Fran Drescher on being a showrunner for the American sitcom

On November 18, 1999, Fran Drescher sat down with director Pamela Mason Wagner to discuss how she consulted Lucille Ball’s playbook for showrunner-stars in the American sitcom while creating “The Nanny.” Interview conducted for Lucille Ball: Finding Lucy.

Chapters:

00:00 Finding inspiration through the success of Desilu productions
01:43 Constructing the “The Nanny” as platform to reach a wider American audience
03:09 Reversing the “Clown and Straight Man” dynamic in a traditional sitcom
05:52 Translating the archetypal 1950s domestic relationship for a modern audience
08:57 Lucy and Fran Fine using subversion to assert agency in their domestic partnerships
13:34 On grounding their characters’ flaws in their humanity and compassionate lightheartedness
18:08 The importance of incorporating glamour into domesticity
19:34 Placing a priority on the conflicts and contradictions and heart inherent to being human

The American Masters Digital Archive includes over 1,000 hours of never-before-seen, raw interviews: a treasure trove of the movers and shakers of American culture, including Maya Angelou, Patti Smith, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Matthew Broderick, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Dionne Warwick, Lee Grant, Sidney Lumet, Betty White and many others.

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