Fran Fine

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Fran Fine Sheffield
First appearance	Pilot in 1993
Last appearance	The Finale, Part II in 1999
Information
Age	Unrevealed
Occupation	Nanny Shop assistant
Family	Sylvia (mother) Morty Fine (father) Nadine Fine (sister) Neddie Fine (grandmother) Yetta Rosenberg (grandmother) Joe Rosenberg (grandfather) Jack Norman (uncle) Rose Norman (aunt)
Relationships	Maxwell Sheffield
Children	Eve Katherine Sheffield Jonah Samuel Sheffield Margaret Sheffield Brighton Sheffield Grace Sheffield
Portrayed by	Fran Drescher
Created by	Fran Drescher

Francine "Fran" Joy Fine Sheffield (born November 26, 1964 in New York City, New York) was the main character in the 1990s CBS sitcom The Nanny, largely based on and played by actress Fran Drescher.

[edit] Character Information

Fran was the second daughter of Sylvia and Morty Fine and raised in a small apartment in Flushing, Queens in New York City next to her sister Nadine. In her teens Fran and best friend Val Toriello (Rachel Chagall) attended local Hillcrest High School, becoming fellow students with Ray Barone, Heather Biblow, eventually known to become her arch-rival; and late actress Morgan Faulkner (Jane Sibbett). Though being an averaged student, (in fact, she would encounter one of her gym teachers, Miss. Wickavich again), Fran was quite popular at school; throughout her High School years she dated several young men, including Barry Cooperman (her sister Nadine's husband) and her late boyfriend Danny Imperiali.

Upon her graduation Fran attended makeup college while working as a foot model. Later she assisted in Danny's bridal shop in Flushing, until she was kicked out by then-fiancé Imperiali who immediately replaced her with High School rival Heather (Pamela Anderson). Not only did she get Fran's job, but she became his wife, until his death.

Fran began selling "Shades of the Orient" makeup door-to-door to make ends meet, but then Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy), a Broadway producer hired her as the nanny for his three kids, Maggie (Nicholle Tom), Brighton (Benjamin Salisbury), and Gracie (Madeline Zima). This happened after she showed her references, which had been written in lipstick.

Miss Fine was vain and self-conscious about her age; although never revealed, it was assumed that Fran was somewhere in her thirties although she often claimed to be 29 on the show (an accurate calculation would show that because she was 29 turning 30 in the first season, by the end of the sixth and final season, she was 35 going on 36). Fran was always under a lot of pressure to get married, by both her mother and herself.

[edit] Romance

The romantic tension between Maxwell and Fran lasted until the middle of the 5th season when the pair got engaged and after several snaffus got married in the season finale. Until that point, they always addressed each other with proper employer-employee politeness, as "Miss Fine" and "Mr. Sheffield" (both titles were often self-lampooned, whether it was a sarcastic comment about how attractive Mr. Sheffield sounded when he shouted or how Miss Fine pronounced her boss's name, "Mis-tuh Shef-field"). There were several important romantic episodes in their "platonic" relationship, including an occasion where Mr. Sheffield told Miss Fine that he loved her because he thought their plane back to New York was going to crash and then took it back (this event was later referred to as "the Thing" and was constantly held over Mr. Sheffield's head by Miss. Fine or Niles).

By the fifth season, Mr. Sheffield and Miss. Fine had begun a tentative romantic relationship, which consisted of several stolen kisses and a very large milestone: calling each other by their first names. After Mr. Sheffield confessed his love for her a second time (and didn't take it back), he immediately proposed marriage (a move that inadvertently sent C.C. Babcock, who had an obsessive crush on Maxwell and jealous hatred of Fran, to an insane asylum for a short period of time) and they were married in the season 5 finale. Having consummated their relationship on a deserted island during their honeymoon, Fran and Max went through the regular-albeit somewhat unusual-hardships of marriage, such as when Fran was too loud in bed (which lead to Max wondering if he is passionate enough for her, an idea he also debated the night before they were married), when Fran had to meet the parents of Maxwell's late wife, or when Max still referred to Fran as his nanny, during which he feels her full wrath ("A night on the couch sure whipped you into shape!").

Fran and Max also had some difficulties conceiving a child. Their problems stemmed from Fran being too stressed and issues with trying not to have sex when Fran wasn't ovulating (it turned out the couple's appetite for each other was insatiable). They finally welcomed twins, Jonah and Eve (who apparently has her mother's voice), into the Sheffield family during the series finale.

Despite the fact they stopped using each other's last names to address each other when they married, Fran and Max would still switch to their boss/employee roles out of habit. When Max was angry with her, he would shout "Miss Fine!" just as he would in the beginning of the series, usually with a worried Fran replying, "Oh no, I'm Miss Fine again!". The same was true for Fran, who would often call Maxwell "Mr. Sheffield" in bed.

[edit] Trivia

• Fran attended the same high school as Ray Barone (played by Ray Romano), which she affectionately calls "Raymond" in one of the CBS crossover episodes. Ray Barone is the lead character in the hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
• Fran's favorite store is Loehmann's.
• Fran Fine's most prominent trademark, her exceptionally loud and nasal voice, made the character almost legendary, in real life and in the show. Other characters regularly made comments about the sound (i.e. Fran shouts when she gets stuck in an elevator, Maxwell says "that's my wife!", without actually knowing that it was Fran before the familiar sound of her voice). Although many people believe the voice is "fake", it is Fran Drescher's real voice (although she confessed she played it up a little when filming).
• Fran's age has always been treated like a mystery. When asked, Fran always claims that she is twenty-nine years old.
• As seen in a flashback she first saw Mr Sheffield in a talk show.
• Fran lost her virginity to a guy in Israel
• In the first season episode The Gym Teacher, Fran and her ex-nemesis, Coach Stone, look at her yearbook which Fran comments contains "the class of '82". It can therefore be deduced that Fran was born in 1964, graduating at age 18. This coincides with when she celebrated her Thirtieth birthday in the first season episode A Plot for Nanny. It does present a discrepency, though, seeing as Sylvia said that JFK was president when she was born, when he was dead at that point.

The Nanny
Main characters:	Fran Fine | Maxwell Sheffield | Niles | C.C. Babcock | Maggie Sheffield | Brighton Sheffield | Grace Sheffield
Recurring characters:	Sylvia Fine | Yetta Rosenberg | Val Toriello
Episodes:	List of The Nanny episodes
Related:	Dadı