THE NANNY (TV SERIES)

'''The Nanny''' is a popular American situation comedy co-produced by Sternin & Fraser Ink, Inc. and Highschool Sweethearts Productions in association with TriStar 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, loosley inspired by the original scripts.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Regular

Recurring

Guest stars

Production

Crew

Humor

DVD Releases

Syndication

Foreign adaptations

See also

Notes

External links

Plot

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).

Cast

Regular

:''For a full list of characters with articles, see .''
''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
Fran Fine	Fran Drescher
Maxwell Sheffield	Charles Shaughnessy
Maggie Sheffield	Nicholle Tom
Brighton Sheffield	Benjamin Salisbury
Grace Sheffield	Madeline Zima
Niles	Daniel Davis
C.C. Babcock	Lauren Lane

Recurring

Character	Actor/Actress
Sylvia Fine	Renee Taylor
Yetta Rosenberg	Ann Morgan Guilbert
Val Toriello	Rachel Chagall

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 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, Shari Lewis, Bette Midler, Jane Seymour, Elizabeth Taylor and Hunter Tylo; media personalities Roger Clinton, Jr., Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Donald Trump; or 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. 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''.

Production

Although Drescher and Jacobson had previously worked on various ideas for potential television shows,^[3] 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,^[3] she convinced her husband starting work of what she called "doing a spin on [the 1965 film] ''The Sound of Music''."^[3] 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.^[3] Sagnasky brought in experienced producers Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser,^[3] 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,"^[3] 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.^[3] 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.^[3] The actress who experienced pressure to alter her character’s identification, however, denied 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."^[13] By contrast, the producers came to the conclusion to opposite her, the main character, 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."^[3]

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.^[15] 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.^[15]
Nearly 100 crewmembers were involved in the shooting of a single episode.^[17] Although Drescher, Fraser, Jacobson and Sternin, the show's only executive producers for the first four seasons, coordinated "pretty much everything" at the beginning,^[17] according to Sternin, they eventually found their niche and 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.^[17] 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 formulae is character-based, with all major characters possessing a specific trait or quirks that provided a source of satire for other characters. The conflicting elements of each character's own comedy were often played off against one another (Fran and Mr. Sheffield, 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.

★ Fran's constant references to eccentric family members

★ Fran lying about her age

★ Mr. Sheffield's rivalry with Andrew Lloyd Webber

★ Sylvia's excessive love of food

★ Niles's one-liners often aimed at Ms. Babcock

★ Ms. Babcock's cold-hearted reaction to situations that are usually sentimental to others

★ Maggie's initial shyness around boys and her eagerness to date

★ Brighton's "whimpering" reaction to adversity

★ Gracie's psychological analysis of various situations

★ Val's less than intelligent understanding of what's happening around her

★ Yetta's senility

★ Fran and her mother's obsession with singer Barbra Streisand

★ C.C. being unaware of the children's names

DVD Releases

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released ''The Nanny'' on DVD.

'Cover Art'	'DVD Name'	'Ep #'	'Release dates'
			Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	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

Syndication

★ : ''La Niñera'' (Telefe) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (Nine, TV1, Ten) ★ : ''Die Nanny''´(ORF1, ATV) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (Lifetime, ABC) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (één, VT4 , VTMkerst) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (Sony Entertainment Television) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (TVtropolis) ★ Catalonia: ''La Tata'' (TV3) ★ : ''La Nany'' (Mega) ★ : ''Dadilja'' (RTL Televizija) ★ : ''Chůva k pohledání'' (TV Prima) ★ : ''Alle tiders barnepige'' (TV3) ★ : ''Nanny'' (TV3) ★ : ''Nanny'' (Nelonen) ★ : ''Une nounou d'enfer'' (M6) ★ : ''Die Nanny'' (VOX, RTL Television, Super RTL) ★ : ''Νταντά αμέσου δράσεως'' (Mega Channel, Macedonia TV) ★ : ''A dadus'' (TV2, Cool TV) ★ : ''La Tata'' (Canale 5) ★ : ''못말리는 유모'' (CNTV)

★ : ''Nanny'' (The Hallmark Channel) ★ : ''La Niñera'' (TV Azteca, Sony Entertainment Television) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (RTL 5) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (TV2) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (TV3, ZTV) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (The Hallmark Channel) ★ : ''Niania'' (TVN) ★ : ''Competente e descarada'' (TVI) ★ : ''Dãdaca'' (Antena 1) ★ : ''Моя прекрасная няня'' (STS) ★ : ''Varuška'' ★ : ''La Niñera'' (Antena 3) ★ : ''Дадиља'' (B92) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (The Hallmark Channel) ★ : ''Nanny'' (TV3) ★ : ''Die Nanny'' (SF1, SF2) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (Hallmark Channel) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (ComedyMax-Digiturk) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (LIVINGtv) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (CBS, Lifetime until 2009, Nick-at-Nite coming February 2009, TV Land coming August 2009, WLNY.) ★ : ''The Nanny'' (Sony Entertainment Television)

Foreign adaptations

Main articles: List of foreign adaptions of The Nanny

''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.

See also

★ List of The Nanny episodes

Notes

1. ''The Nanny'' trivia
2. ''The Nanny'' trivia
3. "Enter Winning"
4. ''The Nanny'' trivia
5. "Enter Winning"
6. "Enter Winning"
7. ''The Nanny'' trivia
8. "Enter Winning"
9. "Enter Winning"
10. "Enter Winning"
11. "Enter Winning"
12. "Enter Winning"
13. "I'm a Surivor!"
14. "Enter Winning"
15. "Nanny on the Spot"
16. "Nanny on the Spot"
17. "In a Family way"
18. "In a Family way"
19. "In a Family way"

External links

★ ''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