The next time you bemoan the state of TV today...

[23skidoo]

The next time you think today's TV has gone to the dogs, and there's nothing good on anymore, take a look at this: the opening credits to one of the big hit shows of the late 1960s - The Flying Nun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnhgpVb-u5s



I'd heard of this show, of course. But had never actually seen anything of it until I accidentally found it on YouTube.

I'm sure it had a naive charm, and it was the show that made Sally Field a star, so there had to be some appeal to it. Maybe there was some dark story arc about a serial killer (probably played by that Rey fellow) that wasn't reflected in the opening credits. But still ...



Alex

PS. Actually in all fairness, remembering this was 1967 they did do a good job masking the wires. At least, well enough not to show up on low-resolution YouTube. I would imagine a Blu-ray of this would turn it into a trapeze show...

 

[Greg Cox]

I'm sure it had a naive charm, and it was the show that made Sally Field a star, so there had to be some appeal to it. Maybe there was some ...

Didn't GIDGET make Field a star? I think THE FLYING NUN came later.

Although I see your point.

I remember watching THE FLYING NUN as a kid, but mostly because it was on and, hey, she could fly so she was kind of like a superhero . . . .

 

[Mysterion]

the dark secret of The Flying Nun is that Harlan Ellison wrote an episode.

Here's a synopsis of "You Can't Get There From Here":

This episode of The Flying Nun was penned by none other than Harlan Ellison, writing under his familiar nom de plume "Cordwainer Bird." Sr. Bertrille, Carlos, and Carlos' latest girlfriend (Bridget Hanley) are marooned on a deserted island. Drawing upon her Campfire Girl survival training, Sr. Bertrille takes charge of things, driving Carlos crazy with her drill-sergeant demeanor-not to mention her misguided efforts to patch up the shattered relationship between Carlos and his (by now) ex-sweetie. "You Can't Get There From Here" originally aired on April 11, 1968, as the final episode of Flying Nun's first season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

 

[ToddPence]

Is that "The Flying Nun"'s dark secret, or Ellison's?

"The Flying Nun" and "My Mother the Car" were indeed among the silliest and most insipid fare the television of that era had to offer. But being aware of this fact does nothing to alleviate the current state of television. Compared to every reality show ever made, "The Flying Nun" and "My Mother the Car" are "Playhouse 90" and "Naked City".

 

[Greg Cox]

Compared to every reality show ever made, "The Flying Nun" and "My Mother the Car" are "Playhouse 90" and "Naked City".

I don't know. I'd rather watch SURVIVOR or FACE OFF than some of those old sitcoms.

 

[the G-man]

Mad Magazine once commented that every show was a kids' show back in the 60s.

 

[Christopher]

They had "reality shows" in the '60s, they just called them game shows and talent shows and Candid Camera.

 

[the G-man]

They had "reality shows" in the '60s, they just called them game shows and talent shows and Candid Camera.

Excellent point.

 

[Greg Cox]

They had "reality shows" in the '60s, they just called them game shows and talent shows and Candid Camera.

And don't forget Queen for a Day . . . .

Suddenly, American Idol is looking much better.

 

[Harvey]

They had "reality shows" in the '60s, they just called them game shows and talent shows and Candid Camera.

They also had This is Your Life. Although that ended in 1961, so it was more of an institution of the 1950s. Apparently one of the producers of Survivor signed a deal to remake the show a few years ago, but nothing has come of it (yet).

 

[Guy Gardener]

I suppose any attempt to remake This is You Life would confuse all the Gun-shy celebrities who spent four years walking into or running away from Ashton Kutcher's shenanigans.

 

[Australis]

We still have TIYL in Australia, comes round ever 4-5 years.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Mad Magazine once commented that every show was a kids' show back in the 60s.

Apparently, every TV producer was also smoking pot back in the 60s...

 

[Greg Cox]

You can even argue that The Bachelor and its clones are just sexed-up, prime-time variations on The Dating Game . . .

 

[Nerys Myk]

Gimmick SitComs were quite popular in 1960s. Just as arc based dramas are today. Women with magical powers, weird families and fish out of water situations (rich hillbillies, time traveling cavemen/astronauts) ruled the airwaves.

 

[Icemizer]

Ah the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars now that was television. Any chance the Dumont Network might make a return?

 

[Davros]

They had "reality shows" in the '60s, they just called them game shows and talent shows and Candid Camera.

And the news.

But as a kid I loved watching the Flying Nun. Before I started taking real history classes, it was where I had gained most of my knowledge of Catholicism.

 

[Greg Cox]

But as a kid I loved watching the Flying Nun. Before I started taking real history classes, it was where I had gained most of my knowledge of Catholicism.

I picked up most of mine from Dracula!

(My father had to explain to me what the wafers were.)

 

[Christopher]

Gimmick SitComs were quite popular in 1960s. Just as arc based dramas are today. Women with magical powers, weird families and fish out of water situations (rich hillbillies, time traveling cavemen/astronauts) ruled the airwaves.

And it was so much cooler and more creative than the sitcoms of the '90s that were all just variations on family, job, school, or a bunch of friends hanging around. Heck, in the '90s and early '00s, even attempts to do creative sitcoms ended up formulaic -- the live-action The Tick ended up being just a Seinfeld clone where the characters happened to be wearing strange costumes. But there was so much imagination to '60s sitcoms, so many unique situations and innovative approaches. Something like Gilligan's Island has a reputation for silliness and kitsch, but think about it -- there have been a million sitcoms about dad going to work and mom tending the kids, but how many sitcoms have there been about characters from all walks of life thrown together in a mutual struggle for survival far from civilization? Then you've got something like Batman, which I've recently been revisiting on The Hub (now that I have a DVR and can keep up with late-night TV), leading me to discover anew what a truly clever and funny sitcom it was, at least in the first two seasons. And yet it was such a unique format for a sitcom that I didn't even realize it was a sitcom until I was an adult.

Then you've got something like The Monkees, which played with the potentials of the television medium in a way that nobody but Ernie Kovacs had really done before, which practically invented the music video (well, okay, they cribbed it from A Hard Day's Night), and which blurred the line between fiction and reality, show and promotion, by having the band created for the show actually cut albums and go on concert tours (eventually enduring as a full-fledged music group even after the show ended). A really innovative, influential show.

(EDIT: Hold on, why did I say "something like" before every show I mentioned? I mean, my point is pretty much that there was very little else like those shows. I let my rhetoric get away from me a bit.)

 

[Kegg]

TV today is Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men and Dexter.

...I'm in a good place here, is what I'm saying.

And it was so much cooler and more creative than the sitcoms of the '90s that were all just variations on family, job, school, or a bunch of friends hanging around.

A peculiar premise does not equal creativity. What I've seen of those series I wouldn't give them the time of day over an episode of a 1990s sitcom like Frasier or the Simpsons, which were pretty sharply written in their best half-hours. This isn't exactly "Room Service" or "Last Exit to Springfield".