Nanny and the Professor

For the 1972 film, see Nanny and the Professor (film).

Nanny and the Professor
File:Nanny and the Professor.jpg
Genre	Situation comedy
Created by	AJ Carothers Thomas L. Miller
Starring	Juliet Mills Richard Long David Doremus Trent Lehman Kim Richards
Opening theme	"Nanny", written and sung by The Addrisi Brothers
Composer(s)	Charles Fox Arthur Morton
Country of origin	US
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	54
Production
Producer(s)	Charles B. Fitzsimons
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	30 min.
Production company(s)	20th Century Fox Television
Distributor	20th Television
Release
Original network	ABC
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	January 21, 1970 (1970-01-21) – December 27, 1971 (1971-12-27)
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

Nanny and the Professor is an American 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.

Premise

Playing upon the popular successes of Mary Poppins and other magical nannies of literature, this TV series posited another ostensibly magical British nanny taking care of a family in need of direction. Unlike the candid "magicality" of its forebears, this Nanny's paranormal nature was less overt and only implied. The Nanny's young wards, as well as the audience, were left intentionally unsure of the nature of Nanny's "powers," if any.

File:Nanny and the Professor cast 1969.jpg

Nanny and the Everett Family.

The series starred Juliet Mills as Nanny Phoebe Figalilly, Richard Long as Professor Harold Everett, and Elsa Lanchester in the recurring role of 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 nosy neighbor Mrs. Fowler, whose daughter Francine had a crush on Hal. Midway through the brief first season a yellow 1930 Model A Ford, "Arabella," was added to 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.

In 1972/73 two animated adaptations of the series (Nanny and the Professor and Nanny and the Professor and the Phantom of the Circus) aired as part of "The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie". Members of the original cast provided voices for their respective characters.

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, an Old English Sheepdog

The first five named appear in all 54 episodes.

Episode list

Season 1, 1970

1. "Nanny Will Do" (1970-01-21)
2. "The Wiblet Will Get You If You Don't Watch Out" (1970-01-28)
3. "The New Butch" (1970-02-04)
4. "The Scientific Approach" (1970-02-11)
5. "The Astronomers" (1970-02-18)
6. "Spring, Sweet Spring" (1970-02-25)
7. "Nanny on Wheels" (1970-03-04)
8. "Strictly for the Birds" (1970-03-11)
9. "The Tyrannosaurus Tibia" (1970-03-18)
10. "I Think That I Shall Never See a Tree" (1970-03-25)
11. "The Games Families Play" (1970-04-01)
12. "An Element of Risk" (1970-04-08)
13. "The Philosopher's Stone" (1970-04-15)
14. "A Fowl Episode" (1970-04-22)
15. "Nanny and the Smoke-Filled Room" (1970-04-29)

Season 2, 1970–71

1. "The Human Element" (1970-09-25)
2. "The Haunted House" (1970-10-02)
3. "Star Bright" (1970-10-09)
4. "E.S. Putt" (1970-10-16)
5. "Back to Nature" (1970-10-23)
6. "A Letter for Nanny" (1970-10-30)
7. "The Great Broadcast of 1936" (1970-11-06)
8. "The Masculine-Feminine Mystique" (1970-11-13)
9. "The India Queen" (1970-11-20)
10. "The Visitor" (1970-12-04)
11. "My Son, the Sitter" (1970-12-11)
12. "From Butch, with Love" (1970-12-18)
13. "The Humanization of Herbert T. Peabody" (1970-12-25)
14. "A Diller, a Dollar" (1971-01-08)
15. "Separate Rooms" (1971-01-15)
16. "The Human Fly" (1971-01-22)
17. "The Man Who Came to Pasta" (1971-01-29)
18. "The Art of Relationships" (1971-02-05)
19. "The Balloon Ladies" (1971-02-12)
20. "The Prodigy" (1971-02-19)
21. "How Many Candles?" (1971-02-26)
22. "The Unknown Factor" (1971-03-05)
23. "Kid Stuff" (1971-03-12)
24. "The Communication Gap" (1971-03-26)

Season 3, 1971

1. "Oh, What a Tangled Web" (1971-09-13)
2. "The Flower Children" (1971-09-20)
3. "Sunday's Hero" (1971-09-27)
4. "South Sea Island Sweetheart" (1971-10-04)
5. "Aunt Henrietta's Premonition" (1971-10-11)
6. "Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh" (1971-10-18)
7. "Aunt Henrietta and the Jinx" (1971-10-25)
8. "Nanny and Her Witch's Brew" (1971-11-01)
9. "The Conversion of Brother Ben" (1971-11-08)
10. "Aunt Henrietta and the Poltergeist" (1971-11-15)
11. "Professor Pygmalion Plays Golf" (1971-11-22)
12. "The Great Debate" (1971-11-29)
13. "One for the Road" (1971-12-06)
14. "Good-bye, Arabella, Hello" (1971-12-13)
15. "Whatever Happened to Felicity?" (1971-12-27)

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 Mills, 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 Lupino) and Aunt Agatha (portrayed by Marjorie Bennett), 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 Bolger), 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 Lanchester), 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 A 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 (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.

Ratings and cancellation

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.

The first two seasons are presently available for viewing on Hulu, but three episodes of season two are not included. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, which produced the show, has not released the series on DVD.

External links

• Phoebe Figalilly's bio at TV Acres
• Nanny & The Professor Website
• Nanny & The Professor at Hulu
• Nanny & The Professor at IMDb
• Nanny & The Professor YouTube fan video