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. A total of 105 black-and-white episodes were produced, 104 of
them airing over three seasons. Most episodes were written by either
Sidney Sheldon or William Asher, the show's creators.Patty Lane (Duke)
is a normal, chatty, rambunctious teenager living in the Brooklyn
Heights section of New York City, although the setting and characters
resemble more simple Middle America (United States). 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 and her father, Kenneth (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 what is supposed to be a slight Scottish accent (though in fact
it has little resemblance to one); 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 Duke), featured in the season two episode "The Perfect
Hostess."Patty Lane (Duke) is a normal, chatty, rambunctious teenager
living in the Brooklyn Heights section of New York City, although the
setting and characters resemble more simple Middle America (United
States). 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 and her father,
Kenneth (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 what is supposed to be a slight Scottish
accent (though in fact it has little resemblance to one); 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 Duke), 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 ABC network was interested in producing a show with Duke as
the star, but had no concept of what the show was to be about.
Producer and writer Sidney 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),:287 so came up with the
concept of identical paternal cousins with contrasting
personalities.:115 According to Duke, he successfully captured her
personality in the two characters. The Patty Duke Show Top Movies & Young Movies