The Paul Lynde Halloween Special

Starting in the late Forties, Christmas specials were common on television into the Eighties. This was not the case with Halloween specials, which were unknown in the earliest days of television.  As strange as it might seem, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was among the earliest Halloween specials when it debuted in 1966. This began to change in the late Seventies when a number of Halloween specials were produced, including Halloween is Grinch Night, Fat Albert's Halloween Special, Bugs Bunny’s Howl-oween Special, Witch's Night Out, and The Devil and Daniel Mouse. While Halloween specials were rare for much of television's first few decades, variety specials were very common. It should come as no surprise that among the earliest Halloween specials was a variety special. The Paul Lynde Halloween Special aired on ABC on October 26 1976. Even today it has to be seen to be believed.

In the Seventies, as now, Paul Lynde was probably best known as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and the centre square on The Hollywood Squares. In the Seventies he was under contract to ABC. With the end of Bewitched, ABC decided to give Mr. Lynde his own sitcom, The Paul Lynde Show. The Paul Lynde Show did not do particularly well in the ratings and was cancelled at the end of the season.  With the sitcom Temperatures Rising doing poorly in the ratings, ABC then decided to retool the show and replaced series lead James Whitmore with Paul Lynde. Ultimately The New Temperatures Rising did even more poorly in the ratings than Temperatures Rising had. After thirteen episodes the show was revamped again, with Paul Lynde still in the lead. Debuting as a summer replacement, it only lasted seven more episodes before it was cancelled.

Having failed to find a series for Paul Lynde, ABC then decided to feature the actor and comedian in a series of variety specials. The first special, The Paul Lynde Comedy Hour, aired on November 6 1976. The Paul Lynde Halloween Special was the second of the specials. The special's head writer, Bruce Vilanch, thought that Paul Lynde's style of comedy was too grating for him to be a lead, and so he decided to give the special a large ensemble cast. The end result was that The Paul Lynde Halloween Special had what can accurately be described as an all-star cast. Margaret Hamilton, then as now best remembered for The Wizard of Oz (1939) appeared as Paul Lynde's housekeeper Margaret and the Wicked Witch of the West. Billie Hayes reprised her role as Witchiepoo from H. R. Pufnstuf. The Paul Lynde Halloween Special also featured appearances by Billy Barty, Tim Conway, Roz Kelly (reprising her role as Pinky Tuscadero from Happy Days), Betty White, and Florence Henderson, with a cameo by Donny and Marie Osmond. Among the most notable guest stars on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special were the rock band KISS in their first appearance on primetime television.

Here it must be stressed just how significant KISS's appearance on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special was at the time. In the Sixties it was not unusual for major rock groups to appear on variety specials, with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Doors, and others appearing on variety shows from The Ed Sullivan Show to The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. By the mid-Seventies, however, it was rare for major rock groups to appear on American television beyond such specialized shows as Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. KISS's appearance on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special was then very unusual at the time.

Given how rare it was for major rock groups to appear on American primetime television in the mid-Seventies, it should come as no surprise that KISS's manager Bob Aucoin initially turned the producers of The Paul Lynde Halloween Special down. It was after the producers explained how KISS would figure in the special that he finally agreed. KISS performed "Detroit Rock City," "Beth," and  "King of the Night Time World." Their appearance on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special would appear to have helped KISS's career. Their previous album, Destroyer, had done well on the charts, but peaked at no. 11 on the Billboard album chart. Their next album, Rock and Roll Over, was released on November 11 1976, around two weeks after the special aired. It became their first album to be certified a gold record. Their album following Rock and Roll Over, Love Gun, would go platinum.

Although there are summaries of its plot online, the plot of The Paul Lynde Halloween Special is secondary to the special's many guests and its various skits and songs. One gets to see Betty White as "Miss Halloween," Paul Lynde as a trucker with Tim Conway as his rival, Florence Henderson as Lady Cecily Westinghouse (with Tim Conway as Paul Lynde's rival for her hand in the skit), and more. Like many variety specials of the Seventies, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special managed to cram as many Seventies fads into one hour of television as possible, including truckers, CB radios, Happy Days, KISS, and even disco.

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special would prove popular enough (or perhaps notorious enough) to have been released on home video, a rarity for television specials. After KISS's appearance on the show had been featured on the DVD KISSOLOGY The Ultimate Kiss Collection Vol.1 1974-1977 in 2006, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special was released on DVD in 2007.

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special would be followed by five more Paul Lynde specials, the last one being Paul Lynde Goes M-A-A-A-AD in 1979. While Paul Lynde did seven specials for ABC in the late Seventies, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special remains the best remembered. And it seems likely that it would be the best remembered even if it had not featured the first primetime appearance of KISS. Even by the standards of the Seventies, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special was downright bizarre. In fact, of the many television specials that aired in the Seventies, only The Star Wars Holiday Special may be stranger. Of course, the difference between the two is that The Paul Lynde Halloween Special is much more entertaining.