Classic Television - Prime Time

Nanny and the Professor

Original channel

ABC

Original run

January 21, 1970 – December 27, 1971

Starring

Juliet Mills

Richard Long

David Doremus

Trent Lehman

Kim Richards

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.

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.

.

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. 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.