Proudly running the Sheffield household is the butler, Niles (Daniel Davis), who watches all events with a bemused eye and levels problems with his quick wit. It is a situation of blue collar meets blue blood, as Fran gives the prim-and-proper Maxwell and his children a dose of 'Queens logic', helping them to become a healthy, happy family. Fran, with her nontraditional nurturing style and no-nonsense honesty, soon becomes a favorite with the kids as well as Maxwell, as they come to respect her opinions and love her as a person. Fran has just been fired from her job as a bridal consultant by her ex-fiancé, Danny, and Maxwell mistakenly believes that she has been sent by a nanny agency and quickly hires her to be nanny to his three kids. Fran appears at the doorstep of a wealthy widowed Englishman, Broadway theatrical producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy), while selling cosmetics. The Nanny is primarily based upon the story of nasal-voiced Fran Fine (played by Fran Drescher) who is from Flushing, Queens.
