DKosty123 There are several reasons this series worked well, even though it is evident in a lot of episodes that ABC did not invest much money in the production. The First reason is the now late Patty Duke. In this show she gets to play both sides of being a teenager, wild and crazy, and prim and proper. As in real life Duke had a split personality disorder of sorts, she makes this work to her advantage here.The supporting cast is another strength here. William Schallert and others really helped bring this over. The show has a feel much like the original Disney Film - The Parent Trap- because it has a strong mother and father and 2 teenage girls who are really related, though not twins like the Disney movies, and they get into all kinds of trouble.The teaming of Sidney Sheldon and William Asher (Bewitched meets I Dream of Jeannie) is a part of the success here too. While the writing is sometimes lacking, the direction and production are as good as any 1960's sitcom. It really did not hurt that Duke had won an Oscar before this got going as well. The late William Schallert's Martin Lane character never hurt this show either. Somehow, if Patty and Cathy got into something too deep he would come along and fix things.

lukejbarnett2002 The Patty Duke Show is about a girl who is between 15-18 years old who is shown doing normal girl things in high school as well as extraordinary, adventuresome things outside of high school. She is an American girl named Patty Lane, and she has a British cousin whose name is Cathy Lane, who looks almost exactly like her. Her cousin is supposed to be her identical cousin as a joke. She also has a brother who often innocently fights with her in normal brother-sister ways.The two main characters, Patty Lane and Cathy Lane, the two identical cousins are both played by Patty Duke.The first time I watched it a few days ago I wasn't going to watch it. I just went to one of my retro TV channels, Antenna TV to see what was on. I noticed it was on and then I looked away from the screen and wasn't really paying attention to it but I listened to it. As I started listening to the main Patty character talk something happened in me which sparked a curiosity. I noticed that some of the things she said, she said in really interesting ways. Then in curiosity I started watching the show. I noticed right away that the Patty Lane character was extremely interesting, uniquely original, and lively, and singularly unique. She was a revelation to me, and she was compulsively watchable, and I couldn't take my eyes off her. She was mesmerizing and I had never seen a character like her before. What made her so compulsively watchable and lovable, and appealing and intriguing to me was not the writing of the character and not what she said but how she said what she said, and her personality. Everything she said and did was fresh and new and completely unique and original to me. So, that to me is an amazing thing. It's also a magical thing to me because it's a very rare thing to watch anything at my age, 36(having grown up on TV shows)which I've never seen, heard, or experienced before in a TV show. She's so affable, lovable, appealing, and entertaining to me also.Also, the show is ingenious in the ways in which things happen in creative, original, entertaining, and unique ways.One thing that's important for me to say about this show is it's very entertaining and never boring. It's very rare for a show made in the '60s to totally capture my attention and my imagination while watching it because usually shows made in the '60s to me are boring because of the old way in which they were made, the old style of TV shows. But this show has never bored me, I've been engaged in and enjoyed every moment of it and I've watched about 5 episodes of it so far.

matt_tawesson-1 The Patty Duke Show is quite a remarkably funny show, but also an odd one, because it deals with two teenage girls who are.....identical cousins!!! I first saw this show back in the early 90s when it was on Nick at Nite. I really liked this show and I thought Patty Duke did a remarkable job. She had said in her autobiography "Call Me Anna" that she thought it was quite a dumb show and that she didn't really like doing it. Maybe it was because of the dual role she had to play, but who knows? I thought it was cool and fully enjoyable. I also like the theme song from this program, titled "Cousins, Identical Cousins", which I also thought was funny and odd as well (there is no such thing as identical cousins, which is probably why some people regard this program as a dumb one; well, I don't). I had not seen this program for quite some time since Nick at Nite had it. After Nick at Nite stopped showing it, I was shocked, and thought it would probably resurface on that network again later, but it hasn't. I would really love to see this show become available on DVD, even though it ran for only three seasons. I wish it could have been shown in color, but according to Patty's autobiography "Call Me Anna", United Artists Television thought it would be too expensive to have it shown in color, which might be why it was cancelled in 1966 after its third season. Patty's co-stars were wonderful. William Schallert played the dad, Jean Byron played the mother (I found out that she died earlier this year; God bless her), Paul O'Keefe played Ross, who was Patty's brother (Patty stated in her book that "Ross" was a name she tried to avoid saying, because it was the name of this middle aged couple she had lived with in real life, John and Ethel Ross, who were also her managers). Uuuuuggghh!!!! So, this is a great program and I would love to see this on DVD sometime. Even though Patty hated doing this show, I thought she was incredibly funny.

roghache I grew up on this really cute series as a teenager myself, and only wish today's adolescents had more programs of its quality and sense of genuine fun. The Patty Duke Show is shades of Hayley Mills's Parent Trap. In fact, every young girl's heroines back then were Patty Duke, Hayley Mills, and Sally Field (star of Gidget & The Flying Nun). The teen magazines were full of this trio of stars.The series portrays the story of two identical cousins, Patty and Cathy Lane. Cathy, the daughter of a globe trotting journalist, comes to live with her aunt & uncle, Martin & Natalie Lane. They have a daughter, Patty, who's the same age as Cathy and the absolute spitting image. However, aside from looks, these two teenage girls are completely opposite in personality, taste, and life experiences.Patty Duke charmingly captures the dual roles of the cousins and manages to make the viewer think that there are actually two different teenagers here. There are some great special effects for that era when the 'two of a kind' cousins appear together on screen. Whether realistic or not, the show had a great story idea with a variation on the identical twins with contrasting personalities theme. Making them cousins with totally different childhood experiences, the screenwriters could make this pair of lookalikes seem really diverse.In fact, their personality and culture clash forms the basis of the series. Since Patty and Cathy are such polar opposites, they have trouble understanding each other. The urbane, sophisticated Cathy is a quiet and serious young lady, who has been living in Scotland with her father and has traveled abroad in Europe. Patty is a typical peppy, outgoing, and very social American teenager living in Brooklyn Heights. Cathy is studious and scholastically excellent, while Patty receives average grades and is more concerned with fashions, fads, friends, fun, and sleepovers than with schoolwork. Cathy's taste in music runs to classical ('the minuet and ballet Russe') while Patty likes to bop around to the rock & roll music of that era. Even their taste in food...well, Cathy prefers gourmet cuisine such as the elegant Crepes Suzette, while Patty chooses hot dogs, ice cream, and junk food. However, although jealousy and conflict arise (always humorously conveyed of course), it's much like a sibling relationship. Underneath it all, the cousins really do care about one other and sometimes even conspire together to pull off pranks or get themselves out of scrapes. (Typically Patty gets into the scrape and Cathy must help her out of it!) Also, the cousins are not actually that different in some important ways. Patty desires popularity and Cathy at least some sense of acceptance. And of course both young ladies are interested in BOYS. Patty would accurately be described as boy crazy, while Cathy conveys her interest a bit more subtly. The girls don't always go for the same type, but in one episode, the pair are actually rivals for the attentions of the new boy next door. I note among the episode list that once there's even a double date, have forgotten the details, but would predict some sort of switcheroo or mix up. Patty's father, Martin Lane, is managing editor of a fictitious New York newspaper, the New York Chronicle, for which Cathy's father (Martin's brother) works as a foreign correspondent. The two brothers are identical twins, presumably explaining their daughters' close physical resemblance. Cathy's father wants her to complete high school in the States before returning to Scotland.The father in this series really stands out in my mind these many years later. William Shallert is absolutely wonderful in the role of Patty's father, Martin Lane, the classic kind & caring American dad who's often at his wit's end over his teenage daughter's antics. This actor also plays Cathy's father in a few of the episodes. I don't remember the mother, Natalie Lane, but that isn't to say the actress wasn't competent. It's been quite a few decades!Overall, it was wonderful programming that the teenagers of that era could relate to. No sex and drugs on screen back in the Good Old Days. However, many of the classic teen story lines are featured, including parties, dating, school football stars, teachers, baby sitting, kid brothers, and peer rivalry. Patty spars with her own younger brother, Ross, and must also cope with an annoying school rival, Sue Ellen. Probably most young viewers preferred the extroverted chatterbox, Patty, but personally, being shy and bookish myself in those days, I identified more with the introverted, academic Cathy. The Patty Duke Show was very popular among all my own school friends and quite deservedly so. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find it in re runs, but suspect that even some of today's teens might still get a kick out of it.