Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976)

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special aired only once (on October 29, 1976) and featured a "Who's Who" of mid-'70s TV and film stars; Paul held everything together as the ringmaster of a circus that featured Margaret Hamilton (her only prime time TV appearance wearing the full outfit from The Wizard of Oz), Witchie Poo from H.R. Pufnstuf, Donnie and Marie (who had Paul as a regular on their series), Tim Conway, Billy Barty and in their first prime time TV appearance, KISS. They perform three songs but the on-stage conversation with KISS, Paul and Margaret Hamilton is priceless.

Special Features:

Extensive photo scrapbook containing images from The Hollywood Squares, at home, family shots, young Paul. This includes large quantities of photos provided by his family and heirs

Three stage interactive trivia game based on questions asked on The Hollywood Squares with a bonus feature when consumer answers all 30- 60 questions correctly

Extensive quotes from Paul Lynde about family, entertainment, food and mental health Liner notes by producer and writer, Bob Booker

Kitsch and Camp

"Paul Lynde Hollywood Special"

Kitsch and Camp

Amos Lassen

Paul Lynde was so gay and his kitschy and campy TV special from the 70's, believed lost, has been found, remastered and finally released on DVD. If you remember it, you undoubtedly will remember just how campy it was and now, almost 40 years later, it is still full of gay camp.
Paul Lynde appears as a bitch to the nth degree and he is joined by some incredible
guests--Margaret Hamilton (remember the wicked witch from "The Wizard of Oz"), Billie Hayes, Betty White, Tim Conway and Florence Henderson and rockers Kiss who sing disco here.
The show brought back some fond and wild memories of how I lived back then. Nostalgia can be fun but unfortunately it is not always good. He special looks extremely dated and the quality of the recording is poor.
Lynde's jokes are really corny and I am not sure if I laughed with him or at him and the supporting cast tried very hard to make this special somewhat special but alas the best thing here is Kiss. Watching Gene Simmons perform was as incredible as ever even if the group sang some minor songs and seeing them do disco was wonderful (if that is the right word). I found Lynde's mugging to be very distracting. The skits might have been funny then but now they fall flat.
A redeeming aspect of the DVD is that it contains some very good extras. Remembering that TV specials clock in at under and hour, obviously something else was needed to fill the disc. The extras include Lynde' scrapbook and a trivial test about him, a featurette entitles "The Wit and Wisdom of Paul Lynde", and an audio interview with Peter Marshall about Lynde's tenure on "Hollywood Squares".
If you are not in the mood for serious TV watching, this may just be the thing for you. It's not bad but neither is it good and it does take us back in time. September 25, 2008

Neither very Halloweeny nor very Special.

Let me start out saying that I am a fan of both Paul Lynde and Halloween. A Special that features both seemed like mixing your chocolate with my peanut butter. I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I found the whole mess pretty mediocre.

This is the premise: Margaret Hamilton playing herself as Paul Lynde's housekeeper (?) asks Paul to give her a ride to her sister's house, her sister being Witchiepoo from H.R. Puffnstuff. When they get there it turns out Paul was brought with an ulterior motive in mind. It turns out the winner of the witches Miss Halloween contest was promised a date with Paul Newman as her prize by Hamilton and Witchiepoo. Since they can't deliver Paul Newman they deliver Paul Lynde, because he is the only famous Paul who is available. Miss Halloween takes a rain check and Lynde is left feeling dejected. The witch sisters decide to cheer him up by giving him 3 wishes. The fulfillment of those wishes forms the body of the Special.
They should have had a lot of fun with this. Paul's first wish is to be a trucker, and not just any trucker but The Rhinestone Trucker, a bedazzled fella who goes by the handle Ruby Red. He later wishes to be a red-hot desert sheik ala Rudolph Valentino. Finally he wishes to take the witch sisters to a disco. There were lots of opportunities for some great humor here yet the writers and cast seldom take advantage of them. I especially like the idea of Paul Lynde playing a famous performer who lives a pretty normal lifestyle. The show's almost written like an episode of the old Jack Benny or Burns& Allen shows, where they were also famous performers who lived normal lives in quiet little neighborhoods like normal folk. This show was like that, almost too much like that. It was just too dry and flat. Lynde didn't seem to have his heart in it and nobody made the most of the many chances for solid humor that were available. It was funny watching Paul romance the smoking hot Roz Kelly, who should have had her own special, but it was also a little cringe inducing. There was no sly wink or nod, which would have made it funny. Maybe back then he wasn't able to do that, but I was kind of hoping he would have been able to do something to let us know he thought it was all a pretty funny joke too.

It had all the ingredients for some great genuine camp but for some reason for me the whole did not live up to the sum of the parts. It was Ok but that's about it. It pains me to say this, but this Special was a little more Trick than Treat
September 22, 2008

The BEST TV special in the history of entertainment!

I saw this when it first came out in '76 when I was 9 yrs old and was absolutely hypnotized by the delirious display of 70s camp flickering on the TV screen. Paul Lynde. Pinky Tuscadero. KISS. Florence Henderson. Billy Barty. Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch, Billie Hayes as Witchie-Poo. Tim Conway. DISCO. Bad jokes. Flat comedy sketches. CB Radios. UTTER GENIUS. I've been waiting for this to be released on DVD for years. Every home should have one. August 19, 2008

Better picture i expect

A lot "Kétaine" ,but it's great performance of Kiss,and i like the old Tv shows. July 15, 2008

Classic TV

I never saw this as a kid. For whatever reason, it didn't show in our market. But I always knew it existed, and have had several copies of the KISS performances, in lame form, but now at last, I have it all, in crystal clear glory. How can you beat this cast? Billy Barty for God's sake! And the KISS moments are awesome. Every KISS fan MUST have this. You get a nice slice of classic '70's TV variety show fare, and the hottest band in the land, KISS!!! May 29, 2008

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