A Good Fran is Hard to Find
Do you have plans for the evening of December 6th? If the answer is yes, stop right now, pick up a phone, and cancel them. Because, my friends, The Nanny is having a reunion special! So start packing your emotional baggage -- this'll be one trip down memory lame you won't wanna forget!
The Nanny Reunion: A Nosh to Remember (December 6, 8:00 p.m. on Lifetime) will reunite the beloved WASPy Sheffield family with their Semitic-Slut-Nanny-cum-Stepmom Fran Fine, played with pitch perfect nuance by Fran Drescher, America's favorite Semitic-Slutty-Deviated-Septum. This will be the second special involving a lame Yiddish pun for The Nanny, following 1995's animated Nanny Christmas Special: Oy to the World. Did I say lame Yiddish pun? I mean a fucking hilarious Yiddish pun. One might even say... Frantastic? Shmearisistable? No, of course, one would never say that.
And not since the fake and baked golden days of Tony Danza has America longed for an actor to repeat the same role over and over again where the first name on-screen is the same name as in real life. See ya never, fourth wall!
It seems as though this special might be Ms. Drescher's last hope. Once the Emmy-nominated* series ended in 1999, Drescher's trademarked earsplitting voice was used sparingly in random TV movies and in various nightmares around the globe.
*(it lost 3 years in a row to the heart-string strummer "Orka: Whale of the Century"... Netflix queue it if you dare.)
Sparingly, that is, until a small, independently run clothing store specializing in the ancient garb of the high seas nabbed Drescher's comic sensibility in a commercial that became the nation's sensation.
This bitch was back. And how! Stalkers and toothy computer geeks once again took note of Ms. Drescher, approaching her for autographs and snapshots, as this Google Image search result proves:
So this special got me thinking... what other sit-com has beens will reunite in the new millenium? Some ideas:
- Perfect Strangers: Balky's Deported
- Silver Spoons: Tarnished Lives
- Family Matters: The Urkel Wedding Special (guest starring Star Jones)
- Mr. Belvedere: I'm Dead Now
- Out of This World: No One Really Watched Us, But Let's Reunite for the Fuck of It Easter Special
- Small Wonder: Are Child Robot Maids Even Legal?
- Herman's Head: The Prozac Years
- Growing Pains: Anorexia, Homosexuality and Alan Thicke: The Need I Say More Special?
Admit or not, The Nanny had it's hilarious moments (Sylvia Fine: (Fran's heavyset mother, wearing a very strappy metallic dress) "Sweetheart, what do you think of this dress?" Fran: "Ma, you look like a ham." I still use that.) The Nanny even had her own doll, dressed in her trademark slut-gear, that would spew phrases when you pulled her string (Ex: "The bigger the hair, the smaller the hips." Which is not true. It just isn't.)
So, from the goodness of my heart, I suggest you really do watch this special, which will also feature the pilot episode, Fran and Mr. Sheffield's marriage, and the series finale. Enjoy, and don't forget to thank me on Tuesday.
The Nanny Reunion: A Nosh to Remember (December 6, 8:00 p.m. on Lifetime) will reunite the beloved WASPy Sheffield family with their Semitic-Slut-Nanny-cum-Stepmom Fran Fine, played with pitch perfect nuance by Fran Drescher, America's favorite Semitic-Slutty-Deviated-Septum. This will be the second special involving a lame Yiddish pun for The Nanny, following 1995's animated Nanny Christmas Special: Oy to the World. Did I say lame Yiddish pun? I mean a fucking hilarious Yiddish pun. One might even say... Frantastic? Shmearisistable? No, of course, one would never say that.
And not since the fake and baked golden days of Tony Danza has America longed for an actor to repeat the same role over and over again where the first name on-screen is the same name as in real life. See ya never, fourth wall!
It seems as though this special might be Ms. Drescher's last hope. Once the Emmy-nominated* series ended in 1999, Drescher's trademarked earsplitting voice was used sparingly in random TV movies and in various nightmares around the globe.
*(it lost 3 years in a row to the heart-string strummer "Orka: Whale of the Century"... Netflix queue it if you dare.)
Sparingly, that is, until a small, independently run clothing store specializing in the ancient garb of the high seas nabbed Drescher's comic sensibility in a commercial that became the nation's sensation.
This bitch was back. And how! Stalkers and toothy computer geeks once again took note of Ms. Drescher, approaching her for autographs and snapshots, as this Google Image search result proves:
So this special got me thinking... what other sit-com has beens will reunite in the new millenium? Some ideas:
- Perfect Strangers: Balky's Deported
- Silver Spoons: Tarnished Lives
- Family Matters: The Urkel Wedding Special (guest starring Star Jones)
- Mr. Belvedere: I'm Dead Now
- Out of This World: No One Really Watched Us, But Let's Reunite for the Fuck of It Easter Special
- Small Wonder: Are Child Robot Maids Even Legal?
- Herman's Head: The Prozac Years
- Growing Pains: Anorexia, Homosexuality and Alan Thicke: The Need I Say More Special?
Admit or not, The Nanny had it's hilarious moments (Sylvia Fine: (Fran's heavyset mother, wearing a very strappy metallic dress) "Sweetheart, what do you think of this dress?" Fran: "Ma, you look like a ham." I still use that.) The Nanny even had her own doll, dressed in her trademark slut-gear, that would spew phrases when you pulled her string (Ex: "The bigger the hair, the smaller the hips." Which is not true. It just isn't.)
So, from the goodness of my heart, I suggest you really do watch this special, which will also feature the pilot episode, Fran and Mr. Sheffield's marriage, and the series finale. Enjoy, and don't forget to thank me on Tuesday.
posted by Michelle Collins on
Thursday, December 02, 2004
