Sunday, September 4, 2011

Phyllis Diller and Gypsy Rose Lee in The Pruitts of Southampton (1966)

Based on Patrick Dennis' novel House Party, this series ran for one season on ABC. The premise was that the Pruitts were broke, but because of their status and position, they were allowed by the IRS to keep their home and maintain the facade of wealth in order to protect the local economy. Behind closed doors, however, they had to maintain the house themselves, leading to many jokes having to do with Phyllis' less than stellar homemaking skills.

Above is the promo for the show, uploaded to YouTube by ohbutyes.

This is the opening credit sequence, uploaded to YouTube by TuneTV.

And here is one of the episodes - they were broadcast in color, but some syndicated copies are in black and white. This episode is from later in the run, after the name of the show was changed to The Phyllis Diller Show. It was uploaded to YouTube by dentelTV1.

Obscurity factor: 3 (somewhat notorious, known to Diller fans, not on DVD, partially available on YouTube)

10 comments:

  1. The exterior shots of the home were filmed at the Biltmore Estate, in Asheville, North Carolina. Having been there dozens of times over the past thirty years, it is very surprising to see the landmark pop up here. It has, of course, been utilized many times for films - "The Swan," "Being There," etc.

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  2. I was four years old when this premiered, and can still remember watching an episode back then. I think it was the premiere episode. For years I could have sworn that Phyllis and her butler ended up in a clothes dryer. I remember them spinning around. Does anyone remember this? I always was a big fan of Phyllis. The original opening credits are very funny. The re-tooled credits for the second half of the season set a much different tone. To be honest, I did not find the episode with John Astin that is on YouTube to be particularly funny. I was rather disappointed. However, I would like to see some additional episodes, especially from the first half of the season. I read or watched an interview with Phyllis where she said that when they revamped the plot they tried to turn her into a Carol Burnett-style performer, which was not her forte. I think she also said they had a different director for practically every episode, which made it difficult to establish a sense of continuity for the series.

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  3. I have fond memories of this as well. It wasn't until a few years ago when I was reading the Patrick Dennis Biography and it summarized the plot of his novel that I said - this sounds like The Pruitts of Southampton - two paragraphs later my suspicion proved correct. Also, shortly after this Phyllis went into Hello Dolly on Broadway and her Horace was Richard Deacon.

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  4. I can only imagine her as Dolly...

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  5. Might I also point out that Phyllis Diller is still alive! Considering how many of our old timers are gone, this is to celebrate!

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  7. I also thought the scene when she tried to empty the vacuum bag,& it blew up on her was hilarious. I unhooked the bag on one side one Saturday morning,of our old Kenmore upright before my mother got up to see what would happen. I can still hear my mother screaming GODDAMN IT! Came into the living room,& she was covered in dust! Innocently I asked what happened. She said the bag exploded,& started yelling at my dad to get her a new vacuum! I went silently upstairs to my room,& laughed MY ASS OFF! I always think of the scene where Phyllis tries to get the Great Dane into the tub when trying to bathe my dogs. I usually come out looking just like her! I wish this show would come out on dvd!

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  8. There was a full episode of the Pruitts of Southampton on Youtube several years ago, but sadly it was taken down.

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  9. Yes, they pop up once in a while. It would be fun if they would release series like this in the way they release obscure films through the Warner Archive.

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