It’s sporty, but it’s possible, as the author of this article himself knows: only now through July 31, 2023, all six seasons of the cult sitcom”the babysitterAvailable with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. So it’s high time to invite Nanny Fran (Fran Drescher) and the Sheffield family back to their home.
Most likely no one will see the series for the first time – “The Nanny” is, of course, anything but an insider tip. But for many, including myself, it’s just one of the ultimate so consolation series, and therefore is Prime Video’s disappearance so bitter – especially since “The Nanny” is rarely available on DVD anymore (seasons 1-3 are sometimes used), and it was never released on Blu-ray!
Watching “The Nanny” is always a good idea. I’ve seen all episodes so many times that I can relate to them – and yes, in the German version, even though I usually watch movies and series in OV. Amazon Prime Video really only offers the episodes in German synchro, but maybe that’s exactly what makes “The Nanny” even more of a feel-good factor for me:
Nanny Fran has the voice of Bibi Blocksberg
Eventually will Fran Fine voiced in the German version by Susanna Bonaséwicz, the unmistakable voice of Bibi Blocksberg from the radio plays. It doesn’t get more homely: This is where the funny, often clever, and always happy ending stories come together about the shrill New York nanny with the voice that shaped many of us’s childhoods (and which many adults still fall asleep to – which should prove the comfort).
In fact, I almost fell off my chair when I listened to the original version of “The Nanny” on YouTube at one point. Because I’ve always only known the series in German, of course from my childhood on television, where it was shown on RTL on weekends, I somehow never felt the need to watch it in English – and when I did, it became a lot clearer to me why the irritability of Fran’s voice is one of the many running gags in the series. The German synchro, on the other hand, is buttery smooth!
“The Nanny”: Strike in the series – and with Fran Drescher
Fran, i.e. her actress Fran Drescher, is currently raising her voice in a completely different place. And that’s why “The Nanny” has been flooded on social media in recent weeks, especially the season 2 episode “The Strike”.
While the nanny refuses to break a theater staff picket line in the 1990s sitcom, sparking a scandal for her boss Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy), Fran Drescher is the face of the current Hollywood actors’ strike.
As president of the SAG-AFTRA union, a few days ago, when talks between the actors’ association and the studios failed, she held a fiery speech that went viral. In it she denounced, among other things, that actors were “marginalised, disrespected and treated shamefully”.
So while Fran Drescher is more active than ever there, “Die Nanny” on Amazon Prime Video (for now) takes her hat off. Hopefully not for long. Because when nothing works for me, “The Nanny” always works. She just kept me company with a plate of delicious comforting pasta after seeing Christopher Nolan’s massive drama “Oppenheimer” in the cinema. The nanny simply has a solution ready for every problem. But unfortunately not due to the fact that the German version of “Die Nanny” simply does not exist as a complete box and I have to wait for it to be available for streaming again!