It’s been 22 years since Charles Shaughnessy said goodbye to his role as Maxwell Sheffield opposite Fran Drescher on The Nanny, but the London-born actor still gets a kick out of his daughter’s reaction to his romantic scenes on the comedy sitcom.
“I came home one day, and Maddy was very upset,” Shaughnessy, 66, recalls in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. “She had seen the show that night and said, ‘Daddy, don’t kiss the girl.’ She wasn’t very keen on all the Fran and Maxwell chemistry.”
charles shaughnessy
CBS/Getty
As for a potential Nanny reunion, Shaughnessy says it’s a possibility.
“It would be a lot of fun. It’s hard because people see The Nanny now, it’s 30 years old, so we’re all different. I’m a lot older. She’s a lot older. The kids are a lot older. You see that and you kind of want to recreate that, but it’s un-recreatable,” he says. “The train has left the station. We’re down the tracks awhile. You can’t really recreate that magic. You can create something else using some of the elements, but it’s not going to be what it was originally.”
He continues: “I have questions about reboots, in general, but if someone comes up with it and offers me to revisit Maxwell Sheffield, I’d be delighted.”
Looking back, Shaughnessy says some of his fondest memories had to do with surprise appearances.
“My most favorite thing about the show was the guest stars,” he says. “We kicked off in episode 2 with Carol Channing and then went through all the sort of Broadway [stars], Marvin Hamlisch and Burt Bacharach. Then we went into Elton John. We had Ray Charles coming on as Auntie Yetta’s boyfriend. Elizabeth Taylor!”
Shaughnessy continues: “I mean, incredible guest stars. Donald O’Connor, to be tap dancing with Donald O’Connor. That was the most thrilling thing. I think if someone asked me what did I take away from The Nanny more than anything else, it’s that. It’s the fact that I got to actually goof around with Donald O’Connor. Go figure. And then you had some great episodes. The surgery shaving episode got the biggest laugh I think I’ve ever seen on a set. We had to literally stop the show to let the audience calm down.”
Shaughnessy first made his American television debut as Alistair Durban on General Hospital, which he credits for jump starting his career. “It was my first TV job,” he says. “I arrived here in 1983 and found myself on an American soap opera, which was so out of my wheelhouse. It was like an animal I did not understand or recognize, but I had a blast.”
charles shaughnessy
Evan Vestal Ward/Peacock
For more from Charles Shaughnessy, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now, or subscribe here.
Now he’s returning to daytime TV as Shane Donovan on Peacock’s Days spinoff Beyond Salem and as the villainous Victor Cassadine on General Hospital, where he says he feels right at home.
“I enjoy the crazy stories,” he says. “I always find them amusing.”
