The Patty Duke Show Turns 60

Patty Duke as Patty and Cathy Lane

If ever there was a Golden Age for sitcoms with strange premises, it was the 1960s. Among those sitcoms with strange premises was The Patty Duke Show. The Patty Duke Show starred Patty Duke as teenage, identical cousins (yes, you read that right). Patty Lane was a typical, American teenager, exuberant and talkative, who lived in Brooklyn Heights in New York City. Her identical cousin, Cathy Lane came from Scotland to live with the Lanes. As opposed to Patty, Cathy was intelligent, cultured, and reserved. Their identical appearance were explained by the fact that Patty's father Martin (William Schallert) and Cathy's father Kenneth (also played by William Schallert) were identical twins.

Patty Duke had begun her acting career when she was still very young. When she was only eight years old she was signed to talent managers John and Ethel Ross, who had managed her brother. While the Rosses would turn Patty Duke into a star, her time with them was not entirely pleasant. Ultimately, they were both exploitative and abusive. They dictated her whole career. Born Anna Marie Duke, John and Ethel Ross changed her name to "Patty Duke." They plied her with both alcohol and prescription drugs. They even pocketed $1 million of her earnings for themselves. Patty Duke would only see her mother when she came to do the Rosses' laundry.

While John and Ethel Ross's management left much to be desired, Patty Duke had real talent even when she was very young. After appearances in movies and on television, Patty Duke was cast as Helen Keller in the Broadway play The Miracle Worker. She won a Theatre World Award for her role in the play in 1960. The Miracle Worker would be adapted as the 1962 movie The Miracle Worker, for which Patty Duke won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. 

It was even before Patty Duke had won the Oscar that she was signed to Peter Lawford's production company Chrislaw Productions with the intent of starring her in her own series. A deal was made with the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), who bought The Patty Duke Show on the basis of Patty Duke's name alone. ABC even scheduled the show on Wednesday night at 8:00 PM Eastern without having a premise for the show in place. To create the show, ABC turned to Sidney Sheldon, who had written or co-written the screenplays for such films as The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), Easter Parade (1948), and Annie Get Your Gun (1950).

When Sidney Sheldon's agent Sam Weisbord contacted him about The Patty Duke Show, his initial response was turn the show down because he did not work in television. Sam Weisbord then asked Sidney Sheldon to have lunch with Patty Duke simply out of courtesy, to which Mr. Sheldon consented. During their lunch Sidney Sheldon and Patty Duke hit it off, and he asked her if she would like to have dinner with him, his wife Jorja, and his daughter that night. That night Sidney Sheldon's wife Jorja was as taken with Patty Duke as he was, and the three of them had a pleasant evening. It was while Sidney Sheldon and his wife were having a conversation that they realized Patty Duke had left the table. They found her in their kitchen doing dishes. It was then that Sidney Sheldon decided he would develop The Patty Duke Show. In her autobiography Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke, Patty Duke (who would later be diagnosed with bipolar disorder), theorized that Sidney Sheldon "...felt I was schizoid and that's how he came up with the concept. There was the perky me and the corporate executive me and rarely the twain shall meet." What Patty Duke might not have known at the time is that Sidney Sheldon had also struggled with bipolar disorder for years.

The pilot for The Patty Duke Show was filmed on January 1 1963 at MGM Studios in Culver City. The pilot would differ somewhat from the television series. Rather than being set in Brooklyn Heights, it was set in San Francisco. Mark Miller played Martin Lane. Mark Miller objected to the plan to eventually move filming of The Patty Duke Show from New York City to California, so for the series he was replaced by William Schallert, who had earlier played Mr. Pomfritt on Dobie Gillis. Patty's younger brother Ross was played by Charles Herbert in the pilot. In the series he was replaced by Paul O'Keefe.

The rest of the cast from the pilot would remain on the television series. Jean Byron played Patty's mother Natalie Lane. Like William Schallert, she was a veteran of Dobie Gillis, having played Mrs. Adams and later Dr. Burkhart on that show. Eddie Applegate played Patty's boyfriend Richard Harrison. In addition to the regular cast, throughout its run The Patty Duke Show featured a number of recurring characters. In the first two seasons Kitty Sullivan played Patty's friend and occasional rival Sue Ellen Turner. In the first season John McGiver played Martin's boss at the newspaper. Donald Doyle appeared as Patty's boyfriend Richard's father, Jonathan Harrison, in the show's first two seasons.

Of course, as Patty Duke played both Patty and Cathy, it took visual effects to show the two cousins together. This was accomplished using a split-screen effect, and less often a travelling matte effect. Those times when one of the cousins was not facing the camera, a double for Miss Duke would be used. In the third season an uncredited young actress Rita McLaughlin served as Patty Duke's double. Rita McLaughlin had earlier appeared on Watch Mr. Wizard and was later a regular on the soap operas The Secret Storm and As the World Turns.

Throughout its run The Patty Duke Show featured some well-known guest stars. Some famous stars played themselves in episodes. Peter Lawford, whose company Chrislaw Productions was among those responsible for the  show, played himself in one episode. Both Frankie Avalon and Sammy Davis Jr. played themselves in episodes. Troy Donahue, Margaret Hamilton, and Frank Sinatra Jr. all guest starred on the show. Pop duo Chad & Jeremy guest starred as an undiscovered pop act, Nigel & Patrick.

The Patty Duke Show debuted on September 18 1963. For the most part reviews for the show were modest. Associated Press television and radio writer Cynthia Lowry wrote, "The new Patty Duke Show, also on ABC, may not win that able young actress any new performing awards, but as a comedy about a modern teenager, it may amuse teenagers--and maybe even teenagers' parents." Columnist Harriet Van Horne thought, "The Patty Duke Show is a charming half hour for teenagers (ABC)...," but added, "Trouble with the show is that little Miss Duke plays a dual role. And her alter ego, a visiting cousin from Graustark, should be put on the next boat home." Rick Du Brow, writing for United Press International, was even less impressed with the show. He wrote that Patty Duke "...is a beautiful young lady, but she will have to be a miracle worker to do anything with this stupid concept and overall inane offering."

While The Patty Duke Show may not have impressed many critics, it did prove to be a success with viewers. In its first season it ranked no. 18 for the year in the Nielsen ratings. This was particularly impressive given its competition on Wednesday night was the hit Western The Virginian on NBC, which ranked no. 17 for the year in the ratings. The Patty Duke Show continued to do well in its second season, ranking no.28 for the year.

The Patty Duke Show was filmed at Chelsea Studios in New York City for its first two seasons. For one thing, Patty Duke already lived in New York City. For another, Patty Duke was only 16 when the show began, which meant she would have fallen under California's Coogan Act which restricts how many hours child actors can work. Patty Duke turned 18 a little less than halfway through the show's second season. While Patty Duke initially opposed the idea, ABC wanted to move filming of the show to Los Angeles for its third season. This meant a change in the show's sets. And even though The Patty Duke Show was still set in Brooklyn Heights, it also meant new exterior shots. The Lane's house now looked as if it was in a Los Angeles suburb instead of a house in Brooklyn Heights.

It was also following her 18th birthday that Patty Duke fired John and Ethel Ross as her managers. John Ross would remain as an associate producer on the show until it ended its run in 1966. Patty Duke has said that none of the other cast and crew were ever aware that the Rosses had abused her.

Ratings for The Patty Duke Show dropped again in its third season, so that it no longer ranked in the top thirty of the Nielsen ratings for the year. The Patty Duke Show still did well enough that it could have been renewed. Unfortunately, a disagreement emerged between ABC and United Artists Television. For the 1966-1967 season ABC wanted every one of its television shows to be shot in colour. United Artists Television, perhaps because of the special effects it took to show Patty and Cathy together, insisted it would be too expensive to shoot the show in colour. The Patty Duke Show then ended its original run.

The Patty Duke Show would go onto success as a syndicated rerun, airing on local stations throughout the Seventies and into the Eighties. It later aired for several years on Nick at Nite. Still later it would air on such outlets as TV Land, This TV, Antenna TV, MeTV, and Circle. Shout! Factory released the entire run of the show on DVD.  It is currently available on streaming on both Pluto and YouTube.

Like many shows in the 1990s, there would be a reunion television movie for The Patty Duke Show. In The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' In Brooklyn Heights, Patty and Richard married, had a son, and then divorced after 27 years of marriage. Patty currently worked as a drama teacher at Brooklyn Heights High School. Cathy had returned to Scotland, where she married and was later widowed. She had a son as well. Martin had retired, and he and Natalie had moved to Florida. The plot centred around a Lane family reunion and the Lanes trying to save the high school from being demolished to make way for a shopping centre. The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' In Brooklyn Heights aired on April 27 1999 on CBS. Meant as a pilot for a new series, the new show never emerged.

In 2009 Patty Duke appeared as Patty and Cathy Lane in a public service announcement for the Social Security Administration. In the announcement, Patty sought help from Cathy about accessing her Social Security benefits and son. The oldest Baby Boomers were approaching retirement age at the time, and so it made sense for the Social Security Administration to appeal to them through a show from their youth. In 2010 another PSA for the Social Security Administration was produced. In that PSA, not only did Patty Duke reprise her role as Patty and Cathy, but William Schallert appeared as Martin, Paul O'Keefe appeared as Ross, and Eddie Applegate appeared as Richard. In the PSA, Patty and Richard appeared to be married.

For most of its run The Patty Duke Show was a somewhat predictable sitcom, even given its unusual premise. What made it remarkable was its cast. Patty Duke did very well playing both Patty and Cathy, and it was not difficult telling the identical cousins apart through their speech patterns and body language alone. William Schallert and Jean Byron were impressive as Patty's parents Martin and Natalie. Indeed, William Schallert not only played Martin, but Martins' twin brother Kenneth, and Martin and Kenneth's Uncle Jed as well. While the average episode of The Patty Duke Show may not have held any surprises for viewers, over all the show was quite funny. Today The Patty Duke Show still holds up very well, so that audiences will still be watching it for years to come.