“I wanted to do network television,” Fran Drescher said of her return to broadcast television on NBC’s Indebted. The actress, an archetype so unique that she often plays characters named Fran, was in the early stages of developing a new project for herself when she mentioned to her manager that the sitcom was produced by Sony. currently looking for a “Fran Drescher type. ”
A few phone calls later, and the TV veteran was reading alongside star Adam Pally for her first series regular role since her TV Land sitcom Happily Divorced ended ended in 2013. This time, however, she wanted the platform that only a broadcast network could provide.
“You know, my parents were really excited when I appeared on TV. My mom is in her 80s, dad just turned 90. And it’s a bar mitzvah and this is progressing,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “It goes beyond anything where I’m going to go out and pitch. So I thought, you know, let me give them this gift. They could never, their friends could never find me on TV Land. That’s just the bane of their existence. They were very disappointed. Everyone had a different channel that came up, they couldn’t find it, and it was never on that network, local newspaper list. They’ll come up with the top 60 channels and that’s not one of them. And everyone can find NBC. And because it was the studio I worked with, because it was the closest studio to my house, because it was NBC, everyone could find the peacock network. And because it seemed like there were really nice people there, it was a Jewish family, you know, just — just do it.”
Drescher has been in close contact with Sony as she has been quietly working on the musical Nanny, which has been in the works for some time but was not announced until deals were finalized with the entire team creation – joining Drescher and co-creator Peter Marc Jacobson are Marc Bruni, Rachel Bloom and Adam Schlesinger. While details about that production are being scanned, the actress revealed that it will take place in the ’90s and feature a new star – “someone spectacular who will turn it became its own event” – with a story that “has never really been done before”. .” ”
It will offer plenty of opportunities to showcase the tight, patterned, sequined fashion that has made Drescher a household name — and a Gen Z fashion icon (an instagram account dedicated outfit determined by Fran Fine has nearly 300,000 followers and Cardi B has spoken out on multiple occasions about how much she loves the character).
But Fran Fine’s outfit is actually just a slightly exaggerated version of what Drescher himself likes to wear. During this interview, which took place on the patio of her hotel room behind the Debt panel at the 2020 Television Critics Association winter press tour, Drescher wore a black cashmere suit from head to toe, after changing into a seriously tailored wool suit. . In Indebted, she still wears the clothes that would make Fran Fine proud.
“On this show, I’m the oldest person in the cast and I always wear high heels and tight dresses. But I said, ‘listen, you have to let me give the audience what they want.’ I don’t want to disappoint them,” she said. “And someone must be very eye-catching with clothes! I love clothes and I love dressing up for a show. I have never dressed slovenly, ordinarily, or normally. That’s not my business. TV is a visual medium. I want to give people their money’s worth and I know that they are obsessed with my clothes. So, you know, I can be flashy too.”
Debt follows a boomer couple who move in with their Millennial son and his family after they go bankrupt, and Drescher says it was a creatively rewarding experience watching the series found its melody again after the pilot.
“The first 13 episodes of any new series are finding themselves. It’s finding its look, its style – every department is figuring it out. But every week, we keep growing and maturing, strengthening ourselves, deepening our relationships, writing about our strengths, seeing how the family really lives in where, where the comedy actually lives, the look and feel of the show – it’s all like that. It’s a wonderful process and you have to trust it, because it will take a little while to get the hang of it, like with anything. And by the time we finished, just before the Christmas break, we were a really tight-knit group.”
