Living With Fran



Living With Fran was a short-lived Slice of Life series, starring Fran Drescher. It was a Spiritual Successor of sorts to The Nanny, making Drescher's role practically a carbon-copy of her previous one, and even getting Charles Shaughnessy (Maxwell Sheffield) to play Fran's ex-housband.

New elements were also added, like showing the character having to deal with the fact that she is old (probably to match the intended audience age). Also, along with it the character was married to a very young guy, so she had to deal with the fact she was a "Cougar".

This idea of a series being focus on a well-known actor playing a similar role he/she has played before who is now dealing with the third-age-problem, would be later re-used on two series: Cougar Town (Courtney Cox) and Shit My Dad Says (William Shatner). The first one deciding to take a different rout and the second one being canceled on its first season.

Ironically enough, Cougar Town new direction is somehow similar to Living With Fran (a cougar married to a younger guy and a single son).

This series provides examples of:

 * Spiritual Successorish : to The Nanny