In a chat with reporters following today’s TCA panel about NBC’s new comedy Indebted, series star Fran Drescher neither specifically confirmed nor denied that she is working on a revival of The Nanny on television but said she “contractually” cannot move forward with any revival plans for her 1990s sitcom until the character arrives on Broadway.
“[The Broadway musical] is Nanny’s next big project, so I have to honor that commitment,” Drescher said. She added that she wants to write another book after the Broadway show ends.
As previously announced, the 1990s sitcom is being developed into a Broadway musical, with series creators Drescher and her ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson set to write the book for the show, with Rachel Bloom and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Adam Schlesinger writing the music. For now, Drescher fans will have to be satisfied with seeing her in Indebted, from writer Dan Levy, Sony TV and Doug Robinson Productions.
In the series, young parents, played by Abby Elliott and Adam Pally, end up taking care of Adam’s boomer parents, portrayed by Drescher and Steven Weber [pictured above], who who mishandled their finances and ended up in debt.
Drescher appeared on the panel along with Pally, Elliott, Weber, co-star Jessy Hodges and Executive Producers Dan Levy and Doug Robinson.
Drescher readily admits that her fans will see a similar style of comedy as they saw during her years as The Nanny. She said returning to a sitcom 26 years after The Nanny debuted “is definitely more demanding,” joking that the Nanny revival would have to be called “The Granny.”
Don’t expect radical changes in Drescher’s signature self-deprecating humor, however.
“I have accepted the fact that I will never be Meryl Streep in my career,” she said. “[I] play characters that aren’t mean…I started my career as a prostitute with a heart of gold…That’s my brand of comedy.”
In keeping with his likeable personality, Drescher did not criticize the show’s first episode but hinted that viewers will see Indebted find its footing in subsequent episodes as the humor becomes less broad.
“[When we] shoot a 13-episode series, it’s a little more grounded, we deal with some of the more realistic issues that families in this situation have to deal with,” she said.
“New sitcoms have to find their voice,” Drescher added. “This is probably a better pilot than a lot of pilots, [but] to be fair to the series, over the course of 13 episodes, it landed.”
