Page 7 - Pop History: The Nanny

Episode Date: September 24, 2019

Jackie and Holden explore the making of Fran Drescher's "The Nanny" and they discover a story of hard work, chutzpah and fashion.  Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

She was working in a body shop and blushing queens. A little boyfriend kicked her out in one of those crushing scenes. I watched The Nanny for so many years. I love The Nanny. I love Fran Dresher. As all you guys know, hashtag for Anissons 2019. It's very difficult to keep up with. But my homage to her still stands.

The topic of today's show is The Nanny. Welcome, Holden. Jackie, you are living in, LA where they shot the nanny. And you could potentially do what the costume designer did. And every single day, just go walk down the, what do they call? Where's all the fashion shit? Oh, all the boulevards?

Yes. Yeah, on the boulevards and go to all of the boutique shops and, you know, get the, the dolchies and the, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, and all their gombonters and, man. And then alter it and then put it together, find the most colorful stuff you can find it, and then alter the shit out of it and make it, you know, nanny it up. And, you know, why aren't you doing it? even get into these things. Do you know that the only Emmy that they won was for costume design? Of course. I mean, of course. The outfits are insane. But the thing is not to get, I know this is pre-Gush talk.

Try, when I started off this year being like, France on 2019, this is going to be great. I'm going to wear animal print. I'm going to wear bold colors. I do not have her body. And it is difficult to pull off the kind of thing she wore because I look like a fucking lumpy couch. I look like an ugly, lumpy couch. And the fact that she could pull off those outfits and still just like rock the confidence, rocked everything that she did. Man, she's such an inspiration. Dude, I'm going to tell you what, I just ordered an insane clown posse shirt, and I have a few Taylor Swift shirts. And for me, it feels like, quote unquote brave to, like leave the house in a you should calm down shirt, t-shirt and, like, own that. And it really makes me-

It is hashtag brave. I'm proud of you. And thank you. And it really makes me think about how this is something that, I mean, especially the nanny name Fran, like, touted. It was like, I want to be, I want to walk out on, on the soundstage and, and the character walks into the world as something that is both bold and also funny and, and, you know, fashionable while at the same time, like, making fun of herself. It was, it's just this really, like, fashionably brave look. And people are really swirming to it. And it's not just you, Jackie. I didn't realize this is a nationwide phenomenon.

Yes. Well, did you see all the talks, too? Like, not to get right into, like, current news of, like, Cardi B. Also, that she's inspired by Fran Dresher. I have a whole section of that. I was shocked to find that there was a New Yorker article back in 2018 in October. so not that long ago called the fashion. They were in talks that possibly that she would be in reboot.

The daughter. So, yeah, the name of this article is the fashion comeback of Fran Dresher and the nanny with help from Cardi B. And that's not the only article I found. There was a Huffpo article about the fashion of the nanny that very recent. This is like a millennial thing. Like people are really starting to flock. There's a whole Instagram account. Because we're going back to the 90s looks right now.

And that is a quintessential of just like, fuck it. Put the pattern. together. Do what you want. And I like that that is the essence of what's coming back from the 90s of like, live your truth, bitch. Yeah, I was just about to say because of the phrase that is so popular now, live your truth. And the nanny Fran lived her fucking truth. She did. And it was all came out of the brain of Fran Dresher and her husband. And that is a fucking story. And I say about another thing of why I identify with her so hard. And she's from. flushing, and we were also from flushing.

Like, she was my inspiration. I will also say, by the way, as a person who normally would not like gravitate towards a show that was with this kind of plot lining characters, I watched the fuck

out of the nanny. Everybody did. I think it was for everyone. Yeah, I was well also, you know, honestly. Not to say that. Most people across the border are like, if you've seen episodes of the nanny, you're like, oh, I mean, I was into it. Also, have you watched it recently? Still holds the fuck up.

And you started singing at the beginning, but I think it was a lot of it was because, you know, a show is only as good as its intro. And the intro to the nanny is so memorable. And I just love- You sing that song and almost everyone knows exactly what you're doing. Totally. It is totally just this iconic moment in like time gone,

long gone in television, these sorts of sitcoms. And I also just love watching, like, stuffy people get the piss taken out of them. You know what I mean? That's always fun. C.C.'s great. We'll talk about her. Honestly, all the characters are pretty great.

Even the child actors are pretty great. The kids are great. So the nanny. If you weren't aware, the nanny is a CBS American sitcom about Fran Fine, a Jewish fashion queen from Flushing New York, who becomes the nanny of three children

from the New York slash British High Society. And it ran from 1993 to 1999 with 146 episodes. And if you don't know this already. You might, you probably do. If you are an actor or a writer or anyone on a television show that makes it past 100 episodes, your life is set, you are fucking rich for the rest of your life, you go into syndication off of 100 episodes, which means they can put your show anywhere on television, even outside of the network, they can, internationally. And you get paid every single time.

You can paid every time. It is just this giant Hollywood TV landmark is going over 100 episodes. That means you are set for life. So, uh, let's be. And it's a massive accomplishment. It is, and especially when this show, I know that we were about to get into this, was hers. Yes, all hers. And, I mean, and her husband, but, like, that their working relationship fucking is rad. But, yeah, even the spark of inspiration came from hers. So Fran Dresher, born in 1957 in Flushing, Queens, New York.

And where were you born? We were also born. We were born in Woodhaven, which is, like, a subject of flushing. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. And raised in Q Gardens Hills, Queens. She had a mother named Sylvia, who was a bridal consultant, and a father. Right? And by the way, all of this, if you know the show, you're like, oh.

And a father named Morty, who was a naval systems analyst. She also had a great grandmother named Yeda that immigrated to the U.S. from Romania. Yedda's so fun. I forgot about Yedda. Also, as someone besides the fact that we're from Queens, but also we are Italian, it's an Italian family from Queens. that we were raised in.

So it's very similar to the Jewish queen's upbringing to, with like the way they view food, the way they view relationships, the way they view everything is very similar. Yes, absolutely. And she was a runner-up for Miss New York teenager in 1973. She went to Hillcrest High School. You didn't go to Hillcrest, did you?

No. No, you didn't go to high school. What the fuck am I talking about? Yeah, you're already in Florida. I had a point. And that was in Jamaica, Queens. where she met her ex-future, her, I'm sorry, her future ex-husband,

Peter Mark Jacobson. Oh, high school sweethearts. Also in attendance at that high school, by the way, was Ray Romano, who would go on to start. And everybody loves Raymond, and he would end up making a guest appearance at a 20th high school reunion episode on The Nanny. Do you remember that episode?

Yes, I do. That's kind of amazing. What a weird crazy coincidence. So Jacobson, and Dresher both attend Queens College City University of New York but they dropped out their first year because all the acting classes were filled

she ends up getting I can't believe there's already a crossover between our first and second episodes of pop history she gets her first small acting role in a film called Saturday Night Fever in 1970s did you know that I didn't even know that no I didn't know that but also this is

at the same time which I think is kind of fun that Peter Mark Jacobson that they also dropped out of college and ended up going to cosmetology school. Oh, right. And that's the beauty school thing element. I didn't catch that bit. And I was like I read later about the beauty school.

So I'm glad you got that. So she's the one in Saturday Night Fever that says to Travolta, so are you as good in bed as you are on the dance floor, which is kind of great. Also, and I mean, I know she is on the show as well, but even younger in like this time period, she is a fucking smoke show. She is gorgeous. And she still is. She is gorgeous.

Yeah, she is absolutely beautiful. Not to say that she's like any less hot later on. No, but also I think that she's the kind of person that she did, she had tasteful work done. So she looks her age, but looks amazing. Sure. Yeah, I would totally go with that. She then did a couple of small movies like American Hot Wax and Summer of Fear as well as a made for TV early John Carpenter film. And then also a rare dramatic.

role in Ragtime. Did you ever see Ragtime? No, I didn't see ragtime. Then there's the 80s that she really gets into the mode of being a very strong comedic character actress. She appears in UHF with Weird Al Yankovic, Cadillac Man, with Robin Williams, and most famously as the publicist Bobby Fleckman in This is Spinal Tap. She's great. She's so goddamn funny. So funny. I need to rewatch this as spinal tap and I wrote this down for later in the episode but she what a cool idea she makes a cameo as Bobby Fleckman in the Nanny in one of the final episodes. Isn't it great? She plays her own character. Did you see that? Do you remember that episode? Yes. Dude. Have you just seen all of the episodes multiple times? Well I mean one of the sad things

about it is usually when we do a show like this at the end you say you normally say and they're all on Hulu but Nanny's like weirdly nowhere. Right? You can't find it. And the only reason why I have watched it recently is because Henry still is a pop-pop and he gets, he has like regular cable. But you will find almost every hour of the day you can watch the nanny still on cable. It is somewhere every minute of the day.

It's kind of like me with cops. Every time I go to a hotel, I will only watch cops. Yeah. So usually I will, like if I'm at my mom's house, I'll sit and watch, you know, usually we'll alternate between everybody loves Raymond and the nanny. Perfect. Yeah, absolutely. Because I am 65 years old. So she ends up, this is one of the big landmarks for her career that goes nowhere at the time, but ends up

really setting the stage for her getting her own show. She ends up co-starring in 1991 briefly on the soon-to-be-canceled princesses, a CBS sitcom about three female roommates in NYC. Did you remember this at all? I have no memory of this. I don't know. I'm not familiar with princesses. I also tried to find it. And are you filming? familiar with Twiggy, the model Twiggy. Some women I know are obsessed with Twiggy. I know, I know Twiggy, but like I don't know Twiggy enough to speak on Twiggy.

Twiggy is like she was ahead of the, like the face of the whole mod fashion movement. Yeah. Like Maud in England, that whole look. I'm not cool enough to like know that much. I like to know that much of her. Yeah, she was like a super it girl, like back in the, what, the 60s, I think, right? Or the 70s. and she's older and princesses for sure.

And like kind of, I think at that point out of the like fashion model game. But her and Fran Drescher end up forming like a pretty tight bond. Also, she just ends up getting in good with other TV studio people. And I only, I really mentioned Twiggy because she weirdly comes majorly into play when it comes to how the nanny began. Man, sometimes just bait. You know, I don't know if I always play. even fade. But this, you read stories like this, like sometimes you're just

in the right place at the right time. Yeah. So also, we have to mention briefly, we're not going to focus too much on it, but yes, tragically in 1985, her home was invaded. Fram Dresher's home was invaded. Fram Dresher and her, I don't know if she was married to Jacobson at that time and a friend.

There was, it was a god-awful affair. There was, you know, you probably already know about it or go read about it, but there was sexual assault involved. robbery, all this stuff. It was incredibly traumatizing for her. And she even said about that, you know, I never wanted to come off as weak. So I just kind of buried it and got on with life. For the next 15 years, I focused on working extra hard, making everybody else happy and being a

caregiver. I was busy with the nanny and I lived in the oxygen thin air of other people saying how hard I worked and how nice I was. And she was always, she was like, she is a very nice person. That's what everyone says about her. And but I do appreciate the fact that now she's very open about her mental illness. She's opening about the eating disorders that came after her assault and just like how difficult it is to swallow down a traumatic event. And sometimes it propels you forward. So traumatic that after her show is canceled, she's got some time off. A friend from France invites her to go stay with her.

And it took an assload of courage for her to leave her house. and get on a plane alone. She was so afraid of strangers at that point. She was so broken by that experience that, you know, it took an unbelievable amount of courage. And luck has it that she ends up sitting right next to on this flight, the president of CBS at the time, Jeff Sagansky. And this was major for her.

She's just like, she said about the event. She said, I ran into the bathroom to put my makeup on. I'm powdering my face saying, Carpe Diem, Carpe Diem. When I walked out, I started talking to him. He was a captive audience because where was he going to go? But also, how amazing is that? How amazing is that?

I love that, like, she took this huge risk. She was mortified of getting on an airplane, and, like, this is the result. It's so fucking beautiful. Sigansky gives her the go-ahead to pitch an idea for a new sitcom. He was actually trying to see if she wanted to star in one that was in development, and she said, no, I want my own show. fucking put her foot down on it and he gave her the shot. What I love to is that in it too,

she didn't have anything to pitch. She knew that she wanted a meeting. She's like, I just need the meeting. Get me into a meeting and I will have something to pitch by the time this meeting happens. So she goes to France. It's kind of a bummer. Her, you'll like this, Jackie.

Her friend has two screaming toddlers that are just driving her crazy. She ends up leaving early. It's just not a fun time. And she, her friend Twiggy in London, offers her to come stay with her. Twiggy is working. So is her husband.

Twiggy has a daughter, 11 or 12 year old daughter. And so Fran ends up taking her out around the town to go shopping and, you know, do the whole clothes thing. Dresher said, Twiggy and her husband were busy working. Here I am in London.

It's a big city, very overwhelming for me. I'm trying to push my boundaries so I start schlepping their little daughter with me. Well, did you see the quote too, that everything was so English, so proper? I felt like this loud New Yorker so crude, so blue collar, so Jewish. Which I love that. She said she's an 11 or 12 year old proper little British schoolgirl taking me around to all the sights of that that I want to see.

All of a sudden she says to me, oh, Fran, my new shoes are hurting me. So I said to her, honey, step on the backs of them. And she says, won't that break them? And I said, break them in. And that is where the nanny was born. I love her. I love her. break them in.

She was inspired by the afternoon and her interaction with the daughter and giving her this non-parental advice she said that had a, and this is her quote, humorous kind of queen's logic, self-serving advice. It really is. It's just figure it out. She calls her husband in L.A. has this big idea. Because at the time, Peter Mark Jacobson, her husband is a producer.

Yeah. And she pitches it to him as, a spin on the sound of music, except instead of Julie Andrews, I come to the door. I love her. Such a great idea, right? And so the two of them, they pitched their idea to Tim Flack and Joe Vochie on CBS's Comedy Development Department. Saganzky, the president, we mentioned earlier, he brings in the producer couple team,

Robert Sternen and Prudence Frazier. They both worked on Who's the Boss, which Dresher did have a guest role back in the day on like a single episode. So she'd already like met them, worked with them. And the two couples, this producer couple is so into the idea. They're like, all right, cool, we're on board. We'll help you write this thing. So the two couples write the pilot together.

And yeah, and they pull heavily from Frang Treasher's family. Yeah, because most of the characters are based on either people, she knows are people in her family. And actually the rare times you see Morty, her father, are actually played by her father. Oh, wow. Which is great. That's amazing.

So Sylvia and Morty, like, as we mentioned before, they are their parents in the show as well. And she has a grandmother, Yeda, and all that. And Yetta is so funny in the show. She's just so ridiculous. There was a one point where the mom, Sylvia, I saw this quick scene, but she's just like, why didn't anybody eat the fruit?

And because they're in the house or whatever. And France's just like, it's plastic or whatever, you know? And then the Yeta is on the couch. She was just like, even the grapes. And she's got like a mouth full of grapes. It's just stuff like that. There's just so many good gags.

It holds up, man. It really, really does. Just the idea of, like, I mean, the fact that it all relied so heavily on, like, running gags and just put all of the nods to other sitcoms and movies and politics that are going on at the time. And just, like, all inside of this world that there's so many nods that now that I'm older and I've seen a bunch of other things, I was just like, man, that's what they were referring to. That's insane. That's great. The writing is so sharp.

Totally. Totally. Also, by the way, wrote in that Fran worked for a bridal shop as a tribute to her mother, because her mother did that, not her. And while visiting his relatives in Fort Lauderdale over the holidays, Sagansky pops on a few episodes with his relatives, realizes he has a giant hit in his hands, and orders a full 22 episodes for a first season.

That gives me chills. I know. And there we have it. Now we're shooting a show. It was shot in front of a live studio audience at first, at least, on stage six at Colver Studios. Have you ever been to Culver Studios? I have, yeah. For anything?

What's the like? It's big. It's a cool. They used to make silent movie classics during Hollywood's Golden Age as well as gone. Oh, that's cool. They also did Gone with the Wind and TV shows like Lassie and the Andy Griffith show. So the Culver City classic studio space. You didn't feel any of that history.

they didn't like have any of that vibe. No, I was just in there for auditions. You don't go to any of the fun parts. Is it fun? I feel very intimidated by the idea of auditioning at a big movie studio. It's very scary. And you have to, you walk through as if like, I'm supposed to be here. Everything is fine.

And, but you're just like among people just like shooting all these shows. You're just like, I just have to remember the lines. You're just going to find the place. Where's the place? And then you have to get there 30 minutes before your auditioned or else. You're not going to find the place. Exactly. Right, because that's my main concern about ever doing that, is that, like, oh, I have an audition, where is it?

It's on 20th Street and 6th Avenue, 8th floor, easy-peasy, right? A studio lot, though, it's like, where the fuck do I even go? It's very scary. It just feels, like, so easy to get lost. That's why, like, how, and to have that kind of, like, hutsba, that this woman sat next to the president of CBS and was just like, hey, what about me? Yeah. Do you like, essentially, like, why don't we do this? something. Yeah. And, like, I know we, yeah, I know we talked about, we highlighted it, but I just

want to put, as a person who's pitched to people before, as a person who's been in kind of scenarios like that before, the amount of fucking bravery it took for her to lay it down like that and say, I should have my own TV show and, like, convince him is fucking crazy. And just the ability to close like that. Like, I can, I have never closed a deal like that. No. That's, like, insane. No, I'm terrified. I just pretend like I didn't know who he was. So on Mondays, the cast would do a table read. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, they rehearsed in front of the producers and executives. And on Thursdays and Fridays, they shot the show using a multi-camera setup with an audience.

This was the basic protocol, though I never really knew quite the schedule of one of these multicam sitcom. So it's kind of interesting to look at that. A lot of actors consider the multi-cam sitcom, like, The Dream Job, because it's just a regular gig. And it is Monday through, 4. Friday. The hours are very normal. You're not going to be shooting super late necessarily or anything like that. So this is all started in front of a live studio audience, but that actually changed.

And it's because of Fran Dresher and the nanny that changed sitcoms for the future forever, which is insane. Yeah. I did not know that. And what way? So how did that happen? So Fran Drescher, which apparently I think that if you are confident enough and you go in, you say what you want, you'll get what you want.

which is in an insane, to look at a story that this actually works. So she went in and she said, hey, I don't want just random strangers watching the show anymore. I want the audiences to be pre-screened. And I want them to go be hired through Central Casting. And I don't want just anyone to be able to get on the set because of the assault that she had had previously. Absolutely. So Central Casting hired Lafers, quote unquote, for the taping, providing the laugh track as well.

Afterwards, they would add it in post, and this actually led to the first ever job title, Laugh Rangler. This person with the last name of St. Clair became the first ever laugh wrangler, and it was for the nanny, which something I thought was kind of interesting, that she said that not any laughers would do for a regular television show, she actually preferred people in their 40s and 50s. She said, she doesn't know why. Maybe it takes more life experiences, more joy and sorrow, to find that.

to really laugh genuinely about, which I think is really interesting. I get that. I mean, I also feel like I'm more inclined to something like sitting down and watching the nanny as I get older than I am into like a horror movie. You know what I mean? Like a little bit. And I think that maybe also it's just, it hits that sweet spot.

I mean, I used to watch all these shows with my parents when they were in their 40s and 50s, you know? So it took almost 100 crew members to shoot a single episode. And at first, it was just the four producers coordinating most of the project. Later, it was split up. Dresher and Sternin, that team would focus on writing story outlines, along with a guy named Timothy Cavanaugh. Timothy Cavanaugh came from Frazier, and he was known for his dry humor, which he would add

on, that British wit, all that stuff was Cavanaugh. And then Jacobson... Joe, I'm sure he added a lot, too, with the fact I love that Mr. Sheffield is a Broadway producer, and Andrew Lloyd Weber is his nemesis. Yes. And that the fact that he hates that cats got... that got famous because he's like,

it's such a dumb musical and the fact that it got such success and he just hated Andrew Lloyd Weber so much. I love that. I love that. It's so funny. It's so funny. And then Jacobson would manage the writing team

and Frazier managed the run-throughs. So they had a definite workflow. Later, Frank Lombardi, Karen Lucas, and Diane Wilk came in for the fifth and six seasons as executive producers. And let's talk about this dope cast. Charles Shaughnessy played British Broadway producer Matthew Sheffield. He's also known for his role as Shane Donovan in the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Which again, which I like that they did is they also make references to the star's previous careers often. So they would bring up the fact that he would look at a mirror and be like, man, I look like this guy from Days of Our Lives. Like they would actually say things like that. They would all do that for the things they did previously. That's funny. You've got Daniel Davis playing non.

Niles, the butler, also known as a great theater actor performing on and off-Broadway. I loved that Niles immediately loved Fran because normally you would have the stuffy butler, like, react poorly, I think, to a character like Fran. I love that he was just like, hell yeah, breath of fresh air for this shitty, shoddy, like, stuffy household. Yeah, and just really enjoyed her, their characters enjoyed each other. Lauren Lane played C.C. Babcock, which is such a funny name for a villain. She is also known for her theater work as well.

Yeah, a lot of these are big-time theater performers, which I think worked really well for the sitcom style. Also, what I love about Cecee and one of the other running gags is that Cece's dog, Chester, hates Cece and loves Fran. Yeah. But in real life, how they got that to happen is that Chester, the Pomeranian, was actually Fran Dresher's dog. So that's how they got the dog to keep coming right to her every time they were on set.

That's awesome. Nicole Tom played Margaret Sheffield. She was also known in her early years as the girl. And all the Beethoven movies. Remember the Beethoven? Oh, I remember the Beethoven. She's actually still getting very steady work today, which I was happy to see. She's also the voice of Supergirl in the DC animated universe.

I actually have a memory. I didn't track this interview down. I'm pretty sure it's Nicole Tom who, was doing this late night talk show interview. And she talked about how when she went in to read for her part, Fran Dresher was there reading as the nanny. Yeah. And she thought that she was just some bad shit crazy casting reader lady.

Like she didn't realize. And she was just like, why the fuck do they get this woman to like read the, you know what I mean? Just because like she had the voice. She was doing the voice and everything. She was doing the whole thing. Oh my God. But that's amazing. That's amazing that that's also how much control she had over casting.

The fact that she was in the. room reading with people? In the room as the nanny. As the nanny reading, doing the full voice. You also have Benjamin Salisbury played Brighton Sheffield. He was Martin Short's son in the movie Captain Ron. Oh, I remember it. And he is currently the director of operations at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Wow. Yeah. He was also, and then there's Madeline Zima who played Grace Sheffield and is now all grown up. She's done a ton of work, such as the steamy Mia Lewis in Showtime's Californication. Oh, my God. That's her. That's the little Grace girl in the man. She's so young, no.

Yeah, and now she's all like sexy actress lady. I mean, good for her. I'm glad that she can explore sexuality. I should have looked up the shit on Yetta and the parent. I didn't look up there acting. She's just so good. She's amazing. Holy guest stars.

Holy fucking guest stars on the show. I'm going to name a list. and this is just a small few of the people that appeared as a guest star on The Nanny. You've got Ray Charles, Roseanne, Bob Barker, Chevy Chase, Billy Ray Cyrus, Eric Estrada, Dan Aykroyd, Bet Midler, Cloris Leachman, Elizabeth Taylor. Are you getting major flashbacks right now?

I mean, I just, it's the best show. Elton John, Jason Alexander, lamb chop and Sherry Lewis. I love the lamb chop episode. Because Fran loves lamb chop. by the way. Also, sidebar, Yetta was in the Dick Van Dyke show for years and years. Very, that makes so much sense. Yes, she's a great sketch actress.

Yeah, she does that kind of old school comedy style performance. She's, I think she might be my very close second favorite outside of Fran. Yeah, she's amazing. Hugh Grant, Margaret Cho, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Sally Jessie Raphael, Donald Trump, Patty LaBelle, Lisa Loeb, Eartha Kit, Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Coolio, Whoopi Goldberg, John Stewart, and Rosie O'Donnell, just to name a few. I remember the John Stewart episode I loved because, you know, one of the gags that, like, she's single forever, and Jewish women love doctors, and John Stewart was a doctor, and he was so sexy. I mean, I still think he's very sexy. He's definitely a daddy, but he was real sexy as a young single doctor that she dated. think for a couple of episodes.

He also said he only did it because Fran Drescher herself called him on the phone to ask him to guest star. That makes me love it even more. So let's talk about the song, The Nanny Name Fran. It was written by Anne Hampton Callow. Oh, before I move on, gloss over, because you know better than me, were there any of these guest appearances that really stood out for you? Were there any of these, like, cameos or anything that you remember? I mean, they're all amazing. I loved Elton Johns.

and the John Stewart one always Like what was he? Did any of them Were they all just themselves or did any of them do like Yeah They didn't make any of them As far as I can remember Most of them were themselves Elton John was great

Yeah he was awesome So the song The Nanny Name Fran was written by Anne Hampton Calloway Performed by herself and her sister Calloway also composed a song for Barbara Streisand Called at the same time As well as the lyrics to a Rolf Loveland melody

that Callaway titled, I've Dreamed of You, that Streisand sang to James Brolin at their wedding? What? Yeah. That's great. She's also written lyrics performed by Patty Lepone, Liza Minnelli and Carol King. Just to name a few, she wrote a lot of lyrics for many different big singers. And the opening sequence stayed the same for the entire run of the show. Except for the pilot.

Yeah, the pilot is different. was the theme songs actually if my friends could see me now from the musical Sweet Charity. Uh-huh. And they changed it because, I'm sorry, as someone that has been a part of the cast of Sweet Charity, little lame. A little lame for it. Oh, the nanny named Fran is, I mean, that is on definitely a top ten list of, like, best intro songs to a TV show.

Also, speaking of top ten, isn't it ridiculous that the nanny never broke the top ten in TV ratings? Really? I mean, and it almost didn't make it past the first season. Yeah. It was actually that the president, what's his name, Sagaway or whatever? Saganzky. Saganian. Namingki.

Yeah, did poorly its first year. Sagansky saved it from cancellation. Jacobson, Franz, now ex-husband said at all those affiliate meetings, he used to say, stick by the nanny. He knew it was something special. Which also speaking of Peter Mark Jacobson, which we have. haven't touched upon. So they made the nanny together. She and her husband at the time, her high school sweetheart, Peter Mark Jacobson, they had gotten married in 1978 when they

were both 21 years old. So they split up in 1996 and they got divorced in 1999. And the reason why they split up is that Fran Drescher always knew that her, not always, but her husband had came out as bisexual when they were married. And according to Jacobson, he's like, I grew up in Flushing Queens. You married at 21, had a big wedding and great neck, and lived happily ever after. When he felt an attraction to men, he just said he buried his feelings. But denying his sexuality came at a cost. He said it made him angry and controlling. And those are the issues that, of course, that broke up their marriage. And Fran Drescher was completely accepting of him being bisexual in the marriage. They didn't get any further than that, but was very accepting of it, which I would assume means,

You know, you do what you got to do in a marriage to keep both partners happy. But eventually, he left her. And what Fran Drescher says about it, she says, I needed to be my own woman. And that she had never been in touch with her feelings. And then she didn't talk to him for a year and a half. And then in the year 2000, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Yes. She ended up beating it by having immediate radical, an immediate radical hysterectomy.

A year later she writes a book about it called Cancer Schmancer. Cancer Schmancer is a beautiful book and I wept through it. Yeah, you read it? Oh my God, I'm afraid. I don't know if I can handle them. She's so inspirational, man. Yeah, it's incredible. She started the Cancer Schmancer Movement in 2007,

which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to diagnosing all women's cancers while in stage one when it's the most beatable, which I think is fucking amazing. But that's how she turned away. Like, that's how they turn around their relationship. And after after that, she realized life is precious and she didn't want a moment wasted. And this was one of her best friends. And now you see on both of their social medias, they hang out all the time.

Love each other. And yeah. She calls it my gay ex-husband, which I think is great. I love that she's so heavily involved in LGBT rights issues. Yep. And she became an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church Monastery so she could legally officiate LGBT wedding ceremonies. She's just, I love that

she backs him up, man. She does it for free. Have you heard that? Oh, really? Oh, my God. If you get in contact with her and she has time available, this is like, I don't know if this is like an internet rumor, but she will do it for free if she can get there. That is amazing. Of course,

that made a lot more, like, that was a lot more groundbreaking before it became legal, you know, and things like that. But it was. To have your husband, be gay, come out, you guys break up, and then to be this major advocate and not go the other way, you know what I mean? Inspiration, which is like have something. Let's keep the positivity alive.

And she is such a positive human being for everything that she worked for and everything that she went through. And now, so of course, there's all these talks about reboots. Is there going to be a nanny reboot? Is there going to be a nanny reboot? And I think that Fran hit it on the head. and this was in an interview back, I think in 2014, that she, even though there's always these talks and she would like to work on something,

but she doesn't think that there ever can because she thinks that the show was dead the second that the dynamic changed between Mr. Sheffield and Fran Fine. They didn't want them to ever get together. Yeah, yeah. But the network forced them to get together because that's what they thought that the audience wanted.

You know what they should do? You know what they should reboot? they're divorced and they mirror the Jacobson Fran relationship. Right? Or do something I would love that. They become like loving exes and very involved in each other's lives still and everything. I think that would be a cool way to do it.

Also, Drescher said she would have maybe gotten involved in more things that Fran Drescher is involved with. All kinds of things from environmental issues to health to civil liberties. That's what I think Fran Fine would be doing now, opening her big queen's mouth for the greater good. Yeah. Oh my. my god, I would love to see the reboot. Oh, yeah. And before we close everything out, we got to spend some time on this fashion shit, dude. Oh, my God. So, so insane. So as I mentioned, there was an article in the New Yorker called the fashion comeback of Fran Dresher in The Nanny with help from Cardi B. There were people online who kept comparing the two style. And Cardi loved that, leaned into it, even captioning an Instagram post from a Milan fashion week last year as Fran Dresher and Dolcey Gabano, based on what she was wearing.

Cardi B was wearing. So Dresher has said in an interview that she and Cardi's people have been in talks of a reboot, that she would love to like see Cardi play her daughter, which would be fucking amazing. There's also, are you, do you follow this Instagram account? What Fran wore? Oh, you betcha. It is run by Cheney Brown out of Atlanta. And we have to give a massive highlight to, I know we mentioned her name before, but Brenda Cooper was the costume designer of the show and remains good friends with Fran Drescher to this day. They go on walks with each other almost every single day, which is fucking amazing. And she was also the designer on princesses with Twiggy and Julie Haggerty.

Mm-hmm. And she even said on princesses, she said to Brenda Cooper, if I ever get my own show, I want you as the designer. And she backed that up. I love this story. It gives me chills. I know. This whole episode just made me like so like, I don't know. what we be.

Right? I don't, I hate, keep saying the word inspired, but I'm inspired. Very inspired. Like, way more than I thought it would be. So Fran Drescher gave

Brendan Cooper total creative freedom. Cooper said, it wasn't created to be trendy. It is as wearable today as it is then. It's bold, it's bright, it makes a statement. It's sexy. I think the millennials just love it.

They just love the look and that you could wear it today. Well, it also goes hand in a hand with the idea that fashion now is way more about being covered up. And especially someone that went from Mesh 2018 to Franneson's 2019, and I'm used to not, to like, showing off my girls a bit. And Fran find she always showed off her legs because her legs are just,

oh my Christ, insane, which is what I usually cover up, because I don't like my legs. But she was mostly covered to the neck. Yeah, yeah. It was sexy, but it wasn't like, here's my kids. But not showing anything, which is that's, that idea that, like, I feel like in the 2000s and the way that we were, raised like with you know low riding pants and and tiny teeny shirts that's not what i thought was

sexy yeah festival fashion this fucking last time i was there i was like can you people wear less like i know it's hot out but lordy lu right now i'm looking at this picture of franfine is in this big wide-brimmed black hat she has red gloves on and red purse and then she has a uh like up to the shoulders tight plaid dress on that completely covers it. It's strapless and it's plaid but shows absolutely nothing except for the outline of how bang in her body is. Yeah. And it's so sexy. You can be sexy and be covered up and in weird prints. Uh, here's, uh, here's like, uh, the final, I believe it's the final paragraph of that awesome, um, New Yorker article. I just want to read that lot because I loved it so much. Uh, fashion can be a one woman private joke.

that labels like tacky and classy and appropriate can be played with and subverted it will. Cooper told me that she cemented the character's look during the shooting of the sitcom's pilot episode when she put Dresher in a snug, multicolored machino, cheap, and chic vest. An item that Cooper keeps in her closet to this day. That's awesome. Right? After that, she and an army of assistance would scour Beverly Hills each week and by the latest fashions off the rack. Fran's shopping addiction had to be believable.

Cooper would then alter the clothing to make it more nanny, quote unquote, cropping the blouses, shortening the skirts, embellishing with fur, trim, or glitter. She said, we would elevate the jokes with the wardrobe. She told me, Fran would walk into a scene and it would be like, oh shit, she matches the floor. Now, here's something that might excite you a little bit that's also kind of tragic, but Jackie, you could take advantage of it.

The wardrobe, before Cooper could get back to it, the wardrobe was like, you know, they usually keep those wardrobes. in the studio lot. Well, the studio at one point, Sony sold the wardrobe to a thrift store in the valley. And she said, I went to track down the wardrobe,

which was at Sony, and it had just been sold to a thrift store in the valley, like I just said. I called the thrift store, and I begged them. I told them I was the designer of the nanny,

and they wouldn't help me. People today have pieces of clothing in their wardrobe that are the original nanny wardrobe and probably don't know that. And P.S... See, this is the problem, though, is that there's no way

in fuck that would ever fit me. P.S though? P.S. This was an interview in like 2018. So like there are whatever. I'm on the hunt is what you're saying. Sorry guys. I'm not working for the next two weeks. Find that thrift store. It's in the valley. That's all I know. But I'm sure you can figure it out.

The valley is so big. I know. But like you could, I don't know. Maybe you could just email Brenda Cooper be like, what was that store? Yeah. Got to go. Even just to get, I'll find it. I'll go buy all of it. Yeah. Just gave it back to her.

Yeah. I know. but like even just to have one classic piece because you'd probably know better than anyone else if you walked in, what was a nanny? A thousand per. I mean, there's so many amazing pieces, but if it was like a quintessential one,

I would definitely know. All right, I think that's it for me. Do you have anything else you wanted to say? Maybe a little summary of the nanny and Fran Dresher and how you feel. I love her. I think I just love her. You know what?

It's something that I taught, that I learned from Randrescher is that if you are a busty woman, you can still pull off a tiny vest. And I still have been yet to find said tiny vest that will make me look as good as she looks in tiny vests. But she gives me hope. I want a tiny vest. And I hope she gives everyone else who listen to this episode hope.

She definitely gave me hope. Inspired me greatly to keep at it, to stand up for myself. And also to like stick up for yourself. Yeah, exactly. to really, you know what, to walk into a room and even if you don't feel that way, pretend that I fucking deserve my own show and you're gonna give me more.

And also, you know what she also pulls off? Berets. And I'm trying to do beret all day. I want to get it to beret all day, but it's scary. And Fran Vine, that bitch can pull off a beret. If there's one thing I do have that as Fran Vines,

we have very similar hair. So I think I can pull it off. Here's a final example of dressers. power and strength. The sponsors in the very beginning, they were pushing back a bunch on her saying that she was playing the character, quote, too Jewish and wanted her to play more of an Italian American.

But Dresher refused. She said, 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. And that's why that show was successful, because she stood up for herself. So anyways. And also,

what an amazing example of a woman. I know that she always wanted to be with a single Jewish doctor and that was made very clear but she gave I think this was also a great example of a single woman that went on a lot

of dates and did whatever she wanted to do but also was not labeled a slut and I really fucking appreciate that yeah very cool because she lived her own life and was her own woman and there was no part of that show that ever slut shamed her. Yeah. No. Yeah, totally. All right. Well, that's it. I think for me... I love it. I love the nanny. Also, the wasabi scene. Everybody look up the wasabi scene on the nanny because it's one of the best things ever.

Or just all, I mean, just watch any of it. We'll look at, if you have any kind of cable network, look for the nanny and watch it. And you're going to be delighted. You're like, you know what? You're right. You're right. It does hold up. It's incredible. All right. Take care, everybody. That's our pop history episode on the nanny. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for your patronage. We love you guys. Bye. This show is made possible by listeners like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors, you can support our shows by supporting them.

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