran drer and Peter Mark Jacobson have been working on a musical version of the story that has been in

development for a few years now it's been directed by Mark bruny originally the music was to be by Adam Schlesinger

with Rachel Bloom writing the lyrics but Schlesinger passed away in early 2020 although production has slowed recently

dresser has said the musical is still moving along although she also added that she can imagine it opening for at

least another two years another project for the nty waiting to materialize is some kind of Revival of the original

series possibly as a movie the plans are still very early and undoubtedly were slowed down by the recent wga and sag

after strikes although fran drer did Express a desire to honor the nanny with 2023 being the show's 30th anniversary

so something may materialize in that year or possibly the next one speaking to TV Insider about the series

continuing dresser said she was hellbent on getting married being married as lovely an institution as it is for many

people I think you have to carve out your own independent path and have the ability to express yourself separately

and apart from your husband and your children I think that is what we would explore who is friend today what is she

doing to satisfy her needs and creativity her politics fashion sense love for her children and parents and

husband that would be explored in a new season we'll see we're going to talk to Sony and see what happens The Nanny also

found a lot of success outside of the United States the original was broadcast in more than 90 countries one

particularly notable thing about the Italian translation of the original series is that when it was dubbed into

Italian Fran Fine's Jewish Heritage was completely erased and she was made to be Italian much like how when the show was

originally going to be aired CBS requested that friend be changed from Jewish to Italian to P's advertisers

though I haven't watched the Italian version of the series there are certain sections I can't imagine making too much

sense such as the very clearly Jewish holidays being celebrated or friend's trip to a kabut in Israel the series has

also seen a number of remakes set in different countries there are 11 different versions of the nanny funnily

enough five of the adaptations are in Spanish though only three of them are titled

laa after the nanny Charles shaes has been very busy appearing on M Mad Men

reprising his role of Shane on Days of Our Lives and numerous other roles on TV and film he won the Emmy for Outstanding

performer in an animated program on the series Stanley most recently he's had a recurring role on the soap opera General

Hospital Daniel Davis continued to appear on screen following the nanny including appearances on Frasier and

Ugly Betty primarily his work has been on the stage though appearing in numerous plays including performing as king leer and Prospero in Productions of

King leer and the Tempest respectively he also appeared alongside Lauren Lane in a one-off performance of love letters

and he most recently appeared in the third season of Star Trek bicard reprising the role of Professor morari

Lauren Lane has only appeared in a few projects after the nanny including lending her voice to the movie gen 13

she made the decision to leave acting on screen professionally so she can incend transition into a teaching career she is

currently teaching at Texas State University in San Marcos and she has performed in several Productions at the

nearby Zachary Scott theater in Austin while the nanny was coming to an end Nicole Tom started voicing Supergirl on

several animated DC projects she has also appeared in the movies The Princess Diaries and her only child she's also

made guest appearances on numerous television shows and recently appeared as herself in the celebrity edition of

worst Cooks in America after the nanny Benjamin Salisbury would appear in Simone Red Zone and numbers in 2006 he

left the world of acting and is currently working as the Director of operations at Universal Studios Hollywood mine zema has a appeared in

numerous films and TV shows following the nanny notably being featured in the TV series Californication she also made

appearances on Twin Peaks the return she's also said to appear alongside Megan Fox in the upcoming movie

subservience Renee Taylor has appeared in several projects since the nanny including roles in the doover Ice Age 2

and how to be a Latin lover she celebrated her 90th birthday in 2023 and will hopefully have many more years to

come she also reunited with Fran drer in a fun Instagram post promoting the streaming debut of the nanny on on HBO

Max no commercials Ma you press pause to get

your snack oh I was worried Rich chagal appeared on

just shoot me strong medicine and what I like about you following the nanny since 2006 she has largely stopped acting and

has retired to a private life while working on the nanny she was pregnant and delivered twins which was part of

the inspiration to give Fran twins as well and Morgan Gilbert took some time off from acting after the nanny though

she returned to the screen to appear in episodes of Kier enthusiasm Law and Order Special Victims Unit and gry's

Anatomy sadly she passed away on June 14th 2016 at the age of 87 from

pancreatic cancer Fran drer would appear in several projects following the nanny such as the sitcoms Living With Fran

happily divorced and indebted she also hosted the Fran dresser talk show that's tawk she performed on Broadway in a

Revival of Rogers and hammeren Cinderella as the stepmother madam and she's also done Voice work on the Hotel

Transylvania movies in her personal life dresser revealed that she had suffered through two years and eight doctors

worth of misdiagnoses before finding out she had uterine cancer she was treated and is happily cancer-free and she set

up a charity called cancer schmancer to promote healthy living and vigilance toward the early signs of cancer

particularly for women whose concerns are sometimes ignored or downplayed by doctors having been elected as president

of the SAG after Union dresser made headlines for a powerful speech she gave defending the rights of workers ahead of

the 2023 sag after strike how they plead poverty that they're losing money left

and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their

CEOs it is disgusting shame on them we

are labor and we stand tall and we demand respect and to be honored for our

contribution you share the wealth because you cannot exist without us

although remarks were prepared for dresser ahead of time apparently she ignored her speech and instead spoke in

the moment off the top of her head the speech also prompted people to share a clip from The Nanny episode titled the

strike where Fran refuses to cross a picket line I can't go in there my mother had three rules never make

contact with a public toilet never ever ever cross a picket

line what was the third one oh yeah never wear mask o to The Zo the SAG

after strike eventually came to an end and hopefully the deal reached is Equitable and fair and respects the

talents of the many actors who bring your favorite movies and TV shows to life and I'd like to express full

solidarity with all unions standing up for the rights of workers everywhere the nanny has left a long Legacy and is

still enjoyed today though it is still very much a reflection of the time it was made writing for vulture Bethy Squires describe the success of the

series due in large part to the character of Fran fine a type we don't see in leading roles very often Squires

wrote Fran is equally as likely to be the butt of the joke as the one doing the joking she is ridiculous but

relatable and because the show Supporting Cast was mostly women it was able to highlight all the ways to be a

lady while still underlining how fake femininity really is she also describes quite aptly how aware of Television frif

fine was constantly making references to sitcoms of the past and I highlighted the many meta references the show would

make throughout its run this is show that was very much aware of itself as a sitcom and its place in sitcom history

and because of that it knew how to fit that mold perfectly in the era was created sitcoms are also typically

thought of as comfort television and the nanny has certainly been described that way as well behind the scenes it was even true for Fran dresser she wrote in

her second book about how it was a refuge for her there I was fearing the worst about my health situation while

Fran fine was healthy as a horse I was conflicted about having a baby while she was pregnant with twins she'd find the

Mount of her dreams while my marriage was coming a part of the seams as Topsy Turvy as it all was I frankly relish the

time I got to play Miss spine because her life was so much better than mine she was funnier happier and less

complicated she became my refuge it sounds sad because it was sad while

drescher's life may have been in a sad State and happily has very much recovered from that state it does speak

to the power of sitcoms and the nanni specifically it clearly meant a lot to friend drer behind the scenes and it

certainly meant a lot to the people watching at home bran fine represents an exaggerated vision of femininity she

both critiques the stereotypes while reinforcing the reality that can sometimes be found in them she's not the typical sitcom star but stars in a

typical sitcom she's the sort of character who people say you shouldn't be here when she's been there all along

even in the 9s sitcom starring women had been around and found success for a while but the '90s still reflected the

limitations of what a woman can do in that format while celebrating all that was accomplished within it critiquing

the space while apprecia iting it the nanny is a show filled with contradictions and that may be the

secret to its success a conventional idea that had a powerful impact and when it comes to show that executes on a

format very few did it as well as the nanny longtime viewers of my channel

those specifically who enjoy my sitcom retrospectives probably never expected to see this one for a long time I

resisted working on the nanny not because I thought the show was bad or Unworthy of criticism but because of

behind the scenes complications when it comes to dealing with certain Distributors let's say I really have to

give full credit to Fran drer who standing up to the Hollywood Studios maybe think you know what if she's

willing to fight so can I so much thanks to friender for creating a great show and reminding us that sometimes we have

to fight to express ourselves if you thought this form of expression was

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