Where in NYC was Patty Duke filmed?

[SMDanes]

Does anyone know which studio in NYC was used to film the Patty Duke Show?

I'm working on a history of the early days of television in NYC 1950s-60s, and am trying to track down details on several shows.

Thanks,

SMD

[SMDanes]

The plot was set there, but where was it filmed? It seems kind of strange--Sidney Sheldon was involved in producing the show: he was a long time fixture on the West Coast, as was Peter Lawford's son. Only reasons I can come up with for the show being shot in NYC in the first place is that either ABC or Patty Duke's family wanted it produced there.

It's interesting that there was a bit of a blackout regarding the details of the NYC production. The Holywood episodes appear to be shot at Desilu, judging from the production credits.

Sam

[TV Knowledge Fan]

.... (unaired) pilot episode was filmed in Hollywood, and featured Mark Miller as 'Martin Lane', with the family in a San Francisco setting. When the series was sold to ABC, I believe Patty's guardians & agents, John & Ethel Ross, insisted production was to be based in New York, primarily because they lived there, and wanted to keep a close watch on Patty. That's when the setting became "Brooklyn Heights" for the series. Production shifted to Hollywood for the third season in 1965., just in time for Patty to break away from the Rosses and start living her own life.

[fueledbylove]

Yes and the filming in New Yawk is what eventually killed the show because it would have been cheaper to shoot color in El Lay and ABC wanted everything shot in Color at the time.

Originally Posted by TV Knowledge Fan

.... (unaired) pilot episode was filmed in Hollywood, and featured Mark Miller as 'Martin Lane', with the family in a San Francisco setting. When the series was sold to ABC, I believe Patty's guardians & agents, John & Ethel Ross, insisted production was to be based in New York, primarily because they lived there, and wanted to keep a close watch on Patty. That's when the setting became "Brooklyn Heights" for the series. Production shifted to Hollywood for the third season in 1965., just in time for Patty to break away from the Rosses and start living her own life.

[SMDanes]

NY episodes appear to have been filmed at the CBS/Himan Brown Studios 221 West 26th Street (now Chelsea Studios) -- same facility as much of the Phil Silvers show, as well as Search for Tomorrow, Guiding Light and more recently, the Martha Stewart show.

In the 1960s, ABC was short of studio space in NYC and frequently rented facilities from private firms and other networks, and would conceal this from viewers by "cutting the crawl" (that is, showing limited credits at the ends of the shows).

[jehobden]

I have read two different possible reasons for why the production moved from NYC to LA in its third season. Patty Duke stated in her autobiography, "Call Me Anna", that John & Ethel Ross moved production to the West Coast in the third season in order to mess up Patty's romance w/ her eventual first husband, Harry Falk, hoping that he would not be able to reestablish himself as a director on the West Coast. That plot did not work, as Patty married Harry during the third season, and Harry directed at least one episode late in that final season.
The other reason was given in a TV Guide interview w/ Eddie Applegate, who played Patty's boyfriend, Richard, that appeared in the magazine during the second season. He stated that NYC had more lenient child labor laws than LA, so Patty could work longer hours in NYC. Since she turned 18 during the second season, labor laws no longer applied to her by then, and production moved to LA, where most tv production was starting to go. This explanation would also be a reason why production began in NYC in the first place.
As far as the show being in color, it was still in B&W during the third LA-based season, so producing the show in LA did not cause it to be shot in color. Patty Duke claimed, again in "Call Me Anna", that the show was cancelled in 1966 only because ABC insisted on having all its primetime programming in color that fall, and United Artists, the production company, did not want to pay the extra money to produce the show in color and tried to hold out to stay in B&W. UA lost that battle, as the show was cancelled instead of going to color. ABC did keep on the air two of its longer-running hour-long series, The Fugitive and Combat, for one more year in color, but both of those shows were cancelled, after their single color seasons, in 1967. The Fugitive, of course, had the highest-rated show of all time until then w/ its finale, originally aired 8/29/67, where Richard Kimble finally found the one-armed man.

[ThomasE]

Good info to know. I was wondering why Patty Duke did not go color in 1965. I then realized that most ABC shows were not in color at that time but CBS was the network that bringing shows into color in 1965 and then ABC and NBC started pushing color in 66'.

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by ThomasE

Good info to know. I was wondering why Patty Duke did not go color in 1965. I then realized that most ABC shows were not in color at that time but CBS was the network that bringing shows into color in 1965 and then ABC and NBC started pushing color in 66'.

Actually NBC pushed color long before CBS, going back to the 1950s, and more NBC programs were premiering in color, like Bonanza & Laramie back in 1959 and The Virginian in 1962. NBC wanted to push its parent company, RCA's color tvs, after all, and CBS in particular was against doing anything that would help its competitor's parent, like airing color shows that would encourage sales of RCA color tv sets. NBC sitcoms like The Joey Bishop Show (either 1961 or 1962, from what I have heard) and Hazel (1962) went to color. NBC's primetime schedule was almost completely in color by fall 1965, excluding I Dream of Jeannie (went to color in 1966) and Convoy (cancelled in 13 weeks).
ABC also had at least one more existing B&W dramatic series go to color in 1966, Twelve O'Clock High, but it did not last even a season in color, being cancelled in January 1967 after 17 color episodes aired. I did not realize this until Me-TV recently reran one of those color episodes, as I had thought that the show was cancelled before going to color.

[biffbronson]

12 O'Clock High relied heavily on WWII combat footage, by far most of which at the time was available only in b & w -- it's interesting to watch the color episodes, as much of the time they apparently tinted the stock footage, to make it blend in with new full-color scenes.

In the black & white seasons, you didn't have easily noticable changes in sky color, etc., although there was always the issue of the stock footage containing very visible impurities.