NEED TO KNOW
- Fran Drescher opens up about the inspiration for The Nanny, in her PEOPLE cover story
- The idea sparked from an outing she had with model Twiggy’s 12-year-old daughter
- The actress stars in Marty Supreme, in theaters now
Who knew The Nanny was inspired by a real-life incident between Fran Drescher and a 12-year-old?
In her new PEOPLE cover story, Fran Drescher, 68, opened up about her hit sitcom, which ran from 1993-1999. In the series, Drescher played Nanny Fine, a super stylish, fierce woman from Queens, New York tasked with rearing three Upper East Side kids.
The idea, she says, stemmed from an outing she had in London with her friend Twiggy’s then 12-year-old daughter, but the real opening was when she found herself sitting near the president of CBS on an airplane.
“He walked on and I’m thinking, “Oh, my God, that’s the president of CBS, Jeff Sagansky.” I thought, ‘Thank you, Lord.’
She decided to brazenly talk to him about work.
“I saw it as an opportunity. I was not going to get in my way. I was just going to push that door open. I mean, opportunity knocks every day. If you have the tenacity and the chutzpah to recognize it and do something about it on the spot, do it. Don’t get in your way and say, ‘Oh, I can’t bother him on the plane. He’s a big important man.’ No.”
Drescher says he agreed to a meeting. Then she just needed to come up with the pitch.
“I was visiting Twiggy in London — I’d done that short-lived series with her — and she and her husband were working. So I ended up with their 12-year-old daughter, schlepping her all over London with me so I would have a companion to go touring with. And she all of a sudden says, ‘Hey Fran, my new shoes are hurting me.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Why is she telling me? Does she want me to take her home? Because I’m not ready yet.’ “
Drescher instead dished out her best Queens fashion advice.
“I said, ‘Oh, honey, just step on the backs of them.’ And she said innocently, ‘Won’t that break them?’ And I said, ‘Break them in.’ And I just couldn’t get this unorthodox relationship between an adult and a child out of my head because I wasn’t telling her what was good for her. I was telling her what was good for me. I didn’t want to sacrifice my afternoon for her. I wanted her to break her shoes in so I could keep touring London!”
She called her then-husband and writing partner Peter Marc Jacobson with the idea.
“I said, ‘I think I have the idea. What do you think about a spin on The Sound of Music, only instead of Julie Andrews, I come to the door.” And he thought for only a moment, and he said, “That’s it. That’s the show we’re going to pitch to CBS. The minute you get home, we’ll flesh it out. We’ll develop it a little more.” And that’s what we went in with, without what they call a log line, and they green-lighted it right there.”
A decade after The Nanny ended in 1999, Drescher and Jacobson pitched a new series: Happily Divorced.
It was modeled after their own relationship, which ended in 1999, after which Peter came out as gay. (The show ran from 2011 to 2013.) It took a few years to re-form a bond, but Drescher says she and Jacobson became closer than ever after he came out.
“We’re soulmates,” Drescher says, adding that she cherishes having a “gay ex-husband. We’ve been together since we were 15, and neither of us are the same people we were when we married.”
These days, Drescher, who can currently be seen on the big screen in Marty Supreme as Timothée Chalamet’s mom, says people still come up to her daily to rave about how much they love The Nanny
“I feel very blessed by it!” she says. “people are obsessed with that show.”
For more on Fran Drescher, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on stands Friday. Marty Supreme is in theaters now.