"[5] Fran Fine (Drescher) turns up on the New York City doorstep of British Broadway producer Mr. Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) peddling cosmetics after being dumped, and subsequently fired, by her bridal-shop-owner ex-boyfriend.

's constant sharp barbs are their own bizarre form of flirtation and affection; after a few false-starts (including multiple impulsive and failed proposals from Niles), the pair marry in the same delivery room where Fran is giving birth to the twins, and subsequently discover they, too, are expecting a child.

[13] Several celebrities guested as characters in single episodes, such as Jason Alexander, John Astin, Roseanne Barr as Fran's cousin Sheila, Eric Braeden, Margaret Cho, Joan Collins as Maxwell's stepmother, Jeanne Cooper, Cloris Leachman, Dina Merrill as Maxwell's mother, Rita Moreno, George Murdock, Wallace Shawn, Twiggy as Maxwell's sister (in her first appearance, in season 1), Robert Urich, Joan Van Ark, Robert Vaughn as Maxwell's father, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Others appeared as themselves, primarily in connection with Maxwell's business relations, such as Dan Aykroyd, Bob Barker, Carol Channing, Chevy Chase, Andrew Dice Clay, Robert Culp, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lesley-Anne Down, Erik Estrada, Eydie Gormé, Hugh Grant, Elton John, Richard Kline, Joe Lando, Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, Bette Midler, Shemar Moore, Joshua Morrow, Lynn Redgrave, Melody Thomas Scott, Jane Seymour, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Alex Trebek and Hunter Tylo; media personalities Roger Clinton, Whoopi Goldberg, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Alicia Machado, Rosie O'Donnell, Sally Jessy Raphael and Donald Trump; and musicians Burt Bacharach, Michael Bolton, Ray Charles, rapper Coolio, Celine Dion, Eartha Kitt, Patti LaBelle, Steve Lawrence, Lisa Loeb, and Brian Setzer.

[14] Drescher also reprised her role of Bobbi Fleckman from the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap and made a cameo appearance as herself in the third to last episode.

David Letterman made an uncredited appearance during a fantasy sequence, where Fran describes how she exaggerated her fame to impress a pen pal.

Donna Douglas, who played Elly Mae Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies, made her last television appearance in an episode.

The theme song featured in the pilot was a version of "If My Friends Could See Me Now", performed by Gwen Verdon from the 1966 Broadway musical Sweet Charity.

Like the song, it summarizes the events that lead Fran from losing her job and boyfriend to being hired as nanny of the Sheffield children.

The Nanny began in 1991 with a chance meeting on a transatlantic flight between Drescher and Jeff Sagansky, at the time president of CBS Corporation, for whom she had starred in the short-lived TV series Princesses.

Sagansky agreed to a future meeting once all of the parties were back in Los Angeles; however, neither Drescher nor Jacobson had any idea what to pitch.

Drescher was inspired by her behavior towards the teenage daughter on the shopping trip as functioning in a less parental but "humorous [...] kind of Queens logic, self-serving advice" mode.

[19] Back in Los Angeles, the pair pitched their idea to Tim Flack and Joe Voci, both in comedy development at CBS.

[4] Sagansky brought in experienced producers Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser,[4] another husband-and-wife team with whom Drescher had worked before while guesting on Who's the Boss?

[20] Interested, both couples teamed up to write the script for the pilot together, creating a character with the intention to build off Drescher's image.

As a result, the characters draw deeply on the Drescher family, including Fran Fine's parents, Sylvia and Morty, and grandmother Yetta, who all were named after their real-life counterparts.

Like the character in The Nanny, Drescher was born and raised to a Jewish family in Flushing, Queens, and attended beauty school.

[24] The four of them were later joined by Frank Lombardi, Caryn Lucas and Diane Wilk, who served as the series' executive producers throughout the fifth and sixth seasons.

[13] Stemming from a home invasion and attack she experienced in 1985, Fran Drescher requested the show to provide prescreened audiences, based upon her fear of having random strangers invited to the productions.

[27] In one episode Streisand's sister, Roslyn Kind appears singing a song with Fran thinking Barbra is at the Sheffield home.

[28] The parallels were suggested in a few episodes, where an exasperated Mr. Sheffield refers to Fran as "Mrs. Carmichael", and asks in another: "Mr. Mooney fire you from the bank again?"

Another Lucy reference is when he alludes to Fran and "Ethel" stealing John Wayne's footprints in Hollywood, and again when Maxwell says, "Miss Fine, you got some 'splaining to do!"

[39] On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including The Nanny.

The website's consensus reads: "Fran Drescher elevates The Nanny's formulaic writing with chutzpah, hairspray, and a one-of-a-kind comedic performance.

"[4] Although later emerging as a favorite at CBS, sponsors questioned whether the writers had ventured too far in terms of ethnicity and Drescher acted too obviously Jewish.

[4] The actress, however, declined to change Fran Fine into an Italian American: "On TV, you have to work fast, and the most real, the most rooted in reality to me is Jewish.

"[49] By contrast, the producers came to the conclusion that to oppose her should be a family of British origin, so "she wouldn't come across as Jewish so much as the American you were rooting for," Sternin explained.

The reading featured the entire cast of the pilot—with the exception of James Marsden, who was replaced by Alex Sternin—as well as narration of the original pilot script by Jacobson and a live performance of the theme song by Ann Callaway.

These shows follow the original scripts very closely, but with minor alterations in order to adapt to their respective country's culture.

"All kinds of things from environmental issues, to health, to civil liberties, that’s what I think Fran [Fine] would be doing now – opening her big Queens mouth for the greater good.

Rachel Bloom and Adam Schlesinger of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fame were to write the songs, while Marc Bruni (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) was slated to direct.