The Playwright

The Playwright
Airdate	September 19, 1994
Written by	Lisa Medway
Directed by	Gail Mancuso
Previous Episode	Fran-Lite
Next Episode	Everybody Needs a Bubby

While trying to convince Brighton to take his geeky science partner to the school dance, Fran runs into a guy she went to high school with. She agrees to go out with him, and he proposes to her. When Fran declines, he threats to jump out of the window unless Fran takes his play for Mr. Sheffield to read.

Cast

Main Cast

• Fran Drescher as Fran Fine
• Lauren Lane as C.C. Babcock
• Daniel Davis as Niles
• Charles Shaughnessy as Maxwell Sheffield
• Nicolle Tom as Margaret Sheffield
• Benjamin Salisbury as Brighton Sheffield
• Madeline Zima as Grace Sheffield

Recurring Cast

• Renee Taylor as Sylvia Fine
• Ann Morgan Guilbert as Yetta Rosenberg
• Rachel Chagall as Valerie "Val" Toriello

Guest Cast

• Jay Robinson as Maitre'd
• Bonnie Morgan as Brooke
• Myles Sheridan as Brighton's Friend #1
• Benjamin Smith as Brighton's Friend #2
• Richard King as Jeffery Needleman

Quotes and Trivia

Quotes

(Fran's date, Jeffery, is standing on a window ledge threatening ''to jump)
'Fran: You want a sweet?
Jeffery: Ah, no, no. Gotta watch my weight.
Fran: What's the matter, you afraid you're going to make a bigger hole?!

C.C.: (To Maxwell about her psychiatrist) But I told him you would read it. And I don't want to risk offending him. We're on the verge of a breakthrough.
Niles: Oh good. Maybe he'll find a personality we'd like.

C.C.: (About reading a play by C.C.'s friend) Oh, Maxwell, please, I'm begging you. It will only take a couple of minutes, you don't even have to like it.
Niles: (To Frank) There is a speech she knows by heart.

Fran: Oh, you and Brooke are going to be the cutest couple at the dance.
Brighton: Yeah, but the guys are going to shred me.
Fran: Oh honey, you just remember that you are more mature than they are. You just walk in there, hold your head up high, look them square in the eye and say "So is your mother!"

Brighton: Fran, look at her with those braids. She looks like Alfalfa! And with those allergies, she's always so nasal!
Fran: Hey, a lot of men find that very alluring.

Fran: Niles, do I sound like I'm coming down with a cold?
Niles: Constantly.

Trivia

• Brighton agrees to go to the school dance with Brooke on Friday, then guilts Fran into going out with Jeffrey on Saturday, so why does Brooke pick up Brighton at the end of the episode, after Fran has gone on her date, when the dance was the day before?