Fran Fine (Fran Drescher) is a recently dumped and fired cosmetics salesperson in need of a new job – and love. She finds herself at the door of Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy), a well-to-do Broadway producer who recently lost his wife and is struggling to raise his three children alone. So, Fran becomes “The Nanny,” and one of the best TV shows of the 1990s was born.
Drescher co-created the CBS comedy alongside her then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, and the pair shepherded the series over six seasons and 146 episodes. It was nominated for a handful of Emmys, only winning one for Best Costuming (which is deserved; the fits on this show are fire). But it’s still a beloved program, one that still hits with sharp jokes and surprising emotional discoveries in syndication. If you’re in a hotel and a “Nanny” marathon comes on TV, you’re canceling the rest of your day.
In celebration of the Sheffield family and their more-than-Fine guest, we will now ask the question on everyone’s minds: What happened to the cast of “The Nanny”?
Based on the real-life grandmother of Fran Drescher, Grandma Yetta, played by Ann Morgan Guilbert, lived in a retirement home, got into all kinds of shenanigans, and had frequent, eccentric episodes of forgetfulness.
She has a bizarre interpretation of Fran’s living arrangements, often mistook the mythology of other TV shows for her real life (a joke later borrowed in the recurring “SNL” Scared Straight sketches), and seemed to pop up in various points of historical import, like the sinking of the Titanic or the invasion of Pearl Harbor. Most delightfully, she wound up getting together with a romantic partner named Sammy, played by none other than Ray Charles.
After the conclusion of “The Nanny,” Guilbert, a beloved actor/comedian who first broke through on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” one of the best TV shows of the 1960s, showed up in many other great TV comedies, including “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Modern Family,” and “Life in Pieces” (pictured above). She also stretched her muscles with dramatic roles in “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” and the great Nicole Holofcener film “Please Give.”
In 2016, Guilbert died of lung cancer at the age of 87, leaving behind two children, including actor Hallie Todd.
Rachel Chagall (Val Toriello)
Val Toriello, played by Rachel Chagall, is Fran’s best friend on the show. She’s a tough-talking Italian Catholic who is nonetheless often painted as the show’s primary object of ridicule.
Val lives at home with her parents and has lots of unluckiness with love, usually spending her nights at home alone without a date. Similar to another famous Italian-American TV character, Joey Tribbiani from “Friends,” she’s portrayed as dim-witted, putting her foot in her mouth and annoying the characters with her dull observations and malapropisms. Thankfully, by the show’s end, she does find love and resolution after six seasons of comedic misery.
Chagall, who broke through in the Golden Globe-nominated movie “Gaby: A True Story,” has not appeared in many projects post-“Nanny.” She popped in on the NBC sitcom “Just Shoot Me!”, the Lifetime drama “Strong Medicine” (seen above), and one of the best Amanda Bynes TV shows, “What I Like About You.” If anyone reading this is casting something that needs a “Rachel Chagall type,” reach out to her!
