Fran is voiced by Jessica Walter (the Stalker with a Crush in the movie Play Misty For Me, the scheming, alcoholic matriarch Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development, and Archer's mother on Archer).
What Could Have Been: This was originally intended to be a dramatic feature film called The Natural History Project with Warner Bros. set to distribute and Jim Henson directing. However The Land Before Time was released and Henson decided to turn the idea into a sitcom, which CBS greenlighted. It wasn't until Henson's death and CBS putting the show into turnaround that the show got made.