6.8 /10 1 Votes
6.6/10 TV First episode date 13 September 1972 Number of seasons 1 | 7/10 IMDb Country of origin United States Final episode date 14 March 1973 Number of episodes 26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Directed by William AsherBruce BilsonJack DonohueJerry LondonOscar RudolphCoby RuskinGeorge Tyne Starring Paul LyndeElizabeth AllenJane Actman Network American Broadcasting Company Cast Similar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The paul lynde show intro
The Paul Lynde Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC. The series stars Paul Lynde and aired for one season, with original episodes running from September 13, 1972 to March 14, 1973.
Contents
Setting
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).
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 parents, Barney and Grace Dickerson. Howie's misadventures around the house and his lack of steady employment would drive his father-in-law to distraction and would get him in a slow burn anger.
Critics perceived the show as derivative of All in the Family, then television's most popular primetime program. For his role in the series, Lynde was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe.
Cast
Reception
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 series garnered low ratings and was canceled after one season (26 episodes). After the series ended, Lynde continued as center square on The Hollywood Squares until leaving the show in 1979.
Production
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 later 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 discarded.
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 to another season of Bewitched for ABC. Montgomery was not interested in continuing the series (as she and Asher were on the verge of divorcing), and The Paul Lynde Show was created to fulfill the contract. Lynde had appeared numerous times on Bewitched as the "Uncle Arthur" character. 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.
The show was filmed before a live audience, with a laugh track added during post-production.
The next season, Asher would cast Lynde as the male lead on his other show, Temperatures Rising, which lasted until 1974.