Ep 4. Material Fran

Material Fran is the fourth episode of the second season of the popular 90s sitcom The Nanny. The episode begins with Fran Fine, the main character, on the phone with her mother back in Queens, complaining about her job as a nanny for the Sheffield family.

Meanwhile, the Sheffield children, Maggie, Brighton and Grace, are all excited for "parent-teacher night," except for Brighton who has been receiving poor grades. Mr. Sheffield, the children's father and Fran's boss, offers to take him to see a tutor, but Brighton refuses.

Fran, however, has an idea to help Brighton improve his grades. She suggests that they hold a mock stock market competition, in which each family member gets $10,000 to invest in real stocks over a period of two weeks. Whoever has the most money at the end of the two weeks wins.

At first, the family is hesitant to participate, but they eventually agree to give it a try. The scene then cuts to the family's living room, where Fran is helping the children choose which stocks to invest in. Maggie chooses Apple, Grace chooses Disney, Brighton chooses Burger King and Mr. Sheffield chooses UPS. Fran, on the other hand, decides to invest in candy.

Over the next two weeks, the family becomes increasingly invested in the competition. They gather around the newspaper every morning to see how their stocks are doing and hold meetings to discuss their strategy. Fran, however, has an advantage over the rest of the family thanks to her connections with the candy industry. She uses this to her advantage to manipulate the stocks in her favor and starts to win the competition.

As the final day approaches, the family is more competitive than ever, and tensions rise. However, it is ultimately revealed that Fran has been cheating all along, using insider information from her friends in the candy industry to manipulate the stock market in her favor.

The family confronts Fran about her cheating, and she admits to her wrongdoings and apologizes. She then decides to give the money she won to Brighton, who has learned the value of hard work and studying after watching Fran cheat her way to victory.

The episode ends with Brighton proudly showing his improved grades to his family and the Sheffields coming to terms with Fran's mistake. The lesson is clear- while winning is important, it is not always worth compromising one's integrity.