"I had a job, and that was good and that was important, but I became a laughing stock of the nation at the time. 'The Flying Nun' was tremendously successful in the first year, partially because it was so weird. I mean c'mon - this girl was just flying around and it was ludicrous." - Sally Field
The Flying Nun: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
Ah, the 1960s sitcom. Something must have been in the water.or, more likely, the air. How else to explain the weird concepts behind I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian, Bewitched, and other comedies that featured oddball characters like a talking horse that danced the cha-cha? The strangest, however, was The Flying Nun about, well, the title pretty much says it all.
Sister Bertrille (Gidget's Sally Field) is a novice who, as the series begins, arrives at the Convent San Tanco in Puerto Rico. The convent houses an orphanage, a school, and rooms for the elderly. Sister Betrille quickly befriends the other sisters, including Sister Jacqueline (Marge Redmond) and Sister Sixto (Will & Grace's Shelley Morrison). Enthusiastic and cheery, Sister Bertrille would seem to fit right in as the new kindergarten teacher. There's only one little problem: when Sister Bertrille puts on her cornette - a headpiece that sort of looks like a seagull perched atop her head - the Puerto Rican trade winds (combined with the fact that she "weighs ninety pounds dripping wet") lift her into the sky, allowing her to "fly." The highly conservative Mother Superior (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof's Madeleine Sherwood) isn't very happy about the new arrival's special skill, but Sister Bertrille is so irrepressible and sweet that she agrees to let the novice stay.provided she uses discretion when it comes to taking flight. She tries her best to remain grounded, but sometimes the petit novice is simply spirited away. This often gets her into trouble, so she turns to exasperated playboy Carlos Ramirez (Alejandro Rey), the owner of the local disco, for help.
Many of The Flying Nun's first season plotlines can be divided into three general categories: Animals Do the Darndest Things, Kids Sure are Maudlin, and Carlos Isn't Getting Any Again Tonight. In "Polly Wants a Crack in the Head," Sister Bertrille faces off with a foul-mouthed parrot (or is that fowl-mouthed? Nah, too obvious, although nothing's too obvious for this series). In "With Love from Irving," a pelican falls in love with Sister Bertrille at a very inconvenient time.although it would be difficult to come up with a convenient time. In "Love Me, Love My Dog," the children adopt a dog that turns out to be quite a kleptomaniac.
The series also tries to tug at viewers' heartstrings by centering several stories on children. In "Young Man with a Cornette," Sister Bertrille helps a surly orphan who thinks people will like him if he uses her cornette to fly. In "Tonio's Mother," a young boy mistakes Sister Bertrille for his deceased mother returning from heaven. In "The Reconversion of Sister Shapiro," the novice accidentally influences a young Jewish girl who then decides to convert to Catholicism. In "May the Wind Be Always at Your Back," an orphan at the convent develops a crush on Carlos.
And poor Carlos. Although usually relegated to a b-story, almost every episode features the lothario and a beautiful woman being interrupted by Sister Bertrille who needs a little favor. This plotline is used so often that you can set your watch by it.
The writers have other favorite subject matters, too. Gangsters show up a bit too often for a series set in a convent. And if the show sounds like The Sound of Music with flying, then get a load of the musical interludes feature in many early episodes as Sister Bertrille leads her students through instantly forgettable musical numbers.
The Flying Nun: The Complete First Season won't rot your brain, but it's not necessarily good for you, either. Field's first series, Gidget, wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but her sunny performance made it fun to watch. Even Field at her perkiest can't save this one.
Familiar faces flying by during the first season include Dabney Coleman (Courting Alex), Noam Pitlik (The Bob Newhart Show), Arlene Golonka (Mayberry R.F.D.), Louise Sorel (One Life to Live), John Astin (The Addams Family), Herb Edelman (The Golden Girls), Jack Riley (The Bob Newhart Show), Harold Gould (Rhoda), Foster Brooks (The New Bill Cosby Show), Henry Jaglom, Rich Little, Elinor Donahue (The Andy Griffith Show), and J. Pat O'Malley (Maude).
The thirty episodes that make up The Flying Nun: The Complete First Season are divided onto four discs. The discs are housed in two slim, clear keepcases, each of which holds two discs. The front covers each feature publicity shots of the show's stars. The back covers include episode titles and plot synopses. The double-sided coversheets show through to the inside of the cases and feature a photo of a tropical island. The actual discs feature the publicity photos of the shows stars: Field on disc one, Redmond on disc two, Sherwood on disc three, and Rey on disc four. The two keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which highlights a composite photo of the cast.
The static DVD menus are extremely basic. Viewers can play all episodes or choose an individual episode. Although there are no scene selection menus, chapter stops are included.
