We’ve come a long way, bubby!

For fifty odd years, our people have been blamed/credited with controlling the entertainment industry. Yet, back in the seventies, my comedy act was decried as being ‘too Jewish’. Funny, how other comedians didn’t have that. Freddie Prinze was never accused of being too Hispanic, nor, to my knowledge, was Richard Prior told he was too black. But Brian Corleone was too Jewish? I had to study with a dialectician to lose my Brooklynese accent, and confine my material to meager, generic subjects like my family, and current events, just like twenty thousand other comedians! Had it not been for the fact that I had cut my teeth on so-called “Insult Humor”, I’d have starved!

But in the early nineties, our people finally crashed into prime time! Only ten years after Jackie Mason’s mega-failure with ‘Chicken Soup’, along came one lone pintele Yid who single-handedly made Jews not only acceptable, but cultural Icons. I speak of none other than the incredible Fran Drescher, whose curious combination of unparalleled beauty and a voice that could attract every moose in Canada, a lady who made the cry, “Oooooh, Mistah Sheffield” sound oddly orgasmic.

Drescher’s “The Nanny”, on the surface, was a blatant patchwork combination of “I Love Lucy”, “The Sound of Music”, and “Family Affair”. But with the combination of brilliant casting, flawless writing, and chemistry amongst actors unseen since “All in the Family”, it worked. Oh, and also, the fact that Drescher has baptism of titanium. She brazened her way into becoming a cultural icon, not only among Jews, but throughout all races and faiths. And in doing so, she did for American Jews, what Bill Cosby did for African-Americans ten years earlier. And she did it without gentilizing her character, the Christmas shows notwithstanding.

Now, Ms. Drescher has returned to the small screen in a new sitcom, “Living With Fran”, (suspiciously another nod to Lucille Ball, whose last series was called ‘Life With Lucy”,) and has again applied her genius for knowing what the public wants. In “The Nanny”, she was constantly shlepping in people from the ‘Whatever happened to…” club, like Ann Guilbert, (Before she was ‘Yetta’ she was famous as ‘Millie Helper’ on “The Dick Van Dyke Show”,) Lainie Kazan, (as Sylvia’s sister,) and finally Steve Lawrence as the bewigged ‘Morty’, not to mention dozens of stars of the past. In “Living With Fran”, Drescher brought back as a semi-regular cast member, (Maxwell Sheffield in “The Nanny”,) as her ex husband, the father of her precocious kids. But this time, the forty-something actress has reversed the roles, and Fran has a much younger live-in boyfriend. Whereas, in “The Nanny”,

Her character was decidedly more ‘Yiddish’, in “Living With Fran”, she plays a more contemporary type Jewish woman, less stereotypical, and more confident. The enormous coifed wigs are gone, in deference to her own straight hair, which adds to her unnaturally youthful looks. The only things reminiscent of “The Nanny” are the fact that again, she is dealing with children, and she’s hooked herself another goyishe, but there the similarities end. Drescher has managed to reinvent herself and segue the new, improved version into a slick new show that will appeal to everyone who liked “The Nanny”.

Some have said that Fran Drescher is the new Lucille Ball. Clearly, Drescher was heavily influenced by Lucy. Some of her facial expressions and ‘takes’ are so clearly

Mimicry of Madame Ricardo, it borders on plagiarism. But like everything else she touches, Drescher puts such a fresh new face on it, it seems perfectly natural. The question now is, will the public at large fall in love with the ‘new Fran’? Only time and the ratings will tell. There’s always a good chance that people will be put off because the new Fran is too different from the old one. But at least among Jews, it seems to be working. At my temple, the Rabbi told me that since the new series debuted, (Fridays at 9:30 PST,) attendance has dropped off by almost thirty percent. Coincidence? I think not!

Despite my initial reservations, I find myself in that 30% who play hooky. It takes some time to adjust to the revised version of Fran Drescher, but it’s well worth the effort. It’s too early to predict how well the show will do, or how long it may last. But after “The Nanny”, television without Fran Drescher will be like late night without Johnny Carson. All I can say is, give “Living With Fran” a shot…you may be surprised!

Have a great Halloween, and try to leave some candy for the trick-or-treaters!