I binge-watched a good portion of The Nanny on Lifetime syndication during my formative years, and this was a great thowback. I’m pretty sure that sudden musical number is referencing the Grandma Tzeitel dream sequence from Fiddler on the Roof, which just adds another layer of WTF badassery. Amazing job, Lupa, and hooray for the return of Manic Episodes!
I love your new do, Lupa! Very 90’s 😛 And yeha, more Manic episodes! I tell ya, I skipped out on Charmed for it’s hammy wtfuckery, but I did watch every one of your manic episodes on that show. It made it funnier for me 😛 And yeah, the Nanny! I remember watching this in the 90s and trying not to miss an episode, much like Friends. C.C. was my favorite character despite herself >_<
The Sultan episode is where I can see Fran’s omage to Lucille Ball, dancing all crazy with the belly dancers. It reminds me of the Lucy episode where they went to Japan and she and Ethyl are trying to masquerade as geisha’s and have to perform a dance 😛
And as for the Xmas episode with Santa really existing, I saw a cut Lucy episode on vhs that showed Santa disappearing in front of Lucy and the gang. I guess Fran REALLY was paying more omage to Lucille Ball >_<
I also would like to say, I’m so glad you’re still doing your vids. I was upset when I found out you and Phelous were no longer on the channel awesome site, as you both really seemed like the backbone of that show, but I’ll watch you both no matter where you go. Thanks for continuing your reviews and branching out. You videos would always get a huge laugh out of me in some dark areas of my life. Continue having fun with what you’re doing!
I admit, I only go back for the occasional nostalgia critic (I like Malcolm and Tamara). And Sage’s Anime abandon (because he reviews alot of anime I saw in the 90’s). And I would watch Nostalgia Chick but she barely makes anything anymore (yeah I know she has a real job and career going on). Other than that, I do not like any of those new people on CA. Don’t get em. They could be better.
I got tired of Bennet bashing on perfectly good animes & Todd hating on 80s music. ThatJerkWithTheCamera, Nash, Linkara, & Erod I would visit a few times a year to binge watch though.
It’s true, Lindsay hasn’t done a classic Nostolgia Chick in…years? The new people on CA I do like….I can just watch them on Youtube, & everyone else I liked either left or got kicked off.
I don’t like that CA now feels like a business instead of a gathering of friends. The only good thing that’s come of all this is that ‘ll never have to see another Disneyland or Verison commercial from Blip ever again.
I dunno, I did like Bennett’s hashing up of “Devil Hunter Yohko”, a very kooky anime from the 90’s. It is just as insane as he is making it out to be 😛 And I do like his anime reviews because he can be introspective and even thoughtful, but mainly just funny for me. And I agree, it does seem more like a business now. The beginning days of CA were too good to be true, weren’t they?
I admire Nostalgia Chick’s budding film and editing career outside of CA and if she even makes it to the big leagues I can say I saw her first online.
Well, my childhood is pretty much dead now! It was an American show?! There was a Russian show, called “My wanderful nanny”. And APPERANTLY it was a remake of this one. Like… shot for god damn shot. Even the cartoony title bit. I was living in the world of lies the entire time! Allison, you’ve opened my eyes! But seriosly, thanks for another great video. I keep watching yours and Phelan’s videos, and you, guys, always have something wanderful to shine on my day. Keep it up!
Oh, I used to LOVE watching reruns of The Nanny during my summer vacations. I think that I’ve seen about 70% of its episodes. I don’t remember most of these except for Niles trying to kill C.C. and Mr. Sheffield’s dead wife (but I don’t remember the “I sent her” moment).
I never really followed The Nanny, but I certainly remember seeing several episodes back when it ran, I certainly loved some of those ‘interesting’ fashion choices.
Great WTF list, but I have a few things to expand on:
– As someone who really enjoys classic sitcoms, I can tell you Santa being “real” on an otherwise non-fantastical show isn’t that odd. Night Court (one of my all time favorite sitcoms) comes to mind. Just like in The Nanny example…they don’t go blurting out “Hey! Supernatural Santa is real”…they leave you with hints and evidence and shocked cast members…but the implication is pretty blatant, yes.
– Just a quick note on the ghost of Mrs Sheffield, perhaps she “sent” the Nanny because those were her children as well, and she knew that despite her downtown style and lack of sophistication, she was a woman who cared deeply for those kids in her heart? – I know…syrupy but plausible, right?
– If you watch a lot of long running sitcoms, there is absolutely a trend toward WTF in later seasons and the closer you get to the finale. Aside from characters marrying off and enemies becoming friends, you’ll see more dream sequences, cameos, placing characters into popular fictional worlds (Hughlies did Jack and Beanstalk, Mork from Ork visited the Happy Days gang…Robin Hood, )
– Finally, I get where you’re coming from with the Mr Sheffield in arab-face being kind of offensive, but I don’t really think the gay hair dresser or feisty Asian woman stuff is all that offensive. It’s just jokes, and unless they portray those characters as having no other personality traits or redeeming qualities it’s just stupid fun. Now badly written jokes of any kind? – That’s offensive!
I never saw Reba, but I was into Rules of Engagement for the first few seasons. Most of the WTF seemed centered around David Spade’s character…which did Flanderize a little as he got more and more shallow and obnoxious.
Scrubs was a series I passed on, then realized how great it was in syndication. It constantly played with the sitcom format, broke the fourth wall, and blurred the line between narrator’s mind and reality…which often worked quite well.
Always Sunny in Philadelphia I liked, but I got a little tired of because every character was so irredeemably horrible to everyone else…which eventually got boring because you would wonder if say: Mac was gonna screw over Dee – YES! Was Dennis going to embarrass himself – YES! Was Frank going to betray everyone – YES!…and there was nothing to ever contrast that with.
I guess it’s a show that’s good in small doses? (but yes, tons of WTF)
I find those transparent backdoor pilots to be the most ironically amusing things around. Not those ones where a beloved character gets a send-off to a new show, those clumsy and desperate ones where the pilot is basically invading the show.
Then you’d love the last season of The Highlander. Almost every episode is a backdoor pilot where the show’s hero Duncan has a cameo at the beginning and then we meet an old friend of his and their whole supporting cast (friends – I mean friends!) who go off and have an adventure. And the kicker? None of these potential series got picked up.
Great review! The Nanny is such an important part of my childhood, and even though I know all episodes by heart, I still enjoy it very much. That said, yeah, it could get pretty surreal.
Personally, I would have put the brownface episode a bit higher, not just because of the wtf premise and offensiveness, but also because it’s actually one of the few episodes that are important to the plot. Seriously, what the hell? This, of all episodes, is the one where Max decides to take back his taking back?!
I think one “moment” that I would have put on the list is Fran seeing that psychiatrist for her obsession with getting married. My mind still boggles at that weird writing choice. Was it some strange attempt to be self-aware? A response to criticism? Just a way to keep Fran and Max apart for a bit longer while still allowing her to date?
I’m really looking forward to your take on the Christmas episode!
Wait, so Miss Fine is Jewish, right (obviously Fran Dreschler is, but it doesn’t necessarily follow her character is also)? Yet Santa Claus is a Christian figure (Santa Claus = Saint Nicholas), albeit a highly secularised one used to shill anything around Christmas. So The Nanny was saying that “Christianity is right, even if our main character isn’t a Christian”?
while I’m not a fan of The Nanny, I do remember my parents watching this show when I was a kid along with Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. my most favorite sitcom of all time is Married With Children. I fell in love with that show within the past 3 years. I can’t get enough of Al Bundy, his family, & his on going battle with the Darcy’s, his constant life of hell, & fat women buying shoes. my most favorite episode, Damn Bundy’s (Season 11, Episode 20), featured a cameo appearance of Robert Englund as The Devil. I wont spoil the entire episode, but what I can say is that it begins with Al Bundy making a deal with The Devil to sell his soul just to play with the Chicago Bears and take them to the Super Bowl. if you guys and gals have not seen Married With Children, then I highly recommend it to everyone here on this site.
also, speaking of Ray Charles, here’s a classic commercial that I watched as a kid that I still remember to this very day:. from my nostalgia to yours, enjoy everyone. ^-^
I agree. me and my family would quote that commercial all the time. we used to have a vhs tape of Muppets Christmas on it that had a ton of memorable commercials from the 1980’s. one of them I was able to find on youtube of a Toys R Us commercial with 2 kids sleeping on bunk beds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVDMaBH1RWw
unfortunately, while rewinding that tape on one of those rewind devices, the tape snapped off and it couldn’t be repaired.
here’s an example of a commercial I remember as far back as I can remember, and an example of my strong memory. the farthest back my memory goes is when I was 3 years old, and both from the movie The Little Mermaid. I remember being too small to sit in the seats (which was also the very first movie I saw in theaters). the other memory is seeing a McDonald’s Happy Meal commercial with kids in the bathtub playing with bath toys. a few years ago, I tracked this commercial down (once again on youtube), and to my shock & amazement, it’s exactly how I remembered it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmMVK5Rx6NU
if you like, I can make you & Phelous a dvd featuring old commercials on it once I can get my desktop up & running again. ^-^
my oldest tv memory would be watching “Three’s Company” on tv. Maybe because my dad watched it and the only time we got to see late 70’s/early 80’s John Ritter was when our dad had us stay over. The kid commericals and movies always stick out like a sore thumb but I remember hearing the Three’s Company theme song before going to bed as a three/four year old.
I love Married with Children. Seen every episode more than 20 times. I’ve read that several countries had bootleg imitations of the show, I wish I could see those too.
that would be cool to see. yeah, I can’t get enough of Married With Children. to me, my favorite moments of the series is from Seasons 9-11. even for a show from Fox, it’s still one of the best sitcoms I’ve ever seen. Fox also had what I think is the best sketch comedy show of all time which I think is better than SNL, MadTV. I remember watching that show on Saturday night and attempting to record it on vhs. there are too many sketches that I remember and a lot of funny moments from Ms Swan, Stuart, Stan The Java Man, the Spishak commercials, Smith Comma John, Honey Dipper Dan, The Rocket Revengers, The Depressed Persian Toe Truck Man, Tickle Me Emo, Kenny Rogers, and many more. along with Married With Children & Whose Line Is It Anyway? (with Drew Carrey as the host), MadTV is one of my most favorite tv shows I’ve ever seen.
It was sad to see FOX’s decline from a network that had good sitcoms & Saturday Morning Cartoons to a network with the most BS news show ver & absolutely nothing worth watching.
yeah, I completely agree. the only 2 shows that premiered recently that I actually liked were Golan The Insatiable & Bob’s Burgers. Fox used to be such a great channel with amazing shows, but in recent years it has gone down the shitter. (sigh) oh how the mighty have fallen.
This is going to kinda sound strange, weird and awkward but it kinda looked like you were sort of maybe shrinking in this review, maybe cause i’m half a sleep when I watched or the box set was just that big, I dunno know
I’ve never seen a full episode this show (that I can remember), though I have seen parts of episodes when I was younger. To be honest, I was never really a fan of Fran Drescher’s voice or laugh. I always found it kind of nasally and just a wee bit irritating. Though I’m sure she’s a great person in real life.
Fran meets Fran? I think the show just got Phelous levels of meta. Looking forward to the Christmas special review.
Ooh, I used to watch this in highschool. I can almost hear my mom in the hall, groaning every time Fran Drescher laughs. Niles was my favorite. & yeah, she really does dress nice.
Oh man, the CG in Jumanji was bad when it was new. It must look absolutely hilariously cartoonish now. I remember it having an animated spinoff & my friends were debating whether it, Pepper Ann, Wild Thornberries, Rocket Power, or Ed Edd & Eddie had the ugliest character designs.
“Rosie O’Donnell had already been on The Nanny as a separate character, but now apparently her talk show also exists in this universe.” That’s kind alike how TedMcGinley played Norman Jablonsky on an episode of Married with Children before taking the role of Jefferson D’Arcy.
I wasn’t happy with the romance between Niles & C.C. they shoehorned in around the last season. Can’t a man & a woman just hate eachother?
Remember the musical Niles put on to celebrate his pay raise? & he was only making a paltry $6.
The asian salon girl stereotype is the real deal where I live. But half the buildings have Korean & Thai written on them, so it makes sense.
That’s funny CC and Niles wound up shoehorned together. My sister made a joke in the earlier seasons that so called it in advance. She was like “I bet they secretly love each other.” ZING.
Fran and Dan Aykroyd have been friends since the 80’s. Fran and his wife acted in a movie together in 1983. Fran mentions it in the old Season 1 DVD bonus features and they talk about it in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIRcpyiKgmk
Fran’s always had a knack for being in surprisingly star-studded casts, as far back as Saturday Night Fever in the 70’s.
I’ve taken a few days from school and work because I’ve had a bad cold lately, and I spent a lot of that time listening to your Charmed reviews and playing through MGS2 (hi, Phelous!) I like those reviews so much I put them on in the background while I’m doing the dishes, haha. Will we ever see something so in-depth again? 😛
By the way, the scene where the nanny manifests as a singing ghost is straight out of Norman Jewison’s “Fiddler on the Roof.” Check it out:
Can’t wait to see what might be coming up for the Halloween season. I remember some years back at the panel with “Linkara” and “MarzGurl,” there was talk of some franchises being reviewed. If that idea seems a bit on the stale side (probably because that guy Fear Fan seems intent on reviewing every horror movie franchise in the known universe and isn’t half bad), maybe there’s something more original that no one else is attempting… in the anthology format. Maybe TV-oriented. From the 90’s. (On HBO.) (With a famous “dead” guy hosting.) (Lots of big-name celebrities on it.)
But I guess that couldn’t exist because if it did, everyone would have reviewed it already.
Oh my god, I never knew that was Ray Charles for real! That’s amazing, it never even occurred to me. I used to watch the Nanny all the time, they were showing it in an infinite loop of reruns for years on one of my local channels. 😀
Which reminds me, I was wondering whether you would ever consider doing Manic Episodes about The X-Files? It’s my absolute fav show of all times, but it’s nonetheless hilarious to watch a lot of it now.
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I binge-watched a good portion of The Nanny on Lifetime syndication during my formative years, and this was a great thowback. I’m pretty sure that sudden musical number is referencing the Grandma Tzeitel dream sequence from Fiddler on the Roof, which just adds another layer of WTF badassery. Amazing job, Lupa, and hooray for the return of Manic Episodes!
The Nanny was always a show I watched bits and pieces of, but no actual whole episodes.
I love your new do, Lupa! Very 90’s 😛 And yeha, more Manic episodes! I tell ya, I skipped out on Charmed for it’s hammy wtfuckery, but I did watch every one of your manic episodes on that show. It made it funnier for me 😛 And yeah, the Nanny! I remember watching this in the 90s and trying not to miss an episode, much like Friends. C.C. was my favorite character despite herself >_<
The Sultan episode is where I can see Fran’s omage to Lucille Ball, dancing all crazy with the belly dancers. It reminds me of the Lucy episode where they went to Japan and she and Ethyl are trying to masquerade as geisha’s and have to perform a dance 😛
And as for the Xmas episode with Santa really existing, I saw a cut Lucy episode on vhs that showed Santa disappearing in front of Lucy and the gang. I guess Fran REALLY was paying more omage to Lucille Ball >_<
Stayin’ classy, lupa!
The Manic Episodes thing on Charmed was so funny that I must have rewatched the whole thing 5 times.
werent they amazingly funny? I had no idea who the characters were or what they were about before going in but her analysis was hilarious.
I also would like to say, I’m so glad you’re still doing your vids. I was upset when I found out you and Phelous were no longer on the channel awesome site, as you both really seemed like the backbone of that show, but I’ll watch you both no matter where you go. Thanks for continuing your reviews and branching out. You videos would always get a huge laugh out of me in some dark areas of my life. Continue having fun with what you’re doing!
Thanks so much!
You’re very welcome ^_^ Cheers!
I stopped going to CA after they left. I’m like “How can they get rid of their two funniest people?”
I admit, I only go back for the occasional nostalgia critic (I like Malcolm and Tamara). And Sage’s Anime abandon (because he reviews alot of anime I saw in the 90’s). And I would watch Nostalgia Chick but she barely makes anything anymore (yeah I know she has a real job and career going on). Other than that, I do not like any of those new people on CA. Don’t get em. They could be better.
I got tired of Bennet bashing on perfectly good animes & Todd hating on 80s music. ThatJerkWithTheCamera, Nash, Linkara, & Erod I would visit a few times a year to binge watch though.
It’s true, Lindsay hasn’t done a classic Nostolgia Chick in…years? The new people on CA I do like….I can just watch them on Youtube, & everyone else I liked either left or got kicked off.
I don’t like that CA now feels like a business instead of a gathering of friends. The only good thing that’s come of all this is that ‘ll never have to see another Disneyland or Verison commercial from Blip ever again.
I dunno, I did like Bennett’s hashing up of “Devil Hunter Yohko”, a very kooky anime from the 90’s. It is just as insane as he is making it out to be 😛 And I do like his anime reviews because he can be introspective and even thoughtful, but mainly just funny for me. And I agree, it does seem more like a business now. The beginning days of CA were too good to be true, weren’t they?
I admire Nostalgia Chick’s budding film and editing career outside of CA and if she even makes it to the big leagues I can say I saw her first online.
Well, my childhood is pretty much dead now! It was an American show?! There was a Russian show, called “My wanderful nanny”. And APPERANTLY it was a remake of this one. Like… shot for god damn shot. Even the cartoony title bit. I was living in the world of lies the entire time! Allison, you’ve opened my eyes! But seriosly, thanks for another great video. I keep watching yours and Phelan’s videos, and you, guys, always have something wanderful to shine on my day. Keep it up!
Anything else here you recognize? http://www.mtv.com/news/1862275/russian-remakes-american-tv/
Oh, I used to LOVE watching reruns of The Nanny during my summer vacations. I think that I’ve seen about 70% of its episodes. I don’t remember most of these except for Niles trying to kill C.C. and Mr. Sheffield’s dead wife (but I don’t remember the “I sent her” moment).
I never really followed The Nanny, but I certainly remember seeing several episodes back when it ran, I certainly loved some of those ‘interesting’ fashion choices.
Great WTF list, but I have a few things to expand on:
– As someone who really enjoys classic sitcoms, I can tell you Santa being “real” on an otherwise non-fantastical show isn’t that odd. Night Court (one of my all time favorite sitcoms) comes to mind. Just like in The Nanny example…they don’t go blurting out “Hey! Supernatural Santa is real”…they leave you with hints and evidence and shocked cast members…but the implication is pretty blatant, yes.
– Just a quick note on the ghost of Mrs Sheffield, perhaps she “sent” the Nanny because those were her children as well, and she knew that despite her downtown style and lack of sophistication, she was a woman who cared deeply for those kids in her heart? – I know…syrupy but plausible, right?
– If you watch a lot of long running sitcoms, there is absolutely a trend toward WTF in later seasons and the closer you get to the finale. Aside from characters marrying off and enemies becoming friends, you’ll see more dream sequences, cameos, placing characters into popular fictional worlds (Hughlies did Jack and Beanstalk, Mork from Ork visited the Happy Days gang…Robin Hood, )
– Finally, I get where you’re coming from with the Mr Sheffield in arab-face being kind of offensive, but I don’t really think the gay hair dresser or feisty Asian woman stuff is all that offensive. It’s just jokes, and unless they portray those characters as having no other personality traits or redeeming qualities it’s just stupid fun. Now badly written jokes of any kind? – That’s offensive!
Anyway, great vid!
I wish Reba & Rules of Engagement had gotten a little spacey & WTF at times, whereas Scrubs & Always Sunny in Philadelphia practically lived on WTF.
I never saw Reba, but I was into Rules of Engagement for the first few seasons. Most of the WTF seemed centered around David Spade’s character…which did Flanderize a little as he got more and more shallow and obnoxious.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization
Scrubs was a series I passed on, then realized how great it was in syndication. It constantly played with the sitcom format, broke the fourth wall, and blurred the line between narrator’s mind and reality…which often worked quite well.
Always Sunny in Philadelphia I liked, but I got a little tired of because every character was so irredeemably horrible to everyone else…which eventually got boring because you would wonder if say: Mac was gonna screw over Dee – YES! Was Dennis going to embarrass himself – YES! Was Frank going to betray everyone – YES!…and there was nothing to ever contrast that with.
I guess it’s a show that’s good in small doses? (but yes, tons of WTF)
I find those transparent backdoor pilots to be the most ironically amusing things around. Not those ones where a beloved character gets a send-off to a new show, those clumsy and desperate ones where the pilot is basically invading the show.
Then you’d love the last season of The Highlander. Almost every episode is a backdoor pilot where the show’s hero Duncan has a cameo at the beginning and then we meet an old friend of his and their whole supporting cast (friends – I mean friends!) who go off and have an adventure. And the kicker? None of these potential series got picked up.
Great review! The Nanny is such an important part of my childhood, and even though I know all episodes by heart, I still enjoy it very much. That said, yeah, it could get pretty surreal.
Personally, I would have put the brownface episode a bit higher, not just because of the wtf premise and offensiveness, but also because it’s actually one of the few episodes that are important to the plot. Seriously, what the hell? This, of all episodes, is the one where Max decides to take back his taking back?!
I think one “moment” that I would have put on the list is Fran seeing that psychiatrist for her obsession with getting married. My mind still boggles at that weird writing choice. Was it some strange attempt to be self-aware? A response to criticism? Just a way to keep Fran and Max apart for a bit longer while still allowing her to date?
I’m really looking forward to your take on the Christmas episode!
Wait, so Miss Fine is Jewish, right (obviously Fran Dreschler is, but it doesn’t necessarily follow her character is also)? Yet Santa Claus is a Christian figure (Santa Claus = Saint Nicholas), albeit a highly secularised one used to shill anything around Christmas. So The Nanny was saying that “Christianity is right, even if our main character isn’t a Christian”?
Or maybe I’m overthinking this!
I’m legitimately really happy to see M.E. back. I didn’t think you’d ever get back to it ^^
Can’t wait for what you cover next.
while I’m not a fan of The Nanny, I do remember my parents watching this show when I was a kid along with Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. my most favorite sitcom of all time is Married With Children. I fell in love with that show within the past 3 years. I can’t get enough of Al Bundy, his family, & his on going battle with the Darcy’s, his constant life of hell, & fat women buying shoes. my most favorite episode, Damn Bundy’s (Season 11, Episode 20), featured a cameo appearance of Robert Englund as The Devil. I wont spoil the entire episode, but what I can say is that it begins with Al Bundy making a deal with The Devil to sell his soul just to play with the Chicago Bears and take them to the Super Bowl. if you guys and gals have not seen Married With Children, then I highly recommend it to everyone here on this site.
also, speaking of Ray Charles, here’s a classic commercial that I watched as a kid that I still remember to this very day:. from my nostalgia to yours, enjoy everyone. ^-^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNwTg6POFdM
That commercial’s amazing!
I agree. me and my family would quote that commercial all the time. we used to have a vhs tape of Muppets Christmas on it that had a ton of memorable commercials from the 1980’s. one of them I was able to find on youtube of a Toys R Us commercial with 2 kids sleeping on bunk beds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVDMaBH1RWw
unfortunately, while rewinding that tape on one of those rewind devices, the tape snapped off and it couldn’t be repaired.
here’s an example of a commercial I remember as far back as I can remember, and an example of my strong memory. the farthest back my memory goes is when I was 3 years old, and both from the movie The Little Mermaid. I remember being too small to sit in the seats (which was also the very first movie I saw in theaters). the other memory is seeing a McDonald’s Happy Meal commercial with kids in the bathtub playing with bath toys. a few years ago, I tracked this commercial down (once again on youtube), and to my shock & amazement, it’s exactly how I remembered it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmMVK5Rx6NU
if you like, I can make you & Phelous a dvd featuring old commercials on it once I can get my desktop up & running again. ^-^
my oldest tv memory would be watching “Three’s Company” on tv. Maybe because my dad watched it and the only time we got to see late 70’s/early 80’s John Ritter was when our dad had us stay over. The kid commericals and movies always stick out like a sore thumb but I remember hearing the Three’s Company theme song before going to bed as a three/four year old.
I love Married with Children. Seen every episode more than 20 times. I’ve read that several countries had bootleg imitations of the show, I wish I could see those too.
that would be cool to see. yeah, I can’t get enough of Married With Children. to me, my favorite moments of the series is from Seasons 9-11. even for a show from Fox, it’s still one of the best sitcoms I’ve ever seen. Fox also had what I think is the best sketch comedy show of all time which I think is better than SNL, MadTV. I remember watching that show on Saturday night and attempting to record it on vhs. there are too many sketches that I remember and a lot of funny moments from Ms Swan, Stuart, Stan The Java Man, the Spishak commercials, Smith Comma John, Honey Dipper Dan, The Rocket Revengers, The Depressed Persian Toe Truck Man, Tickle Me Emo, Kenny Rogers, and many more. along with Married With Children & Whose Line Is It Anyway? (with Drew Carrey as the host), MadTV is one of my most favorite tv shows I’ve ever seen.
It was sad to see FOX’s decline from a network that had good sitcoms & Saturday Morning Cartoons to a network with the most BS news show ver & absolutely nothing worth watching.
yeah, I completely agree. the only 2 shows that premiered recently that I actually liked were Golan The Insatiable & Bob’s Burgers. Fox used to be such a great channel with amazing shows, but in recent years it has gone down the shitter. (sigh) oh how the mighty have fallen.
This is going to kinda sound strange, weird and awkward but it kinda looked like you were sort of maybe shrinking in this review, maybe cause i’m half a sleep when I watched or the box set was just that big, I dunno know
I’ve never seen a full episode this show (that I can remember), though I have seen parts of episodes when I was younger. To be honest, I was never really a fan of Fran Drescher’s voice or laugh. I always found it kind of nasally and just a wee bit irritating. Though I’m sure she’s a great person in real life.
Fran meets Fran? I think the show just got Phelous levels of meta. Looking forward to the Christmas special review.
Ooh, I used to watch this in highschool. I can almost hear my mom in the hall, groaning every time Fran Drescher laughs. Niles was my favorite. & yeah, she really does dress nice.
Oh man, the CG in Jumanji was bad when it was new. It must look absolutely hilariously cartoonish now. I remember it having an animated spinoff & my friends were debating whether it, Pepper Ann, Wild Thornberries, Rocket Power, or Ed Edd & Eddie had the ugliest character designs.
“Rosie O’Donnell had already been on The Nanny as a separate character, but now apparently her talk show also exists in this universe.” That’s kind alike how TedMcGinley played Norman Jablonsky on an episode of Married with Children before taking the role of Jefferson D’Arcy.
I wasn’t happy with the romance between Niles & C.C. they shoehorned in around the last season. Can’t a man & a woman just hate eachother?
Remember the musical Niles put on to celebrate his pay raise? & he was only making a paltry $6.
The asian salon girl stereotype is the real deal where I live. But half the buildings have Korean & Thai written on them, so it makes sense.
That’s funny CC and Niles wound up shoehorned together. My sister made a joke in the earlier seasons that so called it in advance. She was like “I bet they secretly love each other.” ZING.
Fran and Dan Aykroyd have been friends since the 80’s. Fran and his wife acted in a movie together in 1983. Fran mentions it in the old Season 1 DVD bonus features and they talk about it in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIRcpyiKgmk
Fran’s always had a knack for being in surprisingly star-studded casts, as far back as Saturday Night Fever in the 70’s.
Yaay, Manic Episodes
I’ve taken a few days from school and work because I’ve had a bad cold lately, and I spent a lot of that time listening to your Charmed reviews and playing through MGS2 (hi, Phelous!) I like those reviews so much I put them on in the background while I’m doing the dishes, haha. Will we ever see something so in-depth again? 😛
By the way, the scene where the nanny manifests as a singing ghost is straight out of Norman Jewison’s “Fiddler on the Roof.” Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o2gISJYwQU
(And it’s pronounced “Men-or-ah,” woman!!! Not “manure!”) 😛
Can’t wait to see what might be coming up for the Halloween season. I remember some years back at the panel with “Linkara” and “MarzGurl,” there was talk of some franchises being reviewed. If that idea seems a bit on the stale side (probably because that guy Fear Fan seems intent on reviewing every horror movie franchise in the known universe and isn’t half bad), maybe there’s something more original that no one else is attempting… in the anthology format. Maybe TV-oriented. From the 90’s. (On HBO.) (With a famous “dead” guy hosting.) (Lots of big-name celebrities on it.)
But I guess that couldn’t exist because if it did, everyone would have reviewed it already.
😉
Oh my god, I never knew that was Ray Charles for real! That’s amazing, it never even occurred to me. I used to watch the Nanny all the time, they were showing it in an infinite loop of reruns for years on one of my local channels. 😀
Which reminds me, I was wondering whether you would ever consider doing Manic Episodes about The X-Files? It’s my absolute fav show of all times, but it’s nonetheless hilarious to watch a lot of it now.
Hold on, is that Lauren Tom playing the nail woman in the salon? Weird seeing her in live action roles.