Requiem: Lokerse 2003 [DVD]

This six-disc set from Shout Factory marks the second time that any part of The Patty Duke Show has appeared in a high-end video format -- back in the early 1990's, MGM/UA issued a double-laserdisc set of "The Best of The Patty Duke Show," containing eight episodes, many of which were selected on the basis of their guest stars (Sal Mineo et al), which was typical of MGM/UA's decision-making at the time with television series. This is the first time that an entire season of the series -- 36 episodes (Shout Factory's own website says 26, but evidently we can count better than they can) -- has been offered on home video, and they look and sound sensational. The full-screen (1.33-to-1) black-and-white image is crisp and sharp, and the sound has been mastered at a very healthy volume, as well -- enough so that this reviewer had to turn down his monitor on the theme music, a rare adjustment on DVD (and that theme song still holds up, incidentally, as a TV intro). The chaptering is spare but effective, and each disc opens automatically to a simple menu that offers "play all" and individual episode access. The only bonus feature, a look back at the series with the surviving cast members (sad to say, co-star Jean Byron passed away in 2006), is one of the best and most touching and revealing short documentaries of its kind. Patty Duke, whose own personal difficulties have been well-documented by her in print, starts the ball rolling by remarking how amazed she is, at 62, to be talking about The Patty Duke Show, which she started when she was 16 (and because she was 16, the first two seasons of the show were shot in New York City rather than Los Angeles, because New York's labor laws allowed under-age actors to work much longer days than California's did). The series evidently gave her a chance to actually be a teenager, which -- as a full-time working actress, she never had a chance to be in real-life -- and to have a family, which she also never had in real-life. The latter took the form of the cast, which she and everyone else in the cast responded to positively -- they still come off like family today, and that's why the loss of Jean Byron is represented in so heartfelt a manner in the documentary. Paul O'Keefe, William Schallert, and Eddie Applegate (who played Patty's boyfriend Richard -- and is 10 years older than Duke) all reminisce in warm, loving, and very humorous detail. The interviews are worth looking at more than once, especially for the participants' recollections about writer Sidney Sheldon and producer/director William Asher, and how they worked. The only thing lacking here, that the laserdisc had on its episodes, are the original commercials, but those could yet turn up on future volumes.