Comments on: The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976)

By: suedenim

suedenim — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:28:51 +0000

“Kids! With their silly Sweat Hogs* and funky fauns!”

Obviously, the second part of the lyric must be the equally topical reference “funky Fonz.”

By: Zandor Vorkov

Zandor Vorkov — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 23:51:23 +0000

I’m afraid I didn’t get much out of this one. For starters, I have no idea who Paul Lynde is or was. I sometimes regret not being born until 1979, but then I find out about stuff like this holiday “special” and realize that missing the 70s might not have been so bad.

By: Christian

Christian — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 05:32:23 +0000

I’m 22 and people still know who KISS and Pinky Tuscadero are. And by ‘know’ I mean ‘pay money to see KISS and name girl-punk bands after Pinky’

By: Flint Paper

Flint Paper — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:01:51 +0000

Nice review, Ken! I only have two wishes (maybe because the word sounds sort of similar to witches? Sort of?): I’d really like to see these screencaps w/tooltips featuring your little one-off asides like in the old days. And secondly, why would you mention Florence Henderson’s skintight black dress and her still-tasty figure and not include a screencap of that? Why do you hate me?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:26:45 +0000

I beg to differ, Paul’s joke about election day was not only funny, it was prescient. Recall the 1976 election did give us Jimmy Carter as president. A scarier holiday I cannot imagine. (Though his presidency did give us a few years of “killer bunny” jokes for no talnet hacks to use on THEIR holiday specials…)

By: Henry

Henry — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:46:28 +0000

Great job, Ken! I just ordered my copy from Amazon. It should make a nice companion piece to my “Star Wars – Holiday special” :)

By: Rick Luehr

Rick Luehr — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:20:27 +0000

Great review, I’m gonna have to get ahold of this one!

One small correction for you, though. You say:

“Itâ€™s again a measure of a more innocent time that people tended to be shocked to learn that the guest starsâ€™ supposedly adlibbed quips on [Hollywood Squares] were, in fact, often provided them by a staff of house writers, notably Bruce Vilanch.”

Bruce Vilanch was not a writer on the 60s version of Squares which featured Lynde. He only was a writer on the 1998-2004 revival featuring Whoopi Goldberg.

By: roger h

roger h — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:29:48 +0000

Wow, I missed this one and I was a big fan of Paul Lynde (and not in that “friends of Dorothy” kind of way).

The KISS thing never really appealed to me, I bought a couple of albums because I could get them cheap and it is what the cool kids did (my home town had a record pressing plant, $2, new releases, once a month). When I think about it, I think guys who liked KISS a lot should of had their manhood questioned more than someone who liked Paul Lynde, all that make up and high heels, hmmm. . .

By: Jack Spencer

Jack Spencer — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:40:18 +0000

Incidentally, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park is available on DVD in their KISSOLOGY Vol II boxed set. Therefore, they probably had the other DVD pulled so they could sell more of this boxed set than because of any embarrassment they should rightfully feel.

By: Ken Begg

Ken Begg — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:20:18 +0000

Exactly! He’s like Peter Davidson wearing Baker’s scarf.