The Nanny TV Series

He wasn't even British and his accent was fake.

NOTHING straightened out that Butler- N-O-T-H-I-N-G

Not the actors -- the characters

Lauren Lane as C.C. Babcock was the best.

It hasn't aged well, but it still had its funny moments. I liked Lauren Lane in this as well. I think she now teaches acting...

The Butler was the twinkling star atop Liberace's Christmas Tree

A co-worker at the time was a huge Nanny fan and he got me into it after much cajoling. A cute show that showcased Fran Drescher perfectly. The animated opening credits were just right, too.

Yeah...this show kills me. Timeless old school humor that is gay, gay, gay, gay, gay. My favorite sitcom of all time. With the best theme song.

Wasn't Fran's gay husband the writer or producer?

R4 I agree. CC and the butler falling in love was not a good story line.

Thanks for reminding me of this excellent show!

Co-sign on Lauren Lane, R4. She was very a talented. Her character's interactions with the Butler were one of the highlights of the show.

CC is super. How come I haven't seen Lauren Lane elsewhere? Or wasn't I paying attention? She's fabulous

R12 I think she's teaching acting.

R12 - she kind of blew up as the seasons progressed- I was starting to worry about her- is she alive?

CC is the best, but so are the character's from Queens. Fran's mom, Val, and of course Yetta offer great contrast to the stuffy UES world.

Did anyone notice as CC got bigger, Fran got thinner & thinner! Cruel contrast!

CC gained weight because she got pregnant, I know for sure once, maybe twice during the series run.

Great, classic sitcom. Loved the nanny's mom

I has a huge (age appropriate) crush on Benjamin Salisbury.

A friend of mine here in Germany loved it, it was an important show for our years, people born in the late 70s, he was a big musical fan and theater afficionado, and since they dealt with Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Broadway world and musicals a lot, it was right up his alley. The co-lead was British and is quite a character, upper class, a member of the past, and it all helped with its good reception here in Germany and Europe, also because it was more cultural, it is still repeated here a lot in Germany and it holds up well. The butler also played in hunt for red october, military guy fits well to butler. The younger daughter had an important role in Californication, Fran Drescher really invested a lot of herself personally in the show, and she seems to be pretty cultural for a star and a theaterista.

The British Butler, Alfred from Batman, Niles, Higgins from Magnum, Daphne from Frasier, Gandalf, one of the Redgrave women in Young Indy, somewhat Marcus from Indy and R2D2 and Obi Wan, Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins, the Boss in Knight Rider, Eloise Hawking in Lost, ...

[quote]The Butler started out gay, but then they straightened him up.

Funny how that works with sitcom characters named "Niles."

R19 Benjamin Salisbury got his family out of homelessness when he got this role. He supported his mother and siblings as a child actor. I wonder WHET him? He was good.

R15 Some Jewish friends hated The Nanny. They felt it was a cruel caricature of Jews. Of course Fran Drescher is Jewish herself. But she got to wear fabulous clothes in every episode. Bet she kept them.

Is Benjamin gay?

It is such a wonderful feel-good comedy. Very "I love Lucy" with Fran getting in all sorts of trouble and her boss, Maxwell Shefflield, sticking to her no matter what. I didn't mind Niles shacking up with his frenemie CC. I think it has something to do with me seeing her more of a closeted guy with big crush on his business partner. She never really come off as, well, feminine. She was more of a conservative ball buster ready to rumble kick someone down in order to climb up. Her crush on Maxwell was her only true weakness and a need to bicker with Niles.

Back when the show was on, someone in the know used to post on here that Benjamin Salisbury was hung like a mule.

In fact, I think he referred to it as the "Salisbury Steak."

i had a crush on charles shaughnessy way back when he was on days of our lives, but the nanny cured me.

Loved the show, but it ended a season too late. Having the finale with their wedding would have made the best sense.

And the whole CC and Niles falling in love and getting married was just stupid. They worked best in earlier seasons as natural adversaries. Somewhere around the fourth season they started softening them, and it was a big mistake.

The show was perfectly cast. They remade it in Buenos Aires but it was impossible to recreate it. I love watching the dubbed Spanish versions. Some of the voices are hysterical.

CC Babcock was the Kellyanne Conway of her day.

Benjamin's other nickname was "Ben With Ten." He alledgely popped Justin Berfield's cherry.

Benjamin was on some show like "Entertainment Tonight" showing off his LA home. Flaming purses flew out of his mouth.

Ben was starting to go bald in his teens. He was reduced to doing commercials for Dominos

He should have done celeb porn tapes with that mammoth cock of his.

Or just get a good hairpiece and get back to work.

He used to whip it out on set just to shame co-stars Shaughnessy and Davis.

Yes Lane was pregnant at least twice during the show. They tried hiding it with big jackets

Salisbury is also an accomplished dancer and married to a woman.

Doesn't that thing get in the way with him moving his legs around?

I have wondered how the lyrics play in England:

"She was out on her fanny . . ."

How can anybody forget Roslyn's episode?

R39 Haven't you seen Fred Astaire dancing with a hatrack between his legs? Now that went down to the floor.

"We're British -- everything we say sounds like Shakespeare."

Salisbury went to university and graduated with top honors. He was going into politics and was an aide for Richard Gephardt. I have no idea what he is doing now.

I liked the first year best when all the kids were still a big mess -- especially the youngest, who always spoke in therapy-speak.

R44 Brilliant

It seems that Salisbury now works for the LA Kings Hockey team. I guess politics was not for him.

We never saw Fran's Dad, did we?

There was an episode about Salisbury's character's dick. All along, Fran was lead to believe he felt shy about getting naked in the locker room because he was not developed enough but the twist was that it turned out to be the opposite; he was embarrassed that he was enormous down there. Is this were the rumor comes from or did art borrow from real life?

They had fun with Lauren Lane's pregnancy on the show; for instance, having her carrying a framed poster of Baby the Musical, to cover her belly.

I knew a woman who worked in Daniel Davis' agency. IRL he is bisexual.

The little girl was the worst actress. She really lucked out.

We got to see Fran's father in the wedding episode - it was Steve Lawrence!

My favorite was Sylvia.

Love it! Fran had the best wardrobe!

Yes, R45, neurotic Gracie was gold!

My favorite CC/Niles exchange:

CC: This isn't a typical night.

Niles: Yes—you're not home alone, sitting on your foot massager and watching [italic]Sisters.[/italic]

"Wasn't Fran's gay husband the writer or producer?"

Yeah. You can tell a gay man wrote the show because of penis references in every other line.

R25, it appropriated sooo many I Love Lucy plots, it was embarrassing.

My mother got tickets to see La Cage aux Folles when Daniel Davis was in it, but he got fired for being a diva asshole.

Ben moved to African where Mugabe renamed him Harry Harare

Ben didn't turn out to be a goodlooking man did he. I'm surprised.

R49, it didn't turn out to be "the opposite." It turned out Brighton was concerned about his height, not his dick size. He meant he was literally "smaller" in height, but Fran misunderstood.

Episode written by Fran's penis obsessed husband, R56.

I saw Daniel Davis in La Cage, he stopped for a moment in "I am what I am" and flipped his wrist and said"stand up girls." Naturally meaning the gays, half the fat fraus in the Audience stood up. Mr. Davis said"no the real girls," Causing all the cow's to flutter and sit their fat asses down.

Some Australian web site is trying to reveal nine things we never knew about the Nanny, and I swear I knew all of them. Was I an overzealous fan? No, I think the show overexposed itself.

Daniel Davis agreed with most of you re Niles and CC

I didn't know anything about NYC musical theater and The Nanny introduced me to a lot of the fun and the talent.

Loved Fran's voice. It was so... so... distinctive.

Any scoop on Daniel Davis? Does he have a long term partner?

Loved Grandma Yetta and the running gag about Sylvia's overeating.

I'll tell you a couple of things you didn't know about the Nanny.

1 Fran was high all the time

2 Daniel hated with a seething passion Fran

3 Lauren was miserable and a nightmare during costume fittings

4 Fran had an affair with her male assistant Robbie and he became a writer on the show

I still laugh at the exchange between Fran and her mother in Sylvia's kitchen. They were talking about Fran's relationship with Mr. Sheffield and Sylvia says that they are married....Fran says Ma-we're not married. Sylvia- Are you living together...Fran-Yeah...Sylvia- Are you taking care of his children? Fran- Yeah...Sylvia-Are you having sex? Fran- NOOOOO....Sylvia- Then you're married. Priceless!

More on the massive Salisbury cock please.

What the hell happened to Benjamin Salisbury?

R68, when you have as huge of a cock as Ben the rest is inconsequential.

Valerie Toriello

Valerie "Val" Toriello is the best friend of Fran, portrayed by Rachel Chagall. Val has been Fran's best friend since attending high school together in Flushing, Queens, New York. When the show began, Val had been working at the bridal shop with Fran. Val is of Italian descent.

Val is often portrayed as a loser who still lives with her parents. People are genuinely surprised whenever she has a boyfriend.

Val occasionally has moments of intelligence, but generally makes outright dimwitted remarks, much to the annoyance and worry of Fran. When she and Val disagree, Fran at times uses Val's (lack of) intelligence as an insult.

Like Fran, Val is unable to find success in love. However, near the end of the series, Val begins dating a pharmacist named Fred. She and Fred move to California along with the Sheffields.

You know the son was going to grow up to be a cum guzzler.

While everyone gushes over Fran's wardrobe, I absolutely swooned over both CC and Maxwell's. I consider "The Nanny" to have been one of the best dressed shows on television. If I was a woman, I would want CC's wardrobe and I wish I could afford Maxwell's.

Wrong Benjamin Salisbury, r68! That's Ben Salisbury the Brit composer.

Sylvia was the best!

Rachel Chagall used to go by the name Rachel Levin and was the lead in the 1987 film "Gaby, A True Story," wherein she played the title role of Gabriela Brimmer, a disabled rights activist born with cerebral palsy. She was amazing in it and was good enough to have deserved an Oscar nod.

Fantastically ugly series with an incredibly ugly cast. I mean, *christ*, someone give the daughter a paper bag.

TRUMP was a guest star!!!

HILLARY wasn't.

What's the point, idiot R79?

R78 He's always been an object of comedy. Still funny after all the passing years as future generations will surely tell us.

Salisbury's parents would make him work "real" jobs during the off season. One summer he worked at the snack bar of the suburban Minneapolis multiplex down the road from my apartment at the time. I had him serve me popcorn and lemonade more than once that summer. I never knew at the time I should have ordered a jumbo hot dog and Whoppers to be really satisfied.

I'm just watching that new mediocre show American Housewife and, just like Fran, that show's star talks like that unreal life. And the similarities don't stop there. I know that most shows have the same formula three kids (precocious younger sibling, righteous/studious or cool middle child, and insecure/wanting to fit in older teen adolescent)....BUT, the kids in American Housewife are a carbon copy of the kids in the Nanny - and by carbon copy I mean they're the same but poorer and dark-haired. Insecure teen older sister, materialistic opportunistic middle boy, and psycho younger child.

Unreal >> in real

Did C.C. ever get the upper hand on Niles in their battle of wits?

The American Housewife is bitchy and insecure whereas Fran was amused by the rich.

Ben is still cute, but he's losing his hair.

Ben is must be the poster boy for Rogain. That is more hair than he used to have.

49 Danny Davis is bi? Wow, that shocks me more than the other option...Any more stories about him?

Someone give r77 a cunt plug.

[quote][R25], it appropriated sooo many I Love Lucy plots, it was embarrassing.

I LOVE LUCY wasn't entirely original, either. They stole from previous vaudeville acts and radio programs, even movies. One that immediately comes to mind involves Lucy & Ricky taking a cruise (for a second honeymoon, I think). That episode borrows gags and plots from the film GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, which predates the episode by 2 1/2 years. Just like Marilyn's character, Lucy ends up with a little boy for a dining partner, and also gets stuck in a porthole on a ship. Lucy also covers her stuck shoulders with a blanket, to make the illusion that her whole body is outside, just like Marilyn had in that film.

R57 Peter Marc Jacobson didn't write that "Fran Lite" episode; it was Janis Hirsch.

R76 she received a Golden Globe nod (lost to Sally Kirkland in ANNA), and her co-star Norma Aleandro was nominated for an Oscar (lost to Olympia Dukakis in MOONSTRUCK).

R82 that must have been humiliating for him. Imagine being a child star of a popular TV sitcom and appearing in teen magazines/posters (my sister had Teen Beat and the like, and he was featured often during THE NANNY"s heyday) but having to work a mundane summer job, as well? Didn't the parents work?

R85 CC: Niles, you are a butler, now buttle!

Lulz

[quote]incredibly ugly cast.

Fran and Maxwell were not ugly by any means.

I loved this scene as a kid.

R97 neither was CC. Though she was often called 'ugly,' anyone with eyes could see that she was a very attractive woman. Sort of had that Grace Kelly ice cool effect.

I love the scene where Fran has to pretend to be CC 'cause CC attacked some poor guy to get his cab, without realizing that he was a very important backer. So Fran is at CC's place getting a crash course on CC's life story 'cause CC and Maxwell have a meeting with said man about possibly financing their next show. Anyway, CC is showing Fran her photo album:

CC: This is where I went to prep school. This is when I came out...

FRAN: You came out? Why are you always sniffing around Mr. Sheffield for?

CC: My coming out party, Miss Fine.

FRAN: I heard you. You know, now you and your special friend can dance together at Disneyland.

I love this scene:

Everything on tv is fake R1.

..........

The final few seasons were terrible.

R1 I remember that during the show's original run people in the UK thought that Davis was really British. We all did.

R5 what do you mean it hasn't aged well? I've started rewatching the series and am laughing my ass off! The humor/jokes still hold up.

R78 so was Rosie O'Donnell in the same episode! They both played themselves but had no scenes together.

[quote]Bet she kept them.

But none of them fit now

While Hillary Clinton didn't guest star on the show Bill Clinton's brother made a guest appearance as Sheffield's neighbor (who, apparently, moved when Fran's mom ate all of his food).

J'adore!

With pleasure!

*slams the door shut*

Daniel Davis was the MARY!est MARY! that ever MARY!ied.

A few years after the finale, there was a reunion show, which DD boycotted.

Benjamin Salisbury looks handsome now....balding, but handsome.

One of my favorite scenes is when Sylvia attempts to speak French.

[quote] A few years after the finale, there was a reunion show, which DD boycotted.

I don't think he boycotted, he was on Broadway at the time.

Daniel Davis didn't sing I Am What I Am in the La Cage revival. That was Gary Beach.

Daniel Davis was a cunt and a half. Apparently he was up for a role on a soap in the late 80s but his reputation preceded him and they said fuck no.

when the show started i thought for a minute that CC was played by Lauren Hutton