Filmed July 1970
NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR was the last of the sitcom series that I committed to after being fired on STAR TREK’s THE THOLIAN WEB. Produced by my close friend, Charles FitzSimons, I’m sure I would have directed for the series even without the STAR TREK incident. I directed my first NANNY episode in July, 1970, immediately after directing my first episode of THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY. Upon completion of the NANNY episode I returned to the same company at Columbia Studios that had produced THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY to direct an hour-long episode of their other new series, THE INTERNS. And then a strange sequence of events occurred. Fred Silverman, head of programming for CBS, the network to air THE INTERNS, did not like the script for the show I was to direct. The studio replied they had no other script available to shoot. If they were unable to film the submitted script, they would have to shut down production. Silverman asked what the shutdown would cost. Their answer: $180,000.00. He agreed to pay them that amount, and so the script was scrapped, I was paid for my undelivered services, and THE INTERNS closed down production for a week. When Charles FitzSimons learned that I was free, he immediately offered me a second assignment on NANNY.
The show about a family with a father but without a mother had been a staple of television since the 50’s. To name a few there had been John Forsythe as a BACHELOR FATHER, Fred MacMurray with MY THREE SONS, Lorne Greene in BONANZA, Andy Griffith in THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, Brian Keith in FAMILY AFFAIR and Bill Bixby in THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE’S FATHER. But like the three strippers in GYPSY who sang, “You gotta have a gimmick,” something had to be added to the format to make it unique. The creators of NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR found a simple solution: Unite the father and his motherless family with a MARY POPPINS clone.
NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR was only the second time I directed on the west Pico Boulevard 20th Century Fox lot. Therefore I never directed for 20th Century Fox when they had the huge backlot on the adjoining property that became Century City. Deprived of the convenience of an adjacent backlot and with the Fox ranch miles away in the far extremes of the Valley, it was ingenious the way they utilized the space on their main lot. Peabody’s house and the boys’ club house were on a section of the lot called Peyton Wharf, a ‘backlot area’ created on the main lot a half dozen years earlier for their successful series, PEYTON PLACE.
The art directors at the studio had carried their ingenuity even further. This script had a one-page scene set in the parking lot of a supermarket. Since there were no other scenes that would have required our going off the lot, leaving the studio to film a one-page scene at a real supermarket could have taken close to half a day. Years earlier on the exterior wall of stage 19, which faced a parking lot, a large generic windowed entrance had been designed and installed. By adding a ‘supermarket’ sign above, grocery signs promoting specials in the windows and shopping carts to the side, that entrance became our grocery store, and we filmed our scene there without having to leave the lot.
NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR had a four-day shooting schedule. That was not generous; it was sensible. The three children (David, Trent and Kim) were very involved in the weekly plots, and there were rules and restrictions regarding child actors. Their workdays were limited to 8 hours, and 3 of those hours had to be spent in a school classroom. Five years later I was directing episodes of THE FAMILY HOLVAK at Universal. That hour-long show, another series with children heavily involved in the weekly plots, only had a six-day shooting schedule. Midway through the eight episodes they filmed before being cancelled, and when I was directing the second of my assignments, Eddie Dodds, the assistant director, told me he had been summoned to the ‘black tower’. All of the shows had been running into a seventh day and the suits wanted to know why. Eddie explained the restrictions regarding filming with children. He explained that their scripts had the children very heavily involved in the plots and required them to be participants in more scenes than could be filmed in six days. The suits weren’t convinced. Eddie told me he finally said to them, “If Ralph can’t do it in six days, it can’t be done.
I’m sure the inspiration for this episode came from the MGM film, LILI, the charming story of a French gamin and an anti-social puppeteer.
I have to admit, I really liked directing this scene and for several reasons. First I’m sorry this print is so faded. (20th Century Fox, why haven’t you released the three seasons of NANNY on DVD?) Director of photography Fred Gately was a true artist. He painted with light. I remember it took an inordinate amount of time to light the establishing wide shots of the puppeteer’s theatre. I was impressed with the number of spotlights (most of them small instruments) Fred used.
Secondly Juliet and Kim enthusiastically and impressively responded to the puppet show, and Juliet in the final part of the scene became an integral part of the performance. But mostly ventriloquist Paul Winchell! Why is it that the comedians, the clowns, always amaze us when they turn the other cheek, when they bring a tear to the eye of the audience rather than a chuckle from the throat? There have been so many, we shouldn’t be surprised: Jackie Gleason, Fannie Brice, Ed Wynn, Bill Cosby, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, the multi-talented Paul Winchell! The list is endless.
Another question! Why does a scene like that, because of its sentimentality, elicit scorn today from so many? Although I think I could omit the word ‘today’ from that last line. Do you know that three quarters of a century ago the work of one of our greatest directors elicited that same response? The films of Frank Capra were described by many as Capra corn! Why is there that resistance to emotion, the feeling that to be emotional is to be weak? I can only ask the question. I don’t have the answer.
On the Friday during my prep for this show I returned to Columbia studio to direct the musical sequence for THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY I had directed. The production manager of that show, who was also the production manager for THE INTERNS, told me the week after THE INTERNS shutdown when the series resumed production, the episode they filmed was the one Fred Silverman had turned down. He told me no changes had been made in the script!
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