Fran Drescher first rose to prominence while starring on the hit CBS sitcom The Nanny, which ran for six seasons between 1993 and 1999. Unfortunately for her, this newfound fame also came with some unwanted attention. Before long, Drescher became the target of a stalker who was harassing her and her family by sending them letters and repeatedly calling them on the phone. The man would reportedly hang around outside Drescher’s house and was even spotted near the CBS compound.
Drescher grew increasingly fearful of what the man might do to her, having been the victim of a violent home invasion in the past. She eventually hired a security firm and consulted with the network about how to handle the situation. Because The Nanny was partially filmed in front of a studio audience, Drescher and the folks at CBS had to find a way to prevent the stalker in question from slipping into the crowd. The solution they settled on was to hire extras to sit in the audience.
Fran Drescher’s Stalker Scare on The Nanny Helped Create Professional Sitcom Laughers
Lisette St. Clair of Central Casting—the oldest casting agency in Hollywood—was tasked with finding and screening upwards of 40 actors for the unprecedented gig. This way, no strangers would be present as the show was being filmed. Anyone with a clean police record was considered suitable, and interviews were conducted over the phone. The reason was so St. Clair could blindly select people with boisterous, infectious laughter.
Though the idea was conceived out of necessity, producers of other shows realized that hiring people this way could bolster audience interaction. Shortly thereafter, St. Clair found herself casting audiences for four different shows a week, with two new jobs being created in the process: laugher-wrangler and pro-laugher. This soon became standard practice in Hollywood, up until single-camera comedies became more popular.
Despite the pay being pretty low, one professional laugher was quoted as saying, “Can you think of anything more wonderful than sitting in a comfortable chair all day long and being amused?”
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