Huzzah, something to get excited about! Fran Drescher, our style queen, and the cast of The Nanny are reuniting for a one-off script reading for the first episode of the iconic sitcom! The live Zoom script reading will air on Sony’s Youtube page next Monday, April 6.
Admittedly, when Drescher announced on Twitter last week that she had some exciting news for The Nanny fans, we were all hoping that our beloved show about a Jewish nanny from Queens would finally be streaming in all its glory. However, we’re excited to have Fran Fine and Mr. Sheffield reunite in whatever way possible!
“Laughter is the best medicine! So in these difficult times, Peter and I thought, it would be great if we gathered the original cast of The Nanny for a virtual reading,” Drescher told Variety, referring to her ex-husband and co-creator, Peter Jacobson.
“This is a unique pandemic performance for fans all over the world who are stressed out from isolation and really need a pick-me-up!” she added. “It certainly lifted each of us up and we hope it does the same for you.”
Among the familiar faces we’ll see at the live reading are Jewish actress Renée Taylor, who plays Sylvia Fine, Fran’s gluttonous, overbearing but also incredibly loving mother. Rachel Chagall will reprise her role as Valerie “Val” Toriello, Fran’s best friend and the owner of the bridal shop where she works. (While Valerie is Italian on the show, Chagall himself was a member of the tribe.)
One Jewish actress who won’t be reprising her role is the wonderful Ann Morgan Guilbert, who played Yetta. Guilbert passed away in 2016, but she’s forever an icon in our hearts.
We’re really excited to revisit the original Jewish comedy—alongside The Goldbergs, which aired from 1949 to 1956—for a little while. And did you know that The Nanny was almost not Jewish? According to The Cut, “a major corporation offered to finance the show on the condition that Fran be rewritten as Italian.”
“We thought about it because we knew it was our big break,” Drescher told the magazine, “and we didn’t want to be difficult. But I thought of Neil Simon because he said, ‘Write what you know.'” I didn’t know Italian like I knew Hebrew. So I mustered up my nerve and told them that Fran Fine must be Jewish. And they said, ‘Okay.'”
And we’re so glad she did! Fran became so Jewish thanks to Drescher—you see, the character is based on her life. Like the fictional Fran Fine, Drescher was a Jewish girl from Queens. Her real-life parents’ names were Sylvia and Morty, and her mother was a bridal consultant.
The Nanny features a visit to a kibbutz, a circumcision, lots of Yiddish, and plenty of Jewish guest stars (including Elizabeth Taylor!).
And while some have complained that the show’s portrayal of Judaism is stereotypical, it has made many young Jewish girls like me feel seen and validated, and given them a gorgeous, colorful, nasally, unapologetic Jewish idol to look up to.
One such young viewer is Rachel Bloom, creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, who told The Cut that the show has been very formative for her. She’s currently working on a musical based on The Nanny, an exciting change that I’m personally looking forward to seeing once all the pandemic madness has passed.
We’re so excited for this cast reunion that we’ve bookmarked Sony’s YouTube page for it! And if you’re looking for some Fran Drescher content to stream, there’s her new, super-Jewish show, Indebted, and her 2005 show, Living With Fran, both of which are currently available to stream on Hulu.
While the latter isn’t The Nanny, it is incredibly Jewish—Ben Feldman, of Superstore fame, plays Fran’s son, and Fran herself plays a Jewish divorcee dating a much younger man. It’s a fun distraction, and perfect for these tense times.
