Besides Christmas, there are other celebrations in December, like the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, which some people hold in high esteem despite being talked about less often. Although most TV shows emphasize Christmas during the festive period, however, a CBS sitcom show, The Nanny which aired from 1993 to 1999 has an episode in its last season that projects the Hanukkah celebration.
The sitcom series featured Fran Drescher who played the character Fran Fine, a Jewish fashionista who observed the celebration. In the season six episode titled “The Hanukkah Story,” Fine is happy to celebrate Hanukkah with her husband, Maxwell Sheffield, but things did not go as planned when he forgot and went on a trip to Boston instead and had an accident on his way back. back.
Fran Drescher Is Jewish In Real Life
Drescher is Jewish, and as a co-creator of the show, she incorporated that into her character. Although, it was not so easy getting the team on board with her religious stance reflected in the movie character she played. “When we got green-lighted to write the pilot for ‘The Nanny,’ I guess the network was already talking to major sponsors like Procter & Gamble, who said, ‘It sounds great— we’ll buy the show outright. But the nanny has to be Italian, not Jewish,” Drescher revealed. “I was taken aback, for sure.”
Drescher however, stood her ground, insisting that Fine should be Jewish. “I do not like living with regret. And I don’t want to rush into doing something to get the job, and then when it doesn’t go right, or it fails, I kick myself because I thought, ‘Why didn’t we follow our instincts? Why did we listen to them?’ I thought, ‘I can’t live with that regret. I know this character needs to be written very close to me and all the rich and wonderful characters that I grew up with,” the actress added.
The Sitcom’s 29th Anniversary
The series hit its 29th year recently, and 65-year-old Drescher took to Twitter, expressing her gratitude for the support received worldwide since the series’ release in the ’90s with a video of herself saying one of her popular lines from the set .
Also, Drescher posted a link to stream the sitcom for fans that may like a nostalgic catch-up. There have been whispers of a The Nanny reboot, but there’s a more certain musical on its way, on Broadway. “Contractually, I’m not really allowed to do a reboot on TV until we get the musical on its feet on Broadway, which is fine,” Drescher shared with Entertainment Weekly. Her co-star, Maxwell, also affirmed the reboot to the outlet, stating that Drescher had shared the plot with him.
“We’ve talked about it, and she actually had a really, really, I thought genius idea. I just thought, ‘This was very smart.’ That’s all I’ll say,” Maxwell said.
