Taylor played Sylvia Fine on ‘The Nanny’ alongside Drescher as Fran Fine
NEED TO KNOW
- The Nanny star Fran Drescher and her on-screen mother Renée Taylor reunited over Mother’s Day weekend
- Taylor’s character Sylvia was named after Drescher’s real mom Sylvia, who was also in attendance at the sweet get-together
- Taylor, 92, has said that her larger-than-life personality on the series as Sylvia has affected how casting agents and fans viewed her
Fran Drescher was seeing double this Mother’s Day as she celebrated with both her real mom and her on-screen mom, Renée Taylor!
Drescher, 67, and Taylor, 92, both shared the sweet photo on Instagram. “Fran and her 2 Sylvias on Mother’s Day at Kaluz Fort Lauderdale. Pure bliss,” Drescher wrote. Taylor shared, “Having Mother’s Day brunch with the ‘real’ Sylvia and ‘our’ beautiful daughter, Fran.”
The Nanny, which ran from 1993 to 1999, was created by Drescher and her then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson. Drescher played Fran Fine, a former bridal store worker in Flushing, Queens, who ends up working as a nanny for a rich Manhattan family after her boyfriend dumps her. Taylor’s over-the-top Sylvia was based on Drescher’s real mom, Sylvia Drescher. Drescher’s TV dad (who was rarely seen on-screen) was also named after her real dad, Mort Drescher.
Taylor told the Los Angeles Times in 1993 that she based her portrayal not on the real Sylvia, but on her own aunt who lived in The Bronx. “She had a lot of airs. She would use a fan. She was a big flirt. She would go to the pool in the summertime with a parasol.”
But the real Sylvia and Mort were larger-than-life characters and became accidental celebrities when The Nanny aired. They appeared multiple times on The Rosie O’Donnell Show to review New York City restaurants. Sylvia told the Chicago Tribune in 1996, “Rosie asked us to, and she’s like a surrogate daughter to us. It’s as if Fran asked us to do something.”
O’Donnell, 63, told the outlet she first put them on because she found their comments about dinner — and its prices — so funny when she would dine with the duo and their daughter.
As for Taylor, though she had a long career before The Nanny — including an Oscar nomination for best screenplay for 1970’s Lovers and Other Strangers that she shared with her late husband, Joe Bologna — her role as Sylvia has followed her since.
“A lot of casting people and producers think I am that character, that I’m not acting,” she told The New York Times in 2010.
“Because of my character, people think they know me, and so they can come and tell me very personal things about themselves,” she told the outlet. “They’ll come over and say, ‘Hello, I know you’re Renée Taylor from The Nanny, and the reason I left my husband is …’ ”
Taylor has continued to act, appearing on shows like How I Met Your Mother, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Bob’s Burgers. She also has performed a one-woman show called My Life on a Diet. She’s stayed close with her on-screen daughter since their series ended in 1999.
Drescher, meanwhile, will be reprising her role as publicist Bobbi Flekman in this year’s Spinal Tap II, a sequel to 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap. She’s also the president of the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA.
