‘The Nanny’ Reunion: Charles Shaughnessy & Daniel Davis Recall Hilarious Hospital Scene With Fran Drescher

More than three decades after The Nanny introduced viewers to Fran Fine (Fran Drescher), Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) and their extended family, the actors who helped bring that world to life still have plenty to laugh about as the cast reunited.

At 90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 17, Charles Shaughnessy, Daniel Davis, Lauren Lane, Nicholle Tom and Madeline Zima reunited to revisit the sitcom’s unforgettable scenes and the experience of growing up together on television. Renée Taylor also greeted fans through a remote video appearance.

For Zima, who played the youngest Sheffield child, Grace, Shaughnessy’s role as the family patriarch sometimes extended beyond the script.

“I accidentally called Charlie ‘dad’ many times,” she recalled. “But he just has this lovely, fatherly, nurturing energy, and it was really just a joy to be around you growing up. And it was such a safe space.”

Tom, who played older sister Maggie, remembered finding some of her own confidence as her character did the same.

Cliff Lipson/CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection

“I completely related to Maggie because I was always kind of shy,” she said. “But I feel like the show really helped me to come out of my shell, just learning from all of the other actors and then just getting that confidence to go out on stage every week.”

That learning experience came with a few challenges that had nothing to do with remembering dialogue. While filming an episode featuring Rita Moreno as Maggie’s gymnastics teacher, Tom discovered that getting through a shot could require a little help from behind the camera.

“I remember I had to climb up this rope for a montage,” she recalled. “And I think I needed to slide down the rope.” There was just one problem. “I had no upper-body strength at all,” Tom admitted.

Peter Marc Jacobson, the show’s co-creator and executive producer and Fran Drescher’s then-husband, came to the rescue, holding her up so she could make her entrance through the frame. Unfortunately, the unusual arrangement made it difficult for either of them to maintain a straight face.

“I couldn’t stop laughing, and he started laughing, and then he just had to run out of frame really quick,” she said. “That made the blooper reel, let me tell you.”

The cast share favorite laughs and bloopers from The Nanny

The adults had their own battles with the giggles. Shaughnessy recalled a hospital scene in which Maxwell needed preparation for appendicitis surgery, leaving Fran with shaving cream, a razor and an audience that could barely contain itself.

“The audience must have laughed for about 15 minutes, and then it didn’t stop,” he said. “And I’m meant to be unconscious on the table, and that was hard to do.”

Davis, whose Niles could usually be counted on to make a situation even funnier, remembered entering the scene and finding that simply looking at Fran was enough to keep the laughter going. “Neither one of us had spoken, and the audience was just going on and on with the laugh,” he said.

Then came his line: “Looking for a raise?”

“And they started up again,” Davis recalled.

Everett Collection

Lane, who played Maxwell’s business partner and Niles favorite sparring partner, C.C. Babcock, had another memorable encounter in mind: discovering the normally buttoned-up butler letting loose with a little Risky Business inspiration. “Well, I think I’m going to go back to the Risky Business slide,” she said.

Lane recalled C.C. walking in on Niles’s dance, with Davis jumping in to supply his character’s response: “You realize, of course, now I’m going to have to kill you.”

Of course, the regular cast had plenty of company when it came to making memorable television. The Nanny welcomed a parade of famous faces, and Shaughnessy particularly appreciated the opportunities created by Maxwell’s Broadway career.

“My favorite is Donald O’Connor,” he said. “The great thing about the show is it had this inside-baseball sort of Broadway thing because of Maxwell.”

For Shaughnessy, bringing that musical-comedy world into the sitcom was part of the fun. Davis, meanwhile, had a guest-star story that took an unexpected turn well before anyone called action.

Cloris Leachman’s guest appearance was more than memorable

When Cloris Leachman arrived to play Maxwell’s former nanny, he was delighted to meet an actress he admired. “I was a huge fan of Cloris Leachman. She’s a brilliant actress,” he recalled. As the cast prepared to shoot a dining-room scene, Leachman asked where she could find the ladies’ room. Learning that it was down a hallway outside the studio, she decided on another solution.

“She turned to our prop man and said, ‘Bring me a bucket,’” Davis recalled.

Leachman then went behind the dining-room set to use it while her fellow actors remained seated at the table. The situation became even more awkward when she returned with the bucket.

“He said, ‘I’m not taking it,’” Davis recalled. “And then she said, ‘Well, what do you want me to do with it?’ He said, ‘You don’t want me to tell you.’”

For all the famous visitors, elaborate performances and perfectly timed punch lines, some of the panel’s warmest memories were also its simplest. Tom remembered gaining the confidence to step onstage. Zima remembered the reassuring presence of her television dad. And Davis remembered a roomful of people laughing before he had said a word.

More than 30 years later, the Sheffield household still feels like a place worth visiting.

 

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