Nanny and the Professor
A British nanny with implied magical abilities cares for a professor's children.
The early 1970s American sitcom Nanny and the Professor was created by AJ Carothers and Thomas L. Miller for 20th Century-Fox Television. ABC broadcast the show from January 21, 1970, to December 27, 1971. Its original working title was Nanny Will Do.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Sitcom
- Creator
- A. J. Carothers; Thomas L. Miller
- Starring
- Juliet Mills
- Richard Long
- David Doremus
- Trent Lehman
- Kim Richards
- Theme music
- George Greeley
- Opening theme
- "Nanny", written and sung by The Addrisi Brothers
- Composer
- Charles Fox
- Arthur Morton
- Sidney Fine
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
Facts from the source article.
Premise
The series taps into the appeal of Mary Poppins and similar literary magical nannies, presenting another seemingly enchanted British nanny who tends to a family needing direction. However, unlike the obvious magic of its predecessors, this nanny’s supernatural qualities are subtle and merely hinted at. The children she cares for, along with the audience, are left deliberately unsure whether she truly possesses any powers at all. Juliet Mills portrays Nanny Phoebe Figalilly, with Richard Long as Professor Harold Everett, and Elsa Lanchester appears in season three as the recurring Aunt Henrietta. Figalilly works as the professor’s housekeeper and nanny to his three children: Hal, the inventive older boy played by David Doremus; Butch, the middle child played by Trent Lehman; and Prudence, the youngest, played by Kim Richards. Nanny seems to have psychic abilities, experiencing frequent flashes that go beyond simple intuition, accompanied by a musical tinkling sound; she often knows who is at the door before the bell rings. There are subtle hints she might be centuries old and not entirely human, which the children suspect after finding a century-old photograph of Nanny’s aunt, who looks identical to her. When going out, Nanny wears a navy blue Inverness cape and a cap resembling a deerstalker, both animated in the show’s opening credits. Midway through the first season, Nanny and the children fix a broken 1930 Model A Ford, which she names Arabella. The car’s radio mysteriously only receives broadcasts from 1930. The series’ location is never specified, though two episodes mention that Professor Everett teaches at the fictional Collier University. After the show ended, two animated adaptations—Nanny and the Professor and Nanny and the Professor and the Phantom of the Circus—aired as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, with all main cast members voicing their characters.
Main cast
Nanny Phoebe Figalilly, played by Juliet Mills, is a young British woman who arrives without warning at the Everett home to care for the Professor’s children. She offers no references, but the Professor gives her the standard six-week trial period. Her behavior initially strikes the family as peculiar, particularly Hal, who labels her a weirdo, yet she quickly wins over the three kids and the Professor. Phoebe insists she is neither psychic nor magical, but she frequently demonstrates an uncanny awareness, signaled by a faint tinkling sound. She can name strangers she has never encountered, talk with animals, and often knows when someone is at the door or on the phone before the bell rings or the phone sounds. Professor Harold Everett, portrayed by Richard Long, is a widower who teaches mathematics at Collier University. His three children are so unruly that he cannot keep a nanny; in the first episode, the family has cycled through five au pairs in under a year before Nanny arrives. Though the Professor soon acknowledges that Nanny does excellent work, his natural skepticism and her lack of references keep him uncertain about her long-term fit. The many improbable events that occur after her arrival clash with his practical mindset. He initially devotes most of his time to work, but Nanny gently encourages him to spend more time with his children. Over the course of the series, hints of a possible romance between Everett and Nanny emerge, though the producers may have reconsidered, as seen in the episode “Chomondeley Featherstonehaugh.” In that story, a man with that name appears and is identified as Phoebe’s longtime fiancé; she tells him she is committed to him but cannot marry because the Everetts need her. Hal, the eldest child, is an intelligent boy who shares his father’s practical and skeptical nature, and they often play chess. He also likes to tinker and invent, though his experiments frequently fail. One of his creations is an early version of what later became known as The Clapper.
Nanny's relatives
The Everett household was frequently visited by Nanny’s eccentric relatives, some of whom she claimed as kin simply because they seemed like everyone’s uncle. Among them was Uncle Alfred, played by John Mills (Juliet Mills’s real father), who captivated the Everett children with tall tales and a human flying act during the episode “The Human Fly.” Then there were Aunt Justine (Ida Lupino) and Aunt Agatha (Marjorie Bennett), two lovable aunts who arrived in a balloon, drawing crowds of reporters, tourists, and Women’s Libbers in “The Balloon Ladies.” Uncle Horace (Ray Bolger), a roguish old charmer fresh from the South Seas, became a sought-after rainmaker during a drought in “South Sea Island Sweetheart.” Aunt Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester), an eccentric grand dame, came to town with her circus and a troubling premonition that a mustachioed stranger would carry off Nanny in “Aunt Henrietta’s Premonition”; she later returned in “Aunt Henrietta and the Jinx” and “Aunt Henrietta and the Poltergeist” to battle superstition and a ghost. Aunt Arabella inspired the nickname of Nanny’s antique 1930 Ford Model A in “Nanny on Wheels.” Nanny also had a lookalike great-aunt, seen only in a photograph, who lived to an old age and was born in October, making her a Libra. At Nanny’s wedding to Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh (pronounced “Chumley Fanshaw”), she discovered a note from her mother tucked inside her great-great-great-grandmother’s wedding gown, advising her to marry only if truly in love. Heeding the note, Nanny called off the ceremony.
Ratings and cancellation
The show debuted as a mid-season addition on ABC on January 21, 1970, and its last episode aired on December 27, 1971. Early popularity came from its Friday night slot, nestled between The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, both targeting young audiences. Its third season saw a ratings drop after ABC moved it to Mondays, where it faced Gunsmoke and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Following cancellation, the series ran in syndication into the mid-1970s. It was among the first programs rerun on FX Network in 1994. It later had a short stint on getTV in May 2016 and a brief appearance on Nick@Nite.
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