The Nanny Wiki
Register
Advertisement
The Nanny Wiki
Yetta Rosenberg
File:8926 184831487094 569537094 4372583 3994065 n.jpg

First Appearance

Smoke Gets in Your Lies

Last Appearance

The Finale Part II

Nicknames

Yetty (Fran) Ma' (Sylvia)

Age

Late 80's, early 90's (at the end), Yetta's age was revealed as 85 before she married Sammy

Occupation

Retired Old Woman

Family/Spouses

Fran Fine Sheffield (granddaughter)<br[[>Maxwell Sheffield]] (grandson-in-law)
Morty Fine (son-in-law)
Nadine Fine Cooperman (granddaughter)
Marsha Rosenberg (granddaughter)
Sheila (granddaughter)
Claudene (granddaughter)
Jonah Samuel Sheffield (great grandson)
Eve Catherine Sheffield (great granddaughter)
Margaret Sheffield (great granddaughter)
Brighton Sheffield (great grandson)
Grace Sheffield (great granddaughter)
Shlomo Rosenberg (first husband)
Sammy Jones (second husband)

Children

Sylvia Fine (daughter)
Jack Rosenberg (son)

Portrayed by

Ann Morgan Guilbert

Yetta Rosenberg Jones or Grandma Yetta was a fictional character on the long-running television sitcom, The Nanny. She was played by actress Ann Morgan Guilbert, a veteran of The Dick van Dyke Show, on which she played their next door neighbor, Millie Helper.

Yetta’s character was based on Fran’s real-life grandmother, who died in 2007. At first, according to Fran’s first book, Enter Whining, the real Yetta didn’t like her character’s portrayal, but one day, she needed a beauty shop appointment with no advance notice, and she got in, simply because she was Yetta, The Nanny’s grandmother. As her own personal fame grew in the neighborhood, whenever Ann played Yetta, so did the real Yetta’s appreciation for her counterpart.

Information

Yetta was the sometimes dippy and frequently forgetful mother of Sylvia Fine and Fran Fine's grandmother. She lived in a retirement home, and was often visiting the Sheffield home where Fran worked as the nanny. She was often seen with a cigarette in her hand and, despite her age, was a voracious smoker. After Fran started working for Maxwell Sheffield, Yetta incorrectly assumed that they were married and that the three kids were Fran’s. This was a result of her senility, and one of the show's running gags was the fact that she always assumed this no matter how many times Fran told her she was not married.

She is quite friends with her son in-law's mother, Nettie Fine, and will constantly argue over something and smoke together. In the episode "The Grandmas" Yetta and Nettie comes for a visit to the Sheffield home, and when Fran opened the door, lots of smoke came in, and when Fran said that they promised not to smoke again, Grandma Nettie replies, “What? It's gonna stunt our growths?”

She, like her daughter, was pleased that Fran had found such rewarding work, after being fired from the bridal shop where she had worked. Yetta truly loved her granddaughter, whom she called "Frannie". Fran called her "Yettie" and the love was mutual. When Fran was giving birth, Yetta and Sylvia joined her at her bedside in a celebration of three generations of “Fine Women”, where she showed her first sign of complete sanity, she said "I can't believe I lived long enough to see you have babies!" That's when Sylvia snarced, and said, "Neither can I". As Fran became part of the Sheffield family, so did Yetta. The widowed Yetta found love with a man named Sammy, and though was engaged, later married him in the show (Sammy was played by Ray Charles). Her first husband, Shlomo (or sometimes referred to as Joe), choked on a chicken bone and died. Besides Sammy and Shlomo, she fell in love with a man named Richard in the episode “Yetta’s Letters.” He is a waiter that works in a ship, which carried immigrants from Romania to Long Island long ago when Yetta was promised to marry Shlomo, who is a furrier.

When Fran, who had finally married Maxwell Sheffield, and her new family moved to California from New York, Yetta went with them. She also gained a great-grandmotherly bond with Maxwell’s three children from his first marriage: Maggie, Brighton, and Gracie. In the last season, she welcomed her biological great grandchildren, Jonah and Eve Sheffield. She had the funny habit of occasionally calling Brighton “Shmule,” as she thought that was his real name.

Advertisement