The Flying Nun (1967)

An extended interview with the series' star. Her previous sitcom, Gidget, had been canceled by ABC but became a surprise hit during summer reruns. Rather than start production on Gidget again, the network asked the show's producer to come up with another project for Field. The result was The Flying Nun, a concept that Field hated. She turned down the role, but her stepfather, Yancy Derringer's Jock Mahoney, convinced her to take it by telling her that she might never work again. She also discusses the cheapo ways in which Sister Bertrille was made to fly and reveals that yes, it is her voice in the musical numbers. This is fascinating stuff, especially since Field is so honest about her dislike for the series.

Located atop a hill in old San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Convent San Tanco is populated by, among others, Sister Bertrille, a new novice from New York, who is to teach kindergarten, but discovers that the strong winds of San Juan coupled with the wing-like cornette of the nun's habit can make her go airborne.

Sister Bertrille tries to explain her flying ability to Carlos.

Sister Bertrille goes to a greedy car salesman to get a new station wagon for San Tanco.

Sister Bertrille and Carlos try to salvage the convent's bell from the ocean.

Rumors of Sister Bertrille's imminent demise lead to a conspiracy to brighten her last days.

A psychiatrist pays a visit to San Tanco.

Sister Bertrille and Sister Jaqueline try to hide a bird in the convent.

A hit man's girl poses as Mother Superior's secretary, but makes friends with the Sisters.

To raise money for the convent, Sister Bertrille and the others try to market sea grape juice under the title ""Nector of San Tanco."" But, however, they get more than they bargain for.

After helping a pelican on the beach, Sister Bertrille has to cope with a lovesick bird.

When Mother Superior goes on a business trip in Saint Thomas, Sister Bertrille uses her powers to give Plaseato something very important that she forgot. When the wind dies down, she lands on a small island where some gamblers are staying.

When she and Sister Jaqueline volunteer at a hospital, Sister Bertrille befriends a boy with a knack for telling lies. The boy sees Bertrille flying, but no one else believes him!

Sisters Bertrille and Jaqueline try to stop a civil war between the village of Santa Thomasina.

After a day picnicking, the gang are ready to head back to the convent, however their station wagon isn't being cooperative. Sister Bertrille decides that she will fly to a pay telephone and call Carlos to come pick them up. But the stormy weather grounds her, as her cornette becomes sopping wet and limp.

When looking for rocks, Sister Bertrille gets stuck in a mine with an ex-con.

After pulling the name of an elderly nun from the Christmas grab bag, Sister Bertrille tries to make it snow. Even though her intentions are good, all goes wrong.

A clumsy brother comes to the convent to help with the library.

A little boy believes Sister Bertrille is his mother.

Sister Sixto's uncle uses Sister Bertrille to help him catch fish.

A hot spell is drifting through San Juan, and with it comes gangster Rufus Morgan, who has vowed to take over Carlos' casino.

Carlos falls for Sister Bertrille's sister.

A gambler thinks Sister Bertrille is good luck.

Sister Bertrille helps a sailor who plans on going from San Juan to Miami in a tiny ship.

Pedro Alvarez and Juan Cortez are business partners of a produce business, Juan the business oriented partner, Pedro the customer oriented partner. When Pedro reveals he is illiterate and can't read a letter from his girlfriend in Miami, Sister Bertrille suggests that he learn to read and write.

When a lonesome Jewish girl comes to stay at Convent San Tanco while her parents are away on vacation, Sister Bertrille takes on chief babysitting duties--and perhaps goes too far in the Big Sister department before little Linda Shapiro announces she wants to become a nun too.

In the will of a benefactor, the convent is the sole beneficiary of the estate. Unfortunately the only asset of the estate is the contract of a boxer, the Buffalo Buzzsaw aka Mike Sever.

Carlos is doing his mandatory two-week active duty with the marine corps, and is stationed on a small remote island near San Juan.

Bridgett Faulkner and Joel Bascomb reluctantly accept their prizes donated by Carlos Ramirez as the top students at the convent, the award being a day out on the town and dinner at the Captains Table.

One of the convent children takes an interest in Scraples, a kleptomanic dog.

Sister Bertrille, Carlos, and one of Carlos's girls are stranded on a desert island.

Psychedelic episode featuring The Sundowners. Sister Bertrille hears that Sonny and the Sundowners will be performing at Casino Carlos A-Go-Go. She knew Sonny and wants to say hello. When they meet, Sonny offers to help the convent and asks Sister Bertrille to write a song, they'll record, and she'll get the royalties. She writes a very sixties image-laden song that the Sundowners turn into an all out acid-fuzz-psychedelic-trip! All the nuns go to the go-go club to hear the song's debut and flip out when presented with a trippy strobe light show, caged go-go dancers and background vocal lines like ""grow your own,"" and ""magic mushrooms!"" Must see rock n roll TV! Paul Peterson, The Sundowners.

The new Captain of Police, Gaspar Fomento, is frequenting the convent's bazaar. Carlos has donated a lot to the bazaar, has won some of his donations back, and the captain has lost much. He has suspicions that the convent and Carlos are working together in a gambling ring.

The Temple Beth Sholom overseen by Rabbi Mendez is the only synagogue in San Juan. Rabbi Mendez has a problem: engaged couple Alfredo Acquilar and Sophia Baldazon want to get married but the temple is too small to hold all their invited guests. So Sister Bertrille convinces all to hold the ceremony on the grounds of the convent.

Sister Bertrille needs to see Dr. Paredes, the dentist, to have a toothache fixed, but Sister Bertrille is scared of dentists. So the Reverend Mother goes with her to hold her hand. To calm Sister Bertrille's nerves, Dr. Paredes puts her under hypnosis.

By-the-book Captain Fomento is getting bored in San Tanco, a town where he says nothing exciting happens, and is thinking of resigning. To stop him, Sister Bertrille tells him that there is a crime wave at Carlos' casino.

Carlos will do anything to get away from Manuel, who wants Carlos to audition his step-niece by marriage for his nightclub show.

Condorillo hawks and their eggs are outlawed by the authorities since they are considered a nuisance, especially to sugar cane farmers. However Sister Bertrille stumbles across a pair of such orphaned eggs and cannot in good conscience leave them unattended to die.

While everyone else is at a charity benefit, Sister Bertrille is alone at the convent nursing sick child Felix. She hears a news bulletin on the radio that escaped convict Ignacio Ferrante is in the vicinity of San Tanco, and she gets worried for her and Felix's safety.

Misunderstandings start when a $5,000 donation check is destroyed and the sisters, who have never met the donator, try to find him so that he can write them another one.

Captain Fomento has had parking meters installed in San Tanco, but he's the only one who likes them.

There are two upcoming important events: the novices are approaching their rededication ceremony, and the Reverend Mother is attending a conference in Chicago. With the latter, she can take one travel companion, and all the sisters do extra things in hopes that that will sway the decision in their favor.

Carlos is looking for a wife - only temporarily. His grandmother, Amalia Ramirez, is coming for a visit, and once, when it looked as if she was dying, he told her he was married with a family to make her happy.

The 99 year lease of the Convent is up. The Landlord decides to move in for a while, much to the sisters dismay.

Convent orphan Michael Antonio idolizes his uncle, renowned magician and juggler Marko the Magnificient. Marko is coming to San Tanco to visit Michael, an opportunity Sister Bertrille cannot let pass.

Actress Sabrina Michaels is trying to escape from her movie star life and her philandering co-star and fiancé, Spencer Michaels. She has walked off the set of her movie and in her escape, has a near fatal drowning caused by and saved by Sister Bertrille.

Sister Bertrille's family friend, "Uncle" Reggie Overton Perkins, has taken a job in San Juan. Uncle Reggie has somewhat of a shady past and present, but has managed to get a job at Carlos' casino as security expert, which includes showing casino customers how to spot cheaters in the casino.

Sister Bertrille finds Uncle Reggie, who is still the prime suspect in the casino robbery. Unfortunately for Uncle Reggie, Captain Fomento also finds him. Sister Bertrille however convinces Carlos and Captain Fomento of Uncle Reggie's possible innocence, and devises a plan to flush out the real thieves.

While on a retreat with Sister Jacqueline, Sister Bertrille runs into one of her old boyfriends, Randy Putnam.

Sister Bertrille is looking after Pepe, a chimpanzee, as a favor to Dolores, one of Carlos' girlfriends. Pepe's arrival at the convent coincides with a rash of thefts in the neighborhood, thefts of small, rather insignificant trinkets. The latest theft is of Captain Fomento's watch right in the convent.

Farmer Gonzalo, the convent's milk supplier, is moving to St. Thomas and can't take Alicia, his beloved cow with him. Sister Bertrille decides to buy Alicia for the convent as a cheap, constant and reliable milk supply for the kitchen and for the children's needs.

The sisters need to call in accident-prone Brother Paul back to the convent to do some bookkeeping work. The sisters do everything in their power to keep Brother Paul from doing harm to himself, to them or to the convent.

Captain Fomento of thinks everyone has forgotten his birthday, even the nuns.

The nuns try to go into busness again, this time they have Sister Sixto baking bread.

The convent is willed a dry goods business, which is free and clear of debt. However it is devoid of any sense of order.

On a day that Carlos has promised some of the convent children a boat ride, he reneges to go to Culebra for a date with Elena.

The convent has a fund raiser for building maintenance. When Sister Bertrille asks a farmer for a contribution, he does not have extra money, but he donates a lottery ticket, which is worth $25,000 if picked.

The convent baseball team has its first game on the weekend. Generous Carlos outfits the team so that it will at least look like it knows what it's doing; in other words, the convent team is the underdog in the game.

Local celebrity and television show host, Claudio the Clown, thinks that Sister Bertrille would be perfect person to have as a guest on his children's show.

San Tanco is getting a new parish priest, Father Walter Larson, an old friend of the Reverend Mother's. But Father Larson has spent most of his life as an archivist, and is used to being alone with his books, and is not a very social person.

The Reverend Mother hires Paola Guzman as her temporary secretary. Paola, full of Latin flair with a penchant to do the bossa nova, is a bit at odds with the staunch Reverend Mother's style, but Paola is admittedly an efficient secretary with a kind heart.

When Marcello describes the sisters' to others as "guys", they think that he needs a fatherly male influence in his life.

Carlos' wait staff, led by Enrique, is on strike against who they consider their tyrant boss.

Struggling writer and ex-newspaperman Joe Barnes/Roy Barnes thinks he's hit the jackpot when he sees Sister Bertrille fly. She will be his exclusive story. All he needs is some photographs of her in flight to accompany his story.

On a dark and stormy evening, Alonzo Baldazon's jalopy of a car breaks down outside the convent where he takes refuge.

In trying to get rid of a brass bed, Sisters Bertrille and Sixto trade it for a donkey named Hector.

The Mother General has issued an edict for the sisters to wear a new habit. The sisters are all thrilled by the new, modern habit, that is until one by one they all realize that the new cornette with which will no longer allow Sister Bertrille to fly.

When the Mother General Adelaide of Culebra wants the sisters to hold a fund-raiser, the sisters think the perfect event would be to run the silent film Lure of the West, the thought initiated after they discover that the Mother General is former silent film actress Gloria Davenport, the movie's star.

On a day outing with Marcello, Sister Bertrille breaks three different traffic regulations. She forces Officer Juarez to give her a ticket so show Marcello that even nuns have to obey the law or pay the price.

After Sister Bertrille is partly the cause for Carlos' latest mishap which places him in the hospital, Carlos and Sister Bertrille individually review their relationship.

Rickie Malinas is the sports writer for the San Tanco Tribune. But he's also temporarily Dear Aggie, the paper's advice columnist. He convinces Sister Bertrille to take over Dear Aggie duties until he can find a permanent replacement.

Sister Bertrille's sister, Dr. Jennifer Ethrington, is in San Tanco for some much needed rest and relaxation. She isn't aware that there is a medical convention in town, and as such, she takes the sisters up on their offer to stay at the convent to get away from the shop talk that would happen if she stayed at the hotel.

Carlos donates a pool table to the convent. Sister Bertrille thinks it would be a good pastime for convent orphan Armando to partake as his current diversions are wild flights of fancy.

As her lead gets ill, Sister Bertrille is looking for someone to portray Columbus in a reenactment of his landing on Puerto Rico. Carlos suggests his cousin, Luis, who is back in the casino kitchen causing Carlos grief since the dry goods store went bankrupt.

Mr. Sanders is an ex-student of the convent, now a success in his adult life. He has come back to the convent to adopt a child, namely what he calls the dumbest kid in school.

Felix Ragusa, an independent plumber, gets a major plumbing job at Carlos' casino, the job obtained through an introduction from Sister Bertrille. Because Felix has to run around to get supplies, he has to leave his sidekick, Tiger the dog, with someone.

Little does Sister Bertrille know, but she's sleep-flying. On one of her sleeping flights, she comes across Carlos with Sophia Novello, the daughter of a business associate Antonio Novello.

Kim Ching is Carlos' foster daughter visiting from Korea. Carlos is expecting Kim to be a young girl who still plays with teddy bears, but she ends up being a beautiful young woman who is looking for a husband.

After the convent washing machine breaks down, the sisters are forced to go to a laundromat. When Sister Bertrille goes in to do the convent laundry, little does she know that Harry Madison and Eddie, a commercial producer and cameraman, are shooting a candid camera commercial for Delight laundry detergent.

Pablo Cortina stops by the convent looking for work, and agrees to do handyman work in exchange for English lessons. To Carlos, Pablo looks a lot like El Charro, a famous bullfighter from Madrid.

Sister Bertrille gets into a fender bender, caused by her running a red light. She can't really remember what happened, and is willing to accept responsibility for the accident if it was her fault. The occupants of the other car are hippies, namely Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart of the singing group, The Paper Balloon, who happen to be appearing at Carlos' casino.

To save a children's day camp in a park in San Tanco, Sister Bertrille and the nuns must attract more residents to the town.

Thomas Martinez, Carlos' uncle, is planning his own funeral to be held next week, this funeral despite him not being ill. He admits to Sister Bertrille that he has witnessed what he calls the Martinez Sign, that which generations of his male ancestors have seen and have passed away exactly seven days following.