There’s a lot going on in Fran Drescher‘s life, from shooting the pilot of a new NBC sitcom costarring Wings’ Steven Webber to standing at the forefront of the Cancer Schmancer movement and taking on a variety of projects, including the possibility of a new version of her most famous series, The Nanny.
Focusing on the latter for a moment, when you think back to that 1993-99 sitcom, you’re not looking at a show that was trying to change the world or deliver a deep message to the masses. It, like I Love Lucy or Laverne & Shirley, was simply about having fun by putting the actress right in the middle of things for six wonderful seasons playing Fran Fine, a cosmetics saleswoman from Queens who somehow finds herself hired as the nanny to the three children of Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). The result is comedy chaos and, ever-so-gradually, a growing romance between employer and employee.
Nearly 20 have passed since the show ended, but it has managed to remain a part of the audience’s collective memory while continually gaining new fans around the world. As such, it’s still very much a part of Fran’s heart — which isn’t entirely surprising when you consider that she created the show with ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson and they both served as executive producers. Naturally, the question to ask is why it endures the way that it does.
“And it’s a real interesting question,” Fran told Closer Weekly in an exclusive interview. “I think it’s a very likable character and a very lovable character, but also great eye candy. It’s that Upstairs/Downstairs, blue collar meets blue blood relationship sprinkled with sexual tension. It’s an immature grownup acting more like a kid sometimes more than the kids. And it’s all wrapped up in a very traditional silhouette, very much like The Sound of Music — only instead of Julie Andrews, I come to the door.”
Shaking Things Up
It’s no doubt the same way that the character must certainly come to the door whenever the actress is up for a new role, which is something Fran accepts. “Look,” she says, “is the industry going to want to see me stretch in directions as an actress that are outside of what I’m so well known for? It’s probably unlikely, because my strength is that people love me for that character, so that makes me more interesting financially to people that are making a project, because I’m known around the world. So it becomes a bit of a catch-22. But having said that, I’m also a writer and a producer and a best-selling author, and now I’m writing a Broadway musical. I’m also dabbling in doing standup comedy. I’m part of the Hotel Transylvania franchise; I’m going to start doing a fourth one soon. I have a very interesting and wonderful career that keeps me, in its diversity, interested all the time and never bored.
“The truth is,” she continues, “The Nanny continues to be a great door opener for me. Frankly, it’s never been off the air in 25 years anywhere in the world. I continue to be adored for that character. Wherever I go in the world, people know me for that character and I leverage that all for the greater good. So it’s a really helpful tool; I continue to work as an actress, primarily so that I can have relevance and talk to people like yourself about all the things that mean so much to me.”
The Birth of Cancer Schmancer
Primary among those things is the Cancer Schmancer Movement, which was born out of the fact that for two years she exhibited symptoms that were misdiagnosed by a total of eight doctors, resulting in her admittance to Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles on June 21, 2000. There she was diagnosed with uterine cancer and had to undergo an immediate hysterectomy. Afterwards, she was given a clean bill of health, but the damage was already done. As a result, on June 21, 2007, which was the seventh anniversary of her operation, she announced the national launch of the Cancer Schmancer, a non-profit dedicated to ensuring that all women’s cancers be diagnosed while in stage 1, the most curable stage. Since then she has become a health activist driven by a mission to have women’s mortality rates drop as their health care improves. Her latest effort takes place on April 22nd, Earth Day.
“Cancer Schmancer started a very progressive program called Be the Change,” she explains, “that targets teens, tweens and college aged students. We’re very proud of this education video that we produced. It has myself, Jamie Foxx, Jeff Bridges, a bunch of kids and a lot of animation, and it empowers kids by educating, motivating and activating them into becoming mindful consumers. Kids today, for the first time in U.S. history, are predicted to not live as long as their parents. We at Cancer Schmancer don’t wish to make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. We want to get kids to start becoming more discerning consumers. They don’t vote and they don’t pay taxes, so they don’t wield a whole lot of influence on Washington, but they are a multi-billion dollar spending demographic, and how they spend their dollars becomes not only their vote, but also their protest. We want them to start looking at everything through that prism.”
Making the World a Better Place
This particular campaign kicks off with a half-hour video that’s being released on April 22 through social media by cancerschmancer.org. It starts with a two-minute teaser, the watcher will sign in and then they’ll get — free of charge — the full-length half-hour video. Fran notes, “We’re excited about it, because we really want kids to start knowing they have a lot of power, and understanding that the home is the most toxic place you spend the most time in. And, ironically, have the most control over. Big business advertisers really don’t care about their health and well-being, they just want to sell to them. Right now the demographic of kids is very easily influenced and manipulated. They’re very clever, big business manufacturers and advertisers, and they know how to get you so you’ll buy something that may not actually be in your best interest. So we’re trying to dispel some myths and empower a lot of people into becoming the change that the world so desperately needs.”
Between Cancer Schmancer and her career, Fran is probably more active than people might realize. “I have absolutely nothing to complain about,” she laughs. “And then, beyond all of that, I love to entertain, I love to travel. I just did a pilot for NBC and I’m negotiating now for another show for Bravo. So I am actually one of those rare and lucky people that got into the business and made it and has had a very fulfilling experience within it. With The Nanny, I got to play her in front of the camera, and then was so meshed in the behind scenes making of the show, which gave me a really big forum to express myself creatively. And I direct, produce and write. Because I’ve managed to do so many different things, I always have options of how I can keep busy if one area of my career seems to be getting a little quieter or there aren’t as many opportunities. I can always resort to another direction that I’ve had success in and create something in that.”
Fran Is Costarring With Steven Webber in ‘Uninsured’
But as noted, one of the things she has done is shoot the NBC pilot Uninsured, which also stars Steven Webber of Wings (among many other things). “It’s a situation,” Fran details the premise, “where the parents are more like the adolescents and the kids are more like the parents. Steven plays my husband and we move in with our adult son and his young family when we inadvertently find ourselves broke. And we just can’t seem to change our lifestyle; we’re just very lighthearted people that never seem to worry about anything. And our son worries about everything, so he’s more parental and we’re more juvenile. That’s a very fun note to sing.”
The experience of shooting the pilot was interesting not just because of the material, but due to the response she got from the cast and crew that she worked with. “They just kept saying things like, ‘It’s such an honor to watch you work; such a pleasure to be on the same stage with you,’” she smiles. “And I thought, you know, it’s lovely to not just be accepted, but actually respected for your accomplishments. It allowed me to see myself through their lens and to see that I am thought of as someone that does what they do well, and it kind of made me proud.”
A Possible New Take on ‘The Nanny’
Speaking of pride, obviously one of the accomplishments she’s most proud of is The Nanny, and there just could be more Fran Fine in the future … in one form or another. “I’m working on something Nanny-related that I can’t really talk about,” Fran notes. “It’s not a reboot series, but it is something for the franchise and I need to focus on that first and foremost. I’m also kind of thinking that should the show come back, it might be an even stronger version. Not with me and the original cast, but an updated version of the series itself with a whole new cast. I find that could be interesting. And I could always maybe play Sylvia in it.”
It seems like the woman simply refuses to slow down, but that’s not necessarily the case. “Look, I’ve been in the business of Fran Drescher a long time, and there are always options,” she closes. “For me, I like to be creative and I like to work and accomplish things. So what I need to do as much of as the rest is just relaxing and not feeling the need to always be going and doing.”
