The Nanny’s Cheeky Butler Spills the Beans
Naughty, but Niles
The Wiles of Niles
15 December 1996, by Rachel Browne (Australia)
The Sun Herald Magazine - NOW
For The Nanny's Daniel Davis, there's nothing more serious than a
room full of people trying to be funny, says Rachel Browne.
About six months ago Daniel Davis was sitting in a restaurant in Johannesburg enjoying a peaceful repast when he was interrupted mid-mouthful.
" Isn't that Niles from The Nanny?" came the question.
There he was alone and thousand's of kilometers from his Los Angeles home having a well earned break when all of a sudden he had company, and lots of it.
Adults, children, men, women, they came from all over the room to tell him how much they love the show in which he plays the mincing butler to a very proper family of blue-blooded Brits living in New York.
"It was at that point I realized just how widespread The Nanny's popularity had grown," he says in a measured baritone from his home in Hollywood, "I mean, I'm only a bit player and dozens of children are asking me for my autograph in Johannesburg, for heavens sake."
Of course it's the nanny, Fran Fine, loud of both voice and wardrobe, who takes center stage - but it's the other half of the hired help who gets all the best lines. If it's acidly sarcastic or laden with camp sexual innuendo, it's probably coming from Niles curled lips.
It's the show's clever combination of slapstick humor and witty sarcasm that makes The Nanny so appealing to a broad audience.
"Most sitcoms in the states are so puerile and are made for children, but adults have told me they love The Nanny for the double entendres and innuendo," Davis says arching his eyebrows.
"It's safe for them to watch as a family because their children don't understand that level of humor, I hope."
Kids respond to Fran because she's like something out of a comic book: the hair, the clothes all way over the top."
"But the adult humor appeals to their parents. The show pushes the envelope in terms of it's sexual content...sometimes even I'm amazed at what gets through the censors."
So that's the secret. It's not as sophisticated as Seinfeld but not as silly as, let's say The Brady Bunch- and, like The Simpson's, it can work up a belly laugh from anyone aged 8 to 80.
With such mass appeal it's not surprising the sitcom has become one of channel 10's only bona fide break-out hits. Even in repeats The Nanny regularly draws more than 600,000 viewers in Sydney out rating the hipper sitcoms such as Friends and Ellen and making executives from rival networks green with envy.
Such is The Nanny's status in the US, the show attracts guest stars of the caliber of Elizabeth Taylor, the closet to royalty Hollywood gets.
Guest stars in the series now being filmed- to air in Australia next year- include Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, Rosie O'Donnell and super vixen Joan Collins.
Davis is clearly a fan of la Collins rhapsodizing about how much he is looking forward to sharing a set with the soap siren.
"Her character is simply wonderful," he sighs.
"She plays the tarty secretary Maxwell father ran off with in an earlier episode. She arrives in New York and she's like a British version of Fran- tight skirt, tottering heels and towering head of hair."
The 47 year old bachelor, who was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas where he studied to become a Shakespearian actor, is clearly much kinder than his TV alter ego, ever ready to cut down the other characters with a well sharpened barb. Even Davis is surprised at how nasty Niles can be.
"Still, I do get all the best lines," he laughs. "I am slightly embarrassed to take credit for my performance on The Nanny because it's the writers who give me wonderful lines to say and things to do.
"My character has the facility of being able to say the things that other people can only think, and he can do it with impunity."
"I've had a long-standing suspicion that the writers use Niles to vent their own frustrations- I am convinced that they couch their venom in his lines.”
And frustrations are many on the set of The Nanny. Making people laugh is very serious business indeed, assures Davis.
"It may look like 22 minutes of people joking and fabulous old time, but it's anything but," he says in an earnest tone." Comedy is an intricate beast. Sometimes jokes miss the mark and we don't know why and that can be rather frustrating so the atmosphere gets, not testy but quite tense.
"The pressure can be unrelenting some days. It's almost axiomatic, you know: there is nothing more serious than a room full of people trying to be funny.
Oddly, for someone seemingly blessed with comic ability, The Nanny is the first sitcom Davis has worked on. He spent the first 20 years of his career working his way up from regional theatre to Broadway where he performed in Amadeus and opposite Katherine Hepburn in Coco.
Considering himself a serious actor, Davis spurned the small screen until he realized TV actors were getting all the good roles on Broadway because they had a higher profile and better marquee value.
Swallowing his pride he moved from New York to LA in 1986 and ended up playing a succession of "heavies" on series such as Cagney and Lacey, La Law and The Equalizer before the script for the pilot episode of The Nanny crossed his desk four years ago.
"I've grown so comfortable with being bitchy and camp, it's hard to imagine playing a tough guy again" he chuckles.
But viewers will see a different side of Niles next year when, in the new series, he is placed in a life-threatening situation.
Without saying too much, this brings him closer to arch enemy C.C and also causes Fran and Maxwell, last seen in a passionate clinch, in the cliffhanger episode, to consider their future.
"But he doesn't go all soft and gooey," Davis assures us of his character." Even when his life is in the balance, he still cant resist a cutting remark."
Which is just the way his fans, from Jannali to Johannesburg, like it.
*Thanks for swapping, Daniela!