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Although she always wanted to write, Flagg found that acting came more easily to her. When she was 14 she joined a theater group in Birmingham where friends in the group called her "Baby Girl" because she was the youngest. She competed in the Miss Alabama pageant where she acted out some comedy sketches she had written and modeled a dress she had designed made entirely out of old menus. While not winning the pageant, she won a scholarship to the Pittsburgh Playhouse, an acting school, where she went for one year. She left after being told that she should go home, get married, and forget acting because her southern accent was too bad (ReadersOnly.com). When joining Actors' Equity at 18, she learned she'd have to change her name because her real name was Patricia Neal, the name of a famous movie star. As she was doing comedy, her father suggested a silly name to set the mood, and her grandfather remembered vaudeville and that Fannie was a name that a lot of comediennes took. She has been reinventing herself ever since.
Flagg started her career as a morning-show hostess on WBRC-TV in Birmingham. She got that job, along with most of the others, through her writing (ReadersOnly.com). It was when performing one of the skits she had written with other members of the theater group, that the head of the television station saw her and offered her the job. While working on that show, she sold several sketches that she had written to the revue club, The Upstairs at the Downstairs. When the girl who was supposed to perform that material could not appear, they hired Flagg to perform them. Alan Funt came to the opening night, saw Flagg had written her own material, and hired her as a writer for Candid Camera. All this within one week of moving to New York! .
Flagg had another stroke of luck when an actress on Candid Camera got the flu. Flagg had to step in to perform the actress's part in a skit she had written.
