The Paul Lynde Halloween Special

 I love watching this from time to time. Yes, it’s bad…really bad but it’s so bad it’s good. All the celebrities who are in different phases of their careers, cross paths in this epic of a show. First, let’s go through all of the stars. It’s probably remembered most for KISS’s first television appearance. 

Paul Lynde of course,

Billie Hayes (Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf)

Margaret Hamilton (The witch from Wizard of Oz)

Tim Conway (No seventies variety show was right without Tim Conway)

Florence Henderson (Brady Bunch mom)

KISS (their first TV show appearance)

Billy Barty (was in many films)

Betty White (Everyone knew Betty White)

Roz Kelly (Pinky Tuscadero from Happy Days)

Donny and Marie Osmond! (just to top it off)

The plot… which really doesn’t matter.

I always thought Paul Lynde was wickedly funny. In this, he was watered-down and could not be his Hollywood Squares best. He had a quick campy wit at times and the writers probably toned it down for prime time. I first noticed Lynde on Bewitched as Uncle Arthur and he was great in that role. It was his delivery that made everything work in his comedy.

This special has comedy bits and music…oh yes the music. You have KISS, you have the disco and you have Florence Henderson singing “That Old Black Magic…” Most of the comedy bits fail but the real comedy is how bad it is… The only thing missing from this extravaganza was a guest appearance from Harvey Korman and/or Don Knotts.

The main reason many people have watched it since it aired is it was KISS’s first TV show appearance…not including concert material.

It is a train wreck but one I like watching over and over again. At no other time could a show like this have been aired. It only aired once…for good reason.

What other show does Paul Lynde play a trucker who wants to marry Pinky Tuscadero?

The complete show is the second one down.

If you have time…here is the complete show

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

28 thoughts on “The Paul Lynde Halloween Special”

    1. Good point! I would safely bet 90 percent of the cast was….it was the seventies.
      I think Paul Lynde’s drug of choice at the time was nitrite poppers.

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      2. No but something like that happened. An actor friend of his fell out a window of a hotel and died in the mid sixties. Both had been drinking…it’s a wonder it didn’t kill his career.
        He died in the early eighties of a heart attack…the coke and the poppers didn’t help.

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    1. YES! The seventies were so cool because all the generations would work together…and you would get the coolest combinations. Paul Lynde, Florence Henderson….and KISS. You won’t get that again.

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  5. Halloween wasn’t a thing in Germany when I grew up. As such, I’ve never celebrated it.

    In the region where I lived we had something that was somewhat similar, though it has a religious origin. It’s called St. Martin and based on a story in the Bible.

    For St. Martin, they have parades and bonfires. Kids make lanterns and go from house to house to sing St. Martin songs. People usually give them candy or hot chocolate in exchange. But there’s no trick in case there’s no treat!😀

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  6. Oh. My. Gawd. Kiss, Osmonds, short jokes, Flo singing. It had it all. I cried till I cried more. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
    Still, as you say, it was the 70s, and a bit- sad Halloween pun- of nostalgia don’t hurt.
    Those Osmonds though- its like colour TV cameras reverted back to black and white when the camera swivelled to them.

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    1. No other time could have an extravaganza like this taken place! This is where “so bad it’s good” came from…
      That is true about the Osmonds…an instant 50’s flash.

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  9. you know, it’s funny, I didn’t watch ‘Hollywood Squares’ that much as a kid, but for some bizarre reason I remember a lot of those characters – Lynde, Professor Ernie Corey (or something like that), Kitty Carlisle…yet I have basically no idea at all who the heck they were or why they were big enough stars to be there. Were they all early-Kardashians, famous for just being famous?

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    1. Lynde appeared in a lot of TV shows…back then they had to have some talent lol…not just a sex tape lol .
      I think Kitty was in a lot of plays plus a lot of older movies…she was in a Marx Brothers movie.

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  11. Paul Lynde was constantly referred to on Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast, and since I was such an avid fan of that podcast, I’ve developed a need to watch The Paul Lynde Halloween Special every October.

    It’s such an absurd moment in 70s schtick that’s somehow oddly comforting. For whatever reason every year I return to it, watching The Paul Lynde Halloween Special is a seasonal activity that’s become as therapeutic as looking at a tree with vibrant red leaves.

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    1. I’m with you on that. I was a little kid when it came on…what I remembered most was KISS of course…. but only in the seventies did you have a cross section like this doing a show….one of those so bad it’s good.

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