Fran Drescher thinks ‘The Nanny’ was a global success because it ‘transcended religion’

Fran Drescher revealed why she believes her sitcom, “The Nanny,” was such a global hit.AP

Fran Drescher thinks that “The Nanny,” in which she played an overtly Jewish character, would have no issues being made now, despite the rise in antisemitism in 2024.

“I think everyone identified with that show,” she exclusively told Page Six at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night.

The actress, 66, also noted the show’s success in Muslim countries.

Drescher told Page Six that everyone could identify with the show and it “transcended religion.” AFP via Getty Images Drescher played Fran Fine, a Jewish nanny from Queens. ©CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection

“It was huge throughout the Middle East,” she added. “All through Arab nations, Jordan, Egypt and the Emirates.”

Drescher says the sitcom, which ran from 1993 to 1999, was so popular because it “transcended religion” and people could “identify” with it.

“The global message of the series was it doesn’t matter what you look like and what you sound like, it’s what in your heart that counts and I think that’s a message that works in any decade,” she told us.

The show ran from 1993 to 1999. ©CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection Drescher says she was told to change her Jewish character to Italian for advertisers. ©CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection

The SAG-AFTRA President added that initially, it was difficult to get the show on the air.

“I was the first Jewish actress to star in a primetime series where I played an overtly Jewish character since 1948 (Gertrude Berg starred in ‘The Goldbergs’). With ‘The Nanny,’ they said they could sell the show to Procter & Gamble if ‘The Nanny’ was Italian and not Jewish.”

But she refused to change the character’s identity.

“I do not like living with regret,” she said on “The Originals” podcast in 2020, “and I don’t want to rush into doing something to get the job and then when it doesn’t go right or it fails, I kick myself because I thought, ‘Why didn’t we follow our instincts? Why did we listen to them?'”

Drescher created the show with her then-husband Peter Jacobson. WireImage Drescher believes the show is about what’s important in one’s heart. ©CBS/Courtesy Everett Collection

She added, “I thought, ‘I can’t live with that regret. I know this character needs to be written very close to me and all the rich and wonderful characters that I grew up with.’”

Drescher said that she and her then-husband and producing partner, Peter Marc Jacobson, “mustered up our chutzpah and said, ‘No, Fran Fine must be Jewish.’”

Other celebs at the DC-based annual event dubbed “The Nerd Prom” included Sophia Bush, making her red carpet debut with girlfriend Ashlyn Harris, Molly Ringwald, Chris Pine, Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost.