A conversation with Fran Drescher
On Monday, Dec. 6, Lifetime airs “The Nanny Reunion: A Nosh to Remember,” with the stars of “The Nanny” reuniting at Fran Drescher’s home in Malibu, Calif., to reminisce about the show, talk about their favorite episodes and share personal experiences that came out of being part of “The Nanny.” Drescher’s (Fran Fine) guests are Charles Shaughnessy (Maxwell Sheffield); Nicholle Tom, Benjamin Salisbury and Madeline Zima (Maggie, Brighton and Grace Sheffield); Renee Taylor (Sylvia, Fran’s mother); Lauren Lane (Chastity Claire “C.C.” Babcock); Anna Guilbert (Yetta Rosenberg, Fran’s grandmother); and Rachel Chagall (Valerie “Val” Tonello, Fran’s best friend).
Unlike the formats of most reunions in which reunited cast members sit lined up on a stage, when “The Nanny Reunion: A Nosh to Remember” airs Dec. 6 on Lifetime, “The Nanny” veterans will be gathering at Fran Drescher’s Malibu Beach home to have dinner while they schmooze (a Yiddish word meaning “to chat”) about the show and everything that flowed from being part of one of television’s most successful comedy ensembles.
So, why this format?
“Why not?” Drescher replies. “I think having dinner with old and dear friends is a wonderful idea, whether it’s for a private event or even a television special.”
As for the word “nosh” (a Yiddish word for a small meal or a snack usually shared with someone else) in the title, Drescher said it indicates the importance of food in Jewish culture.
“Everything revolves around family, and that includes your special friends,” she says. “And nothing (signifies) family more than the dinner table. Or wherever you get together for a nosh or a big meal.”
“The Nanny’s” success surprised a lot of media mavens who didn’t think a show focused on a husband-seeking Jewish girl from New York would, as they say, play in “fly-over country” — that wide expanse of land between the east and west coasts.
“I understood why they might have thought that,” Drescher says. “But what they overlooked was that it really wasn’t just about Fran Fine. It was about — and I’ll use that word again — family, and the love they had for each other. Everyone identifies with that. We tried to show that on the series, and that’s what the viewers saw.”
Recently, Fran Drescher appeared in a Lifetime movie about a woman dying of uterine cancer because none of her doctors thought to have her tested for the condition, and by the time she was diagnosed, her cancer had spread too far to be treatable.
“As you know, I’m a survivor of uterine cancer,” Drescher says. “I’m lucky. It was found early. What I’m trying to do now is alert women to demand that their doctors test them for uterine or ovarian cancers, or any other life-threatening condition. Many more women’s lives could be saved if more doctors did more testing.”
In Focus: Patrick Muldoon stars in “A Boyfriend for Christmas” airing Dec. 5 on the Hallmark Channel. Others in the cast include Kelli Williams, Charles Durning and Martin Mull. Muldoon, whose long list of credits includes several movies, such as “Starship Troopers,” and a popular stint on the daytime show “Days of Our Lives,” says what he loves about the film is that “you can look at it and see a romantic fantasy. Or see it as a love story set against the magic of Christmas. Or maybe it’s both.”
Briefly, the film is about a young woman named Holly who, at age 13, asked Santa for a boyfriend. Twenty years later, a handsome young man (Muldoon) turns up on Christmas morning carrying a fir tree. Is he the boyfriend she wished for?
“She’s intrigued by him,” Muldoon says. “But she also has doubts. And as his time with her runs out, she has to face her feelings and make a decision that will either lead to a future with her true love, or not.”
Dial Tones: On Dec. 5, TNT will air “The Librarian: Quest for the Spear,” starring Noah Wyle (“ER”), Kyle MacLachlan, Jane Curtin, Olympia Dukakis and Kelly Hu. Wyle says of his character, Flynn Carsen: “He knows everything, but he’s modest about his knowledge, even though he’s the only person in the world who could decipher a book written in the language of the birds, which was spoken in the Garden of Eden.” Most of all, what he likes about Flynn Carsen is that “you have someone who is very smart and is not the butt of anyone’s jokes. Instead, he’s the hero.”