The Nanny Online
After a Jewish, high-voiced, woman from Flushing gets fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend, Fran is mistaken as applying for a nanny for a widowed man with three children when she is stuck selling cosmetics in Manhattan. As she spends years there, she becomes great friends with the butler, Niles, and the three kids. She is good friends with the widowed man, and some romance sparks through the years.
| Series cast summary: | |||
 | Fran Drescher | - | Fran Fine / - 145 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Charles Shaughnessy | - | Maxwell Sheffield / - 145 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Daniel Davis | - | Niles 145 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Lauren Lane | - | C.C. Babcock 145 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Nicholle Tom | - | Margaret 'Maggie' Sheffield 145 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Benjamin Salisbury | - | Brighton Sheffield 145 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Madeline Zima | - | Grace Sheffield 145 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Renée Taylor | - | Sylvia Fine 94 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Rachel Chagall | - | Val Toriello 78 episodes, 1993-1999 |
 | Ann Morgan Guilbert | - | Yetta Rosenberg 56 episodes, 1993-1999 |
When the show was broadcast in the UK, many viewers wrote in to chide Charles Shaughnessy over his "fake" English accent, and suggested he practice with co-star Daniel Davis on how to do a proper English accent. The cast found this quite amusing, as Shaughnessy is a native Englishman, born in London, while Davis is an American, born in Arkansas. In another nod to this funny situation, an episode in the final season, has Niles appearing in Gracie's school play of Cleopatra, where he receives bad reviews, one of which, is how his English accent sounds fake.
The dog "Chester", which appeared as CC's (Lauren Lane's) dog in many episodes, was actually Fran Drescher's dog, Chester Drescher.
Sylvia and Morty were the names of Fran Fine's parents on the show. They were also the names of Fran Drescher's parents in real-life.
"The Nanny" was more of a family affair than most shows, since Fran Drescher's company produced the show, and hired many friends and relatives to be regulars, guest stars, and production staff. The show was also on six years without a major change in casting, which was due, in part, to the congenial working conditions on the set of the show.
Niles' family name is never revealed.
During the show's fifth season run, Lauren Lane and Rachel Chagall became pregnant. But unlike other sitcoms that hid their pregnant actresses behind props, or had them sitting all the time, producers of this show made no attempt to hide or explain the growing bellies, except for one episode where C.C. makes a reference to Elaine on Seinfeld (1989) being hidden by props when she became pregnant, and she is jokingly hiding herself with props.
After cancellation of her sitcom Princesses (1991), Fran Drescher flew to Europe to meet her former co-star Twiggy. On her flight to London, she coincidently sat next to CBS Executive Jeff Sagansky and talked him into a development meeting upon her return to Los Angeles. Subsequently meeting Twiggy and her children in London, Drescher came up with the idea of Nanny (1993), and pitched it later to Sagansky, convincing him to produce it.
To cover Lauren Lane's absence during the end of her pregnancy, a storyline was introduced featuring C.C. being sent to a sanitarium.
In real-life, Fran Drescher has an older sister named Nadine, just like she does on the show.
Whoopi Goldberg, Coolio, Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Rudner, and Steve Lawrence all had two guest appearances in the show, one as a character and one as themselves.
When the show was still being developed, the Sheffield family only consisted of two children: Brighton (Benjamin Salisbury) and Grace (Madeline Zima). The networked wanted there to be an older daughter, for whom Fran could become a mentor, so the character of Maggie (Nicholle Tom) was created.
Brighton's (Benjamin Salisbury's) middle name is Milhouse.
In one episode, Fran Drescher plays a guest character named Bobbi Fleckman. Fran Drescher played Bobbi Fleckman in This Is Spinal Tap (1984).
The producers planned to make the main character of Fran an Italian-American, but Drescher wanted the character to remain Jewish. The character of Val Toriello, however, is Italian-American, although Rachel Chagall is actually Jewish.
Ann Morgan Guilbert is only five years older than Renée Taylor, the actress playing her daughter.
According to the bonus features on the series box set, Brighton and Grace were names that Series Creators Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson had picked out for their potential children. They divorced in 1999, and had no children.
Yetta's background changes throughout the show, more than anything else in the series. She had her sweet sixteen on Ellis Island, she came to America with an arranged marriage, she got married in the old country, she fled Poland for her first wedding anniversary, she got married because she got knocked up by the seltzer man, she was on the Titanic, she was at Pearl Harbor, her story constantly changes. However, the show made a running gag out of Yetta's senility, so there is an explanation for the many contradictory stories about her past.
In Italy, where the show is broadcast with the title "La Tata", Fran's name is Francesca, and her origins are not Jewish, but Italian (from Frosinone in Ciociaria, to be more precise). She was born in Italy and later moved to the u.s., to live with her aunt Assunta, which is actually the character of Sylvia (Renee Taylor).
Renée Taylor (Sylvia) was originally billed as a guest star, so that the network wouldn't be involved with her casting. She remained a guest star for the entire series, although appearing in almost one hundred episodes, including the entire final season.
Several episodes were shelved after the network decided to have the show cancelled.
It's mentioned throughout the series that Maxwell (Charles Shaugnessy) passed on the musical "Cats", which has been noted as his biggest career mistake. In several episodes it's also mentioned that he passed on "Hair" and "Tommy" as well.
Throughout the series, viewers see that Maxwell has a brother (Nigel) and a sister (Jocelyn), but they are never shown in the same episodes. Also, in episodes where Nigel makes an appearance, Jocelyn is never mentioned, and when Jocelyn is in an episode, Nigel is never mentioned.
After the pilot aired, the network thought that the character of C.C. didn't need to be an "every episode" character, and debated if she should be reduced to a thirteen-episode guest star during the first season.
Fran Drescher guest-starred as herself on the penultimate episode, reminding Fran Fine Sheffield and the audience not to miss the series' finale the next week.
In an episode, Fran says her aunt Frieda (her father's sister) almost made it as a singer, until her boyfriend Steven went and met Edie, in the final season, when Fran's much talked about, but never seen, father is finally shown, he was played by Steve Lawrence of "Steve and Edie".
On Reddit, a user called "Wig_Splitter" stated he was the original animator of the opening sequence, providing every frame of animation on paper, and then colored with computers by other animators (a rarity at the time) due to being a rushed job. Also, his employer did not enjoy the pilot of the series, and thought it would be short-lived.
Fran is short for Francine (also Fran Drescher's real name)
Fran Dreschner originally pitched the show as a spin on The Sound Of Music.
All episodes involved the main women (Fran, Sylvia, Val) eating some kind of food, to the point it made audiences wonder if these actors couldn't get through a single scene, or act realistically, unless they were busy eating. (Indeed, many actors get awkward when they worry what to do with their hands.) Many jokes revolved around Sylvia Fine demanding food of butler Niles. As the series progressed, she became more overbearing and was often stealing other characters' food, mainly Maxwell's, Niles' or the children's, who then tried to hide their food from her when she came to the house. As a result, Renee Taylor gained 50 lbs and her doctor wrote her a note saying no more eating. Subsequently, her character started munching on celery sticks and other diet foods, and she lost a lot of weight by the series' end, whereas Fran Drescher had gained quite a bit by the time her other sitcom, Happily Divorced (2011), premiered.
Nicholle Tom has worked with Fran Drescher and Debi Mazar. Drescher in this show, and Mazar in Beethoven's 2nd (1993). Mazar and Drescher are best friends in real-life, and have worked together several times.
The show initially drew poor ratings and was nearly canceled after its first season. However, CBS Executive Jeff Sagnansky championed the show, believing the network had something special with it, and citing the pilot's historically high test numbers.
Whereas Fran Fine changes stylish outfits for nearly every scene and rarely repeats outfits, Mr. Sheffield wore the same hunter green leisure jacket in at least one scene in many episodes.
The production recycled Fran Fine's outfits and had Val Toriello often wear Fran's formerly worn jackets from her suits.
Fran Fine's date of birth was November 26, as told to her astrology-buff date and Maggie's philosophy teacher, in Educating Fran, making her a Sagittarius born at 5pm; but she lied about the year and said she was born in 1970.
Charles Shaughnessy (Maxwell Sheffield) and Madeline Zima (Grace Sheffield) also did a movie called Second Chances (1998).
During an interview earlier in 2018, Fran Drescher admitted that the network pushed for the wedding between Fran and Maxwell otherwise the network would've canceled the show, Drescher wanted the love between Fran and Max to go a little slower. Drescher alongside Daniel Davis said how the relationship between Niles and CC got more involved in the last season was also the network. Davis claimed he never understood why the two got together in the first place as they were so 'oil and water'
There was a Turkish version of the show named Dadi (2001).
The set of the show was recycled from the short-lived sitcom The Powers That Be (1992).
In the final episode, viewers discover that C.C. Babcock's initials stand for "Chastity Claire".
Rachel Chagall's twins (born 1999) are named Eve and Jonah; the same names as Fran and Maxwell's twins, Eve Catherine and Jonah Samuel, born on the show.
When the ratings originally began to decline, the network heads gave Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson a choice to either end the series at season five, or marry Fran and Maxwell in season five, to ensure a season six.
Maxwell had two different people play the role of his sister, one when she gets married to her driver, and the other at Maxwell and Fran's wedding.
The Nanny" did two crossovers with another show, "Can't Hurry Love" in 1996. The first was episode 13 of "Can't Hurry Love," which aired on January 8, 1996 called "The Rent Strike," in which Maxwell (Charles Shaughnessy) was the land lord. The second episode was when Elizabeth Taylor guest starred on both shows regarding her missing pearls. The episode of "The Nanny" was called, "Where's the Pearls," in which Fran lost the pearls in a cab, and the episode of "Can't Hurry Love" was called, "Liz Taylor Show," in which she recovers her pearls.
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