History Headscratchers / TheNanny

* What is Max's citizenship situation? In one episode, he mentions being taken to the British embassy while he was abroad. Then again, he identifies as a Republican.

** First off, they go to an American school, meaning they already spend most of their time surrounded by American accents. Second, the whole reason the show began was that neither the father nor the butler could really handle raising the children, and needed someone to bring in someone who could do the whole messy "raising kids" business for them, thus they hired Series/TheNanny (plus, she had style, she had flair!). Presumably, the kids have gone through a series of American nannies, and that's where they learned their American accents. Heck, by the later parts of the series, the kids have even started learning to speak YiddishAsASecondLanguage and have adopted some of Fran's other speech patterns.
** Children pick up their speech patterns from their peers, not their parents. I mean, think about it; do ''you'' talk the same way as your parents?
** It's also been shown that Sarah (Maxwell's late wife) was American.
** This troper knows an American couple that live in England. Their little kid has a British accent. Generally, while you can pick up accents from your parents, you'll pick up the accent of the area you grow up in.

How does it come to pass that in several episodes, Sylvia refers to herself, Fran, and Yetta as "Fine women." Wouldn't Fine be her married name? Yetta's last name is Rosenberg so wouldn't they be Rosenberg women?

** Or a 19 year-old wunderkind in 1968 when it opened in the West End. May be a false memory, but he mentioned that his first transatlantic crossing was on the [=QE2=], which didn't make its maiden voyage until 1969; Max probably started in the West End before crossing over.