American TV series or program
Elizabeth Allen
and
Paul Lynde
The Paul Lynde Show
is an American television
sitcom
that aired on
ABC
. The series starred comedian
Paul Lynde
and aired for one season, with original episodes airing from September 13, 1972, to March 14, 1973.
Setting
[
edit
]
The series starred Lynde as Paul Simms, a general-practice attorney and the father of a family that consisted of his wife Martha (
Elizabeth Allen
) and daughters Barbara (
Jane Actman
) and Sally (
Pamelyn Ferdin
). The Simms family lived in the fictional city of Ocean Grove, California.
It also starred John Calvin as Barbara's husband, Howie Dickerson, an eccentric university student who was of genius intelligence (IQ 185) and was a whiz with everything and full of advice, but inexplicably, he could not manage to hold down a job, and
Jerry Stiller
and
Anne Meara
as Howie's divorced parents, Barney and Grace Dickerson. Howie's misadventures around the house and his lack of steady employment brought his father-in-law to a state of slow-burn anger and drove him to distraction.
Critics perceived the show as derivative of
All in the Family
, then television's most popular primetime program, and the Paul Simms role bore similarities to Lynde's best-known film role, that of Harry MacAfee from the film and musical
Bye Bye Birdie
. For his role in the series, Lynde was nominated for a
Best Actor Golden Globe
.
Cast
[
edit
]
Production
[
edit
]
The show was based on the play
Howie
, about a lawyer, played by Lynde, whose daughter marries a slacker named Howard, or "Howie". The Lynde character despises him as he is not interested in earning money or traditional pursuits.
Howie
was developed for
CBS
in 1962, as a replacement for
The Dick Van Dyke Show
, but when that series was saved from cancellation, plans for
Howie
were shelved.
[1]
William Asher
later resurrected the
Howie
concept for ABC and
Screen Gems
as a replacement for
Bewitched
. Asher and then-wife
Elizabeth Montgomery
were contractually obligated for two more seasons of
Bewitched
for ABC. Montgomery was not interested in continuing the series (she and Asher were also on the verge of divorcing), and Lynde was also under contract to ABC.
The Paul Lynde Show
(along with the first incarnation of
Temperatures Rising
) was created to fulfill the contracts. Lynde had appeared eleven times on
Bewitched
as "Uncle Arthur". Asher designed
The Paul Lynde Show
to be ABC's counterpart to CBS's
All in the Family
; however, the show lacked the controversial and topical issues brought up by
All in the Family
, due to ABC's continued restriction on social issues at the time. This was despite Lynde's rewrite of the show's dialog in an effort to make the series more lively and comedic.
[1]
The show was filmed before a live audience, with a
laugh track
added during post-production
for "sweetening" purposes. Unusual for such a series, the production included a frequently seen backyard set with a fully functional swimming pool, which Lynde would occasionally fall into.
The next season, ABC would cast Lynde as the lead on the re-tooled
Temperatures Rising
over Asher's objections. That series lasted until 1974. ABC would burn off Lynde's contract by placing him in
variety shows
such as
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
,
'Twas the Night Before Christmas
and
Donny & Marie
.
[2]
Reception
[
edit
]
Scheduled opposite the first half of the Top 30 hit
The Carol Burnett Show
on
CBS
and the Top 20 hit
Adam-12
on NBC, the first episode proved to be a major hit; strong negative reactions led to bad word of mouth and a resulting collapse in ratings.
[2]
The show was canceled after a single 26-episode season.
Episodes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
The Paul Lynde Show
at Wikimedia Commons