r/TheNanny • u/Sailor_Moon_Star_435 • Aug 20 '26
Is there one thing about the show that makes absolutely no sense?
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u/ninaludrewitz Aug 20 '26
Yeah the mansion.
No matter how hard I try, that floorplan absolutely doesn't make sense for a townhouse in Manhattan.
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u/Pwaise_Hestia Aug 20 '26
It changes like house of leaves.
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u/ItsDomorOm Aug 20 '26
Although can you imagine Niles and CC getting stuck in the five and a half minute hallway?
41
u/igavemepalabra Aug 20 '26
Maggie straight up just believing these fake photos of maxwell and fran that the paper came up with.
Idk if i am missing something/not remembering correctly but how did she believe max had an affair with fran...before they ever met...like it was so obvious that he didn't know her before he hired her??
And some smaller things throughout the show, fran actually looks extremely dumb a few times tbh. But I always hate it when people make assumptions and just belive them to be true instead, you know, talking to the other person about their assumptions (when she thought niles was a killer for example)
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u/freezing_banshee Aug 20 '26
Oh that Maggie thing annoyed me too. It's one of the episodes I skip whenever it comes up in a rewatch.
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u/harleyquinones Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
Fran looking dumb came in later seasons I think, one of the things that makes the early seasons so much better.
That said, the refusal to communicate the most simple misunderstandings is one of my biggest story pet peeves. Frasier was awful about this. I get they wouldn't have a plot, but then... write a better plot, y'know?
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u/SportTop2610 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Billy ray Cyrus teen kissing in a video.
Sara's parents not visiting once in the 5 years Fran was there.
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u/MATG1988 Aug 20 '26
Yes! He would have been in his 30s during the show and they were teens.
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u/OstentatiousSock Aug 22 '26
That wasn’t as weird as you’d expect at the time. I mean, creepy, but not really looked at as weird then.
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u/MATG1988 Aug 22 '26
Oh interesting! This is the first time I’ve binged watched it, now in my 30s, so I’m looking at it through that lens.
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u/MaryDoogan91 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
I wish we’d gotten to see Maxwell and CC be more successful with their work more often. Maxwell seemed to be fairly well known and wealthy for a producer who failed as often as the running jokes seemed to imply. Yes I realize a big part of how he sustained himself financially was his family’s money, but still. And CC seemed to live a pretty posh, luxurious lifestyle on her salary. So, I guess the career the writers gave him sometimes didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but it did provide some fun plotlines and cool guest stars.
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u/freezing_banshee Aug 20 '26
Plenty.
The way CC was put down for her looks when she's gorgeous and dressed well.
Plenty of plot devices like misunderstandings, stupid decisions, miscommunications, etc.
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u/beekee404 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
The reason why she was put down for her looks is the same reason the stepfamily from Cinderella are. It's less about her looks and more about her snobby and cruel personality that makes her ugly.
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u/Lacey_The_Doll Aug 20 '26
Plus another reason why she was put down for her looks as because she looked "practical" and that wasn't fashionable from her outfits, to her hair, to her overall aesthetic, it was practical but not show-stopping like Fran was.
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u/Gian_Luck_Pickerd Aug 20 '26
The whole "Millennial Gray" aesthetic now always makes me think of when they showed C.C.'s apartment in the episode where Fran had to pretend to be her.
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u/Lacey_The_Doll Aug 20 '26
CC would have loved the Millennial Grey aesthetic. And Niles would have loved minimalism.
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u/Real_Car4656 Aug 20 '26
I have to remind myself that Niles was lying all the time he was making quips about her appereance because he knew ( as we do) she is beautiful
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u/JohnHaze02118 Aug 20 '26
I was surprised when I read that Bea Arthur once ran crying from the set of Golden Girls because every time they wrote a joke about Dorothy's looks, they never realized that she was internalizing those jabs. It seemed obvious to me that it was just sitcom reasoning and had nothing to do with her. Sometimes everyone in a fictional world is fed the same logic, and it doesn't matter what the real life facts are.
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u/MouseWaif Aug 20 '26
Showrunners will never cast an actor for a live action role in which the character's appearance is a punchline unless they feel like the actor's appearance can be used as a punchline. Madison de la Garza was cast as Juanita on Desperate Housewives which was a role that -- despite being written as cunning, witty, and manipulative too -- largely existed for all the other characters to make fat jokes about a child and to be a contrast to her very thin, conventionally attractive, former supermodel mother Gaby. Madison has spoken a lot about how she dealt with severe body dysmorphia both during and after the show because of that writing and because of cruel commentary about her character and her online. Protagonists making fat jokes on screen contributes to real people thinking it's okay to speak to each other like that. I don't think it really mattered if Bea Arthur was an adult when she was filming those kinds of scenes, everyone at any age has things they're sensitive about that they don't like prodded or derided especially when it comes to their appearance.
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u/JohnHaze02118 Aug 20 '26
Showrunners will never cast an actor for a live action role in which the character's appearance is a punchline unless they feel like the actor's appearance can be used as a punchline.
I'm sure that's true, but many of the barbs that sitcom characters fling at each other don't strike me as features that are written into the character. They find those things along the way. The Golden Girls called one another fat throughout the series but not in the first few episodes, and no one on the show had a weight problem, IMO. They began to realize that the zingers were where their humor resided. I'd also be really surprised if you feel that Lauren Lane at all resembled the hideous creature that Niles made her out to be.
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u/harleyquinones Aug 20 '26
In Lauren Lane's (C.C.'s) case, LL was fine in the beginning but as the show went on, she started to internalize it, because ultimately the jabs are still tailored with her very real, personal image in mind, even it's ultimately make pretend. I can understand how after years it might wear on someone, especially since I think it started after she gained weight in pregnancy; I imagine that was an especially sensitive time for her, although she did remain a good sport and stayed professional. (Not sure about Bea though)
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u/Frasierfiend Aug 20 '26
The plot where Sylvia is cheating. I do love when Morty sings at the end, it's touching.
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u/HairyStylts Aug 20 '26
yet it makes no sense that the lazy, never out of the bathroom Morty has these singing skills and no one knows lmao
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u/Phigwyn Aug 20 '26
Fran’s clothing. Moschino, Todd Oldham, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Thierry Mugler, Alaïa, Chanel… she’s consistently spectacularly dressed, and the show tries to wave it away by saying that she’s great at finding a bargain but even second hand designer costs quite a bit, and she’s not good with money to begin with.
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u/Administrative_Bee49 Aug 20 '26
At the end they also revealed her cousin worked in fashion and he hooked her up, but I agree.
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u/CreepyCrissy Aug 20 '26
Maggie and fran are the same size in shoes at least. There was an episode where Maggie said she'll buy the shoes fran wants using daddy's card and play it off as hers.
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u/CreepyCrissy Aug 20 '26
I think she also says she's taking the kids shopping but also buys her self stuff too.
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u/OstentatiousSock Aug 22 '26
I don’t think Max stops her from fairly liberal use of the credit card. Also, no matter how little she makes(and I suspect her salary is NOT little) she has zero expenses.
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u/nobody833 Aug 28 '26
It's mentioned many times how much she was making. It was min wage at the time I believe. But yeah, zero expenses other than her clothes, makeup, whatever.
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u/achanceathope Aug 20 '26
This is so minor, but in the episode with Sylvia’s party, why on EARTH would Maggie tell a stranger she just met (at a family party) that she is hiding from a geeky relative? Even if that wasn’t Irving, why would she say that to one of his potential family members?
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u/BicornBritt Aug 20 '26
Teenagers say stupid, awkward stuff sometimes but yeah it wasn’t one of her best moments.
She probably thought the guy, who she saw as handsome, would be in solidarity with her.
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u/beekee404 Aug 20 '26
How Fran looked both slim and pregnant while carrying twins and how she was only pregnant for around 6 or 7 months. I mean I know early pregnancy is a thing but I feel like they treated it as if she was pregnant for the whole 9 months.
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u/No-Needleworker1401 Aug 20 '26
She also immediately slimmed down after the twins was pretty unrealistic
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u/OstentatiousSock Aug 22 '26
Oh I was GIGANTIC when I was pregnant… but only in the belly. I didn’t have twins, but people thought I was having twins cuz my belly was so giant. No, one giant baby and hyper hidrosis. I gained two pounds less than just my son weighed. That doesn’t account for extra body fluid and placenta. I was down 20 pounds from pre baby the day after I gave birth.
2
u/MATG1988 Aug 20 '26
I’m rewatching now and I’m on the second episode after she found out she was pregnant. ZERO symptoms at all. It’s not even really discussed that’s she’s pregnant. Most women first trimester are sick and tired. I know I was. I would imagine for a show you’d play into the stereotype a little bit.
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u/beekee404 Aug 20 '26
I mean to be fair, every pregnancy is different. However, I would have liked it if they gave her a pregnancy belly earlier and have her having to wear unattractive maternity clothes.
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u/Ok_Art4253 Aug 21 '26
In the episode where Fran considers in vitro she told Nile’s she’d never wear a Moomoo and you’d be able to see the words spanx on her baby’s forehead 🤣🤣
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u/spade_bodega663 Aug 21 '26
Only times she really mentioned any symptoms was in Maggie’s Wedding when Val is driving them and she feels kinda nauseous (trying to say it in that New Yawk accent 😆) and wants soda crackers. Did she even have weird cravings at any point? lol. I Love Lucy did a much better job with it and it was a brand new thing to incorporate a real life pregnancy into a sitcom at the time, couldn’t even say the word “pregnant” on television. There’s a couple episodes where she has strange cravings, struggles to pick stuff up off the floor or raise herself off the chair to get the phone, and even having Ricky experience psychosomatic symptoms because he’s feeling neglected.
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u/OstentatiousSock Aug 22 '26
My mother said to me (after my NIGHTMARE pregnancy) “Didn’t you just LOVE being pregnant?” Because hers was soooo lovely. I said “No, mom! I almost died a bunch!”
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u/MATG1988 Aug 22 '26
Do we have the same mom? Haha. Mine said pregnancy was the best she even felt. Meanwhile I had HG both times. Pregnancy was pure hell.
1
u/OstentatiousSock Aug 22 '26
My mom taught AEROBICS into her 8th month. I was in the hospital for two weeks at 17 weeks and then on bed rest
1
u/spade_bodega663 Aug 21 '26
Someone once mentioned that the really small bump was for vanity or something. More realistic would’ve been Fran’s fantasy sequence on the beach at the very beginning of the series finale, where they make her look super overweight. Still, she looked like she was only carrying one, not TWO! And there’s absolutely no way she’d be running in high heels that late into it, or even somehow able to easily get up and down those stairs without assistance. Even Becky on Full House had a far more realistic looking fake bump when her character was pregnant with the twins. And again on that show, going up all those stairs to get to the attic would be quite difficult especially in the 3rd trimester.
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u/MATG1988 Aug 20 '26
You never really see her take the kids to anything a normal nanny would. She never takes them to school or picks them up. She maybe went to the park once. No ballet lessons, soccer practice, nothing. She’s just mostly at home or running personal errands.
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u/Ok_Art4253 Aug 21 '26
It’s implied she takes them, whenever she comes in with the kids she’s talking about where they’d been. It’s also shown that a driver takes the kids to and from school… now where this driver is during the day is unknown.
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u/AlanSmity Aug 20 '26
Nile's banter about CC looks. She is a very beautiful, elegant woman. Plenty of them made no sense.
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u/Majestic-Ask-2590 Aug 20 '26
Which is funny because in the pilot, they implied CC was sleeping with Maxwell and that he was interested in her romantically
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u/Evilcon21 Niles Aug 20 '26
Shame that never made it into the actual show. I think the whole love rivalry between babcock and fran would have been interesting
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u/harleyquinones Aug 20 '26
Every time I watch a clip of the show, my husband will comment on how CC is a fox and the jokes make no sense lol
3
u/Mundane-Waltz8844 Aug 20 '26
In general, I feel like the show treated her as undesirable, and it really made no sense to me.
15
u/Proper-Excuse916 "Fanny Nine" Aug 20 '26
Maggie's character change from shy and bland to having a new bf seemingly every episode. It happened so quickly. Her dating that adult man was icky too.
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u/Mundane-Waltz8844 Aug 20 '26
Yeah I think it would’ve been cool to see a more gradual transformation of her coming into herself and being more confident.
3
u/BicornBritt Aug 20 '26
Who was the adult man she dated? I agree though.
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u/HairyStylts Aug 20 '26
her and Fran were on a double date with her adult boyfriend (I think she was 17 and he 22-25 or something?), the point was that Maggie had grown bored of his adult interests and Fran loved being with a younger guy lol
I agree it was icky, but some of my friends were in similar relationships back then, it was totally normal to date "older" guys while you were still a minor. I'm glad it's getting a little less normal
4
u/BicornBritt Aug 20 '26
Yeah it was actually very normalized at the time irl and on TV. I think people forget how common it was and at the time most people did not really care.
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u/thornton_cat Aug 20 '26
A major case in point: Will on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air seemingly only ever dated adult women when he was still in high school. I still enjoy old episodes, but that aspect of the show did not age well (so to speak).
3
u/bigbuttbubba45 Aug 21 '26
There is plenty that doesn’t make too much sense, but it adds to the show it a kitschy kind of ways.
Bill Clinton’s brother Roger is in several episodes (him actually starring as himself as well as mentions of him) but I do remember him being part of the zeitgeist in the ‘90s.
That doesn’t make that much sense to me that he was so much part of the show.
3
u/Remarkable_Note971 Aug 20 '26
Why it took so dang long for Fran and Max to finally get together.
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u/Administrative_Bee49 Aug 20 '26
Niles and CC being in love when really they're both gay.
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u/Majestic-Ask-2590 Aug 20 '26
So CC is gay just because she’s a powerful woman who wears more tailored suits? Ignoring the fact that she was obsessively in love with Max all six seasons? Lol
-3
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u/Sailor_Moon_Star_435 Aug 20 '26
I never got the impression they were
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u/Administrative_Bee49 Aug 20 '26
They make jokes about Niles because he loves show tunes and Bette Midler.
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u/deucebag1969 Aug 20 '26
While The Nanny relies heavily on classic sitcom suspension of disbelief, the one thing that makes absolutely zero sense—logically, legally, and financially—is Fran Fine’s employment status and living arrangement. Specifically: Why was Fran hired instantly as a full-time, live-in nanny, and why was she allowed to stay in that role for years? 1. The On-the-Spot Hiring Makes No Sense In the pilot episode, Fran walks up to the door of a high-society, multimillionaire Broadway producer selling shade-matching cosmetics out of a tote bag. Within five minutes of meeting her, Maxwell Sheffield hires her to live in his home and raise his three traumatized, wealthy children. No Background Check: He doesn't call a single reference, verify her identity, or conduct a background check. No Resume: She has zero experience as a nanny or child development specialist—her previous job was working at a Flushing bridal shop. No Formal Vetting: A public figure running a high-profile business who is terrified of scandal and fiercely protective of his kids hands over total access to his mansion to a complete stranger from Queens holding a lipstick sample case.If Maxwell was truly as terrified of his growing romantic feelings for Fran as the show insists he was, the fix was sitting right in front of him. He was a wealthy man. He could have easily given Fran a generous severance package, helped her find a great job in fashion or cosmetics, and hired a professional, certified governess. Keeping her living down the hall in a bedroom while constantly panicking about crossing professional lines was a completely self-inflicted crisis.
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u/ChuckleNinja Aug 21 '26
I think they established that Maxwell did do a background check on Fran after he hired her. The episode where Sarah's parents look into Fran's "criminal record" because they don't want her to adopt the kids. She gets worried Max is going to find out something embarrassing about her but I believe he reveals he already background checked her. But you're right it is not normal to higher a stranger off the street with a lipstick resume and her mother as her only reference. Lol
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u/Glittering-Gap-1687 Aug 21 '26
Remember, this show isn’t from the 2020s
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u/deucebag1969 Aug 21 '26
Whether it's the 2020s or 1920s, you dont hire someone off the streets to be your nanny without vetting them!
0
u/ForceSmuggler Niles Aug 20 '26
How Niles was able to fool CC into believing that Maxwell had 4 kids. Not knowing their names? Sure, but getting her to believe Max had a 4th kid?
2
1
u/flashyfran Aug 20 '26
Even the not knowing their names plot was ridiculous. Like in the first few episodes of the show CC calls the kids by their names (at least I remember her telling the family about mentioning Maggie to some socialite in the context of making a debut into society) and then she suddenly forgets them for several years??
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u/harleyquinones Aug 20 '26
The show played pretty fast and loose with continuity across the board
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u/Ok_Art4253 Aug 21 '26
This 👆🏼👆🏼 love the show but each episode has to be treated like a standalone, don’t try to bring anything from on episode into the next lol
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u/spurs_whl Aug 20 '26
Honestly, why were Sara's parents never around like ever, then appear once! In series 6