Nanny and the Professor
Encyclopedia
Nanny and the Professor is a U.S. fantasy situation comedy
created by AJ Carothers
and Thomas L. Miller for 20th Century Fox Television
. During pre-production, the proposed title was Nanny Will Do. The series first aired as a mid-season replacement on January 21, 1970, on ABC
and was last telecast on December 27, 1971. The series enjoyed initial success due to its Friday night timeslot when it was scheduled between The Brady Bunch
and The Partridge Family
, which were similar shows, aimed largely at young children and pre-teens. Ratings suffered in the third season when ABC moved the series to Monday night opposite Gunsmoke
and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. After it was canceled, the show had a brief run in syndication
.
and Bedknobs and Broomsticks
, and other magical nannies of literature, this TV series posited another ostensibly magical British Nanny taking care of a family in need of direction. However unlike the candid magicality previously mentioned, this Nanny's paranormal nature was much more suggestive and non-committal as to whether she was or was not magical. The Nanny's wards, as well as the audience, were always left with the question of the Nanny's abilities unanswered.
The series starred Juliet Mills as Nanny Phoebe Figalilly, Richard Long
as Professor Harold Everett, and Elsa Lanchester
as Aunt Henrietta. Figalilly was apparently psychic, and had regular flashes of what was often more than intuition; she frequently knew who was ringing the doorbell before the bell even rang. There was the vague suggestion that she may have been at least several hundred years old and more than human, which the children thought they discovered in an episode after they saw a photo of Phoebe that looked like it was taken a century earlier.
Figalilly watched over Professor Everett and his three children: Hal, the intellectual tinkerer, played by David Doremus
, Butch, the middle child, played by Trent Lehman
, and Prudence, the youngest, played by Kim Richards
. Patsy Garrett
had the recurring role of nosey neighbor Mrs. Fowler. Midway through the brief first season, a yellow 1930 Model A
Ford
, "Arabella," joined the series.
In character, Mills sometimes wore a navy blue Inverness cape
and cap that resembled a deerstalker
; the program's opening titles showed animations of both.
).
She seems to know the names of all strangers she meets, and can tell that the phone or doorbell is about to ring.
Each time a bit of "magic" occurs a ding-a-ling sound is made (compare Samantha's nose-twitch sound on Bewitched
).
When something the father has to do interferes with the children's lives, often the phone or doorbell will ring (in conjunction with the ding-a-ling signal), and he will be told that the interference has been cancelled or postponed.
The first five named appear in all 54 episodes.
. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
, which produced the show, has not released the series on DVD.
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
created by AJ Carothers
AJ Carothers
AJ Carothers was an American playwright and television writer, best known for his work with Walt Disney, who was a very close friend. So much so in fact that Carothers gave a eulogy at Disney's funeral. Disney's daughter later spoke at Mr. Carothers' funeral...
and Thomas L. Miller for 20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television is the television production division of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and a production arm of the Fox Broadcasting Company...
. During pre-production, the proposed title was Nanny Will Do. The series first aired as a mid-season replacement on January 21, 1970, on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and was last telecast on December 27, 1971. The series enjoyed initial success due to its Friday night timeslot when it was scheduled between The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch
The Brady Bunch is an American sitcom created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large blended family...
and The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...
, which were similar shows, aimed largely at young children and pre-teens. Ratings suffered in the third season when ABC moved the series to Monday night opposite Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. After it was canceled, the show had a brief run in syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
.
Premise
Playing upon the popular successes of Mary PoppinsMary Poppins (film)
Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
and Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company which combines live action and animation and was released in North America on December 13, 1971...
, and other magical nannies of literature, this TV series posited another ostensibly magical British Nanny taking care of a family in need of direction. However unlike the candid magicality previously mentioned, this Nanny's paranormal nature was much more suggestive and non-committal as to whether she was or was not magical. The Nanny's wards, as well as the audience, were always left with the question of the Nanny's abilities unanswered.
The series starred Juliet Mills as Nanny Phoebe Figalilly, Richard Long
Richard Long (actor)
Richard Long was an American actor better known for his leading roles in several ABC television series, including The Big Valley, Nanny and the Professor and Bourbon Street Beat.-Early life:...
as Professor Harold Everett, and Elsa Lanchester
Elsa Lanchester
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was an English-American character actress with a long career in theatre, film and television....
as Aunt Henrietta. Figalilly was apparently psychic, and had regular flashes of what was often more than intuition; she frequently knew who was ringing the doorbell before the bell even rang. There was the vague suggestion that she may have been at least several hundred years old and more than human, which the children thought they discovered in an episode after they saw a photo of Phoebe that looked like it was taken a century earlier.
Figalilly watched over Professor Everett and his three children: Hal, the intellectual tinkerer, played by David Doremus
David Doremus
David Alan Doremus is a California businessman who as a child actor, primarily between 1970 and 1977, appeared as 12-year-old Hal Everett on ABC's Nanny and the Professor and as the teenager George "G.W." Haines for five years on CBS's The Waltons.According to the story line for Nanny and the...
, Butch, the middle child, played by Trent Lehman
Trent Lehman
Trenton Lawson "Trent" Lehman was an American child actor, best known for his role as Butch Everett on Nanny and the Professor...
, and Prudence, the youngest, played by Kim Richards
Kim Richards
Kimberly "Kim" Richards is an American actress, former child actress, and television personality. She had roles in several Disney movies in the 1970s and later TV shows in the late 1970s and early 80s before returning to the screen with her sister Kyle Richards on Bravo's The Real Housewives of...
. Patsy Garrett
Patsy Garrett
Virginia "Patsy" Garrett is an actress best known for her recurring roles asnosy neighbor Mrs. Florence Fowler on TV's Nanny and the Professor , school secretary Miss Hogarth on Room 222 and as Mary Gruber in the Benji series of motion pictures beginning in 1974.-Career:Active on stage, screen...
had the recurring role of nosey neighbor Mrs. Fowler. Midway through the brief first season, a yellow 1930 Model A
Model A
Model A may refer to:* Ford Model A , a model of car built by the Ford Motor Company* Ford Model A , a model of car built by the Ford Motor Company* One of the letter-series models of Farmall tractors...
Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
, "Arabella," joined the series.
In character, Mills sometimes wore a navy blue Inverness cape
Inverness Cape
Even though a wide variety of coats, overcoats, and rain gear are worn with Highland Dress to deal with inclement weather, the Inverness cape has come to be almost universally adopted for rainy weather by pipe bands the world over, and many other kilt wearers also find it to be the preferable...
and cap that resembled a deerstalker
Deerstalker
A deerstalker is a type of hat that is typically worn in rural areas, often for hunting, especially deer stalking. Because of the hat's popular association with Sherlock Holmes, it is also a stereotypical hat of a detective.-Construction:...
; the program's opening titles showed animations of both.
Paranormal phenomena
The "magical" Nanny shows up unbidden after the single dad's mischievous children have driven away just another housekeeper (as reprised in Nanny McPheeNanny McPhee
Nanny McPhee is a 2005 fantasy film starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth. Thompson also wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books.-Plot:...
).
She seems to know the names of all strangers she meets, and can tell that the phone or doorbell is about to ring.
Each time a bit of "magic" occurs a ding-a-ling sound is made (compare Samantha's nose-twitch sound on Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
).
When something the father has to do interferes with the children's lives, often the phone or doorbell will ring (in conjunction with the ding-a-ling signal), and he will be told that the interference has been cancelled or postponed.
Characters
- Nanny
- Professor Everett
- Hal, 12 ½ years of age, and above average academically
- Butch (nickname for Bentley), in middle school
- Prudence, just entering grade school
- Waldo, the family dog
The first five named appear in all 54 episodes.
The Nanny's relatives
From time to time, some of the Nanny's relatives dropped by the Everett home for a visit. They include:- Uncle Alfred (portrayed by John MillsJohn MillsSir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
, Juliet Mills's father), an eccentric who enthralls the Everett children with his wonderful stories and human flying act in his visit in "The Human Fly."
- Aunt Justine (portrayed by Ida LupinoIda LupinoIda Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
) and Aunt Agatha (portrayed by Marjorie BennettMarjorie BennettMarjorie Bennett was an Australian television and film actress who began her career during the silent film era.-Career:Bennett was born in York, Western Australia; her sister Enid was also an actress...
), two of the Nanny's loveable aunts who draw a mob of reporters, tourists and Flem Libbers when they descend on the Everetts, quite literally, in a balloon in "The Balloon Ladies."
- Uncle Horace (portrayed by Ray BolgerRay BolgerRaymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...
), the Nanny's roguish uncle, an old charmer, just back from the South seas, finds himself in great demand as rainmaker in Nanny's drought-stricken town during his visit in "South Sea Island Sweetheart."
- Aunt Henrietta (portrayed by Elsa LanchesterElsa LanchesterElsa Sullivan Lanchester was an English-American character actress with a long career in theatre, film and television....
), an eccentric grand dame who arrives in town with her circus and a disturbing premonition that the Nanny is about to be carried off by a mustachioed stranger in "Aunt Henrietta's Premonition." She later appeared in "Aunt Henrietta and the Jinx" during a battle between reason and superstition and returned again in "Aunt Henrietta and the Poltergeist" helping to get rid of a ghost.
- Aunt Arabella, the Nanny's aunt and the inspiration for the nickname of the Nanny's antique 1930 Model AModel AModel A may refer to:* Ford Model A , a model of car built by the Ford Motor Company* Ford Model A , a model of car built by the Ford Motor Company* One of the letter-series models of Farmall tractors...
automobile in "Nanny on Wheels."
- The Nanny had a lookalike great-aunt (never seen) who lived to a ripe old age (she was born in October - a Libra).
- During the Nanny's wedding to Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh (the character's name is pronounced "Chumley Fanshaw"), she found a note from her mother tucked in her great-great-great grandmother's wedding gown that told her to only marry if she was truly in love. She took the advice of the note and called off the wedding.
Episodes
Nanny and the Professor first aired during the 1969/1970 television season and was broadcast over three seasons until its cancellation midway through the 1971/1972 season. The first season (consisting of 15 episodes) and the second season (consisting of 24 episodes) are presently available on HuluHulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20th Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and later as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and FoxVideo, Inc....
, which produced the show, has not released the series on DVD.