I love The Nanny with Fran Drescher. She’s great in her role. What can you tell me about her career?
—Pat D., Missouri
While the nasally Fran Fine is Drescher’s best-known role, she made memorable appearances in movies such as Saturday Night Fever and This Is Spinal Tap long before the TV series started. She also starred in a short-lived sitcom called Princesses, alongside model/actress Twiggy. Though that show was canceled, it indirectly led to The Nanny when Drescher flew to England to visit Twiggy, and was struck by the comic contrast between her New York style and the English manners of her hosts. Drescher wrote and produced the show that she starred in. “I pushed the envelope and made a very appealing character who happens to be Jewish and isn’t frightened to admit that, or even speak Yiddish and poke fun at her own ethnicity,” Drescher says. “This show was successful in the Midwest and the Sunbelt long before it was accepted in New York or Los Angeles. It was the Heartland that really loved that little girl in the short skirts and I appreciate and respect that audience.” In 2000, Drescher discovered that she had uterine cancer. It was caught early, she had surgery and is doing very well. She wrote a book about the experience, Cancer, Schmancer, which includes a great deal of her trademark humor. She returned to television recently as a guest star on Good Morning, Miami and currently appears in commericals for Old Navy.
