The Patty Duke Show: 12 Things You Probably Never Knew About The '60s Sitcom

"The Patty Duke Show" (1963 to 1966) is one of the most beloved sitcoms of its era. The show revolved around Patty Duke playing identical cousins Patty and Cathy Lane. It was part of a wave of 1960s comedy films and television shows that revolved around actors playing multiple roles, such as "The Parent Trap" and "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

The sitcom captured a slice of American youth culture when it was transitioning from the mores of the earlier part of the decade to the rock 'n' roll ethos of the late '60s. It also served as a cultural touchstone for the baby boomer generation. During a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Duke said she was happy to see the impact her show had on the world. "There is a community or a coming together that I treasure," she said. "When someone comes up to me — and they might have white hair like mine — and they say, 'I grew up with you,' I say, 'Now we're growing old together.'" Duke passed away in 2016 at the age of 69, but her legacy lives on through "The Patty Duke Show." 

In addition to its generational impact, "The Patty Duke Show" has a storied history. For example, the series might not exist without a film about Helen Keller. It also has a major connection to "I Dream of Jeannie." Even with all its accomplishments, Duke never made much money from her most famous role. Here are more facts you probably never knew about the '60s sitcom. 

Many people learned about Helen Keller through the play "The Miracle Worker" and its film adaptations. Perhaps the most famous of those adaptations was the 1962 film "The Miracle Worker," starring Patty Duke as Keller and Anne Bancroft as Anne Sullivan. 

During an interview with the Arcada Theater, Duke discussed the iconic role. "I really wanted this part," she recalled. "During the audition process, Anne Bancroft and I got very physical — she hit me and I hit her back. It was like being a boxer in the ring. Anne and I had to wear a lot of padding. About a year into the stage show I started to go through adolescence and one night Anne grabbed me by the chest and I went to the moon. So my chest had to be padded down with a version of a catcher's vest and then it had to be waterproofed."

"The Miracle Worker" impacted Duke's career in two major ways. One is that she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role. The other was that the success of the film inspired ABC to develop a series for her: "The Patty Duke Show."

"The Patty Duke Show" was the brainchild of Sidney Shelton. Shelton was known for writing classic musical movies such as "Easter Parade" starring the incomparable Judy Garland and "Annie Get Your Gun." Shelton's idea for the show was inspired by the time he spent with Patty Duke. During an interview with the Arcada Theater, Duke recalled the origins of her show. "Sidney invited me to stay with him and his family for a week so he could get to know me better," Duke said. "He had no idea of what to make the show about. But he was such a genius. He noticed my two sides and came up with the idea for 'The Patty Duke Show.'"

At first, Shelton wanted Duke to play identical twins. Sheldon said that series co-creator William Asher decided she should play identical cousins instead, though Asher was unsure which of them had that idea. The premise of Duke playing identical cousins might seem odd to a modern audience. However, Duke said that it fit in well with the iconic 1960s TV landscape. "It was TV at the time," she said. "Remember shows like 'The Beverly Hillbillies' and 'The Addams Family' ... They were [all] 'out there.'"

The initial run of "The Patty Duke Show" partially coincided with that of another classic sitcom, "I Dream of Jeannie" (see what star Barbara Eden looks like now), which lasted from 1965 to 1970. The two shows shared one major creative figure: Sidney Sheldon. The success of "The Patty Duke Show" led the television studio Screen Gems to ask Sheldon to create another sitcom. Then, Sheldon developed "I Dream of Jeannie." 

During a 2000 interview with the Television Academy Foundation, Sheldon discussed his workload in the 1960s. "I got out to Hollywood and they made a deal for me to have my own company and produce 'I Dream of Jeannie,'" he recalled. "Meanwhile, I had to fly back to New York every week because I was the story editor and almost the sole writer for 'The Patty Duke Show.' I was writing both shows at once because I had no idea that it couldn't be done."

After the conclusion of "I Dream of Jeannie," Sheldon created the series "Hart to Hart." He also had a successful career writing novels, the most famous being "The Other Side of Midnight." Sheldon died in 2007 at the age of 89.

The character of Cathy Lane on "The Patty Duke Show" was Scottish. In her 1987 book "Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke," the actor discussed conducting extensive research to truly embody the role. Patty Duke learned about the rituals of Scottish Rite Freemasonry and practiced the bagpipes. She even taught herself how to speak with a Scottish brogue. 

After the pilot episode was completed, all of that effort turned out to be wasted. Producers feared there would be difficulty understanding Duke's simulated Scottish accent, so it was dropped from the show. Ultimately, Duke was told to play Cathy with a generic European accent that sounded like it was from no country in particular. Duke disliked this choice, feeling that Cathy's accent should have been grounded in a specific place. Despite this, Duke still enjoyed playing the part. "I couldn't wait to get to Cathy," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. "She was sensible, and I'd like to think she was classy."

The original pilot of "The Patty Duke Show" was never aired. During a 2009 interview with SFGate, William Schallert, who played the father in the series, discussed some of the differences between the original pilot and the aired version. "They ... fitted me into the [aired] pilot because I was not the original choice," he recalled. "Mark Miller, who went on to do 'Please Don't Eat the Daisies,' was the original father on the show, but they had a falling out. I'm not sure what it was about. I've seen the original pilot. It was set in San Francisco, so one thing was that they moved to New York to shoot for the first two years."

There were other ways in which the unaired pilot differed from the completed show. Originally, the Lane family was wealthy; Patty was called "Nancy"; and Charles Herbert, not Paul O'Keefe, played Ross Lane. Ultimately, clips from the unaired pilot became part of the show's intro sequence.

"The Patty Duke Show" was not one of the edgier shows on television in the 1960s, but its theme song, "Cousins," was considered risqué. "Cousins," was composed by Sid Ramin, who also crafted the music for the original movie version of "West Side Story," and performed by The Skip-Jacks, the same group behind the theme song from "The Flintstones." "Cousins" contrasts the lives and personalities of Cathy and Patty Lane with the lines, "Where Cathy adores a minuet. The Ballets Russes, and crêpes Suzette. Our Patty loves her rock 'n' roll. A hot dog makes her lose control! What a wild duet!"

The line about Patty's love for hot dogs was considered a bit suggestive. Despite any upset the lyric may have caused, "Cousins" endured. Patty Duke was amazed by how many people knew every word of it decades after "The Patty Duke Show" was canceled. The tune was so popular that strangers who encountered Duke in public would sing it to her, something she found endearing but a bit awkward. In addition, the electronic band Smersh released an avant-garde version of "Cousins" on their 1989 record "Big Delushus."

The central appeal of "The Patty Duke Show" was watching its star play two distinct roles: Cathy Lane, a reserved and learned young lady from Scotland, and Patty, an American girl who loved dancing and rock music. During a 2014 interview with American Archive of Television, Patty Duke said playing a dual role wasn't easy. "I knew it was gonna be a challenge, and I didn't know how I would do it," she said. "I knew eventually that they were not going to be two whole people. In order to create one, I had to take away from the other or add to Patty, let's say energy to Patty that Cathy didn't have. And that was the best device I could come up with to make them different."

Duke revealed she preferred playing Cathy. "I liked the earnestness of her," she explained. "She seemed more mature. And remember, I was getting older and I wanted my maturity to be respected." Notably, Duke once played a third role on the sitcom. In the episode "The Perfect Hostess," she portrayed another cousin named Betsy Lane who came between Cathy and Patty. Throughout the series, Duke's versatility as an actor was on full display.  

"The Patty Duke Show" was one of the most popular series of its time, lasting three seasons and 104 episodes. Initially, Patty Duke saw none of them. That is because John and Ethel Ross, Duke's management team, did not allow her to watch the show. In a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Duke explained the Rosses felt that she would be "puffing [herself] up" if she viewed her own sitcom. Sometimes, she could hear the Rosses watching the show, but she was never allowed to see it. She called the Rosses "very misguided people."

It wasn't until the 1980s that Duke finally saw "The Patty Duke Show." She was channel surfing while waiting for her boyfriend to finish work when she happened upon an episode. Duke had mixed feelings about the series, but she thought it had its charms. She liked to think the series resonated because it featured some of her genuine teenage vulnerability.

During her 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Patty Duke discussed watching "The Patty Duke Show." "One day I was clicking around the channels and all of a sudden there is Patty," she recalled. "The first thing I thought was 'What is that ugly hair? They actually let me go out like that?' But by the end of the show, I realized it did have some value. Patty was doing naughty things, but she had respect for her parents."

In her 1987 book "Call Me Anna," she wrote that the rising divorce rate in the United States may have contributed to her sitcom's success. While "The Patty Duke Show" could get ridiculous and the character Patty would act out, the Lane family always stood firm. Duke felt that this aspect of the show served as comfort to the children watching.

"The Patty Duke Show" had a bit of a musical résumé. The show's roster of guest stars included a number of famous musicians, including Sammy Davis Jr., Frankie Avalon, and the British Invasion duo Chad & Jeremy. With that in mind, it makes sense that Patty Duke had a second career as a singer. "It was part of the marketing for the show," Duke told the Los Angeles Times in her 2013 interview. "I had delusions I could sing. I was beyond excited until I got into the studio. I felt about an inch and a half tall. I just was frozen. So they had to put a person in the booth with me so they could point to me when it was time to sing."

Duke had one major hit. Her song "Don't Just Stand There" peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her three other charting singles were "Say Something Funny," which reached No. 22, "Funny Little Butterflies," which reached No. 77, and "Whenever She Holds You," which reached No. 64. Her album "Don't Just Stand There" reached No. 90 on the Billboard 200, lasting on the chart for 12 weeks.

"The Patty Duke Show" was a huge success, but it was not lucrative for its star. In her book "Call Me Anna," Patty Duke estimated that she earned about $300,000 for starring in the show's three seasons. However, when she turned 18, there was only $84,000 in savings bonds in her bank account. Duke knew where the money went. Her managers, John and Ethel Ross, lived a lavish lifestyle with dinners at fancy restaurants and regular vacations. "Without either myself or my parents having any kind of say in the matter, my earnings supported a decade's worth of (the Rosses') very expensive living," she wrote. When Duke realized the Rosses had taken so much money from her, she didn't even bother to discuss the matter with them. She knew they would not be able to explain themselves and that the money was gone.

John died in 1970 and Ethel, in 1978. Despite their unethical behavior, Duke came to forgive the couple. "I forgive them for the bad and have come to acknowledge that if I love this life I have – and I do – then certainly they are responsible for it in a large part," she told People in 1999.

William Schallert was an actor with an eclectic career. In the 1950s, he appeared in a number of notable B movies, such as "The Man from Planet X," "Captive Women," and "The Incredible Shrinking Man." He later gained even more fame for playing Martin Lane, the father figure on "The Patty Duke Show." Patty Duke said their chemistry on the show was real. "The family we created [on] the show was very much a family," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2013. "That was my safety zone."

While Martin was one of his most famous characters, Schallert wasn't a huge fan of the sitcom. In a 1966 interview with the Los Angeles Times (via Woman's World), he explained why. "The success or failure of the series never depended on me," he opined. "The guys on 'Bonanza' all have an equal load to pull. On our series Patty played both the first and second lead. I'm sure Patty's glad the grind's over, too."

Schallert had a notable career after "The Patty Duke Show" was canceled. He appeared in many movies, including the Best Picture-winning thriller "In the Heat of the Night," "Speedway" (starring Frank Sinatra's daughter, Nancy Sinatra), and the science fiction cult classics "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes," "Colossus: The Forbin Project," "The Twilight Zone: The Movie," and "Innerspace." He died in 2016 at the age of 93.