Meet Cathy who's lived most everywhere . . . The Patty Duke Show returns. Double the fun?

November 10, 1:08 PMPittsburgh Stage and Screen ExaminerAlan Petrucelli

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They laugh alike. They walk alike. At times, they even talk alike. What a crazy pair!
     But when identical teen cousins—daffy Patty Lane and demure Cathy Lane—get together, their two different worlds create ’60s sitcom at its best.
     Well maybe not best.
      It’s not that The Patty Duke Show: The Complete First Season (Shout! Factory) doesn’t hold up, but it simply proves Sidney Sheldon and Bill Asher, the show’s creators, didn’t always hit a home run. This was Sid’s training ground; he’d go on to write 5,678 bestsellers and create the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. Bill had worked on I Love Lucy---material far superior than this stuff---and he’d later go on to Bewitched and Gidget. Here his work is as good as the material.
     Many of the episodes are dated (crazy!) and the tricks and techniques used to have Cathy/Patty on screen at the same time are noticeable, and at times, annoying.
     Still, there’s no denying this is a slice of TV pop culture. By the time the show debuted in 1963, Duke had won an Oscar for her brilliant performance as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962)---indeed, Patty Duke was the first young star to have a television show named after her.
     In later years, she’d talk candidly about her bipolar disorder, and the signs and hints visible here make one wonder how much of a toll the double roles---and talking to herself!---took on her mind. This is especially when the name “John Ross,” the man who was her mentor/manager/guardian unrolls in the credits. Ross worked overtime, carefully monitoring how Duke appeared to the public; she may have looked happy and carefree, but she’d later reveal she was depressed and miserable and felt pressure to always succeed.
     Duke was only 16 when production began, the show was filmed in New York because New York's child labor laws were more liberal than in California, thus allowing Duke to work more hours per day. When Duke turned 18 before filming of the final season began, production was moved to Los Angeles, though the setting of the TV series remained the same Brooklyn Heights neighborhood it had always been.
     Oh yes, before we forget: For the scenes featuring both Patty and Cathy, actress Rita Walter played the back of Patty's or Cathy's head. She can also be seen in several episodes as a background character.
     Oh yes, again: The reason that Patty and Cathy looked exactly alike is because their fathers were identical twins, both played by William Schallert.
     If anything good came out this, it was Duke’s bold move, at 18, to nab the role of Nelly O’Hara in the 1967 big-screen version of Jacqueline’s Susann’s sizzling bestseller Valley of the Dolls.
     Duke played a druggie who was based on the life of Judy Garland, another unhappy child star who had been forced into adulthood and stardom and with whom Duke had more in common than she probably knew at the time.
      Valley of the Dolls was a major flop, but has since gained cult status. It's our fave flick; in fact, we mention it every time we see Patty, who rolls her eyes and groans (cheerfully), “Oh no! Not again!”)
     Read our interview with Duke here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-4636-Pittsburgh-Stage-and-Screen-Examiner~y2009m3d18-Still-able-to-put-up-her-Duke-A-candid-chat-with-Valley-of-the-Dolls-icon-Patty-Duke
     Back to the series. It’s fun to take a trip back in time watching various famous folk make appearances . . . some before they actually became famous. Among the guest stars in this set: Frankie Avalon, Phil Foster, John McGiver, John Spencer, David Doyle, George S. Irving, Estelle Parsons, Margaret Hamilton, Roger C. Carmel, Jean-Pierre Aumont and Charles Nelson Reilly and Paul Lynde who were big queens even back then, even before the great unwashed masses knew what “nelly” meant. Bette Davis, then playing a double role in the film Dead Ringer (1964), was asked to guest star, but she demanded too much money.
     The box set bonus feature, a look back at The Patty Duke Show, is a tad short and disappointing: William Schallert looks (and sounds) great, Paul O’Keefe (who played Patty’s brother Ross) and Eddie Applegate (who played her beau Richard Harrison) are fine, but Duke seems a bit unsure of herself, even now. She does confess that Sheldon recognized something odd about her personality; interestingly since Duke would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder 20 years later.
     Thank God for dolls.

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