Renee Taylor as ‘The Nanny’ turns 30: ‘It was like a real family’

nypost.com:

Taylor, 90, told The Post. “They wanted someone who was Episcopalian; they wanted Sheila MacRae to be the Jewish mother. Those were in the days when they didn’t want Jews to play Jews.”But Drescher and series co-creator/showrunner Peter Marc Jacobson — her then-husband — were big fans of Taylor and her husband, actor Joe Bologna, who often worked together and who snared a 1970 Best Screenplay Oscar nomination for “Lovers and Other Strangers.”“Fran had seen my [1971] movie, ‘Made for Each Other,’ with me and Joe,” she said. “She and Peter were fans from when they were in high school and they used to call themselves ‘Renee and Joe.’ Fran said to me, ‘Renee, someday you’re going to play my mother.'”(“The Nanny” characters Sylvia and Mort Fine were based on Drescher’s real-life parents.

Steve Lawrence played Mort Fine; Drescher played Sylvia in flashbacks early in the series.)When CBS made it known that it wanted MacRae for the role of Sylvia, Drescher took matters into her own hands.“She said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do,'” Taylor said. “‘We’ll bring you on the show as a guest [star] and let’s just say, ‘Hey, she might be good as the mother!’ And that’s exactly what happened.