Eldergays - tell me about The Flying Nun

Did any of you buy her single "Golden Days"?

It was hardly Gidget.

We loved her! We REALLY did love her! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

I've seen the reruns and Sally's male friend was a gorgeous Latin gentleman. Gorgeous. He died quite young.

It's a silly show. I have a younger brother who has just about always had a crush on Sally Field so I've seen the reruns.

The man at r4 looks 47.

in France she had competition from a secondary character in a comedy, les Gendarmes.

Sal did another sitcom after this one called The Girl with Something Extra. It was on for one season and you can watch it for free on Crackle (app).

[Quote] The Girl with Something Extra.

Did she get Something Extra from Morocco?

Reverend Mother had a twin sister Mae who married into a wealthy Southern family, scheming against her in-laws and getting the not so flattering nickname "Sista Woman". It was because of her that Reverend Mother became a nun.

The show was set at the Convent San Tanco in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The overhead/outdoor footage of this fictitious convent was actually filmed at Serra Retreat in Malibu.

The special effects sucked. No one was fooled.

Special effects all looked crappy in 1968. You can’t blame that on poor Sally.

This show was just a huge let down after Gidget. Ugh! Who wants to watch a sitcom about nuns?! The Trouble With Angels was funny. This was just stupid. They should have renewed Gidget.

Alejandro Rey was one of my early crushes as a toddler. Long, long before I understood what it meant. At the time, I just knew I liked to look at him.

It was a stupid show. And Sally, rightly, hated it.

I remember the difference when she wore the soft habit.

A fun, silly show that came on in syndication afterschool in the 80s. I'm surprised that some network exec didn't put the kibosh on the sexual chemistry between Sister Bertrille and Carlos.

Was the soft habit for the boudoir?

It was about a nun with a crack habit. Lots of anal.

Why did Sally hate it? Was she somehow led astray by the title of the show?

Sally thought it would be about psychedelics.

She was a nun and she flu.

Why didn’t she have sex with the Latino? He was so hot. She had to have gotten all tingly with him.

My father called the show The Flying Nut.

That's what your mother called his cumshots.

I only watched thr reruns for the hot sexy Latino man, dark eyes, dark hair, sexy body, alluring accent. He gave me ideas as a young gay teen, a Latin lover and all that comes with it... ole'!!

^^yeah, Carlos ;-)

The nuns were supposed to be Dominican, but I went to a school with Dominican nuns and they did not have wimples with wings.

But when those winged feminine hygiene pads came out, I thought the Flying Nun would have made a great spokewoman.

I vaguely remember seeing Alejandro Rey in an Alfred Hitchcock tv episode before he was on the Flying Nun. It had something to do with a cemetery and I think his character may have been dead.

I recently saw the pilot for this. It is a blatant rip-off of the Sound of Music.

It’s exactly like The Music Man. But they’re nuns. And one if ‘em flies.

Marge Redmond was wonderfully warm. It was a shock to see her later in Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery. But the bigger shock was to see how Madeleine Sherwood had sold out to do this crap after she had been in the original stage production of The Crucible. I think she was blacklisted so maybe she had slim pickings.

It was a scandal because when she flew she was never wearing any panties.

Wasn't Marge Redmond hated when she replaced in Sweeney Todd? I think she was an upstager.

It was one of those sitcoms set in a place where everyone speaks Spanish, except on the show.

I remember seeing some episodes but I never really understood how/why she could fly.

Did she have a superpower?

Was it her wimple?

Could the other nuns fly?

Could they fly if they wore Sally's wimple?

Could she control her ability to fly, or did a strong gust lift her off the ground?

How did she land?

Why didn't Reverend Mother ever cotton on to the fact that Sister Bertrille and Carlos were fucking?

Alejandro

r3 ah but the moment she said anyone who liked that show was strange, just strange... she lost all of Puerto Rico forced to endure it's replays for decades.

r36 You think she didn't know?

She saw the Sound of Music. She was hoping it would lead somewhere.... girl, was just at a loss to make it happen sooner.

r35 You learn about most of that in the intro.... and in the pilot in more detail, though I think it's not until about the third episode or so that she learns control....

at the start, she's a X-Man just first coming to terms with her powers.

R33 Regarding Marge Redmond, and other stage actors from the 60s like Natalie Schaefer, Tina Louise, Charles Nelson Reilly who ended up on dumb sitcoms. They needed to work. Sitcoms were supposed to be quick money, especially awful pilots that were not expected to be picked up by the networks. The Flying Nun and Gilligan's Island seemed so ridiculous on paper that their agents convinced them it would be one week of work, a great paycheck, then back to the stage. They were shocked, (and annoyed) when the pilots sold and they were locked into contracts. Unfortunately, there were no residuals at that time and most were stuck being typecast when the shows ended. That's why so much bitterness later set in - (especially Tina Louise).

If Tina Louise coulda been, she would a been. And that's show business.

Even as a kid, there were some shows that were simply TOO stupid.

I was a kid when The Flying Nun came out, and it was a big favorite in my house. People forget how "hot" nuns were after The Sound Of Music.

r44 Even before The Sound of Music... the flying penguins always held a magical sway over the audience.

If anything we could say it was more about the celebration of empowered women, free of men, and in positions of recognized public authority. yes, yes, there were limitations to this.... and yes, there were other agendas at play, but they held sway and influence over the public, they were allowed to be strong, independent, women... even free-thinkers and troubleshooters in how they approached the often underprivileged communities in which they served.

Sister Wendy

ATL: You've spoken out about gay marriage. How do you balance what you believe with what you have sworn to uphold?

S W: I believe in loyalty. We should respect our church, but never believe that the church has the last word. The church is saying "this", but I believe that sooner or later "this" will change. "This" is not the mind of our Lord. God is all love. It's a delicate balancing thing. The Church has changed its position over the years, and because the spirit is with the Church, in the end the Church will always get it right. But in the end. The spirit of the Church is the meaning of love, which hasn't yet, perhaps, been fully understood.

R31- That describes my love life- SLIM PICKINGS

Yes R35, it was her wimple (and sit-com aerodynamics). She learned to control direction by tilting her head.

Now that I think about it, given that she was lifted by her wimple her body should have been perpendicular to the ground but they always showed her flying like Superman. Her arms were always to the side though, possibly to avoid a superhero pose.

Did any of you Eldergays have the album? Sally Field singing songs from the show.

I've always love the first few seconds of the opening credits with Sally flying toward the camera over the hills. Very powerful.

The flying was terrible. She looked broken.

Madeline Sherwood had a very bizarre-looking face.

I'm surprise the nuns at San Tanco bought her story of how being under 90 lbs was the reason she could fly and did not consider it the work of the Devil.

Gidget did well enough in reruns that the network wished they could have brought it back, but at least some of the cast had moved on, so they decided they still wanted another vehicle for Field. Given the popularity of The Sound of Music, The Trouble with Angels, etc., someone came up with this, based on a children's book.

Gidget was not exactly Chekov, but Field realized The Flying Nun was fluff and that she needed to get serious about acting if she wanted to be taken seriously and get better roles. Madeline Sherwood acted as a mentor.

Marge Redmond played lots of mothers, neighbors, etc. and did commercials for coffee or some such. I think she started out at Cleveland Playhouse when she was young and then went to Broadway. She was married to Jack Weston who also was a character player, but he had a bigger career. They eventually divorced. His brother was a porn mogul.

[quote] People forget how "hot" nuns were after The Sound Of Music.

They also becamer very "in" thanks to Cheech & Chong

She was very fond of Alejandro Rey. I got the impression that she liked Rey's fiery Argentine temper. He influenced her to be more aggressive with producers and the money she was making. He taught her to stand up for herself. However it is not known if Rey made her so bowlegged that she couldn't stand up.

Don't forget Madeleine's other Tennessee...

r50

r50

r50

Sisters Socko in San Tanco

Dominique-a-nika-nika-nika-be-ma-say-ma-say-ma-lah. Mo-se-me-jah-po-woo

I have The Flying Nun board game...by Milton Bradley! Someone please post a pic of it (I tried, but failed).

I also had a crush on Alejandro Rey and watched it mainly to see him.

I didn't understand the difference between her soft, flowing headdress and the stiff one she used to fly with. It made no sense to me. I asked my sister how they got her fabric to be so stiff, and she just said "starch." That made no sense to me either. Starch was rice, potatoes, noodles, etc.

Nuns have always been popular. The Nun's Story, Nunsense, Agnes of God, Sister Kate, Nuns on the Run, Sister Act, Dead Man Walking, All About My Mother, Doubt...

Dark Habits.

[quote]It was one of those sitcoms set in a place where everyone speaks Spanish, except on the show.

Like the British accents in "Dr. Zhivago."

[quote]r20 Why did Sally hate it? Was she somehow led astray by the title of the show?

She knew it was a stupid show from the moment she read it, and turned it down. She was 20 but an incest survivor, so a bit stunted. Her stepfather/abuser scared her into accepting the job, saying she’d never work again if she didn’t do it.

Working on the mind-numbingly dumb show drove Field to study nightly at the Actors Studio West, where she could do scenes playing real people in real situations.

When the Baroness in "The Sound of Music" told Maria, "I'm sure you'll make an excellent nun," was she trying to get Julie Andrews cast in this show?

I don't have anything new to add about "The flying Nun." But I do have a wildly funny story about Madelyn Sherwood and my friend, Fox Harris. Fox was a madly eccentric actor who practically lived at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in Hollywood. He is best remembered as the mad scientist in "Repo Man." He was doing a play with Sherwood at the Strasburg lab. She played his abusive mother and at the end of the play, he chokes her to death. Madelyn being a method actress kept telling Fox to choke her harder. On opening night Fox choked her the curtains closed and Madelyn didn't get up. When the curtains opened for the actors to take their bow Fox was seen wildly shaking her. He thought he had killed her and leaped into the audience and ran out the back door. Madelyn didn't come anywhere near to dying but Fox did know this and hid out for a week in one of the Gay Bath Houses.

[quote]the Church will always get it right

Bless your heart, Sister Wendy. Stick to your hamburgers, bitch.

Now that's method acting!

Even Mr Ed had a more believable premise. Not to mention a more likeable cast.

[quote]Even as a kid, there were some shows that were simply TOO stupid.

How very DARE you!

I feel she had a limited superpower. Could she get somewhere faster than a car or as horse?

Joanne Woodward tells the story of when Sally came to audition for Sybil. "You mean, The Flying Nun?!"

R50 - Wow that vocal was sure sweetened.

Did Sister Bertrille ride the Convent stair railing reverse cow girl after a visit from dreamy Carlos Ramirez?

What was the San Juan connection?

Was Puerto Rick a big tourist destination back then, trying to replace Cuba?

^^Puerto Rico

I watched Gigdet every day after school for a while in the 80s on a VHF channel. I guess the channel ran out of episodes and it swapped the show out with The Flying Nun. I was completely confused. I watched it thinking it was some kind of one-off dream fantasy sequence of Gidget's and then it came on again and I told my mom I didn't understand what was happening and she laughed hard and told me The Flying Nun is a different show starring Gidget. I didn't get anything about it. She went from surfing to flying, and she wore a floppy airplane hat and what did that have to do with being a nun?

I still remember Moondoggie and talks with Daddy, but the only nunsense thing I remember about the other show is the silly habit.

[quote] I'm surprised that some network exec didn't put the kibosh on the sexual chemistry between Sister Bertrille and Carlos.

The real sexual chemistry happened when Sister Bertrille came to my cot after lights out - that little novice could scissor like nobody's business - she made me multi-orgasmic!

I had to try to persuade the Reverend Mother that it was religious ecstasy from a powerful vision.

Alejandro Rey was SO good looking ☺️In 1967.

By ca. 1987 when he appeared on DALLAS his looks were completely gone. He also looked like he was wearing DENTURES.

^ Yeah, yeah, everybody's a critic...

But the man could give a blow job like you wouldn't believe!

[quote]tell me about The Flying Nun

In 1967, a religious vocation offered the chance to wear cool clothes and live in a single-gender community...

Fun fact: When the series debuted, it was condemned by the Vatican because nuns had long been banned from flying in airplanes on the basis that nuns are meant to be humble servants of God, and to remain grounded and lowly. The show seemed simpleminded but it helped to nudge the Catholic church along a little bit to give nuns a little more freedom.

And that accompanying tampon commercial “Who Needs Wings To Fly?”

Don't know why, but American culture seemed to have this fascination with Roman Catholic religious orders from about 1940's through maybe good part of 1970's.

Everywhere you turned it seemed there was some film or television show about nuns, sisters, priests, etc... One would think with the whole counter culture movement of 1960's there wouldn't be such a huge market for such films or whatever, but obviously there was still money to be made.

The Flying Nun came in on tale end of that whole thing IMHO. On another front Vatican II was shaking up the RC church including holy orders.

Getting last licks in was "Change of Habit" starring Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore.

Alejandro Rey was still hot when he guest starred on an episode of Canon.

OTOH fellow co-star Tab Hunter looked awfully tired and worn.

I liked Gidget better.

R91 = Larue

Madeleine Sherwood was a pretty amazing actress. Her face was unusual but very expressive. I really liked her performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and in Sweet Bird of Youth.

R89 The viewing audience didn't create the entertainment they watched. Maybe the shows and movies involving Catholicism was influenced by the marketing interests of the Catholic church. I remember hearing in the 90s and 00s that the church considered itself to be in a crisis state as it was bleeding members and young people no longer were automatically participating just because they had been brought up in the Catholic faith community. I recall a lot being said in print and broadcast media about the Vatican considering loosening up on its dogma to secure ongoing membership from progressive younger people.

I know a Catholic woman in her 60s who is such a mess of contradictions. She was raised Catholic. Her mother was brought up in a Catholic orphanage and hated nuns because hers were abusive and uncaring. Nevertheless, my friend was sent to Catholic schools and she in turn sent her son and daughter to Catholic schools. She was always afraid that her son would be molested or raped and she told him to tell her immediately if he was so that she could take action. (We debated this insane logic A LOT. She couldn't think rationally about it.) She personally left her children's church to attend mass at another church in 2015 because she said the priest who lectured (I'm not Catholic and don't know the terms...gave sermon?) on Sundays was racist and homophobic and seemed to be a Trump supporter. But she left her kids in that community and her daughter complained about the ultra-conservative environment.

Her kids went to college. Her son has had psychiatric problems since adolescence, including hearing the voice of God speaking to him and extreme OCD, and he remains devout.

Her daughter is pretty condemning of the Catholic church overall and she doesn't participate at all. She has several friends from school who are gay or transgender and most of their parents are in varying degrees of denial about it, and that makes their emotional lives hard.

My friend told me a few months ago that she stopped attending mass last year because she feels like although the Catholic church does good and helps people in her community, she can't live with supporting a church that has done so much bad in the world, and it seems like the deal breaker was reading studies that show a lot of Catholic people support Donald Trump.

It seems pretty weird to me that generations of this (to me very strange) Catholic culture persisted in her lofe despite racism, sexism, homophobia, preaching hatred, and the deal breaker was political. I have a feeling she will go back to it.

I don't understand the hold the Catholic church has on people, but my ancestors were Irish Catholic and the Catholic guilt has persisted among my family culture even with the faith part dissolving altogether.

I haven't read about the membership crisis in the Catholic church for a long time. Is it still a thing? Did young people drift back into the church as 'born agains' because of familiarity and comfort with the culture or did the church just give up and accept it's going to keep losing people?

And then, Mother Superior would go to the stain glass window, remembering her own youthful thoughts of dick, and belt out a roaring rendition of 🎶 “Mount Every Bannister”

Patti LuPone at r63!

I read a Sally Field biography years ago and the only thing I remember from it is that she and Alejandro Rey were best friends while making that show. They ate lunch every single day together and were really in each others lives.

After the show ended she never saw or talked to him again (at least at the writing of that book). It seemed to indicate that she cut him off, but who knows. It turned out it was just a work relationship, and nothing more.

The casting of Madeleine Sherwood as Mae in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was perfection.

R84

Alejandro Rey died in 1987 of lung cancer. It thus wouldn't be surprising he didn't look at all well his last months on this earth.

R89 Oh, the fascination continued beyond the 70s. Think Sister Act(s) and Doubt, to name just a few.

But it is true that where a plot revolves around a religious figure, nine times out of ten it's a Roman Catholic figure. Like other religions don't exist.

R100 We have no idea what you are talking about. Only 22 percent of Americans are Catholic. We have no power here! Look away!!

R87: The Flying Nun had a credit mentioning cooperation with the Catholic TV & Film Office (successor to the Legion of Decency, I believe).

Oprah Talks to Sally Field about TFN.

[quote]Marge Redmond played lots of mothers, neighbors, etc.

Bitch tried to pass off "Cool Whip" as real whipped cream.

Reese could do The Marge Redmond Story.

[quote]Reese could do The Marge Redmond Story.

With the song "You Can't [cool] Whip Me."

Whip It - Devo ft. Marge Redmond.

Alejandro Rey was very funny on that show. At least to this little kid at the time. This show was super-popular with kids.

I always pretty much liked Sally Field until she co-hosted The Essentials on TCM with Robert Osborne. Her takes on some great classic film actors and classic films were kind of weird. And I just didn't like her a lot.

Elaborate, r109.

R110 I don't remember specifics. So I'm going by memory. I think maybe it was Now, Voyager, where she said Bette Davis was overacting, or over the top, or something. Really implying she was hammy, and I disagree strongly with that. She often put down classic film acting styles. She seemed somewhat ignorant of classic film, she had some comments about Garbo that showed she didn't know much, was critical of the acting in The Picture Of Dorian Gray, etc.

Here's a discussion I found on the TCM message boards:

One of the comments:

[quote]On today's "Essentials" Sally Field and Robert Osborne introduced "Now, Voyager". One of the greatest films ever made starring one of the greatest actresses ever in film, Bette Davis. Mr. Osborne asked Ms. Field her opinion of Bette Davis as an actress. She gave a rambling response indicating her feeling that the general film acting style of the 40's was "big", and by that, she quite obviously meant "bad". She further included Bette Davis in this opinion. In the condescending way Field expressed it, she might just as well have called Bette Davis a "ham". If Ms. Field wants to discuss "acting styles" we might begin with her jarringly out of step performance in the awful "Beyond The Poseidon Adventure". Through the entire film Ms. Field seems to be under the misconception that she is appearing in a comedy. We even get a scene of her patented "cute cry". There are numerous other of Ms. Field's films that I could bring up along this line. Yes, she has two Academy Awards for Best Actress, but so does Bette Davis. If you want to hold them up as equals, simply try to imagine Field attempting the range of roles that Davis excelled in. The horror of that should be self-evident. I have lost a great deal of respect for Ms. Field.

And no, I never was on TCM messgae boards and didn't write this. lol

I wonder what she thought of Angie's Salome Otterbourne (sp?).

She's not very well educated and I never got the impression that she was much of an autodidact about anything, so it wouldn't surpise me if she was superficial as a co-host.

Well, Bette's acting was "big" and rather hammy. I watched an interview of hers recently—she was in her 50s—and she said she didn't care for this 'realistic style' acting. She said acting shouldn't be confusable with reality; it should be heightened and it should thrill the audience. Real life is boring and we live it every day, she said, and audiences want something bigger than that.

It's a difference of opinion. By the time Field came along, that style of acting was no longer being practiced by actors her age and younger. Most young people are pretty condescending about the ways older people do things. They don't understand that 'different' isn't the same as 'inferior.'

Fanny really should have been someone like Vivien Leigh.

R116 Well the movie wasn't Mr. Skeffington, it was Now, Voyager.

Sally Field isn't a younger person, she's 75, she was 70 on that season of The Essentials, R115. It was not strictly her opinion that was objectionable, it was her ignorance of classic film and the dismissive attitude. And you really don't want a co-host of The Essentials, presenting the best of classic film on a classic film network, to be ignorant of the subject or kind of blandly critical. Anyhow, how can you claim (as she did) to like a film, but not the lead actress's performance at the center of the film? Bette Davis really is the whole film. And lastly, she was a much better actress than Sally Field and Field herself is more than a little hammy at times.

Always surprised me that the star of two very silly (mediocre) sitcoms became a successful film star.

Wasn't Julianne Moore a soap actress?

You don't like her, R118?

You really don't like her?

R119 Yes, and many others.

And Leo DiCaprio and Neil Patrick Harris also started out in silly sitcoms. Even Janet Jackson did.

R121 Not to mention Tom Hanks. And Ronnie/Ron Howard (director).

Madeline Sherwood did soaps, too. It's funny that Field grew-up around show business (granted it was "working show business" not the big stuff), but it was only after she was in her second sitcom (and one she hated) that anyone seemed to suggest learning her craft. I wonder what Redmond thought---she was a fireman's daughter who came up through regional repertory theater in Cleveland and then went to Broadway (around the same time as Sherwood)---she must have found it odd that someone could just be a star of a show and yet be so unschooled. Even as a kid, it was obvious that Sherwood as the stern reverend mother and Redmond as the warm and maternal second in command were the anchors of the show, even if Field was the star.

R87: Nuns were leaving their cloisters even before "The Flying Nun". The Vatican encourage it.

Child performers are often coached, like seals. That's why they're often terrible in adulthood. If a child is working, it's hardly surprising that they're not told to study on top of it.

Didn't Madeline Sherwood play fourth fiddle to Elizabeth Taylor?

Stardom is about bone structure.

R125: Burl Ives kept talking about her non-neck monsters. Jack carson also was evry good in that film. he was always n underrated actor who was great in supporting parts.

I hate when people look down at soaps/sitcoms etc. The Flying Nun was a nice little show that lasted three seasons. It wasn't Shakespeare, but I enjoyed it.

Was "Not Without My Daughter" any better than "The Flying Nun"?

Sally was good on The Flying Nun. It was the era of those bizarre shows. Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, My Mother The Car. The Flying Nun could have been a good show about a young nun without her having the ability to fly, but it needed the gimmick to make it. It was a weird sitcom premise - a postulant American nun in Puerto Rico.

Was there ever a Flying Nun Singing Nun crossover.

She could fly.

Sexy actor Alejandro Rey (1930-1987) from Buenos Aires played casino owner and playboy Carlos Ramirez. Sister Betrille was always asking Carlos for favors.

The Flying Nun ran on ABC from September 7, 1967, to April 3, 1970, producing 82 episodes, including a one-hour pilot episode.

I love the couple of episodes (I think in the last season) when Sister Betrille does some groovy sixties-style dancing in her nun's habit. It's really quite funny to watch.

I could still hum/whistle you the theme song.

"Based on the 1965 book, "The Flying Pelican," the sitcom ran on ABC from 1967 to 1970. The character, Sister Bertille, was a nun in the fictitious convent of San Tanco in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the nuns' habits were adapted from those of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul."

There were 83 episodes.