‘The Nanny’ Is Streaming on HBO Max! See the Cast Then & Now
What’s that strange sound? If you hear a certain nasally laugh coming from your TV sets on Thursday, April 1, it might be The Nanny herself. The beloved Fran Drescher sitcom hits HBO Max that day, marking the first time the 1990s CBS sitcom is streaming.
Created by Drescher and her then-husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, The Nanny ran for six seasons and 145 episodes—with Drescher earning two Emmy nominations for her role as a Jewish-American gal from Flushing, Queens, who stumbles into a job minding an upper-crust British man’s children in Manhattan while selling makeup door-to-door. (“She had style, she had flair, she was there! That’s how she became the nanny,” according to the show’s catchy theme song.)
To mark the show’s streaming debut, scroll down to get career updates for the Nanny alums.
The Nanny, Streaming, Thursday, April 1, HBO Max
THEN: Fran Drescher as Fran Fine
The center of the show, Fran is a middle-class Queens-bred woman who moves into the Sheffield family’s Manhattan residen after talking her way into a nanny job opening.
NOW: Fran Drescher
Drescher followed up The Nanny with three other lead TV roles: She starred as Fran Reeves in the WB sitcom Living With Fran, Fran Lovett in the TV Land comedy Happily Divorced, and Debbie Klein in NBC’s 2020 sitcom Indebted. On the big screen, she voices Eunice, wife of Frankenstein, in the animated Hotel Transylvania franchise. And in 2020, she announced that she was teaming up with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom and other talents to develop a Nanny musical for Broadway.
THEN: Charles Shaughnessy as Maxwell Sheffield
Maxwell, Fran’s boss turned live interest, is a widowed father of three and a Broadway producer with a major beef with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
NOW: Charles Shaughnessy
Shaughnessy returned to his pre-Nanny role of Shane Donovan on Days of Our Lives in 2002 and played the part off and on until 2017. He also reunited with Drescher for Living With Fran, playing her onscreen ex-husband. And between 2016 and 2020, he recurred on Syfy’s The Magicians as Christopher Plover.
THEN: Daniel Davis as Niles
Niles is the family’s busybody butler, who goes way back with “Mr. Sheffield” and who takes an immediate liking to Fran.
NOW: Daniel Davis
Davis has worked steadily in the last two decades: He acted on Broadway in productions of Wrong Mountain, The Invention of Love, The Frogs, La Cage aux Folles, and Noises Off. And in recent years, he guest-starred on the TV shows The Blacklist, The Good Fight, and Dispatches from Elsewhere.
THEN: Nicholle Tom as Margaret Sheffield
Charles’s eldest child, Maggie went from shy daddy’s girl to self-assured teen with Fran’s help.
NOW: Nicholle Tom
Tom may be just as famous for her DC Animated Universe stardom as her role on The Nanny: She voiced Kara Kent a.k.a. Supergirl in The New Batman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, and Justice League Unlimited. More recently, she guest-starred in the TV shows About a Boy, Gotham, and Survivor’s Remorse.
THEN: Madeline Zima as Grace Sheffield
Fran also bonded with the youngest Sheffield child, Grace, who reciprocated the adoration and even wanted the nanny to become her stepmother.
NOW: Madeline Zima
Since The Nanny went off air, Zima has starred in the Showtime comedy Californication, playing author Mia Lewis, and recurred on Heroes and Betas. In 2020, she guest-starred on the TV shows Good Girls and Perry Mason, and earlier this year, she joined Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson in the Amazon drama Bliss.
THEN: Renée Taylor as Sylvia Fine
Sharing her first name with Fran Drescher’s real life mother, Sylvia was Fran’s overbearing (and constantly hungry) mom, who frequently dropped by the Sheffield home.
NOW: Renée Taylor
In 2001, Taylor and late husband Joseph Bologna took their marriage to the Great White Way for the Broadway show If You Ever Leave Me… I’m Going With You!. More recently, she recurred on How I Met Your Mother and reunited with Drescher in Happily Divorced.
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