The Patty Duke Show

The Patty Duke Show was an 1963-66 Dom Com, aired on ABC in the U.S. and CBC in Canada, starring Patty Duke as identical-looking cousins Patricia "Patty" Lane and Catherine "Cathy" Lane - one American and one Scottish. Possibly set the record for length of time between Cancellation and Reunion Show - 1999's The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' in Brooklyn Heights.

Currently being rerun on This TV.

---

The Patty Duke Show show provides examples of:

• American Newspapers: Martin Lane's place of employment.
• The Cast Showoff: Patty sang "Tell Me Mamma" (a minor hit for Christine Quaite) in the episode "The Wedding Anniversary Caper." Despite her relative lack of musical aptitude, Patty Duke was later signed to United Artists as a pop singer in real life, and scored a Top 10 hit with "Don't Just Stand There" during her show's run.
• Channel Hop: The series aired on ABC in first run. In the '80s, it was an early staple of Nick at Nite and, rather inexplicably, was also run briefly weekday afternoons on Nickelodeon, where it stuck out like a sore thumb next to You Can't Do That on Television and Double Dare...
• Different As Night and Day: Cathy and Patty. Trope Namer by way of the Theme Song.
• The Ditz: Patty's long-suffering boyfriend Richard drifts pretty near to this. It's no wonder she always seems to be on the lookout for a better option.
• Double Standard: As the series goes on, Patty really shows no loyalty to Richard at all, but he always comes back to her when she'll have him.
• Double Vision: Here's to you, Rita McLaughlin, whose back and shoulder went uncredited for decades...
• Expository Theme Song
• Mirror Routine: Done by Patty and Cathy in the first episode. The scene was then used in the opening credits.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Paul O'Keefe as Patty's little brother Ross experiences a quite visible growth spurt toward the end of the series, but the character is still written the same way.
• Pie In The Face: Patty falls victim to this, along with being drenched with a bucket of water and squirted with seltzer, in "The Perfect Teenager," when she gets a job as a model for a magazine photo shoot and it turns out to be a ploy to put her through a Humiliation Conga. (But for a good cause.)
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Sidney Shelton came up with the idea for the show when Patty Duke stayed with him for a time and he noticed she had a split personality - one side bubbly and perky, the other side sedate and morose. The reason for this was medical: she had bipolar disorder, which was then known as "manic depression."
• Sidney Sheldon: Co-creator.
• Standard Fifties Father: Martin Lane was hardly infallible, but he was a very understanding dad, and generally one of the most likable examples of the trope.
• Twin Switch: Patty and Cathy and vice versa
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Trope Codifier
• Wunza Plot: To the show's credit, while it unquestionably fits this trope, it surverts it in that really only a small percentage of episodes deal directly with Patty and Cathy's resemblance. In practice, the gimmick is mostly just an excuse for Patty Duke to play two distinct roles--which she does skillfully.
• Zany Scheme: Patty comes up with them frequently.