Juliet Mills Looks Back with Love on ‘Nanny and the Professor’
What To Know
- Juliet Mills fondly recalls her time starring in the 1970 sitcom Nanny and the Professor.
- The showran for 54 episodes and inspired two animated reunion specials before Long’s untimely death.
- Mills remains active in acting and enjoys a long-lasting marriage to Maxwell Caulfield.
Likely inspired by the hit 1964 movie Mary Poppins, ABC launched Nanny and the Professor, a charming family sitcom that starred Juliet Mills and the late Richard Long in the title roles. The series lasted just one season in 1970, but it later spawned two animated reunion specials for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie in 1972 and 1973.
ReMIND Magazine caught up with Mills, who, along with her husband, Maxwell Caulfield, was on the red carpet for A Murder Between Friends, a movie starring Mills’ good friend, Joan Collins.
“The show was a great time for me. I loved Richard Long,” Mills says of her late co-star. “We got along so well together.”
British-born Mills came over from England to shoot the series in which Phoebe Figalilly (Mills) was hired by Professor Harold Everett (Long), a widower, to care for his three children — Hal (David Doremus), Butch (Trent Lehman), and Prudence (Kim Richards, of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fame).
Everett Collection
Just as the Everett clan welcomed Nanny into their home, Mills says that Long and his wife, former Playboy Playmate Mara Corday. welcomed her into theirs. “When I came here, I didn’t know anybody,” Mills shares, “and Richard’s family sort of embraced me. I used to hang out with them in Encino. Doing the show was great fun because I believed everything about Nanny.”
There was definitely something mystical about Nanny. Mills’s character didn’t have outright witchcraft powers like Samantha Stephens (Elizabeth Montgomery) had on Bewitched, but the show’s opening theme song clearly indicated something supernatural was in play:
“Since the day that Nanny came to stay with us, fantastic things keep happening. Is there really magic in the things she does, or is love the only magic thing that Nanny brings…”
Everett Collection
“I believed in everything about Nanny,” enthuses Mills, who wrote an episode of the series. “I believe in magic. I believe in ESP.”
The show literally became a family affair with Mills when the show invited her father, actor John Mills, to guest star in an episode as Phoebe’s globe-trotting Uncle Alfred. “They wrote an episode specifically for him,” Mills recalls. “It was called ‘The Human Fly.’ He played a cat burglar.”
Nanny and the Professor ran for 54 episodes. Long’s untimely death in 1974, a few years after the show ended, prevented future reunion shows from happening.
“I haven’t run into Kim,” Mills says. “We were supposed to do an autograph show [The Hollywood Show]…I have seen David Doremus in the last year. He’s not in the business anymore.”
Tragically, Lehman died from suicide when he was 20 years old. “I was very, very sad about that,” Mills wistfully shares. “[He] was my favorite. He was the best actor of all of them, and he was just a lovely boy.”
Mills, who won a primetime Emmy for her role in QB VII, remains active in front of the camera. She’s headed to Pennsylvania in March to film a short movie with Malcolm McDowell. “It’s a very interesting project,” previews Mills. “I just like working sometimes when there’s something really interesting to do. I’m really happy when Maxwell’s working and I can stay home, cook, garden, and do all the things I like to do.”
Randy Shropshire/Getty Images
Mills and Caufield made headlines when the two wed in 1980 because of the couple’s 18-year age difference. Naysayers doubted the union would last, but over 45 years later, the duo’s love has endured. What’s their secret? “We didn’t listen!” Mills says with a chuckle.
Nanny and the Professor can be streamed on Sling TV’s Freestream service
A Murder Between Friends is available on Amazon, Apple TV, and other VOD (Video on Demand) platforms
TV Insider