10 Stars We All Forgot Appeared On The Nanny
The Nanny was a favorite ’90s sitcom – and one packed with surprisingly famous guest stars.
If you turned on your television from 1993-1999, chances are you’ll remember hearing Fran Drescher’s nasal voice emanating from the screen as she strutted around in a series of loud designer outfits in The Nanny. A modern I Love Lucy, with a little Sound of Music thrown in, Drescher played Fran Fine, a New York Jewish woman who went from working in a bridal shop in Queens to becoming the eccentric nanny of a widowed Broadway producer and his three children on Park Avenue.
10. JAMES MARSDEN
Long before he would star in Westworld, and just before he would appear in The Notebook and the X-Men movies as Cyclops, James Marsden appeared as Eddie, the young suitor of Mr. Sheffield’s oldest child Maggie. Maxwell had a difficult time accepting his daughter was old enough to date, and so enlisted Miss Fine to be their chaperone on dates.
9. JON STEWART
Do you remember when Jon Stewart used to act? Maybe not, since the long-running host of the Daily Show has been providing satirical commentary on political news for over almost two decades now. But back in the mid ’90s, he starred in an episode of The Nanny called Kissing Cousins which is as raucous as it sounds.
8. JASON ALEXANDER
The road to love was often bumpy for the fabulous Fran Fine, but that didn’t stop her from putting on her chicest walking shoes. While out on a date with her friend Val, busy complaining that all men really want her for are looks her, she meets a man suspiciously wearing sunglasses indoors. It’s none other than Jason Alexander, who happens to be blind, and therefore doesn’t care about how she looks.
7. COOLIO
Is it possible to devote an entire episode to a really bad pun? Season six of The Nanny thought so when they cast real-life rapper Coolio as a version of himself in the episode Homie-Work. Maxwell is looking for a new star for his latest play, but it needs to be someone who will get a younger crowd attending Broadway.
6. DAN AYKROYD
A longtime personal friend of Fran Drescher’s since they starred together in the screwball comedy Doctor Detroit, Dan Aykroyd makes a guest appearance as a ridiculous repairman in the first season of the series when the Sheffield residence had a problem with its refrigerator.
5. BETTE MIDLER
Could you really have a sit-com about a fast-talking, loudly dressed Jewish woman and not include Bette Midler? Although Fran Fine was obsessed with Barbara Streisand on the show, Babs surprisingly never made an appearance, which left plenty of room for the Divine Miss M to take her place as resident diva.
4. ROSEANNE
By the time Roseanne went off the air in the mid-‘90s, it had taken a strange turn. The Connors were no longer living like working-class Americans, but instead had won the lottery, prompting Roseanne to lapse into a life of luxury and privilege. Her new character development wasn’t unlike the role she played on The Nanny, guest starring as Fran’s cousin, Sheila.
3. ELIZABETH TAYLOR & ROSIE O’DONNELL
When Elizabeth Taylor visits the Sheffield residence to speak with Maxwell about being involved in his latest production on Broadway, she instructs Fran Fine to be the courier of her incredibly expensive black pearl necklace. While en route with the pearls, Fran befriends a snarky cabbie named Cozette (Rosie O’Donnell) who needs as much relationship advice as she needs a chill pill.
2. PAMELA ANDERSON
In the very first episode of The Nanny, Fran Fine’s was kicked out of the wedding store she ran with her fiance Danny. Deciding to test her luck uptown, she takes a taxi to Park Avenue where she attempts to sell Shades of the Orient cosmetics to the wealthy housewives. Fortunately for her, she gets mistaken for the new nanny looking after Maxwell’s three children, and a sit-com is born.
1. ROBERT VAUGHN AND JOAN COLLINS
The Sheffield residence is turned upside down when Maxwell’s estranged father comes to New York City for a visit. The senior Sheffield (played by Robert Vaughn) and his son haven’t gotten along since he left his mother and ran off with his secretary, played by the delightful Joan Collins in a role not dissimilar to her character in Dynasty (there are several references to it).
Fran tries to instill a sense of normalcy in the household, but how can she when the Sheffields spend all their time fighting, and the Joan Collins is giving Fran advice on how to steal Maxwell’s heart out from under his business partner, CC Babcock.
