I was watching The Nanny just now and I think that Fran sounds almost like Lucille Ball!

She's the Lucille Ball of the 1990s!!!!!!!!!

She even almost bawls like her!



Nate

I always thought that the character of Fran Fine was very much like Lucy Ricardo sometimes. I don't think that Fran's nasal voice sounds like Lucille Ball's, but you are right about the bawling. There have been many comparisons made between the two ladies. One publication years ago called Fran and her husband something like, "The Lucy and Desi of this generation" because Fran's hubby was on the business end of their show, like Desi was with Lucy. And during the course of "The Nanny", there have been several refrences to "I Love Lucy". The character of Val is kinda like Lucy's 'Ethel'. I certainly see the connection.

Fran was also on a special celebrating (50 years?) the anniversary of the Lucille Ball show.

Fran is terrific. Her mannerisms are spot-on in the Lucy department. Like when she's being chased. :lol:

When Fran is playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in one episode (don't know the name ... sorry), she stabs herself and "dies" in the play almost EXACTLY the same way Lucy "died" in one episode of I Love Lucy (I forget which episode). Anyone else pick up on this?

Also, I remember in one episode, this man named Fred had passed out or something (been a long time since I've seen this one) and Fran is trying to wake him up by calling to him, like, "Fred? Fred?! Oh, Fred!" much the same way Lucy used to go "Oh, Fred!" (the "oh" almost sounding like "whoa") on ILL.

Sorry I don't know the names of these episodes so I can describe the scenes a bit easier.

Its been said that Fran is a big fan of Lucy & that she had studdied her technique & timing which is probably why we see resemblences between the two shows.

Did anyone watch or remember the episode from yesterday on lifetime where Fran meets the hot dog vendor in the supermarket & believes he is a stockbroker & Max decides to give him a heafty sum of money for investing????

Just before Fran enters the "mens only" club to pull yet another Lucy moment, the tv the guy is watching starts playing the lucy theme & you get a little wink/nod from Fran.

It was a great makeup/costume job. Even though I knew it was Fran in there, it certainly looked NOTHING like her. Many times when men dress as women or women as men you can still tell its them by their facial features such as their eyes & smile & such. Maybe it was the beard I dont know but I think even if you knew her personally, it would have been real hard to tell that it was actually Fran in that get up.

http://members.aol.com/simpsons80/hf2man.jpg
Above image borrowed from my favorite Nanny fan site
The really Unofficial Nanny Home Page (http://home.frognet.net/~ritchie/nanny.htm)

My daughter read once that Lucille Ball was Fran`s idol, so that explains alot of the same mannerisims. Also, I agree that it was so hard to see that it was Fran under that get up dressed as a man.