The Patty Duke Show
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| The Patty Duke Show | |
|---|---|
 Opening sequence of The Patty Duke Show |
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| Format | Sitcom |
| Created by | Sidney Sheldon |
| Directed by | William Asher |
| Starring | Patty Duke William Schallert Jean Byron Paul O'Keefe Eddie Applegate |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 104 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 18, 1963 – May 4, 1966 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
The Patty Duke Show is an American sitcom which ran on ABC from September 18, 1963 until May 4, 1966, with reruns through August 31, 1966. The show was created as a vehicle for rising star Patty Duke, who had recently won an Academy Award for The Miracle Worker. A total of 104 episodes were produced, most written by Sidney Sheldon.
Contents |
[edit] Production
[edit] Filming locations
The Patty Duke Show was, atypically for the time, filmed in New York and not in Hollywood. This was done because Duke was only 15 when the series began, and California's strict child labor laws curtailed the number of hours that child actors could work. New York, by contrast, did not have such stringent laws, thus allowing producers to devote more time to the production—a distinct advantage, since Duke effectively carried the show.[1] Duke was to turn 18 during the 1965-66 television season; consequently ABC wanted to shift the show's production to Hollywood. To the network's displeasure, Duke was reluctant to make the move; at the time, she was in the midst of breaking off her relationship with her managers, who were insisting upon the move. Nonetheless, a few of the last shows were in fact filmed on the West Coast.[2]
[edit] Music
The show's theme song, which has since been parodied many times over in pop culture, illustrates the two girls' differences: "Cathy adores a minuet, the Ballet Russe, and crêpes Suzette, while Patty loves to rock 'n' roll; a hot dog makes her lose control." The theme was also used by MoveOn.org in a 2008 television commercial to promote the Bush-McCain Challenge.
[edit] Visual effects
The dual role for Duke challenged special effects for its time, considering television special effects were rare in the early 1960s, particularly for a sitcom. When special effects weren't practical, child actress Rita McLaughlin was used as Duke's double (almost always seen only from behind).[3] Ironically, McLaughlin's hair was bright red while Duke was a brunette. This proved not to be a problem for the show since the two actresses' hair shades appeared the same in monochrome.
[edit] Characters and cast
Patty Lane (Patty Duke) was a normal teenager living in the Brooklyn Heights section of New York City, who loved boys, ice cream, and sleepovers. In the first episode, her "identical cousin" Cathy Lane (also played by Duke) arrived in the United States from Scotland to live with Patty's family. The remarkable physical resemblance that Patty and Cathy Lane share to each other is explained by their fathers being identical twin brothers. A split screen was used when the "cousins" had to appear in the same scene. Rounding out the cast was William Schallert as Patty's father Martin Lane, Jean Byron as Patty's mother Natalie Lane, Paul O'Keefe as Patty's brother Ross Lane, and Eddie Applegate as Patty's boyfriend, Richard Harrison.
In the pilot episode only, Mark Miller played Patty's father and Charles Herbert played Patty's brother. The pilot episode was not aired as such, but parts of it were used in the last episode of the first season with the Schallert and O'Keefe in their respective roles.[2]
Special guest stars included singing duo Chad and Jeremy, teen heartthrob singers Frankie Avalon and Bobby Vinton, Sal Mineo, and Sammy Davis Jr..
[edit] Plot
Patty's father, Martin (Schallert, who also played Cathy's father in a handful of episodes), was the managing editor of the fictitious newspaper New York Chronicle; Cathy's father also worked for the Chronicle as a foreign correspondent. It was Cathy's father's wish that she complete her secondary schooling in the United States before she would be allowed to return to Scotland. Cathy was much more worldly, and the aggravations that came from the two girls' very different personalities set the tone for much of the sitcom.
[edit] Cancellation
Although the series was still very popular during its final season and getting high Nielsen ratings, ABC decided not to renew it for the '66/'67 season on the basis that filming it in color would have been prohibitively expensive (at the time all three networks were switching their entire primetime lineups to color production).
Duke wrote in her memoir Call Me Anna that United Artists, which produced the series, refused ABC's demand for a switch to color. Duke suspected, but never knew for sure, that United Artists executives said no as "a negotiating ploy" with the hope that ABC would respond with an offer to pay it more money for the series. In the end, however, ABC decided not to renew the series.[4]
In 1999, CBS aired the TV movie The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' In Brooklyn Heights, which reunited most of the original cast, including Duke, Byron, O'Keefe, Schallert, and Applegate. In Still Rockin', Patty and Richard married after high school, had a son, and were amicably divorced (though toward the end of the movie, they reconcile). Cathy is a widow living in Scotland and has a teenage son. Most of the plot revolves around Patty's old rival Sue Ellen's plans to buy Brooklyn Heights High School, raze it, and replace it with a mall, which is opposed by Patty, Cathy, and the rest of the family.
[edit] Syndication and DVD Release
The Patty Duke Show was rerun on Nick at Nite from 1988 until 1992. In 1995, Nick at Nite showed one episode of the series during their 10th anniversary celebration. In 2005, both Nick at Nite and TV Land aired an episode of Patty in honor of Nick at Nite's 20th anniversary. The Patty Duke Show has not been syndicated by any other channels since Nick at Nite dropped it from its lineup in 1992.
To date, there are no plans to release The Patty Duke Show on DVD.
[edit] Reception
Already a budding star in her own right, Duke was further thrust into the public consciousness through the show. As the series went on, her star power from the series allowed her to enter the realm of popular music, releasing a Top Ten single, "Don't Just Stand There", in 1965.[5]
In 2007, Bissell Homecare Products aired a commercial that featured a pair of "twins", aptly named "Patty" and "Cathy". Like the tv series, the women were played by the same actress.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Duke, Patty; Turan, Kenneth (1988). Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. Bantam Books, 116. ISBN 0-553-27205-5.
- ^ a b Parla, Paul; Mitchell, Charles P. (2000). Screen Sirens Scream!: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Science Fiction. McFarland, 29. ISBN 0-786-40701-8.
- ^ Mansour, Davod (2005). From Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 355. ISBN 0-740-75118-2.
- ^ Duke, Patty; Turan, Kenneth (1988). Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. Bantam Books, 167. ISBN 0-553-27205-5.
- ^ The Billboard Hot 100, "Don't Just Stand There"
