The Patty Duke Show is an American televisionsitcom created bySidney Sheldon andWilliam Asher. The series ran onABC from September 18, 1963, to April 27, 1966.

The Patty Duke Show
Season one opening
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Sidney Sheldon William Asher
Starring	Patty Duke William Schallert Jean Byron Paul O'Keefe Eddie Applegate
Theme music composer	Sid Ramin Robert Wells
Opening theme	"Cousins" performed by The Skip-Jacks
Composers	Sid Ramin Harry Geller
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	104(list of episodes)
Production
Producers	William Asher (episodes 1–10) Robert Costello (episodes 11–25) Stanley Prager (episodes 26–72) Bob Sweeney (season 3)
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22 mins
Production companies	Chrislaw Productions Cottage Industries, Inc. (1965–1966) United Artists Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 18, 1963 (1963-09-18) – April 27, 1966 (1966-04-27)
Related
The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' In Brooklyn Heights

The series was developed as a vehicle for teenage starPatty Duke, who had won anAcademy Award the previous year. Duke starred in dual roles of "twin cousins" Patty and Cathy Lane. The series co-starredWilliam Schallert,Jean Byron,Paul O'Keefe, andEddie Applegate.

A total of 104 black-and-white episodes, plus an unaired pilot, were produced byUnited Artists Television. ABC abruptly cancelled the series after three seasons.

Patty Lane (Duke) is a normal, chatty, rambunctious teenager who (according to the theme song lyrics) lives in theBrooklyn Heights section of New York City. Her father, Martin Lane (William Schallert), is the managing editor of theNew York Daily Chronicle; Patty affectionately addresses him as "Poppo." Her "identical paternal cousin," Cathy Lane (also played by Duke), is sophisticated, brainy and demure; her father Kenneth (also played by Schallert) is Martin's identical twin brother. Since the widowed Kenneth is often away as a foreign correspondent for theChronicle, Cathy moves to the United States to live with Patty's family – which also includes her mother Natalie (Jean Byron) and brother Ross (Paul O'Keefe) – and to attend Brooklyn Heights High School with Patty and her boyfriend Richard (Eddie Applegate).

While the girls are physically identical, their style, tastes and attitudes are nearly opposite, which is responsible for some of the comedic situations on the show. Though the character of "Cathy" received first billing over the character of "Patty" in the show's opening credits, virtually all episodes centered around Patty's misadventures, with Cathy often only playing a minor supporting role. The remarkable physical resemblance that Patty and Cathy share is explained by the fact that their fathers are identical twins. While Patty speaks with a typical American accent, Cathy speaks with a general European accent;^[1] not surprisingly, however, both cousins are able to mimic each other's voice. Patty and Cathy have an additional identical cousin,Southern belle Betsy (also played by Duke), featured in the season two episode "The Perfect Hostess".^[2]

• Patty Duke as Patty Lane and Cathy Lane
  • Duke also "guest-starred" as Betsy Lane in the episode "The Perfect Hostess" (1965)
• William Schallert as Martin Lane
  • Schallert also had adual role as Kenneth Lane in three season one episodes, and as Uncle Jed in a season three episode
• Jean Byron as Natalie Lane, Patty's mother
• Paul O'Keefe as Ross Lane, Patty's brother
• Eddie Applegate as Richard Harrison, Patty's boyfriend

Rita McLaughlin served as a double for Duke in the third season, but was never credited. In the series' unaired pilot episode,Mark Miller andCharles Herbert played Martin and Ross Lane, respectively.

• Kitty Sullivan as Sue Ellen Turner (seasons 1-2), Patty's frenemy. She was replaced by Roz and Monica Robinson in the third season.
  • Cindy Williams portrayed Sue Ellen inStill Rockin' in Brooklyn Heights when Sullivan was unavailable.
• John McGiver as J.R. Castle (season 1), Martin's boss at theChronicle. He is not shown or mentioned after the first season.
• David Doyle as Jonathan Harrison (seasons 1-2), Richard's father who is a construction engineer.
• John Spencer as Henry (seasons 1-2), one of Patty's classmates.
• Kelly Wood as Gloria (season 2), one of Patty's friends.
• Marcia Strassman as Adeline (season 2), one of Patty's classmates.
• Robyn Millan as Roz (season 3), one of Patty's classmates.
• Laura Barton/Kathy Garver as Monica Robinson (season 3), Patty's rival. She replaces the Sue Ellen Turner character.

Following herAcademy Award-winning role inThe Miracle Worker, ABC became interested in developing a series starring Duke. The network enlisted writerSidney Sheldon to develop a vehicle for Duke. Sheldon asked Duke to spend a week with his family at their home to generate ideas. During this time, he noticed that Duke had two distinct sides to her personality (later in life she would be diagnosed asmanic-depressive)^[3]: 287 Two years earlier, the Walt Disney comedyThe Parent Trap withHayley Mills as identical twins, had been a major success. Sheldon decided to star Duke as identical paternal cousins with contrasting personalities.^[3]: 115 According to Duke, he successfully captured her personality in the two characters.^[1]

In development, Cathy was initially from Scotland. Duke learned a true Scottish burr for the Cathy character. However, Duke's accent was done "so well they couldn't understand me",^[1] concerning producers that the viewers would not like or understand her with such a profound accent. Upon going into production for the series, Cathy had a "general European" background and accent.^{[3]: 120 [1]}

The pilot episode was filmed on New Year's Day 1963 at theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios inCulver City, California. Several differences in the pilot included the series being set inSan Francisco; andMark Miller andCharles Herbert portraying Martin and Ross Lane, respectively.

Even before ordering the series, it was understood that production would shift from Los Angeles toNew York City. In the previous decade, New York had dominated national network production. By the early 1960s, new formats and innovations such as coaxial cable service, film and video tape allowed for the industry to move to the West coast with the film industry. By 1963, most scripted programming was based in Hollywood, while New York served production for game shows (What's My Line), soap operas (As The World Turns), and late night shows (The Ed Sullivan Show). However, at 16 years old, Duke fell under California's strict child labor laws (known informally as theCoogan laws named after famed 1920s child actorJackie Coogan), which curtailed the number of hours that child actors could work. Since New York did not have such stringent laws at the time, and Duke already resided inManhattan, New York, the network relocated production of the series toChelsea Studios and moved the series location toBrooklyn Heights.

Upon the series order, Miller declined to move on with the series. Schallert was hired after reading for producers, and reuniting him with his Byron, his co-star fromThe Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (which had ended the season before).^[4] Sheldon and Asher wrote and produced the series, with Duke's managers John and Ethel Ross also serving as associate producers. According to Duke and others, the cast and crew members were unaware of their abuse of her.^[5]

William Asher initially served as producer. However, before going on the air, he had failed to finish a full-length episode.^[6] As a result, ABC assignedRobert Costello to produce, though he only remained until the twenty-fifth episode.^[7] Following his departure, frequent director Stanley Prager took over for the remainder of the first season, as well as the second season.

Thedual role for Duke challengedspecial effects for its time, considering that television special effects were rare in the early 1960s, particularly for a sitcom. In all episodes, Duke appeared as both characters in the same frame through use of asplit-screen effect. The technically ambitioustraveling matte process was also used from time to time, particularly in thepilot. To complement these effects, child actressRita McLaughlin was used as Duke's double (almost always seen only from behind).^[8] To differentiate the two characters to the viewing public, the character Patty wore a flip-fall hairpiece, while Cathy's character wore a more conservative turn-under hairstyle.

Midway through the second season, Duke celebrated her eighteenth birthday and fired the Rosses as her managers.^[9] As Duke was now old enough to work longer hours, ABC wanted to shift the show's production to Los Angeles. Duke initially was against the idea, but eventually agreed. With the move came new sets and new exterior shots, the latter of which seemed to place the home in an unnamed suburban neighborhood instead of Brooklyn Heights.^{[citation needed]}

During the second season, Duke had become romantically involved with assistant directorHarry Falk, and married him during the third season. He was able to direct one of the final season three episodes – in which Patty and Richard contemplate getting married – which Duke said in hindsight "was not a good idea."^[10]

The series was cancelled due to disagreements between ABC andUnited Artists Television (UATV) over filming the series in color. ABC wanted all of its shows for the upcoming 1966–67 season to be in color, while UATV claimed filmingThe Patty Duke Show in color would be too expensive.^[3]: 166 The series continued airing reruns on ABC in primetime until August 31.

The show's theme song, "Cousins,"^[11] which has since been parodied many times over in pop culture (includingRocko's Modern Life where it was parodied as the theme song to "The Bloaty and Squirmy Show"), illustrates the two girls' differences: "...where Cathy adores theminuet, theBallet Russe andcrêpes Suzette, our Patty loves herrock 'n' roll, ahot dog makes her lose control..." The song was performed by a five-voicevocal ensemble called "The Skip-Jacks," a vocal group that worked with jazz musicianDon Elliott and recorded numerous LittleGolden Records in the sixties. One of the vocalists was named Stella Stevens, no relation to theHollywood actor of the same name.

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 popular music, appearing on two episodes ofShindig! in 1965 to release a Top Ten single, "Don't Just Stand There," in one of her two appearances on the series.

PopMatters wrote that although the show's episodes are occasionally very predictable, "it's all in good fun".^[12]

William Schallert later stated that, in the third season, the series ratings plummeted after being pitted againstLost in Space.

Repeats ofThe Patty Duke Show entered local markets as early as September 1966, days after exiting ABC prime time. It remained a mainstay of daytime independent station programming well into the 1970s. A new generation of viewers was introduced to the series byNick at Nite cable, broadcasting a lengthy five-year prime time run from September 19, 1988, to August 30, 1993. On June 30, 1995, Nick at Nite showed one episode of the series during their 10th anniversary celebration. In 2005, both Nick at Nite andTV Land aired another episode of the series in honor of Nick at Nite's 20th anniversary.

In 2008,This TV began airingThe Patty Duke Show as part of an early morning classic TV block. Prior to this, the show had not appeared in national syndication since Nick at Nite dropped it from its lineup in 1993. As of 2019, episodes aired on Saturday and Sunday.

Reruns ofThe Patty Duke Show were seen onAntenna TV from 2013 until 2015 as part of that channel's regular programming schedule. From November 4, 2013, to April 6, 2014,The Patty Duke Show aired back-to-back episodes every day from 1:00–2:00pm ET; from April 7, 2014, to August 29, 2014,The Patty Duke Show aired back-to-back episodes weekday afternoons from 2:00–3:00pm ET; from September 1, 2014, to April 3, 2015, the show aired back-to-back episodes weekday mornings from 6:00–7:00am ET; from April 6, 2015, to September 11, 2015, it aired back-to-back episodes Monday-Friday from 9:00–10:00am ET. From January 4, 2016, to September 2, 2016, the series aired weekday mornings at 6:00am–6:30am onMeTV.

The show can currently be seen onCircle.

On April 27, 1999, the thirty-third anniversary of the ABC cancellation ofThe Patty Duke Show, rival networkCBS aired the television filmThe Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' In Brooklyn Heights, which reunited Duke, Schallert, Byron (in her final on-screen role before her death in February 2006), O'Keefe and Applegate. The film was meant to be a backdoor pilot to a revival of the series, though these plans never came to fruition.

In the film, Patty and Richard married after graduating high school, and had a son Michael (Alain Goulem) before an amicable divorce after nearly 27 years of marriage. Michael is married with a teenage daughter Molly (Jane McGregor). Patty works as the drama teacher at Brooklyn Heights High School. Cathy is widowed and living in Scotland with her teenage son Liam McAllister (Kent Riley). Martin and Natalie moved to Florida after Martin retired fromThe New York Daily Chronicle.

The film revolves around a Lane family reunion, where the family bands together against the plans of Sue Ellen Caldwell (portrayed present-day byCindy Williams, since original portrayer Kitty Sullivan was unavailable) to tear down the high school for a shopping center. Patty and Richard also confront their continued feelings post-divorce, reconciling by the end of the film.

Several clips of the original series were shown as flashbacks. Kitty Sullivan is shown in one of these flashbacks.

In 2009, Duke reprised her dual roles from the show in apublic service announcement (PSA) for theSocial Security Administration, in which Patty asked Cathy about where she got her information about how to get Social Security benefits and other questions, such as how to apply online. The PSA was targeted towardbaby boomers who were born or who grew up in the 1960s. In 2010, the surviving cast reprised their respective roles in a series of PSAs, again for the Social Security Administration.

Shout! Factory has released all three seasons ofThe Patty Duke Show on DVD in Region 1.

• The Parent Trap (1961 film starringHayley Mills,remade in 1998 withLindsay Lohan) — a film that where Mills, and later Lohan, also played double roles
• Liv and Maddie —Disney Channel sitcom starringDove Cameron as twins. Duke made her final acting appearance in a season three episode playing the title characters' grandmother and great-aunt

• The Patty Duke Show atIMDb
• The Patty Duke Show atepguides.com
• Season 1 DVD review and production notes