The Pruitts of Southampton
The Pruitts of Southampton is a situation comedy that aired during the 1966-67 season on the ABC network. The show was based on the novel House Party (1954) by Patrick Dennis. It was ABC's attempt to turn female stand-up comic Phyllis Diller into a sitcom comedian very much in the style of Lucille Ball.
| The Pruitts of Southampton/ The Phyllis Diller Show | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Situation comedy |
| Created by | David Levy (based on the novel House Party by Patrick Dennis) |
| Starring | Phyllis Diller Gypsy Rose Lee Reginald Gardiner Richard Deacon Grady Sutton Pam Freeman John Astin Marty Ingels Paul Lynde |
| Theme music composer | Vic Mizzy (two different themes were used during the season) |
| Composer(s) | Vic Mizzy |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 30 [17 Pruitts of Southampton/13 Phyllis Diller Show] |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | David Levy |
| Producer(s) | Nat Perrin Everett Freeman |
| Running time | 30 min. |
| Production company(s) | Filmways TV Productions, in association with PhilDil Productions Limited |
| Distributor | MGM Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Picture format | Color |
| Original release | September 6, 1966 – September 1, 1967 |
The program starred Diller as Phyllis Pruitt, and featured Gypsy Rose Lee and Richard Deacon in supporting roles with Diller feeling the series was an inverted version of The Beverly Hillbillies.[1] The show's producers originally sought comic actress Beatrice Lillie in the Diller role.[2] Exteriors of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina were used as the locale.
In 2002, TV Guide ranked it number 20 on its TV Guide's 50 Worst TV Shows of All Time list.[3]
Premise
The Pruitts, a supposedly incredibly wealthy family living on Long Island in the Hamptons, have been approached by the Internal Revenue Service about overdue taxes. An audit revealed that the Pruitts were in fact broke. Rather than reveal this fact publicly and cause the economic depression which would presumably result, an improbably charitable IRS allowed them to continue living in their mansion and maintaining the pretensions of great wealth, which was difficult given their reduced circumstances. By mid-season, in order to raise more money, Phyllis Pruitt had opened the mansion to boarders, attracting a "nutty" collection of tenants as well, a group that included Paul Lynde as her hopeless brother, John Astin as her brother-in-law, and Marty Ingels as a handyman.
In the premiere episode, Phyllis Pruitt unsuccessfully tries to roast a turkey in a front-loading washing machine.[4]
Development and history
The show was created by executive producer David Levy, who also served in the same capacity on the ABC television series The Addams Family from 1964 to 1966. When ABC canceled that show in the spring of 1966, a few Addams Family alumni were recruited for the Diller series. Vic Mizzy, who composed the finger-snapping theme song to The Addams Family, composed the musical theme for Diller's show as well.
According to Television magazine, The Pruitts of Southampton finished 77th among the 91 shows rated during the 1966–1967 season. It began the season airing on Tuesdays, opposite The Red Skelton Hour on CBS, which finished second in the ratings.
On January 13, 1967, with the episode "Little Miss Fixit", the program changed its title to The Phyllis Diller Show. John Astin, who played Gomez Addams on The Addams Family, joined the cast the same month, and the show began airing on Fridays. In addition, the series marked a reunion for Astin and Marty Ingels who had starred in the 1962-1963 ABC-TV sitcom, I'm Dickens, He's Fenster.
In the fall of 1968, NBC signed Diller to a weekly variety series hoping that the comedian would have the same kind of success that Carol Burnett had achieved for the rival network CBS. The program, entitled The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show, did poorly in ratings and was canceled after three months.
Episode list
| Episode # | Episode title | Directed by | Written by | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-1 | "Phyllis Goes Broke" (pilot) | Lawrence J. Cohen, Fred Freeman & Stanley Roberts | September 6, 1966 | |
| 1-2 | "Phyllis, the Milkmaid" | Roy Kammerman & Sidney A. Mandel | September 13, 1966 | |
| 1-3 | "Phyllis Beats the Rap" | September 20, 1966 | ||
| 1-4 | "Phyllis, Take A Letter" | September 27, 1966 | ||
| 1-5 | "Phyllis, the Cookie Tycoon" | October 4, 1966 | ||
| 1-6 | "Phyllis Fires the Butler" | October 11, 1966 | ||
| 1-7 | "Phyllis Saves the Day" | October 18, 1966 | ||
| 1-8 | "Phyllis Goes Commercial" | October 25, 1966 | ||
| 1-9 | "Phyllis Entertains Royalty" | November 1, 1966 | ||
| 1-10 | "Phyllis, the Upstairs Girl" | November 15, 1966 | ||
| 1-11 | "Phyllis, the General Stealer" | November 22, 1966 | ||
| 1-12 | "Phyllis, the Dress Maker" | Howard Harris & Sydney Zelinka | November 29, 1966 | |
| 1-13 | "Phyllis Goes Arty" | December 6, 1966 | ||
| 1-14 | "Santa Was A Lady" | Lou Derman & Elon Packard | December 13, 1966 | |
| 1-15 | "The Hubcap Caper" | Nat Perrin | Lou Derman & Elon Packard | December 20, 1966 |
| 1-16 | "Phyllis, Queen of the Road" | Hollingsworth Morse | Lou Derman & Elon Packard | December 27, 1966 |
| 1-17 | "My Brother Harvey" | January 3, 1967 | ||
| 1-18 | "Little Miss Fixit"* | Arthur Lubin | January 13, 1967 | |
| 1-19 | "Learn To Be A Millionaire" | January 20, 1967 | ||
| 1-20 | "The Ghost of Pruitt Mansion" | January 27, 1967 | ||
| 1-21 | "Portrait of Krump" | February 3, 1967 | ||
| 1-22 | "How To Rob A Millionaire" | Nat Perrin | Lou Derman & Elon Packard | February 10, 1967 |
| 1-23 | "Nobody Here But Us Chickens" | February 17, 1967 | ||
| 1-24 | "Phyllis, the Bat Girl" | Arthur Lubin | February 24, 1967 | |
| 1-25 | "Marry A Million" | March 3, 1967 | ||
| 1-26 | "Goddess of Love" | March 10, 1967 | ||
| 1-27 | "My Sister-in-Law Phyllis" | Ralph Levy | Story by: Carol & Joseph Cavella, Teleplay by: Nat Perrin | March 17, 1967 |
| 1-28 | "Krump, the Playboy" | March 24, 1967 | ||
| 1-29 | "Phyllis, the Beauty Queen" | Arthur Lubin | March 31, 1967 | |
| 1-30 | "The House Is Not A Zoo" | Arthur Lubin | April 7, 1967 |
*First episode as The Phyllis Diller Show
References
- Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows
Notes
- Diller, Phyllis; Buskin, Richard (2005). Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse: My Life in Comedy. New York: The Penguin Group. pp. 190–193. ISBN 1-58542-396-3.
- The Curtain Will Rise Soon for 34 New Television Programs, published August 28, 1966, in the Reading Eagle, page 27; via Google News Archive
- TV Guide Guide to TV. Barnes and Noble. 2004. pp. 228. ISBN 0-7607-5634-1.
- 100 Favorite Moments in Television at scrubbles.net
See also
- Keeping Up Appearances, a 1990 British comedy series
- Schitt's Creek, a 2015 Canadian comedy series
- Arrested Development