The Patty Duke Show

Patty Duke was a very popular actress at the time, one of a handful of teen/child stars who was taken seriously. To take advantage of that the Patty Duke Show was conceived. It ran for 3 years on ABC network.

The program featured Duke in dual roles as herself (Patty) and her Scotch cousin (Cathy). The two are very different: Patty supposed to be the 'average' American era teen and Cathy the more mature and traveled counter. The show was set in Brooklyn Heights, New York.

The format, with Duke playing dual roles, was a real first for TV at the time. TV, films and music were riding a wave of teenage girls in the early 60's. Duke was an actress, although she, like many other girl teen stars gave singing a go and appeared on several music shows in the mid-60's.

The program itself was one of the last actually filmed and produced in New York. Others, such as 'The Naked City' and 'Car 54 Where Are You?' had gone off the air by the time Duke's program started. The Duke program, taking advantage of New York states lax child labor rules, was made there due to Dukes age (16) when production began. The program actually moved to Hollywood for a few of the final episodes. Although filmed in New York, and unlike most New York produced programs, the program was filmed in studio with no outside or remote scenes.

TPDS evolved over its broadcast run. At times a source of conflict, Patty and Cathy come to terms and eventually co-conspirators in many antics. Patty's boyfriend manages to stick around during her many flights of fancy, chasing other boys and generally using him and taking advantage. He provides a base and sense of continuity. Patty's family are all wary of her (from experience) but are supportive. Many guest stars appeared as well, most from the music field and popular with teens at the time.

William Asher was involved with the show, leading a team of successful producers and directors. Asher eventually left to focus on 'Bewitched'.

Although still doing well in the ratings, TPDS show was canceled after its 3rd season (105 episodes).

One of my personal questions about the program was why the use of look alike cousins? The whole premise was far-fetched and probably not needed to make it successful. Cathy's part in the plots were often superficial and didn't contribute much. Asher had noted it was used as a 'hook' or 'gimmick' to stand out, however, you can easily argue Duke was talented enough to carry the program as just the Patty character. Cathy's on screen time and lines were reduced over the programs run, and she was actually not in at least 5 episodes in season three. Something to ponder.

I grew up on this really cute series as a teenager myself, and only wish today's adolescents had more programs of its quality and sense of genuine fun. The Patty Duke Show is shades of Hayley Mills's Parent Trap. In fact, every young girl's heroines back then were Patty Duke, Hayley Mills, and Sally Field (star of Gidget & The Flying Nun). The teen magazines were full of this trio of stars.

The series portrays the story of two identical cousins, Patty and Cathy Lane. Cathy, the daughter of a globe trotting journalist, comes to live with her aunt & uncle, Martin & Natalie Lane. They have a daughter, Patty, who's the same age as Cathy and the absolute spitting image. However, aside from looks, these two teenage girls are completely opposite in personality, taste, and life experiences.

Patty Duke charmingly captures the dual roles of the cousins and manages to make the viewer think that there are actually two different teenagers here. There are some great special effects for that era when the 'two of a kind' cousins appear together on screen. Whether realistic or not, the show had a great story idea with a variation on the identical twins with contrasting personalities theme. Making them cousins with totally different childhood experiences, the screenwriters could make this pair of lookalikes seem really diverse.

In fact, their personality and culture clash forms the basis of the series. Since Patty and Cathy are such polar opposites, they have trouble understanding each other. The urbane, sophisticated Cathy is a quiet and serious young lady, who has been living in Scotland with her father and has traveled abroad in Europe. Patty is a typical peppy, outgoing, and very social American teenager living in Brooklyn Heights. Cathy is studious and scholastically excellent, while Patty receives average grades and is more concerned with fashions, fads, friends, fun, and sleepovers than with schoolwork. Cathy's taste in music runs to classical ('the minuet and ballet Russe') while Patty likes to bop around to the rock & roll music of that era. Even their taste in food...well, Cathy prefers gourmet cuisine such as the elegant Crepes Suzette, while Patty chooses hot dogs, ice cream, and junk food.

However, although jealousy and conflict arise (always humorously conveyed of course), it's much like a sibling relationship. Underneath it all, the cousins really do care about one other and sometimes even conspire together to pull off pranks or get themselves out of scrapes. (Typically Patty gets into the scrape and Cathy must help her out of it!) Also, the cousins are not actually that different in some important ways. Patty desires popularity and Cathy at least some sense of acceptance. And of course both young ladies are interested in BOYS. Patty would accurately be described as boy crazy, while Cathy conveys her interest a bit more subtly. The girls don't always go for the same type, but in one episode, the pair are actually rivals for the attentions of the new boy next door. I note among the episode list that once there's even a double date, have forgotten the details, but would predict some sort of switcheroo or mix up.

Patty's father, Martin Lane, is managing editor of a fictitious New York newspaper, the New York Chronicle, for which Cathy's father (Martin's brother) works as a foreign correspondent. The two brothers are identical twins, presumably explaining their daughters' close physical resemblance. Cathy's father wants her to complete high school in the States before returning to Scotland.

The father in this series really stands out in my mind these many years later. William Shallert is absolutely wonderful in the role of Patty's father, Martin Lane, the classic kind & caring American dad who's often at his wit's end over his teenage daughter's antics. This actor also plays Cathy's father in a few of the episodes. I don't remember the mother, Natalie Lane, but that isn't to say the actress wasn't competent. It's been quite a few decades!

Overall, it was wonderful programming that the teenagers of that era could relate to. No sex and drugs on screen back in the Good Old Days. However, many of the classic teen story lines are featured, including parties, dating, school football stars, teachers, baby sitting, kid brothers, and peer rivalry. Patty spars with her own younger brother, Ross, and must also cope with an annoying school rival, Sue Ellen. Probably most young viewers preferred the extroverted chatterbox, Patty, but personally, being shy and bookish myself in those days, I identified more with the introverted, academic Cathy. The Patty Duke Show was very popular among all my own school friends and quite deservedly so. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find it in re runs, but suspect that even some of today's teens might still get a kick out of it.

I was born in the middle of this show being in its heyday, but thanks to syndication, I got to see it and grow up with it as a child, and again as an adult on Nick At Nite. Patty Duke has always been among my favorite actresses, and the sheer simplicity of this show was a relief in and of itself. Surrounded today as we are by base violence and drug problems and other things, the simplicity of the Patty Duke Show is a welcome respite from all that. It wouldn't win any awards for compelling writing, possibly, but its a cherished and loved show from my younger days all the same and I hope TV Land resurrects this gem of a show as well.

In contrast to today's world, where TV revolves around inane writing and situations, this show truly showcased the acting talent of the actors and actresses within it, especially the fabulous Anna Marie "Patty" Duke-Pearce. Though the vehicle itself was simplistic and even somewhat "childish" in nature at times, she used the talent she had to forge two very distinct and different personalities, so distinct and different that you actually catch yourself believing there ARE two cousins, instead of one actress in two parts. The stories were very situation and character driven, without the absurdity of some of the things that we see in modern TV today. They actually had a plot, even if it was over the top and hare brained at times.

The true joy of the show was the subtle morals and family and personal values the show portrayed. Like good television of any era, and especially of that time period, lessons were brought to us by wonderful fictional characters that we could identify with, that we felt we knew, recognized and loved dearly. How many times have you watched the show and wished your parents were as understanding and easy to get along with as Martin and Natalie Lane were? That your parents showed you the sort of interest that they did their daughter, son and niece? Life today is much faster and much more hectic, and often we miss out on the simplistic idea of our parents taking time out as this particular set did.

The entire show was one filled with good, solid values and a lot of pure, real fun, portrayed in a very realistic, but also very funny, way. We learned to laugh at ourselves and keep ourselves going from watching this show. We learned that while life is serious, we shouldn't be overly serious with it, and that just because we laughed at a situation or ourselves, it didn't subtract from the seriousness of it.

In my personal opinion, you'll find very little TV today with similar merits, honestly. The casting and acting of the show was brilliant, and I think the writing was excellent, perfect for what it was intended to be: life lessons delivered in a contemporary and fun way. I think everyone should be exposed to this show, and ones of its caliber to relearn what real, honest, good and just plain fun really is. You'd probably find yourself surprised.

I only stumbled across this classic 1960s sitcom about two months ago, having been vaguely aware of its existence beforehand and only knowing Patty Duke - who I couldn't have picked out of a line-up - as being Sean Astin's mum. After watching the insanely catchy opening credits, I decided to watch an episode of the series for two main reasons: (a) I've always been a big fan of the wonderful character actor William Schallert, who is probably best known for playing Nilz Baris in the classic "Star Trek" episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" and who still occasionally acts at nearly 91 and (b) there was an adorable Old English Sheepdog. Having previously owned one, I'm extremely partial to the breed! I wasn't expecting much, if I'm honest, but I found it to be an utterly charming and very funny series from the get go and began watching it from the beginning. Well, the dog disappeared without explanation about halfway through the first season but otherwise no complaints from me!

The series' premise may be a bit far-fetched but, considering the 1960s produced sitcoms featuring witches, genies and talking horses, it's pretty damn realistic, comparatively speaking. It concerns 16-year-old Cathy Lane (Patty Duke), the daughter of a globetrotting foreign correspondent, going to live with her uncle Martin (William Schallert) and aunt Natalie (Jean Byron) in Brooklyn Heights. Martin and Natalie have a daughter named Patty who is the same age as Cathy and just happens to look absolutely identical to her. The "explanation" for this is that Cathy and Patty's fathers are identical twins, which is quite funny as Patty Duke doesn't resemble William Schallert (who plays Cathy's father Kenneth in a few episodes) even slightly! While the premise is certainly gimmicky, the cousins' resemblance is used as a plot device far less than you might think. It's mostly an excuse for Patty Duke to play two completely different characters, the constantly scheming and slightly crazy Patty and the quiet, polite and demure Cathy, which she does to perfection. I sometimes forget that they are played by the same person. She won an Oscar at the age of 16 and it's easy to see why. Rounding out the main cast are Paul O'Keefe as Patty's wisecracking little brother Ross and Eddie Applegate as Richard Harrison, her gormless but good-natured half-puppy, half-ape of a boyfriend.

Most episodes focus on Patty's dating life or feature her jumping into a new project or scheme with a huge amount of (i.e. too much) enthusiasm, realising that she's gotten in over her head and being rescued by either Cathy or her parents. Cathy often acts as Patty's conscience and puts her back on the right track. The best thing about Patty is that, rather unusually for sitcoms of the era, she was a multi-faceted character who could at turns be kind, manipulative, sweet, egotistical, vulnerable and a fire storm. Cathy is a bit more one note at times but that's okay as she was designed as a foil for Patty anyway. William Schallert and the late Jean Byron are both extremely good as Patty's kind, patient, loving and often extremely understanding parents as they make Martin and Natalie seem like real people. They have fast become one of favourite TV fathers and mothers.

The humour is the series is gentle, generally producing a steady stream of chuckles and the occasional belly laugh in this fan, with many of the funniest lines being delivered (perfectly) by Paul O'Keefe, who was only 12 when the series started, almost all of which are at Patty's expense. It's a shame that he never got another big role (and only a few small ones) after the series ended. From what I can tell, the series is an accurate if idealised depiction of middle class 1960s America with Patty being a typical American teenager of the era, albeit one who faces more farcical situations and less serious problems than her real life counterparts. Overall, the Lanes feel like a real family, which isn't often the case with sitcom families of the era.

One thing that I found refreshing about the series is that quite a few of the extras, particularly in the school scenes, are African-Americans, which again wasn't common in late 1950s and early 1960s sitcoms. Apparently, only one single solitary black person appears in "Leave It to Beaver", which ran for 234 episodes. However, none of them are in Patty and Cathy's circle of friends and in the first two seasons only two black people - one of them being Sammy Davis, Jr. - have any dialogue. Still, it was a baby step in the right direction.

I'm curious to see how well and how fondly remembered the series is by people who watched it while it was originally on from 1963 to 1966. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, I can't recommend it highly enough. The acting, particularly from Patty Duke and William Schallert, and comic writing are both top notch. As an Irish person born in 1987, I'm proof that you don't need to be an American baby boomer to enjoy the series!

I grew up on the Patty Duke show. I looked forward to coming home from school and watching it with my friends. We would take turns watching it at each other's houses. It had everything. It was funny. Some of the pranks were hilarious. It taught family values and, even if you didn't always see eye to eye all the time, how important your family was. The Patty Duke Show also taught morality. It showed kids how to have a good time just being with friends and family without any of the vices that kids unfortunately rely on today. It basically showed just how to enjoy being young. I have three teen-age boys. They love old music and old shows, and I just wish I had the opportunity to share this very special show with them. I would really appreciate it if you could bring it to TV Land.