Why did Lauren Lane suddenly stop and leave the industry?

[TMC]

She has only made 3 projects since the '90s. One straight to video thing and two shorts that weren't really released.

[JL82]

She is apparently now a theater professor at Texas State:

https://www.theatreanddance.txstate....uren-Lane.html

Life somewhat imitating art! Apparently she lived in Oklahoma and Texas as a child - which makes me more impressed with her as an actress, since she had to act all "New York high society."

[stanwyckfan07]

I never watched this show except for a rare episode when a favorite celebrity would appear until this year when I started watching the reruns on Cozi but I think Lauren Lane is the best thing about this show other than perhaps those superb comediennes Ann Morgan Giulbert and Renee Taylor.

It's interesting how the show has kind of a Lucille Ball - Vivian Vance thing with Fran and CC. I don't mean as a comic duo but how the show makes it seem like CC is older and less attractive which is certainly not the case here. Of course in both cases, the other woman was the "star" and owner of the show!

[thetornado]

They used to call The Nanny The 90s version of I Love Lucy

[JL82]

I think pretty soon CC starts to look much better than Fran - Fran comes across as really ditzy and screws up a lot of what could have been big business opportunities for Max and CC - and she really isn't any nicer than CC or luckier in love, or independent...if anything, CC seems more independent. Yes, CC (apparently) wants Max to fall for her, too (although it sometimes seems to me she really wanted Niles all along, and pretended to be chasing Max, and pretended that grabbing Niles was always an accident, just to torment Niles). But CC struck me as having "more to her" than trying to get a husband - more than any of the other female characters.

[TMC]

On ‘The Nanny,’ Lauren Lane’s C.C. Babcock was the WASPy foil to Fran’s flashy girl from Flushing. When the show finished, she left Hollywood entirely.

After the “The Nanny,” Lane’s TV and film credits pretty much stopped. I reached out to her, curious what she’s been up to in the years since. “I didn’t even know we would be running on HBO Max until maybe three weeks ago,” she said. “Nobody told me! But I’ve been shocked at the interest. It surprises me. It’s delightful, I’m not complaining. I’m just surprised. It shows me, wow, this meant something to people that I didn’t quite realize.”

I have a theory about that renewed interest. It’s not just that “The Nanny” is a good show (the writing is legitimately funny) but it’s also because that style of frothy screwball farce from the 90s (“Frasier” is another one) doesn’t exist much anymore. I think people crave it, especially as single-camera comedies abound.

When “The Nanny” ended after six seasons, so did Lane’s time in Hollywood.

“I was a single mom. I was 40. And I was in a town that doesn’t like women over the age of 40. This was my head space: I don’t think anything’s going to happen for me because I’m infinitely recognizable from this show that was on for a long time. They don’t want to hire you for a while because everyone knows you as C.C. And I knew I was going to be feeling all those negative things women are made to feel, in Los Angeles especially. So I got the hell out of Dodge.” She moved back to Texas and started teaching at the university level, where she is currently an associate professor in the department of theater and dance at Texas State.

“To be real with you, if I had known, just stick it out and you’ll get a ‘Designing Women,’ or you’ll get a film, I would have stayed. But that wasn’t what I saw ahead and I just didn’t think I could fight all those forces. So I didn’t. I left. It was a really scary decision. I wouldn’t say I regret it. I just felt that too many forces were stacked against me and that would break my heart. I’ve had a whole second career, out of necessity really, and I still do loads of theater. If I’d had just a little more security? I probably would have stayed because it was what I loved. But I’m at an age now where most actresses by this time have had to give up, unless they’re super famous, because there’s not enough work.”

If any TV or film opportunities do arise as a result of the show’s comeback, Lane would be interested. She’s still acting. Up next, she’s performing in “Block Association Project,” a play featured in this year’s Humana Festival of new plays later this month. The premise: A fractious neighborhood block association meets over Zoom. That the play will be performed over Zoom only adds to the verisimilitude.

It’s a funny thing, now that “The Nanny” is returning, this time via streaming. Previously the show was in reruns on Nick at Nite for most of the two decades Lane has spent in academia.

“Kids would come into class and lose their minds and say stuff like, ‘I used to go to bed with you every night.’ And then, for whatever reason, they pulled it and it wasn’t on for five or six years.

“Now that it’s on HBO Max is a whole other kettle of fish. I don’t know what to expect.”

[CosmicCharlie]

Originally Posted by JL82

I think pretty soon CC starts to look much better than Fran - Fran comes across as really ditzy and screws up a lot of what could have been big business opportunities for Max and CC - and she really isn't any nicer than CC or luckier in love, or independent...if anything, CC seems more independent. Yes, CC (apparently) wants Max to fall for her, too (although it sometimes seems to me she really wanted Niles all along, and pretended to be chasing Max, and pretended that grabbing Niles was always an accident, just to torment Niles). But CC struck me as having "more to her" than trying to get a husband - more than any of the other female characters.

CC has a Great Figure BUT it was often hidden the way they dressed her - I find her humor delivery Spot On !

[gatorsteve1]

she was pregnant in real life, they couldn't have CC being pregnant, so they made it like CC was just fat.

[CosmicCharlie]

C.C.

[icecream]

Lauren Lane was the least interesting of the regular cast. Fran, Max, all three kids, and Niles all brought more to the show. Some think Fran and Max getting together was a mistake. No, the coupling mistake was Niles and C.C. getting together, they were better as rivals. Niles had great putdowns of her, no way did he really love C.C.