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The Patty Duke Show
The Patty Duke Show is an American television sitcom created by Sidney Sheldon and William Asher. The series ran on ABC from September 18, 1963, to April 27, 1966.
The series was developed as a vehicle for teenage star Patty Duke, who had won an Academy Award the previous year. Duke starred in dual roles of "twin cousins" Patty and Cathy Lane. The series co-starred William Schallert, Jean Byron, Paul O'Keefe, and Eddie Applegate.
A total of 104 black-and-white episodes, plus an unaired pilot, were produced by United 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 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 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 the Chronicle, 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; 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".
Rita McLaughlin served as a double for Duke in the third season, but was never credited. In the series' unaired pilot episode, Mark Miller and Charles Herbert played Martin and Ross Lane, respectively.
Following her Academy Award-winning role in The Miracle Worker, ABC became interested in developing a series starring Duke. The network enlisted writer Sidney 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 as manic-depressive) Two years earlier, the Walt Disney comedy The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills as identical twins, had been a major success. Sheldon decided to star Duke as identical paternal cousins with contrasting personalities. According to Duke, he successfully captured her personality in the two characters.
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", 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.
The Patty Duke Show
The Patty Duke Show is an American television sitcom created by Sidney Sheldon and William Asher. The series ran on ABC from September 18, 1963, to April 27, 1966.
The series was developed as a vehicle for teenage star Patty Duke, who had won an Academy Award the previous year. Duke starred in dual roles of "twin cousins" Patty and Cathy Lane. The series co-starred William Schallert, Jean Byron, Paul O'Keefe, and Eddie Applegate.
A total of 104 black-and-white episodes, plus an unaired pilot, were produced by United 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 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 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 the Chronicle, 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; 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".
Rita McLaughlin served as a double for Duke in the third season, but was never credited. In the series' unaired pilot episode, Mark Miller and Charles Herbert played Martin and Ross Lane, respectively.
Following her Academy Award-winning role in The Miracle Worker, ABC became interested in developing a series starring Duke. The network enlisted writer Sidney 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 as manic-depressive) Two years earlier, the Walt Disney comedy The Parent Trap with Hayley Mills as identical twins, had been a major success. Sheldon decided to star Duke as identical paternal cousins with contrasting personalities. According to Duke, he successfully captured her personality in the two characters.
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", 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.