Tales of Lost TV: The Patty Duke Show and the Kennedy Assassination (1963)

Tales of Lost TV is a monthly column in which I examine a particular TV program or TV series either known or believed to be lost forever. The amount of lost TV is truly staggering–aside from a handful of exceptions everything broadcast prior to 1948 no longer exists. That doesn’t mean it all has to be forgotten.

The Death of a President

Following President Kennedy’s assassination on November 22nd, 1963, the television industry faced a daunting task. The networks had to ensure they didn’t broadcast anything that might seem offensive or disrespectful. Or anything that might remind the nation of its loss. Rescheduling proved the easiest solution. For example, CBS opted not to broadcast the installment of Route 66 scheduled for November 29th, 1963 because it involved an assassin. Some sources indicate the episode aired in 1964 while others claim it remained unseen for decades.

ABC NBC went one step further and reportedly destroyed an episode of sitcom The Joey Bishop Show. Why? It featured Kennedy impersonator Vaughn Meader.

The networks altered other episodes to remove concerning connections to Kennedy or his assassination. CBS changed the name of an episode of The Defenders from “The Gentle Assassin” to “Climate of Evil.” The network removed a reference to President Kennedy from another episode of The Defenders (“Claire Cheval Died in Boston”) despite not having an air date scheduled yet. It ultimately aired on January 4th, 1964.

ABC likewise made a minor alteration to an episode of The Patty Duke Show.

Patty’s Dream

A sitcom with an implausible premise, The Patty Duke Show debuted in September 1963. Patty Duke starred in the dual roles of identical cousins Patty and Cathy Lane. The series occupied the 8-8:30PM ET time slot on Wednesdays.

The episode scheduled for November 27th, 1963 aired without incident less than a week after Kennedy’s assassination. But the episode scheduled for December 4th posed a problem for ABC.

Titled “How to Be Popular,” the episode saw Cathy trying to improve her popularity by following the advice of a newspaper columnist. As originally filmed, it featured a short sequence in which Patty dreams she’s given a medal by the President.

Details are scarce. Here’s how the Associated Press described the cut footage:

It was a dream sequence showing Patty receiving a medal from a man–whose face was not seen–seated in a rocking chair.

Some sources state the man in the rocking chair spoke with an imitation of President Kennedy’s famous accent.

Locked in a Vault?

Could this lost dream sequence still exist? It seems unlikely. More than five decades have passed since ABC had the footage removed from the episode. But the footage could be tucked away in a film canister alongside the original film negatives for the episode. Anything’s possible.

References:

Adams, Val. “News of TV and Radio: Good Taste: Networks Check Future Shows to Cut Works Offensive to Mourning Nation Program Documentary Postponed.” New York Times. 1 Dec. 1963: 207.
“JFK Death Pose Problems for Actors, Magazines, Shows.” Daily Press [Utica,
NY]. Associated Press. 28 Nov. 1963: 13.


If found, should this lost footage be restored to the episode and released to the public? Hit the comments with your thoughts.


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8 Replies to “Tales of Lost TV: The Patty Duke Show and the Kennedy Assassination (1963)”

  1. GO see Patti duke’s ‘ appearance on Ben Casey that year??IMPOSSIBLE ….since it was pulled before rerun status / or syndication== One million impossible things before breakfast ^^^ quoted hartedly from Lewis Carrol== But in ’63=there may have been limitaions to her multi/appearances that year— worth further scrutiny— yes

  2. Interesting article but you made one big mistake: the Joey Bishop show you refered to ran on NBC, not ABC. I think what you did was you mixed up the Joey Bishop sitcom [NBC/CBS, 1961-1965] with the Joey Bishop talk show [ABC, 1967-1969]. Also, I would like to mention that earlier in 1963, CBS ran an episode of “The Lucy Show ” in which she took her son’s Cub Scout troop to the White House to meet the President. JFK’s name wasn’t mentioned, but Lucy did get stuck in the president’s “rocking chair” and there was an off-screen voice with a familiar New England accent.

  3. The Dick Van Dyke Show reshot the ending of an episode involving pet turtles. Laurie mentions to Rob that a turtle couple looks like the Kennedy’s.

  4. In a biography of Jerry Lewis, it’s stated Jerry and some MDA poster kids did a PSA with the President. It was scheduled to be released in Nov. 1963–until the assassination forced them to withdraw it. Has anyone else heard of this?

  5. further… the most covert/ difficult situation In the fall 1963== was the OUTER LIMITS episode with Sidney Blackmer;… where a presidential assignation plot( substitute decoy)– was ruptured—*-Kennedy was gone within a twenth after that=-===x——alas===emerging shaken–=>subsequent episodes were of superior quality// most memorable was CHITA RIVERA and her husband TONY MORDENTE in a Kafkesque / noire–type nightmare—-((-no wonder the Beetles were so embraced 4 months later===)

  6. The night Kennedy was assassinated, they were scheduled to run an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour entitled The Cadaver. It aired a few weeks later and it had a college man that was an alcoholic that had supposedly killed a woman at a party and they hid her body in his dorm room, it was a real woman that had died and he was so frightened that he took the dead body and cut it up with a jigsaw.

    1. I have a book about the Hitchcock series and it says the canceled episode was “The Body In The Barn”, which was held back until the end of the season. I believe this was even stated in a post on this board about programs preempted by the assassination.

  7. “The Cadaver” episode of ‘The Alfred Hitchcock Hour’ (the one-hour version of Hitchcock’s anthology series, the incarnation after the half-hour version entitled ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’) aired one week after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on November 29, 1963, on CBS-TV..

    “The Body In The Barn” episode of the second Hitchcock anthology series aired as the very last episode of that series’ second of three seasons, on July 3, 1964, also on CBS.

    Both Hitchcock series’ (half-hour and hour-long versions) alternated between CBS and NBC. ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ aired on CBS 1955-60, then on NBC 1960-62. ‘The Alfred Hitchcock Hour’ was broadcast on CBS 1962-64, then on NBC 1964-65.

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