This remains my core criticism of these last three years - first the series refused to progress its status quo when a motivated shift needed to occur, and then when it finally did provide movement, it still wasn’t interested in offering narratives or comedy that utilized the tweaked “situation.” Accordingly, this made the formal coupling of Fran and Maxwell look fatal, when in actuality, The Nanny harmed its own sitcommery as it stalled their pairing, and then, after capitulating, by shying away from exploring their new dynamic in earned comic story, replacing the “situation” with cheap weekly stunts - many of them not driven by the leads. Now for the bad news - there are still far too few stories that genuinely examine the leads or their premise following the central couple’s union.

Oh, yes, they’re not gone completely (heck, look at the casting of Steve Lawrence as Fran’s dad!), but since they’ve been scaled back, this reduction in gimmickry feels like a victory. I’ll start with good news - there are not as many ostentatious cameos, metatheatrical winks, or outrageous narrative notions in Season Six as there were in the two years prior. With RACHEL CHAGALL as Val, ANN GUILBERT as Yetta, and RENÉE TAYLOR as Sylvia. Sheffield, DANIEL DAVIS as Niles, LAUREN LANE as C.C., NICHOLLE TOM as Maggie, BENJAMIN SALISBURY as Brighton, and MADELINE ZIMA as Gracie. The Nanny stars FRAN DRESCHER as Fran, CHARLES SHAUGHNESSY as Mr. Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, we’re concluding our coverage on the best of The Nanny (1993-1999, CBS), which is currently available on DVD and HBO Max.

The nanny season 6 episode 10