The Nanny is an
American
television sitcom co-produced by Sternin
& Fraser Ink, Inc. and Highschool Sweethearts Productions in
association with TriStar
Television for the CBS network.
It first
aired from November 3, 1993, to May 12, 1999, and starred Fran Drescher as Fran
Fine, a charming and bubbly Jewish
Queens
native who casually becomes the nanny of three
children from the New York/British
upper class.
Created and executive produced by Drescher and her then-husband
Peter Marc Jacobson,
The Nanny took much of its
inspiration from Drescher's personal life, involving names and
characteristics based on near relatives and friends. The show
earned a
Rose d'Or and one
Emmy Award, out of a total of 13 nominations, and
Drescher was twice nominated for a
Golden
Globe. Since the early 2000s the sitcom has also spawned
several
foreign
adaptations, loosely inspired by the original scripts.
Plot
The Nanny is primarily based upon the story of
nasal-voiced
Fran Fine (played by
Fran Drescher) who is from
Flushing, Queens.
Fran appears at the
doorstep of a wealthy widowed Englishman, Broadway
theatrical
producer Maxwell Sheffield
(Charles Shaughnessy), while
selling cosmetics. Fran has just been fired from her job as
a bridal consultant by her ex-fiancé, Danny, and Maxwell mistakenly
believes that she has been sent by a nanny agency and quickly hires
her to be
nanny to his three kids,
Maggie (
Nicholle
Tom),
Brighton (
Benjamin Salisbury) and
Grace (
Madeline
Zima). Fran, with her nontraditional nurturing style and
no-nonsense honesty, soon becomes a favorite with the kids as well
as Maxwell, as they come to respect her opinions and love her as a
person. It is a situation of
blue collar
meets
blue blood, as Fran gives the
prim-and-proper Maxwell and his children a dose of "Queens logic",
helping them to become a healthy, happy family.
Proudly running the Sheffield household is the
butler,
Niles
(
Daniel Davis), who watches all events
with a bemused eye and levels problems with his quick wit. Niles
quickly recognizes Fran's gift for bringing warmth into the family
and becomes fast friends with her. He does his best to undermine
Maxwell's
socialite business partner,
C. C.
Babcock (
Lauren
Lane), in their ongoing game of
one-upmanship. C. C. views Fran with a mixture
of skepticism and jealousy, as they both have designs on the very
available Mr. Sheffield.
Perpetually hovering close by are Fran's stereotypically obsessive
and food-loving "
Jewish
mother"
Sylvia (
Renée Taylor); her rarely-seen but
often-mentioned father Morty; her cigarette-addicted senile
grandmother
Yetta (
Ann Guilbert), dispensing nonsensical advice
and often erroneously believing Mr.Sheffield to already be Fran's
husband and his children to be hers as well (a belief she does not
keep to herself);, Fran's dim-witted best friend
Val (
Rachel
Chagall) and Fran's paternal aunt Freida (
Lainie Kazan) keeping her company on the
perpetual quest for a husband and constantly reminding Fran how
things can always get worse (as Val has much less luck than
Fran).
Cast
Main cast
- For a full list of characters with articles, see the individual character
articles.
The Nanny maintained an
ensemble
cast, keeping the same set of characters for its entire
six-season run. Numerous secondary characters and love interests
for these characters appeared intermittently to complement
storylines that generally revolved around this core group.
Recurring cast
Guest stars
Although largely operating around that main ensemble cast,
The
Nanny featured an enormous number of guest stars over the
years. Notable repeat guests included
Steve Lawrence as Fran's never before seen
father Morty Fine,
Pamela Anderson
as Fran's nemesis Heather Biblow,
Ray
Charles as Yetta's fiancé Sammy,
Lainie
Kazan as Fran's paternal aunt
Freida
Fine,
Spalding Gray as Dr. Jack
Miller, and
Fred Stoller as Fred The
Pharmacist. Most celebrities guest-starred in single episodes as
themselves, primarily appearing in connection with Maxwell's
business relations, such as actors and actresses
Chevy Chase,
Billy
Ray Cyrus,
Lesley-Anne Down,
Erik Estrada,
Dan Aykroyd,
Joe Lando,
Shari Lewis,
Richard Kline,
Bette
Midler,
Roseanne,
Barbra Streisand,
Steve Lawrence and
Eydie Gorme,
Jane Seymour,
Cloris Leachman,
Elizabeth Taylor,
Elton John,
Jason
Alexander,
Lamb Chop and
Shari Lewis,
Lynn Redgrave,Hugh Grant,
Margaret Cho, Eric Braeden and
Hunter Tylo; media personalities
Roger Clinton, Jr.,
Jay Leno,
David
Letterman, and
Donald Trump; and
musicians such as
Lisa Loeb,
Brian Setzer,
Celine
Dion, appeared in a 1994 episode. Rapper
Coolio,
Whoopi
Goldberg,
Steve Lawrence and
Rosie O'Donnell, however, guest
starred as both characters and themselves in different episodes.
Two-time "
Survivor"
Jonathan Penner appeared as Fran's
former fiance, Danny Imperialli.
James
Marsden appeared as Maggie's boyfriend, Eddie, and
Telma Hopkins appeared as Fran's "mother" in
the episode
Fran's Roots.
Scott
Baio also made an appearance as a rookie doctor who was a
former schoolmate of Fran's (Fran was his first
patient...ever).
While starring, Fran Drescher also reprised her role of Bobbi
Fleckman from the 1984 film
This
Is Spinal Tap and made a
cameo
appearance as herself in the third last episode; Charles
Shaughnessy followed with a double role as a foreign sultan in a
special episode. Drescher's real-life parents, Morty and Sylvia
Drescher made appearances as Fran's Uncle Stanley and Aunt Rose;
her
Pomeranian Chester appeared as C.C.'s pet in more than
a dozen episodes. Renee Taylor's husband, Joe Bologna, and their
son Gabriel also had minor roles as doctors on the show.
Ray Romano made a crossover as
Ray Barone, Fran's former fellow student, linking
The Nanny with his comedy
Everybody Loves Raymond.
Tom Bergeron starred as himself in an
episode where Maxwell was a star on
Hollywood Squares, as a replacement
for
Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Episode overview
| Season |
Episodes |
First Air Date |
Last Air Date |
Notes |
| 1 |
22 |
November 3, 1993 |
May 16, 1994 |
|
| 2 |
26 |
September 12, 1994 |
May 22, 1995 |
|
| 3 |
27 |
September 11, 1995 |
May 20, 1996 |
"Oy to the World" Animated Episode |
| 4 |
26 |
September 18, 1996 |
May 21, 1997 |
|
| 5 |
23 |
October 1, 1997 |
May 13, 1998 |
|
| 6 |
22 |
September 30, 1998 |
May 12, 1999 |
|
The Nanny: Reunion Special
Theme song and opening credits
Theme song
The show's original theme was the song "
If My Friends Could See Me
Now", performed by
Gwen Verdon from
the 1966 Broadway musical
Sweet
Charity , but this theme was scrapped after the pilot
episode, and it was only heard in the pilot episode in the original
CBS run (all syndicated airings of the episode removed the theme as
well as any mention of it in the closing credits).
The second theme song, "The Nanny Named Fran", which was written
and performed by
Ann Hampton
Callaway, would be the theme song for the remainder of the
series. Two instrumental versions of the theme song were used in
the closing credits, one that is a direct instrumental version of
the theme (used only in a few season one episodes), and another
that sounds slightly different from the theme song (although the
end of the closing theme features an instrumental portion taken
almost directly from the theme song).
Opening credits
The opening sequence for the pilot featured Fran in front of a
white background, getting herself made up going to work as the
nanny; at the end of the sequence, it shows Fran heading toward a
stroller (this is ironic as all of the Sheffield children were
older than five-years-old) and a lipstick print appears to the
above right.
With the change of the theme song from "If My Friends Could See Me
Now" to "The Nanny Named Fran" also came the change of the opening
sequence, which like the theme, describes the story of how Fran
Fine went from being fired from the bridal shop by Danny Imperiali
to becoming the nanny of the Sheffield children. The opening
sequence remained the same despite Renee Taylor, Ann Guilbert and
Rachel Chagall being now credited as "starring" in the in-show
credits. The only change to the sequence was in season six when
producer Kathy Landsberg was promoted to co-executive producer of
the series as her producer credit was moved to the in-show credits,
and the names of show creators Drescher and Jacobson, and
developers Sternin and Fraser were added in its place.
Production
Development
It was not until 1991 - the same year Drescher decided to visit
friend
Twiggy Lawson and her family in
London, England that the pair came up with early drafts for
The
Nanny. Inspired by a
culture-clashy shopping tour with Lawson's
teenage daughter which saw Drescher actually functioning in a less
parental but "humorous [...] kind of Queens logic, self-serving
advice" mode, she convinced her husband starting work of what she
called "doing a spin on [the 1965 film]
The Sound of Music."
However,
it was not until a transatlantic flight to Paris that Drescher
persuaded fellow passenger Jeff Sagansky, at the time president of
CBS Corporation, for whom she had
starred in the short-lived TV series Princesses, to meet with her and
Jacobson when Drescher returned to Los Angeles,
California
.
Back in Los Angeles, the pair pitched their idea to Tim Flack and
Joe Voci, both in comedy development at CBS. Sagansky brought in
experienced producers Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser, another
husband-and-wife team with whom Drescher had worked before during
guesting on
Who's the Boss?
in 1985 and 1986. Interested, both couples teamed up to write the
script for the pilot together, creating a character with the
intention to build off Drescher's image. "Our business strategy was
to create a show that was going to complement our writing,
complement me as a talent," Drescher said in a 1997 interview with
the
Hollywood Reporter.
As a result, the characters draw deeply on the Drescher family,
including
Fran Fine's parents, Sylvia and
Morty, and grandmother Yetta, who all were named after their
real-life counterparts.
Crew
Most of all early
The Nanny episodes were shot in front of
a live studio audience on Stage 6 at the
Culver Studios (during later seasons the
taping was no longer performed before an audience due to the
complexities of the
fantasy sequences,
costume changes etc.), generally on Friday nights. Scripts for a
new episode were issued the Monday before for a
read-through; Wednesday was
rehearsal and network run-through day, and final
scripts were issued on Thursday.
Nearly 100 crew members were involved in the shooting of a single
episode. Although Drescher, Fraser, Jacobson and Sternin, the
show's only executive producers for the first four seasons,
coordinated "pretty much everything" at the beginning, according to
Sternin, they eventually found their niche and in the following
years, Drescher and Sternin decided to focus on writing story
outlines, while Jacobson presided over the writing team, and Fraser
observed the run-throughs. The four of them were later joined by
Frank Lombardi, Caryn Lucas and Diane Wilk.
Humor
The comedy in
The Nanny was formulated with many
running gags, which contributed heavily to the
success of the series. Much of this formula was character-based,
with all major characters possessing a specific trait or quirks
that provided a source of parody for other characters. The
conflicting elements of each character's own comedy were often
played off against one another (
Fran and
Maxwell,
Niles and
C.C.,
Maggie
and
Brighton). Occasionally the
characters would break the
fourth wall
and comment on the situations themselves, or Fran would comment to
the audience or look into the camera. Another running gag is the
many references to
Beatles songs.
Other running gags include Fran constantly referring to eccentric
family members (some never shown, most of them dying); Fran lying
about her age—especially to men; Maxwell fighting through his
rivalry with actual Broadway producer
Andrew Lloyd Webber; Sylvia loving food
in excess; Niles delivering sharp one-liners, often aimed at C.C.;
C.C. cold-heartedly reacting to situations that are usually
sentimental to others; Gracie psychologically analyzing various
situations; Niles always getting fired because he always
embarrasses Maxwell or gives Fran ideas that Maxwell extremely
dislikes (like the time when Niles suggested that Max, C.C. and
Fran go to the Streisand house); Fran and Val lacking intelligence
and obsessing over material possessions (i.e. clothes); Yetta
making disconnected comments revealing her senility; Fran
criticizing Maxwell's and Niles' reserved and inhibited British
nature; Brighton morphing into a hopeless dork; Maxwell passing up
the incredibly popular musical,
Cats, then becoming upset when such an
idiotic idea became a success; Niles' last name never being
revealed; C.C. covering her long-unrevealed name (finally given as
Chastity Claire in the series finale); C.C. failing to remember the
names of the Sheffield children; Sylvia constantly nagging Fran to
get married; Niles offering obvious hints to Maxwell and Fran about
them realizing they should be together; C.C. pining over her
unrequited romantic interest in Maxwell; and Fran obsessing with
Barbra Streisand. There was also
the occasional tryst between Niles and C.C., contrasting with their
typical open disdain for each other, which was actually love.
In addition, there is also a great deal of
physical comedy in
The Nanny
including exaggerated falls and chases. Drescher's facial
expressions, when shocked or surprised, can also be seen as
reminiscent of
Lucille Ball's
portrayals of
Lucy Ricardo and
Lucy Carmichael. The parallels were
suggested in one episode, where an exasperated Mr. Sheffield refers
to Fran as "Mrs Carmichael," and again in another (in which the
family travels to Hollywood) when he alludes to Fran and "Ethel"
stealing John Wayne's footprints. The episode that featured a visit
from Elizabeth Taylor began with Maxwell and Niles trying to hide
the visit from Fran ("Boys, boys, boys. Now do you think my mother
gave birth to a dummy 25 years ago?") followed by her gripe "You
never introduce me to any of the stars that you know; I've got a
good mind to take Little Ricky and... oh. Never mind." Viewers for
Quality Television calls
The
Nanny "the 90s version of
I Love
Lucy. It was well written and entertaining".
Reaction
The show languished its first year. When it was nearly canceled,
Sagansky stepped in as its champion. According to Jacobson: "At all
those affiliate meetings, he used to say, 'Stick by
The
Nanny!' He knew it was something special." The sitcom was the
first new show delivered to CBS for the 1993 season and the
highest-tested pilot at the network in years. The series was also
hugely successful internationally, especially in Australia, where
it was one of the highest rated programs during the mid-late
1990s.
Although soon emerging as a favorite among the company, sponsors
questioned whether the writers had ventured too far in terms of
ethnicity and Drescher acted too obviously Jewish. The actress,
however, declined to change Fran Fine into an
Italian American: "On TV, you have to work
fast, and the most real, the most rooted in reality to me is
Jewish. I wanted to do it closest to what I knew." By contrast, the
producers came to the conclusion that to oppose her should be a
family of British origin, so "she wouldn't come across as Jewish so
much as the American you were rooting for," Sternin explained. "The
idea was to make her the American girl who happens to be Jewish
rather than the Jewish girl working for the
WASP."
Syndication
The show began off-network syndication in September 1997,
distributed by
Columbia
TriStar Television (now
Sony Pictures Television) on
various broadcast television networks in the U.S. The show had
aired on
Lifetime Television
from 2000 until 2008. The show can be seen currently on
Nick@Nite in the United States, and
Go! in Australia.
The
Nanny will discontinue airing on Nick@Nite in April 2010,
after which it will move to Nick@Nite's sister network,
TV Land.
Awards
| Year |
Category |
For... |
Result |
| Emmy Awards |
| 1995 |
Outstanding Costume Design - Series |
Brenda Cooper for "Canasta Masta" |
|
| 1995 |
Outstanding Directing - Comedy Series |
Lee Shallat Chemel for "Canasta Masta" |
|
| 1995 |
Outstanding Hairstyling - Series |
For "Stock Tip" |
|
| 1996 |
Outstanding Actress - Comedy Series |
Fran Drescher for playing "Fran
Fine" |
|
| 1996 |
Outstanding Costume Design - Series |
Brenda Cooper for "The Kibbutz" |
|
| 1996 |
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series |
Renée Taylor for playing "Sylvia Fine" |
|
| 1997 |
Outstanding Actress - Comedy Series |
Fran Drescher |
|
| 1997 |
Outstanding Costume Design - Series |
Brenda Cooper for "The Facts of Lice" |
|
| 1997 |
Outstanding Costume Design - Series |
Brenda Cooper for "The Rosie Show" |
|
| 1998 |
Outstanding Costume Design - Series |
Brenda Cooper for "Not Without My Nanny" |
|
| 1998 |
Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) - Comedy
Series |
For "The Wedding" |
|
| 1999 |
Outstanding Costume Design - Series |
Brenda Cooper for "Oh Say, Can You Ski?" |
|
| Golden Globe
Awards |
| 1995 |
Best Actress - Musical or Comedy Series |
Fran Drescher for playing "Fran Fine" |
|
| 1996 |
Best Actress - Musical or Comedy Series |
Fran Drescher |
|
| Image Awards |
| 1998 |
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series |
Whoopi Goldberg for playing "Edna" in "The Pre-Nup" |
|
| Satellite
Awards |
| 1996 |
Best Actress - Musical or Comedy Series |
Fran Drescher for playing "Fran Fine" |
|
|
DVD releases
Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment has released seasons 1, 2 & 3 of
The
Nanny on DVD in regions 1, 2 & 4. Season 3 was released on
March 17, 2009 in Region 1, almost 3 years after the release of
season 2.
[38659]
|
DVD Name
|
Ep #
|
Release dates
|
Special Features
|
|
Region 1
|
Region 2
|
Region 4
|
| The Complete 1st Season |
22 |
July 12, 2005 |
August 9, 2005 |
July 13, 2005 |
- Commentary with Fran Drescher
- The Making of The Nanny
|
| The Complete 2nd Season |
26 |
May 2, 2006 |
June 8, 2006 |
May 10, 2006 |
|
| The Complete 3rd Season |
27 |
March 17, 2009 |
March 5, 2009 |
March 11, 2009 |
|
| The Complete 4th Season |
26 |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
|
| The Complete 5th Season |
23 |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
|
| The Complete 6th Season |
22 |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
|
It is not known when the remaining 3 seasons will be
released.
Foreign adaptations
Countries with local versions
The Nanny was shown in more than eighty countries
worldwide. In addition, several local versions of the show have
been produced in other countries. These shows follow the original
scripts very closely, but with minor alterations in order to adapt
to their respective country's culture. The remake in Russia was so
popular that some original American writers were commissioned to
write new scripts after all original episodes were remade.
See also
References
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrk1Tps8w0Q Original Nanny Intro
from the Pilot episode
- The Nanny - Official Site - About the Show
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
