Previously on The Flying Nun, Revisited…
“The Flying Nun is a hip sixties woman named Sister Bertrille from New York and she just began working at a convent in exceedingly windy San Juan, Puerto Rico. She weighs ninety pounds and her cornette is shaped in such a way that makes it aerodynamic when countered with a large gust of wind. She sings songs to children like The Sound of Music and there’s a local sleazy rich jerk named Carlos that Sister Bertrille is always running into whenever he’s about to kiss a woman. She usually gets into some sort of scheme that involves using his vast wealth or losing his vast wealth. The Flying Nun has a warm but begrudging friendship with the Reverend Mother. She’s also a good mechanic, and allergic to Hibiscus. She’s good friends with Sister Jacqueline, who narrates the episodes, as well as Sister Sixto. And she’s friendly with birds, whether they talk or have crushes on her.”

We’re almost at the end of Season One! What adventures will episodes 21-25 have in store? Cut to present day!

The Flying Nun IMDb

Introduction –
In the modern day, no concept, TV show or movie is ever forgotten. Everything, no matter how stupid, has a fanbase of some kind and ends up getting a sequel, a revival, or a recap podcast with people laughing at jokes they made five to thirty years ago. Why has the long forgotten Sally Field sitcom, The Flying Nun, been left behind? I understand that religion is a controversial subject in certain circles, but why does that have to punish a good quality TV show and cause it to fade away, eh? I mean, this show is just as much about the mechanics of aerodynamics as it is about a convent of nuns. Anyway, it’s my duty as a non-religious person to spread the word of Sister Bertrille.

The Flying Nun, 1.21: “My Sister, The Sister”
This is the first episode where I noticed you can clearly see the strings holding her up, during the theme. This is also the first major backstory episode we get, her sister Jennifer, a Doctor, visits. And we also learn that Sister Bertrille’s secret identity, AKA real name, is Elsie Effrington. Of course on her sister’s flight into San Juan she is heavily flirted with by Carlos, and reveals that she’s an Obstetrician. More backstory: Everyone in Elsie’s family works in the medical profession. Her parents are doctors and her brother is attending medical school. Elsie/Bertrille gets very worried when she learns Carlos is schmoozing her sister romantically. “Carlos is so Latin!” It’s a classic sitcom trope, this story. It’s not often we get a normal plot in this weird show. This is a good culmination of the “Carlos is a borderline predator” storyline in that his incessant dating is consistently played for laughs.
Once Bertrille butts in on Carlos and her sister going swimming, she learns from the Reverend Mother a Doctor is desperately needed and she needs to get her sister. This leads her to crash in while Carlos breaks his streak and decides, suddenly, and completely out of character, to propose to Jennifer and offer to follow her on her two year residence in the outback of Brazil. Because that seems right, doesn’t it? On the way to assisting the man suffering from the rabies bite, Carlos falls in the mud and faints at the sight of a big needle, looking like a massive buffoon. Soon enough Carlos is knocked onto a pile of needles and Jennifer has to do ass surgery. This is a great episode from a comedy standpoint. And it explores the fragile ego of Carlos. Carlos assumes Sister Bertrille is cockblocking him but eventually Jennifer sets him right and denies his proposal kindly and we end on Bertrille eating a banana. Why not? This one really stepped up the game for this show, we were really in the dumps. I hope Jennifer comes back later.
Episode Rating – 7.8 Sally Fields

The Flying Nun, 1.22: “Sister Lucky”
When Sister Bertrille goes down to the docks to collect money for the poor, a man named Juan who gambles during his lunch break who always loses suddenly finds he can win if the Sister is around. He gives her a large cut, which she brings back to the Convent. The Reverend Mother obviously refuses to accept it, and tells her to put a stop to her new nickname, Sister Lucky. And of course there’s an important church official visiting, and as always his stay needs to be uneventful. Now this is where the episode gets interesting. She goes back to the docks to prove scientifically that there is no such thing as a good luck charm. That’s the thing I like about her. She believes in God but insists that science and the laws of physics prevail over all. And when she attempts to prove to Juan that it’s a game of odds and he’ll lose eventually, she ends up in jail. This is classic farce.
Two side notes to be aware of: The town hall set where the jail is meant to be is clearly the town hall from the episode where the boy thought his mother was alive. And Juan eats dinner in jail that just looks like a pile of cocaine. Sister Bertrille, insistent on keeping her word to the Reverend Mother, uses Carlos to stage a poker game with Juan in the jail, with a table and everything. Carlos calls the Sister one of his best friends, only to lose many times to this man. But the Sister won’t leave yet, even though the Bishop wants to meet her. As this plot continued, my friend Katy and I cackled along. This leads to yet another classic trope, running back and forth from two different places over and over again. Sister Bertrille flies out of jail to meet the Bishop. Bertrille talks fast to get out of there, and the Reverend Mother helps, and soon she leaves again, proves Juan wrong, and when Juan loses and has no money, the Sister gets him a job at Carlos’s Casino. After a string of duds, we’ve hit the best episode since the cave-in.
Episode Rating – 8.9 Sally Fields

The Flying Nun, 1.23: “The Sister And The Old Salt”
We open on child labor. A stereotypical Popeye style ship captain named Captain Otis Barnaby uses Sister Bertrille’s students to help him fix his tiny boat so he can sail to Miami. She immediately finds herself infatuated with the Captain’s love of the sea. Soon, she learns from Barnaby’s son that the Captain had never seen the ocean until a month ago, and had worked insurance his entire life. That his stories of sailing and feeling free were completely false, and there’s a good chance he’ll die if he tries to sail to Miami. His son has a life plan, he’s a statistician, he believes in logic and reason. Captain Barnaby doesn’t. Barnaby has studied and learned what he could over decades of insurance. So Bertrille lets him go on the journey with him on the newly christened ship, the Sister Bertrille. This is another plot that doesn’t quite work for this show, but it works with the characterization of who we know her to be.
What’s that? You’re not surprised that he gets hit by a massive storm the second he sets sail. Once the storm halts, she brings new radio parts to the stubborn lonely Captain. Oh, and it should go without saying that this is the same boat that Sister Sixto’s uncle owned. And the Captain is added to our tally of sailors lost at sea who are hungry and believe Sister Bertrille is imaginary and proof they’re in Heaven. While we watched this, a massive line of people walked up the street blasting club music on their way to a house party three houses down. All the while, we watched The Flying Nun. What an excellent senior year I’ll have. The incredibly tan $2 Jimmy Stewart knock-off with big old teeth that played the young Barnaby son gets a conclusion to his mini-arc when he learns to let his father finish his trip and gives up logic.
Episode Rating – 7.1 Sally Fields

The Flying Nun, 1.24: “Cyrano de Bertrille”
Inexplicably, a man named Pedro has a long-distance relationship going with a woman in Miami, though he can neither read nor write. Sister Bertrille tells him he should learn to read and write, because it shouldn’t be that hard, she teaches Kindergarten. The next day he shows up in her class, and the Reverend Mother begrudgingly lets him take these lessons. Pedro soon has a panic attack after being thrown off by Rough, Through, and Cough. Understandable. Unfortunately, this leads to another generic and terrible Sound of Music style song about being unable to read that is nonsensical and includes overly smiling Sister Jacqueline and Reverend Mother and a chorus of children. Ugh. This episode is full of odd moments and dialogue. “I know you can’t tell the difference between a P and an F, but I believe in you, Pedro.”
There’s an angry Bishop in this episode that doesn’t like the idea of adults being taught at a children’s school. Bishop Pool. Imagine what happened after what I just said. The comedy of the man learning to read is good, it’s genuinely heartbreaking when he reads a letter from his girlfriend, only to learn she’s marrying another man. We also get the comedic revelation that Pedro’s nagging business partner has been stealing from him for years.
Episode Rating – 6.9 Sally Fields

The Flying Nun, 1.25: “The Reconversion of Sister Shapiro”
We quickly meet Carlos’s adoptive Niece, Linda. She’s got one of those red hats, she looks like a character from a Madeleine book. I have questions about being an adopted niece. Did he adopt her as a niece? Did he adopt her mother and father as in-laws? Did they adopt Linda? Did Linda adopt them? Who knows? I don’t. Anyway. Linda has to stay at the Convent when Carlos is called away on an incredibly important business meeting. The episode plods along, Linda becomes Bertrille’s temporary assistant so she can have some fun at the Convent, and things take a wild turn when Sister Bertrille asks Linda if she likes Chinese food. Seconds later I’m watching Sally Field and a bunch of children singing “Why do they give us chopsticks? What we need is a knife and a fork. We can’t get the hang of chopsticks. We don’t need utensils that look like two pencils.” Also to be clear, this is bookended by the Chopsticks piano melody, the banging of a gong, and a Chinese man saying in a thick American accent “I could never get the hang of those either.” WHAT IN THE FLYING FUCK IS HAPPENING?!?!
Of course Linda sees Bertrille fly and makes a mini Nun outfit and calls herself Sister Shapiro when Carlos returns, and WHY THE SONG WHY WHY WHY?! Suddenly we’ve got a bad child actor who insists that she’s a nun and they need to snap her out of it before the Shapiro’s, her parents, arrive. It seems more like she’s Carlos’s God-daughter. And Linda’s parents, with their massive foreheads, are Jewish. And sure it’s a weird plot and it’s kind of interesting but DID SOMEBODY SPIKE MY DRINK?! DID SOMEBODY GIVE ME DRUGS?!?! WHAT WAS THAT SONG?!?!?! Sister Bertrille has to pretend not to like Linda very momentarily to get her to go with her parents and stop being a nun. There is an interesting resolution to everything of showing Linda all the different things Sister Bertrille wanted to do, by displaying clips of Gidget on a projector. Of course, none of those clips could have been filmed by anyone, and they didn’t make sense for this show. AND NEITHER DID THAT SONG!!!!! What the hell. I mean… Wow.
Episode Rating – Negative 1.5 Sally Fields (For the fucking Chopsticks song)

Look at this! It only took me a year and a couple months, but we’re almost done with the first season of a TV show from 1967! And I’ll tell you what, if I’m still alive and blogging 57 years from now I’ll watch it all again! Hahaha… No.