When the show was broadcast in the U.K., many viewers wrote in to chide Charles Shaughnessy over his "imitation" English accent, and suggested he practice with co-star Daniel Davis on how to do a proper English accent. The cast found this quite amusing, as Shaughnessy is a native Englishman, born in London while Davis is an American, born in Arkansas. In a nod to this funny situation, an episode in the final season, has Niles appearing in Grace's (Madeline Zima's) school play of Cleopatra, where he receives bad reviews, one of which, is how his English accent sounds fake.
To cover Lauren Lane's absence during the end of her pregnancy, a storyline was introduced featuring C.C. being sent to a sanitarium.
During the show's fifth season run, Lauren Lane and Rachel Chagall became pregnant. But unlike other sitcoms that hid their pregnant actresses behind props, or had them sitting all the time, producers of this show made no attempt to hide or explain the growing bellies, except for one episode where C.C. makes a reference to Elaine on Seinfeld (1989) being hidden by props when she became pregnant, and she is jokingly hiding herself with props.
Daniel Davis was up against Roddy McDowall for the role of Niles the butler. He thought he didn't stand a chance but, Davis said, Fran Drescher called him up to tell him he had the part because, otherwise, "it would have been the Roddy show, and this is the Fran Drescher show", she told him.
When the show was still being developed, the Sheffield family only consisted of two children: Brighton and Grace. The networked wanted there to be an older daughter, for whom Fran could become a mentor, so the character of Maggie was created.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
