The Nanny star Fran Drescher teases the likelihood of a reunion special as the popular ’90s sitcom nears its 30th anniversary.
Acclaimed actor Fran Drescher believes a reunion for The Nanny is “inevitable” as the Emmy Award-winning sitcom prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary later this year.
Speaking on SiriusXM’s The Julie Mason Show, Drescher — who is also the president of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) — revealed that there have been talks with Sony about a potential reunion. However, how soon a reunion special can be done depends on when a resolution can be found for the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike that’s gripped Hollywood. “The Nanny reunion, I think, is the most imminent because it’s our 30th anniversary this November. At least pre-strike, we were in conversations with Sony, our parent company, to figure out what we could do that would be fun and exciting for the fans to tune into,” Drescher said. “And hopefully the strike will be over soon enough, a deal can be forged with the Writer’s Guild and the AMPTP, and we’ll be able to go back to figuring out what we want to do for a Nanny kind of reunion, maybe backdoor pilot. We don’t really know, but we have a lot of options on the table and we’re kind of open to all of them and everything else, you know, will kind of take a back burner to this right now because there’s only one 30th anniversary.”
First airing on Nov. 3, 1993, The Nanny went on to great success, with the series centering around Drescher’s character, Fran Fine. Airing for six seasons on CBS, the series won a Primetime Emmy Award and BMI Film & TV Award during its run while spawning several overseas adaptations in Europe, South America and Mexico. Additionally, the show has been featured on HBO Max, keeping its legacy alive. “The show, you know, is the gift that keeps on giving and has tremendous longevity. It has certainly endured the test of time and it’s hotter than ever because it’s on HBO Max, it’s streaming,” Drescher said. “It’s multi-generational as it was in the nineties, but continues to be, and the clothes continue to be a phenomenon.”
The Nanny followed Fine, a Jewish fashionista from Queens who ends up becoming the nanny of three children in a New York-British high society family. Over time, Fine and the head of the household, Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy), develop an affinity for each other after Maxwell’s initial reservations about her, eventually marrying in the June 1999 series finale. Drescher co-created The Nanny alongside then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, basing the show and its characters on her real-life Queens upbringing.
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The Nanny previously held a fifth-anniversary reunion at Drescher’s house during the 2004 Lifetime special, A Nosh to Remember, where the cast spoke about their memories from the sitcom. The Nanny also starred Daniel Davis as the family butler Niles and Lauren Lane as C.C. Babcock, as well as Benjamin Salisbury as Brighton Sheffield, Nicholle Tom as Margaret Sheffield and Madeline Zima as Grace Sheffield.
There have been talks about a potential reboot or revival of The Nanny dating back to 2018, when Drescher and Jacobson discussed the possibility. Additionally, a musical adaptation of the series was planned in 2020, with Rachel Bloom and Adam Schlesinger set to pen its songs. However, the adaptation was put on hold after Schlesinger’s death from COVID-19 complications.
