While never a ratings winner, this campy sitcom has become a favorite in re-runs and those who didn't watch it in its original run are getting a treat now, even if regretting that they didn't make time for it back then. I'm one of those who watched it on occasion, yet now I'm a proud owner of the DVD collection, finally complete (as of today!), even though the first three seasons, on another label, had not initially sold all that well. What put people off the show when it first aired? Could it be the voice of Fran Drescher? So deliciously nasal, today it's endearing simply because her character was so sweet, almost drag queen like in her wardrobe and certainly a gay man trapped in a Jewish woman's body. So not only has this gained a gay cult following, it's also opened non-Jews to learning a thing or two about their culture. If it wasn't studying the language of "Fiddler on the Roof" through Broadway history books, it was this T.V. series, even more than Saturday Night Live's "Coffee Talk" which was "just like butta". I still shock my Jewish friends by utilizing lingo from this show to which they can only reply, "Good goy. Good goy."
Perhaps also it is the gay mentality or the New York setting that kept the audience limited. Perhaps, even, it's far too show business (Broadway) in orientation with stage producer Maxwell Sheffield (the handsome Charles Shaugnessy) constantly utilizing inside jokes that only Broadway freaks (like myself!) could understand. In the very first episode, he rejects an audition by none other than Carol Channing, and in another episode comments on actors who turned down a musical he's producing ("Ann Miller passed, Ruby Keeler passed, away I think", he says in reflection), and constantly comments on his rival Andrew Lloyd Webber who at the Tony Awards is heard (obviously an actor unseen playing him) trying to say his name as a nominee yet coughing until Maxwell bursts out in disgust. Fran, too, is a total Barbra Streisand fan, blinds Liza Minnelli with her camera at the Tony's, and gets chased around the Sheffield house by Bette Midler. References to other celebrities of a gay cult following are constantly dropped, and as Maxwell and Fran fall in love, they even get to be serenaded by none other than Eartha Kitt. Channing, Midler and Kitt did indeed make guest appearances, and the masked celebrity Maxwell is hiding from Fran is allegedly Cher, although you only hear her voice.
Initially, this was about Fran building a relationship with her charges, Maxwell's three children, but as the series went on, it began to include more of Fran's own family: her always eating mother Sylvia (Renee Taylor) and the slightly senile but totally lovable Grandma Yetta (Ann Guilbert), with guest appearances by Tony Winning musical character actress Marilyn Cooper as her other grandmother, Roseanne as tacky decorator cousin, and eventually Steve Lawrence as her seen from the back father, Morty. Celebrities turned up in droves, from Cloris Leachman as Maxwell's old nanny (complete with Frau Brucher accent), Joan Collins as Maxwell's father's new wife, Dina Merrill as Maxwell's bitchy mother, and Patti LaBelle as herself, singing at a mother/daughter contest.
When audiences weren't laughing at Fran's efforts to win Maxwell's love or Sylvia's constant eating or Yetta's lovable side-lines, they were laughing hysterically at the wisecracks between Maxwell's sarcastic partner, C.C. (the lovely Lauren Lane) and his sardonic butler, Niles (Daniel Davis) who only had a first name, "Like Cher", he explained. I never believed C.C. and Niles as lovers, and it was often insinuated that Niles was possibly gay, even though he simply explained that away as "Being British", although the scene-stealing Davis was really from Arkansas. Unlike other sitcoms, the story lines seemed to be continuous, although there were only a few cliffhangers, and that has to be attributed to the excellent writing. Watching the children grow up too was fascinating for audiences, and references to older sitcoms like "I Love Lucy" and "Gilligan's Island" were nostalgic for baby boomers.
Of all the sitcoms that I've collected, this is definitely the most nostalgic and show business oriented with visits to the sets of "The Young and the Restless", several talk shows (including Rosie O'Donnell's) and fake Broadway shows which Max had produced. And any sitcom that can get Elizabeth Taylor to make a guest appearance can't be all bad. The last two seasons with its continuing story do keep the laughs, but change the theme as Maxwell and Fran become more involved. In the final scene when married, Maxwell discovers that his new bride isn't quite as perfect as he thought, questioning his love for her which is real in spite of her attempt at smothering him at times, while she realizes that he's a bit too stuffy for her. They obviously will have to learn to tolerate each others differences. So it's all out now, completely, and hopefully those who have discovered its charm from re-runs will go out, buy it, share it with the younger generations and keep it going, because it is definitely a modern classic.
Perhaps also it is the gay mentality or the New York setting that kept the audience limited. Perhaps, even, it's far too show business (Broadway) in orientation with stage producer Maxwell Sheffield (the handsome Charles Shaugnessy) constantly utilizing inside jokes that only Broadway freaks (like myself!) could understand. In the very first episode, he rejects an audition by none other than Carol Channing, and in another episode comments on actors who turned down a musical he's producing ("Ann Miller passed, Ruby Keeler passed, away I think", he says in reflection), and constantly comments on his rival Andrew Lloyd Webber who at the Tony Awards is heard (obviously an actor unseen playing him) trying to say his name as a nominee yet coughing until Maxwell bursts out in disgust. Fran, too, is a total Barbra Streisand fan, blinds Liza Minnelli with her camera at the Tony's, and gets chased around the Sheffield house by Bette Midler. References to other celebrities of a gay cult following are constantly dropped, and as Maxwell and Fran fall in love, they even get to be serenaded by none other than Eartha Kitt. Channing, Midler and Kitt did indeed make guest appearances, and the masked celebrity Maxwell is hiding from Fran is allegedly Cher, although you only hear her voice.
Initially, this was about Fran building a relationship with her charges, Maxwell's three children, but as the series went on, it began to include more of Fran's own family: her always eating mother Sylvia (Renee Taylor) and the slightly senile but totally lovable Grandma Yetta (Ann Guilbert), with guest appearances by Tony Winning musical character actress Marilyn Cooper as her other grandmother, Roseanne as tacky decorator cousin, and eventually Steve Lawrence as her seen from the back father, Morty. Celebrities turned up in droves, from Cloris Leachman as Maxwell's old nanny (complete with Frau Brucher accent), Joan Collins as Maxwell's father's new wife, Dina Merrill as Maxwell's bitchy mother, and Patti LaBelle as herself, singing at a mother/daughter contest.
When audiences weren't laughing at Fran's efforts to win Maxwell's love or Sylvia's constant eating or Yetta's lovable side-lines, they were laughing hysterically at the wisecracks between Maxwell's sarcastic partner, C.C. (the lovely Lauren Lane) and his sardonic butler, Niles (Daniel Davis) who only had a first name, "Like Cher", he explained. I never believed C.C. and Niles as lovers, and it was often insinuated that Niles was possibly gay, even though he simply explained that away as "Being British", although the scene-stealing Davis was really from Arkansas. Unlike other sitcoms, the story lines seemed to be continuous, although there were only a few cliffhangers, and that has to be attributed to the excellent writing. Watching the children grow up too was fascinating for audiences, and references to older sitcoms like "I Love Lucy" and "Gilligan's Island" were nostalgic for baby boomers.
Of all the sitcoms that I've collected, this is definitely the most nostalgic and show business oriented with visits to the sets of "The Young and the Restless", several talk shows (including Rosie O'Donnell's) and fake Broadway shows which Max had produced. And any sitcom that can get Elizabeth Taylor to make a guest appearance can't be all bad. The last two seasons with its continuing story do keep the laughs, but change the theme as Maxwell and Fran become more involved. In the final scene when married, Maxwell discovers that his new bride isn't quite as perfect as he thought, questioning his love for her which is real in spite of her attempt at smothering him at times, while she realizes that he's a bit too stuffy for her. They obviously will have to learn to tolerate each others differences. So it's all out now, completely, and hopefully those who have discovered its charm from re-runs will go out, buy it, share it with the younger generations and keep it going, because it is definitely a modern classic.