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by R.J. Carter Published: July 24, 2005
Maxwell Sheffield (Shaughnessy) is a Broadway musical producer and a widower with three children who are, each in their turn, extremely shy, falsely brave, and repressedly neurotic. No nanny has been able to handle them, and Sheffield is at the brink of desperation on the night of a special fundraising party when Fran, working as a door-to-door cosmetic salesgirl after having just been recently dumped and fired by her boyfriend boss, is mistaken as the newest applicant for the job. Against his better judgment, Sheffield awards her the position. The Nanny became the I Love Lucy of its time, being equal parts romantic and physical comedy. And although the series focused largely on Fran's role as an unorthodox caregiver to the children and an "Upstairs/Downstairs" romantic interest with their father, my favorite parts have always been the barbs shared between Niles the butler and C.C. Babcock, Sheffield's business partner (who also has eyes for Max.) Invariably the episodes' plots would be kicked off by an action of the Nanny that would influence the children, creating turmoil that she then has to fix it, making pitstops along the way at the refrigerator, the wardrobe department, and maybe the refrigerator again before a solution is arrived at. The "Broadway Producer" role allowed for a series of guest stars to parade through the show ( and although not a star at the time, look for X-Men's "Jimmy" Marsden to make an early career cameo in the series pilot as Maggie's first kiss!) and there was always the hope (in the fans and in Fran) that Barbra Streisand would one day enter the Sheffield home. The menus are animated a la the show's opening, albeit with a different musical theme. The viewer can select from "Play All" or "Episode Selections" as well as select Subtitles and Special Features. The main menu uses a color scheme for the options that makes it a bit hard to tell which button is highlighted, so you have to move the cursor about a bit to notice the purple border. All the discs include a "Subtitles" option where the viewer can set the closed captioning to English, French, or Spanish. Particularly nice is that this same menu allows you to turn on the subtitles for the commentary (in English, Spanish, or Portuguese.) The "Special Features" are on Discs one and three. Disc one's features are the on/off selection of the commentary track for the episodes "Pilot" and "Imaginary Friend," where disc three has the commentary for "I Don't Remember Mama" as well as a twenty minute documentary, "The Making of The Nanny," where Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson narrate the shows origins and growth, with interspersed comments from Nicholle Tom, Benjamin Salisbury, Madeline Zima, and Ann Guilbert.
Grade: Episodes: A+ Special Features: A Cast Trivia: Fran Drescher's first acting role was a walk-on spot on Saturday Night Fever, where she danced with John Travolta. Ann Guilbert (Grandma Yetta) is better known as Millie Helper, the next-door-neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Daniel Davis (Niles) once took over the USS Enterprise as the escaped holographic villain, Professor James Moriarty. Madeline Zima (Grace) played a teenaged Lucille Ball in the 2004 television biopic, Lucy. |
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