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The Nanny (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Nanny | |
|---|---|
 Logo |
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| Format | Sitcom |
| Created by | Fran Drescher Peter Marc Jacobson |
| Developed by | Prudence Fraser Robert Sternin |
| Starring | Fran Drescher Charles Shaughnessy Daniel Davis Lauren Lane Nicholle Tom Benjamin Salisbury Madeline Zima Renée Taylor Rachel Chagall Ann Morgan Guilbert |
| Opening theme | "The Nanny named Fran" by Ann Hampton Callaway |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 145 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Fran Drescher Prudence Fraser Peter Marc Jacobson Frank Lombardi Caryn Lucas Robert Sternin Diane Wilk |
| Running time | est. 23 minutes |
| Distributor | TriStar Television, Columbia Pictures Television |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | November 3, 1993 – June 23, 1999 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Nanny is a popular American situation comedy co-produced by Sternin & Fraser Ink, Inc. and Highschool Sweethearts Productions in association with Columbia Pictures Television for CBS. It first aired from November 3, 1993 to June 23, 1999 and starred actress Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, a charming and bubbly Jewish Queens native who casually becomes the pantyhose-clad nanny of three children from the New York upper class. The show's theme song was written and performed by Ann Hampton Callaway.
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.[1] The show earned a Rose d'Or and one Emmy Award, out of a total of 13 nominations, and moreover garnered Drescher two Golden Globe nominations.[1] Since the early 2000s the sitcom also has spawned several foreign adaptions, loosely inspired by the original scripts.
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The plot of the show revolved around nasal-voiced Fran Fine (Fran Drescher) from Flushing, Queens, who, fresh out of her job as a bridal consultant in her boyfriend's shop, was peddling cosmetics on the Upper East Side doorstep of a wealthy and widowed Englishman, Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (played by former Days of our Lives star Charles Shaughnessy). When he mistakenly believes Fran has been sent by a nanny agency, she quickly seizes the opportunity to become the nanny for his three children. But soon Fran, with her off-beat nurturing and no-nonsense honesty, touches Maxwell as well as the kids. It was a situation of blue collar meets blue blood, as Fran gave the prim-and-proper Maxwell and his children a dose of "Queens logic," helping them 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 desires for the very available Mr. Sheffield.
Perpetually hovering close by were Fran's typically obsessive and food-loving "Jewish mother" Sylvia; her rarely-seen but oft-mentioned father Morty; her cigarette-addicted senile grandmother Yetta, dispensing nonsensical advice and often erroneously believing Sheffield to already be Fran's husband and his children to be hers as well, a belief she does not keep to herself; and her dim-witted best friend Val, keeping her company on her perpetual quest for a husband, and being a constant reminder that things can always get worse (as Val is much more unlucky than Fran).
- 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.
| Character | Actor/Actress |
|---|---|
| Sylvia Fine | Renee Taylor |
| Yetta Rosenberg | Ann Morgan Guilbert |
| Val Toriello | Rachel Chagall |
Although largely operating around that main ensemble cast, The Nanny featured an enormous number of guest stars over the years. Notable repeat guests included Pamela Anderson as Fran's nemesis Heather Biblow, Ray Charles as Yetta's fiancé Sammy, Lainie Kazan as Fran's paternal aunt Freida, Spalding Gray as Dr. Jack Miller, Jon Stewart as Fran's love interest/cousin and Rita Moreno as Coach Stone. 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, Erik Estrada, Richard Kline, Joe Lando, Shari Lewis, Bette Midler, Jane Seymour, Elizabeth Taylor and Hunter Tylo; media personalities Roger Clinton, Jr., Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Donald Trump; and musicians such as Celine Dion, Elton John, Eartha Kitt, Patti LaBelle and Brian Setzer among many others. Rapper Coolio, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Lawrence, and Rosie O'Donnell, however, guest starred as both characters and themselves in different episodes.
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 second last episode; Charles Shaughnessy followed with a double role as a foreign sultan in a special episode, wherin both characters were baffled by the fact that Fran thought them alike in appearance. 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.
Although Drescher and Jacobson had previously worked on various ideas for potential television shows,[2] it was not until 1991 - the same year Drescher decided to visit friend Twiggy Lawson and her family in London, England[1] - 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,[2] she convinced her husband starting work of what she called "doing a spin on [the 1965 film] The Sound of Music."[2] 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.[1]
Back in Los Angeles, the pair pitched their idea to Tim Flack and Joe Voci, both in comedy development at CBS.[2] Sagnasky brought in experienced producers Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser,[2] 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,"[2] Drescher said in an 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 Drescher' s real-life counterparts.
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 peaked in it's 3rd season, at #17 in the Neilson Raitings, coming behind Rosanne.[2] Although soon emerging as a favourite among the company, sponsors questioned whether the writers had ventured too far in terms of ethnicity and Drescher acted too obviously Jewish.[2] The actress who experienced pressure to alter her character’s identification, 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."[3] 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 WASPs."[2]
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.[4] 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.[4]
Nearly 100 crew members were involved in the shooting of a single episode.[5] Although Drescher, Fraser, Jacobson and Sternin, the show's only executive producers for the first four seasons, coordinated "pretty much everything" at the beginning,[5] 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.[5] The four of them were later joined by Frank Lombardi, Caryn Lucas, and Diane Wilk.
- Chris Carter was a writer and producer for the show. Carter is best known for creating The X-Files.
- Bill Lawrence wrote two episodes for the show. Lawrence is best known for creating Scrubs and for co-creating Spin City with Gary David Goldberg.
The comedy in The Nanny was formulated with many running gags, which contributed heavily to the success of the series. Much of this formula is 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 basically comment to the audience or look into the camera. Other running gags include:
- Fran's constant references to eccentric family members
- Fran's lying about her age
- Maxwell's rivalry with Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Sylvia's excessive love of food
- Niles's one-liners often aimed at C.C.
- C.C.'s cold-hearted reaction to situations that are usually sentimental to others
- Gracie's psychological analysis of various situations
- Val's lack of intelligence
- Yetta's senility
- Fran and her mother's obsession with singer Barbra Streisand
- C.C.'s being unaware of the children's names
- Maxwell's passing on the musical Cats
- Fran's revealing clothing
- Fran and Sylvia's obsession with Fran marrying a Jewish doctor
- Fran's voice
- Fran's being Jewish
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released The Nanny on DVD.
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Release dates
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Region 4
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| The Complete 1st Season | 22 | July 12, 2005 | August 9, 2005 | July 13, 2005 |
| The Complete 2nd Season | 26 | May 2, 2006 | June 8, 2006 | May 10, 2006 |
The Nanny has been broadcast in more than eighty countries. 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.
- ^ a b c d The Nanny trivia. IMDb. Retrieved on 2007-06-16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Enter Winning". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved on 2007-06-16.
- ^ "I'm a Survivor!". Jewish Journal. Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
- ^ a b "Nanny on the Spot". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
- ^ a b c "In a Family way". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved on 2007-06-19.
- The Nanny Home Page
- The Nanny Official site at Sony Pictures Television
- The Nanny at Lifetime Television
- The Nanny at Internet Movie Database
- The Nanny at TV.com
| The Nanny |
|---|
| Episode List |
| Main characters |
|
Fran Fine | Maxwell Sheffield | Niles | C. C. Babcock |
| Recurring characters |
|
Sylvia Fine | Yetta Rosenberg | Val Toriello | Heather Biblow |
| Related series |