The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
Encyclopedia
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special was a Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

-themed television special
Television special
A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...

 starring Paul Lynde
Paul Lynde
Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...

 broadcast October 29, 1976 on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

. It featured guest stars Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...

 in her first reprisal of her role as The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

.
Also guest starring are Billie Hayes
Billie Hayes
Billie Hayes is an American actress best known for her comic portrayal as Witchie-poo on the Sid and Marty Krofft television series H.R. Pufnstuf. Her characteristic cackle and animated physicality were notable during the show's 17-episode run in 1969–70...

 as Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf
H.R. Pufnstuf
H.R. Pufnstuf was a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-size puppet program. The seventeen episodes were originally broadcast September 6, 1969 to September 4, 1971...

, Tim Conway
Tim Conway
Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway is an American comedian and actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms, films and television. Conway is best known for his role as the inept second-in-command officer, Ensign Charles Parker, to Lt...

, Roz Kelly
Roz Kelly
Roz Kelly is an American actress, perhaps best known for playing Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli's girlfriend Carol "Pinky" Tuscadero on the hit television series Happy Days.-Before Happy Days:...

, Florence Henderson
Florence Henderson
Florence Agnes Henderson is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her role of Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974...

, rock band KISS
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...

, Billy Barty
Billy Barty
Billy Barty was an American film actor.-Biography:Barty, an Italian American, was born William John Bertanzetti in Millsboro, Pennsylvania...

, Betty White
Betty White
Betty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and...

 and, in an unbilled surprise appearance, Donny
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...

 and Marie Osmond
Marie Osmond
Olive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s...

.

Plot

Paul announces to the audience the show is to celebrate a holiday which might be Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

, Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

 or Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...

. His housekeeper, Margaret tells him that it is none of those holidays and drops a hint about it being Halloween. The subsequent musical number has Lynde sing "Kids" (his signature tune
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

) from Bye Bye Birdie
Bye Bye Birdie (film)
Bye Bye Birdie is a 1963 musical comedy film from Columbia Pictures. It is a film adaptation of the stage production of the same name. The screenplay was written by Michael Stewart and Irving Brecher, with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams....

with new Halloween-themed lyrics. In order to avoid "pesky kids" the housekeeper takes him to meet her sister, Witchiepoo, who has a pet vulture named Rover guarding her castle door. Lynde realizes that Margaret's sister is a witch and Margaret transforms into The Wicked Witch of the West. He is terrified and tries to escape, but Rover confines him to the castle. The two witches grant three wishes to him. In his first wish he becomes a trucker who competes against a fellow trucker (Tim Conway) for the love of a diner waitress (Roz Kelly). In his second wish he's a sheik trying to woo a kidnapped beauty (Florence Henderson) only to be interrupted by Tim Conway as a Foreign Legion scout sent in to save Florence from Paul. In his third wish, Lynde allows the witches to make a choice and they wish to go to a disco. At the disco, Florence Henderson returns to sing a disco version of "That Old Black Magic." Paul is also treated to three performances from KISS. They perform "Detroit Rock City
Detroit Rock City (song)
"Detroit Rock City" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss featured on their 1976 album, Destroyer. The song was written by Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin and is about a real Kiss fan who was killed in a car accident on his way to a Kiss concert...

", "Beth
Beth (song)
"Beth" is a song by Kiss, originally released on their 1976 album, Destroyer. To date, it is their highest-charting single, reaching #7 on Billboard's American charts. It is one of only two Gold selling singles for the band , and their first of two Top Ten singles...

" and "King of the Night Time World"—and they engage in a comic exchange with the star after Margaret introduces the band to Paul.

The show's finale has the entire cast assembling for a performance of "Disco Baby" (a gender-neutral version of the popular "Disco Lady
Disco Lady
"Disco Lady" is a 1976 single for Johnnie Taylor that went on to become his biggest hit. It spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and six weeks on the Billboard R&B chart in the U.S. It was also the first single to be certified platinum by the RIAA...

") by Lynde and Roz "Pinky Tuscadero" Kelly (who is repeatedly billed this way).

The Krofft Connection

Although The Paul Lynde Halloween Special was not produced by '70s kiddie/variety show icons Sid and Marty Krofft
Sid and Marty Krofft
Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft , are a sibling team of television producers who were influential in children's television and variety show programs in the USA, particularly throughout the 1970s and early 1980s....

, their Witchiepoo character appeared and many of the cast members also appeared in Krofft productions: Billie Hayes
Billie Hayes
Billie Hayes is an American actress best known for her comic portrayal as Witchie-poo on the Sid and Marty Krofft television series H.R. Pufnstuf. Her characteristic cackle and animated physicality were notable during the show's 17-episode run in 1969–70...

 (H.R. Pufnstuf
H.R. Pufnstuf
H.R. Pufnstuf was a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-size puppet program. The seventeen episodes were originally broadcast September 6, 1969 to September 4, 1971...

, Pufnstuf
Pufnstuf (film)
Pufnstuf is a 1970 feature film based on the television series H.R. Pufnstuf.-Plot:Jimmy ventures to Living Island with his magical, talking flute, Freddy...

, Lidsville
Lidsville
Lidsville was Sid and Marty Krofft's third television show following H.R. Pufnstuf and The Bugaloos . As did its predecessors, the series combined two types of characters: conventional actors in makeup filmed alongside performers in full mascot costumes, whose voices were dubbed in post-production...

), Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was an American film actress known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...

 (Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters was an American children's television series that ran from 1973 to 1975, produced by Sid and Marty Krofft and aired on Saturday mornings...

), Billy Barty
Billy Barty
Billy Barty was an American film actor.-Biography:Barty, an Italian American, was born William John Bertanzetti in Millsboro, Pennsylvania...

 (The Bugaloos
The Bugaloos
The Bugaloos is an American children's television series produced by brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, airing on NBC on Saturday mornings from 1970 to 1972. The show featured a musical group composed of four British-accented teenagers, who lived in fictional Tranquility Forest...

, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters was an American children's television series that ran from 1973 to 1975, produced by Sid and Marty Krofft and aired on Saturday mornings...

, Dr. Shrinker
Dr. Shrinker
Dr. Shrinker was a segment during the first season of the ABC network's The Krofft Supershow in 1976.-Plot:Dr. Shrinker is a mad scientist who creates a shrink ray that can miniaturize anything. Three young adults named Brad Fulton , B.J. Masterson and her brother Gordie Masterson , crash land...

), Florence Henderson
Florence Henderson
Florence Agnes Henderson is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her role of Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974...

 (The Brady Bunch Hour
The Brady Bunch Hour
The Brady Bunch Hour is an American variety television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in association with CBS Television Distribution, which aired on ABC between 1976 to 1977....

) and Donny
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...

 and Marie Osmond
Marie Osmond
Olive Marie Osmond is an American singer, actress, doll designer, and a member of the show business family The Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist in the 1970s and 1980s...

 (The Donny and Marie Show
Donny & Marie (1976 TV series)
Donny & Marie was an American variety show which aired on ABC from January 1976 to January 1979. The show stars brother and sister pop duo Donny Osmond and Marie Osmond...

). During the closing credits an announcer provides a voice over that notes "Witchiepoo is from the world of Sid and Marty Krofft
Sid and Marty Krofft
Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft , are a sibling team of television producers who were influential in children's television and variety show programs in the USA, particularly throughout the 1970s and early 1980s....

."

Releases

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 KISSOLOGY The Ultimate Kiss Collection Vol.1 1974-1977. The DVD shows a clip of Paul Lynde meeting KISS and the band's performance of "King of the Night Time World."

The program was released on Region 1 DVD in the US 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.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK