YMMV / The Patty Duke Show

• Harsher in Hindsight: Patty Duke playing two identical-looking characters with contrasting personalities took on a new dimension when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. What's more, this very idea was based upon show creator Sidney Sheldon's observation that Patty had two distinct sides to her personality.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: A Nick at Nite marathon introduced each episode by interviewing a woman claiming to be Patty Duke's body double (who, it turned out, faced away from the camera in all of her TV appearances). One of the segments shared a fake clip of her winning an Emmy award. Decades later, the Emmy judges would begin awarding body doubles by creating the Outstanding Stunt Performance category.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "The Wedding Anniversary Caper" ends with Ross proposing that Patty signs up for a girl tuba player competition. "Practice Makes Perfect" has Patty join the school band and take up the tuba to impress a boy.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • John Spencer of The West Wing fame had his first TV role as Henry, one of Patty's love interests.
  • Daniel J. Travanti played Hank "Rocky" Elway in "Block That Statue".
  • Bonnie Bartlett played Miss Castle in "My Cousin the Heroine".
  • Marcia Strassman (Welcome Back, Kotter, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids) made three appearances.
• The Woobie:
  • Sweet, introverted Cathy is the obvious one, especially when the show highlights her missing her father or having problems making friends in a new country. A notable example is the Aunt Pauline episode, who clearly favors Patty and Ross to her, because she dislikes Cathy's father.
  • Patty borders on this too at times. While she could be a brat, a lot of episodes highlight how humiliating it is for her to constantly be compared to her more proper, intellectual cousin. In the pilot, for instance, Patty disguises herself as Cathy for a lark, only for her family to go off on what a selfish brat she is to her face, leading her to run off crying. Even Cathy is horrified when she learns what happened.
  • Natalie in "Are Mothers People?", feeling under-appreciated by her family.

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