The Patty Duke Show | |
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The Patty Duke Show season one opening
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Genre | Sitcom |
Created by |
William Asher Sidney Sheldon |
Written by | Gary Abrams William Asher David Butler Arnold Horwitt Roy Kammerman Sidney Sheldon |
Directed by |
Bruce Bilson Harry Falk Claudio Guzmán Stanley Prager Alan Rafkin James Sheldon Don Weis |
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 |
Composer(s) |
Sid Ramin Harry Geller |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 104 + unaired pilot (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Producer(s) | William Asher Stanley Prager Bob Sweeney |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company(s) | Chrislaw Productions Cottage Industries, Inc. (1965–1966) United Artists Television |
Distributor | MGM Television |
Release | |
Original network | ABC |
Picture format | Black-and-white |
Audio format | Monaural |
Original release | September 18, 1963 – April 27, 1966 |
Chronology | |
Followed by | The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' In Brooklyn Heights (1999 TV movie) |
The Patty Duke Show is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from September 18, 1963 to April 27, 1966, with reruns airing through August 31. The show was created as a vehicle for rising star Patty Duke. 105 episodes were produced, 104 of them airing over three seasons, most written by either Sidney Sheldon or William Asher, who co-created the series.
Patricia "Patty" Lane (Duke) is a normal, chatty, rambunctious teenager living in the Brooklyn Heights section of New York City. Her father, Martin Lane (William Schallert), is the managing editor of the New York Daily Chronicle; Patty affectionately addresses him as "Poppo". Her "identical cousin", Catherine "Cathy" Margaret Rowan Lane (also played by Duke), is sophisticated, brainy, and demure, and her father, Kenneth Lane (also played by Schallert), Martin's identical twin brother, also works for the Chronicle as a foreign correspondent. Cathy moves to the United States from Scotland to live with Patty's family and attend Brooklyn Heights High School. While both girls are identical in physical appearance, 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 slight Scottish accent; not surprisingly, however, both cousins are able to mimic each other's voice. Patty and Cathy also have an additional identical cousin, the Southern belle Betsy (also played by Patty Duke herself), featured in the season two episode "The Perfect Hostess."
In the series unaired pilot episode, Mark Miller played Martin Lane and Charles Herbert played Ross Lane.
The show's theme song, "Cousins," which has since been parodied many times over in pop culture, illustrates the two girls' differences: "...where Cathy adores the minuet, the Ballet Russe and crêpes Suzette, our Patty loves to rock 'n' roll, a hot dog makes her lose control..." and was sung by a five-voice vocal ensemble called "The Skip-Jacks," who also performed The Flintstones' theme song.