The Pruitts of Southampton

The Pruitts of Southampton is an American 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 comedienne very much in the style of Lucille Ball. Child actress Lisa Loring formerly of TV's The Addams Family also had a small role on the show as Phyllis's daughter Suzy Pruitt.

The Pruitts of Southampton
Also known as	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 Lisa Loring
Theme music composer	Vic Mizzy (two different themes were used during the season)
Composer	Vic Mizzy
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	30 [17 Pruitts of Southampton/13 Phyllis Diller Show]
Production
Executive producer	David Levy
Producers	Nat Perrin Everett Freeman
Running time	30 min.
Production companies	Filmways TV Productions, in association with PhilDil Productions Limited
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 6, 1966 (1966-09-06) – April 7, 1967 (1967-04-07)

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

Nº	Title	Directed by:	Written by:	Original air date
1	"Phyllis Goes Broke"	Gene Nelson	T : Stanley Roberts; S/T : Lawrence J. Cohen, Fred Freeman	September 6, 1966 (1966-09-06)
Series pilot.
2	"Phyllis, the Milkmaid"	Oscar Rudolph	T : Leo Rifkin; S/T : Sidney A. Mandel, Roy Kammerman	September 13, 1966 (1966-09-13)
3	"Phyllis Beats the Rap"	Nat Perrin	Lou Derman, Elon Packard	September 20, 1966 (1966-09-20)
4	"Phyllis, Take a Letter"	Unknown	Unknown	September 27, 1966 (1966-09-27)
5	"Phyllis, the Cookie Tycoon"	Unknown	Unknown	October 4, 1966 (1966-10-04)
6	"Phyllis Fires the Butler"	Unknown	Unknown	October 11, 1966 (1966-10-11)
7	"Phyllis Saves the Day"	Unknown	Unknown	October 18, 1966 (1966-10-18)
8	"Phyllis Goes Commercial"	Unknown	Unknown	October 25, 1966 (1966-10-25)
9	"Phyllis Entertains Royalty"	Unknown	Unknown	November 1, 1966 (1966-11-01)
10	"Phyllis, the Upstairs Girl"	Unknown	Unknown	November 15, 1966 (1966-11-15)
11	"Phyllis, the General Stealer"	Unknown	Unknown	November 22, 1966 (1966-11-22)
12	"Phyllis, the Dress Maker"	Unknown	Howard Harris, Sydney Zelinka	November 29, 1966 (1966-11-29)
13	"Phyllis Goes Arty"	Unknown	Unknown	December 6, 1966 (1966-12-06)
14	"Santa Was a Lady"	Unknown	Lou Derman, Elon Packard	December 13, 1966 (1966-12-13)
15	"The Hubcap Caper"	Nat Perrin	Lou Derman, Elon Packard	December 20, 1966 (1966-12-20)
16	"Phyllis, Queen of the Road"	Hollingsworth Morse	Lou Derman, Elon Packard	December 27, 1966 (1966-12-27)
17	"My Brother Harvey"	Unknown	Unknown	January 3, 1967 (1967-01-03)
18	"Little Miss Fixit"	Arthur Lubin	Unknown	January 13, 1967 (1967-01-13)
First episode as The Phyllis Diller Show
19	"Learn to Be a Millionaire"	Nat Perrin	Lou Derman, Elon Packard	January 20, 1967 (1967-01-20)
20	"The Ghost of Pruitt Mansion"	Unknown	Unknown	January 27, 1967 (1967-01-27)
21	"Portrait of Krump"	Unknown	Unknown	February 3, 1967 (1967-02-03)
22	"How to Rob a Millionaire"	Nat Perrin	Lou Derman, Elon Packard	February 10, 1967 (1967-02-10)
23	"Nobody Here But Us Chickens"	Unknown	Unknown	February 17, 1967 (1967-02-17)
24	"Phyllis, the Bat Girl"	Arthur Lubin	Lou Derman, Elon Packard	February 24, 1967 (1967-02-24)
25	"Marry a Million"	Unknown	Unknown	March 3, 1967 (1967-03-03)
26	"Goddess of Love"	Unknown	Unknown	March 10, 1967 (1967-03-10)
27	"My Sister-in-Law Phyllis"	Ralph Levy	S : Carol & Joseph Cavella; T : Nat Perrin	March 17, 1967 (1967-03-17)
28	"Krump, the Playboy"	Unknown	Unknown	March 24, 1967 (1967-03-24)
29	"Phyllis, the Beauty Queen"	Arthur Lubin	Unknown	March 31, 1967 (1967-03-31)
30	"The House Is Not a Zoo"	Arthur Lubin	Unknown	April 7, 1967 (1967-04-07)

References

• Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows

Notes

1. 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.
2. The Curtain Will Rise Soon for 34 New Television Programs, published August 28, 1966, in the Reading Eagle, page 27; via Google News Archive
3. TV Guide Guide to TV. Barnes and Noble. 2004. pp. 228. ISBN 0-7607-5634-1.
4. 100 Favorite Moments in Television at scrubbles.net

External links

• The Pruitts of Southampton at IMDb
• Commercial site with Videoclip of opening sequence