The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
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The Paul Lynde Halloween Special | |
---|---|
Country of origin | United States |
Production | |
Executive producers | Raymond Katz Sandy Gallin |
Producers | Bob Booker George Forster Joe Byrne |
Running time | 51 minutes |
Production company | Hoysyl Productions |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | October 29, 1976 |
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special is a
Overview
In succession, Paul (as himself) begins singing to celebrate
Margaret offers to take Paul away from the kids and drives him to Gloomsbury Manor, where her sister (Billie Hayes) resides. When they arrive, Paul realizes that both are witches,
In his first wish, Paul wishes to be a trucker and is reinvented as "Big Red," a crass, red-haired, CB-slang-talking, rhinestone-studded trucker engaged to waitress "Kinky Pinky" Tuscadero (Roz Kelly). He soon finds that Pinky has two-timed him and has also promised another trucker (Tim Conway) her hand in marriage; the two, along with Pinky's boss (Billy Barty), soon enter a battle to prove their worth to her, which Paul wins with his large wad of money from a movie advance. Big Red and Pinky marry as the diner turns into a raucous hoedown.
He returns to the manor, and after KISS performs "
Pleased with his two wishes, he offers his third wish to the witches, who wish to go to a disco. With Paul as host and Henderson as guest performer ("
Cast
- Paul Lynde as himself/Big Red/The Sheik
- Margaret Hamilton as Margaret the housekeeper/Wicked Witch of the West
- Billie Hayes as Wilhelmina Witchiepoo
- Billy Barty as Gallows the butler/Pinky's boss
- Tim Conway as two rival truckers/Seymour of the foreign legion
- Pinky Tuscadero
- Betty White as Miss Halloween
- Florence Henderson as herself/Lady Cecily Westinghouse
- KISS as themselves
- Donny Osmond as kid tormentor
- Marie Osmond as kid tormentor
- Biff Manard (uncredited) as the marriage officiant
Background
Paul Lynde had signed a major contract with ABC. Two sitcoms framed as star vehicles for Lynde, The Paul Lynde Show and Temperatures Rising, had failed. To fulfill the contract and appease Lynde's desire to be a leading actor, he was given a line of irregularly scheduled comedy specials, The Paul Lynde Comedy Hour; ABC President Fred Silverman concluded that "there was something witchy about Lynde" and decided to make him the centerpiece of a Halloween special about witches. Head writer Bruce Vilanch recalled in 2016 that he felt Lynde's style of humor was too grating to carry a lead role and hired a large ensemble cast (many of which were people Lynde had never heard of) to spread out the humor.[1]
In the special, Paul Lynde is taken to Margaret Hamilton's sister's house and a photo of a scary castle is shown with ominous music for comedic effect. The image used was of Bunratty Castle, in County Clare Ireland, as the home of Witchiepoo. The castle was renamed 'Gloomsbury Castle' for comedic purpose but not actually filmed there.
Hamilton was effusive in her praise for Hayes, who was an old friend of Lynde's; Hamilton once told Marty Krofft that "Hayes was the best witch ever."[2]
- The Krofft connection
While Sid and Marty Krofft had no direct involvement in the special, much of the cast had previously appeared in Krofft productions: Billie Hayes (H.R. Pufnstuf, Pufnstuf, Lidsville), Margaret Hamilton (Sigmund and the Sea Monsters), Billy Barty (The Bugaloos, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Dr. Shrinker), Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch Hour), and Donny and Marie Osmond (the Donny & Marie show, where Lynde was a recurring guest at the time). Use of the Witchiepoo character, attributed to the Kroffts, was acknowledged in a voiceover during the closing credits. Overlap with crew members include editor William Breshears, who edited a number of different Krofft shows.
Reception
Christopher Muther of
A 2009 review at The Bootleg Files, a running column on Film Threat, described the special as "so bizarre and over-the-top in its acid-camp that it is almost impossible to believe anything of its kind could ever be shown on TV(.)" The review praised Lynde as the "queen from hell" and the program's "saving grace," with author Phil Hall expressing surprise that the special—aimed at family audiences—drew no complaints from Christian conservatives despite Lynde's thinly veiled homosexuality and references to Deep Throat, among other innuendo. Hall also noted that having a homosexual lead in a prime time show was well ahead of its time, as gay characters would become commonplace in 21st century television.[4]
Home media and reruns
The show has been bootlegged over the years in KISS fan circles. On October 31, 2006, some of the show's footage was released on Kiss's
The program was released on Region 1 DVD in the United States on October 2, 2007, with bonus features. This followed a two-year process by producer/head writer Bob Booker to clear the rights after finding the original footage of the show, which had long been thought lost.[4]
Independent station WBXZ-LD in Buffalo, New York had an annual tradition of rerunning the program each Halloween.[5]
See also
References
- ^ Bruce Vilanch on "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special". Archive of American Television Interviews via YouTube (August 2, 2016). Retrieved February 26, 2020.
- ^ May 03, Maureen Lee Lenker; EDT, 2021 at 10:13 PM. "Billie Hayes, Witchiepoo in 'H.R. Pufnstuf,' dies at 96". EW.com. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "'The Paul Lynde Halloween Special' was the most fabulous train wreck of a holiday spectacular ever filmed. And we can't get enough - the Boston Globe". The Boston Globe.
- ^ a b filmthreat.com
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External links
- The Paul Lynde Halloween Special at IMDb