as the boisterous , bubbly , fun-loving Patty Lane from Brooklyn Heights and her reserved , intellectual , cosmopolitan , Scottish identical cousin Cathy Lane , who moved in with her Uncle Martin , Aunt Natalie , and cousins Patty and younger brother Ross , in order to finish high school in America . The more popular Patty wore her hair casually flipped up , and the more quiet Cathy wore hers demurely turned under . The two became fast friends , emphasizing female bonding .
A smart show for its time , it used a sophisticated splitscreen technique and was created by writer Sidney Sheldon , who had won the Academy Award for best screenplay of 1947 in another teen saga , The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer , starring Cary Grant , Myrna Loy , and Shirley Temple . Patterned after this successful effort , The Patty Duke Show sent messages to young audiences about teen life and its day-to-day crises in a palatable sitcom formula . Using narrative techniques such as the double , mistaken identity , and miscommunication and attractive male celebrity guests , the show captured the attention of the youth audience , making it the surprise hit of the 1963-64 season and the cornerstone of the 8:00 to 9:00 “ teenage block ” on ABC , coupled first with Shindig and then with Gidget to constitute “ girl appeal ” ( Luckett 99 ).
In The Patty Duke Show , identical cousins Patty and Cathy function as two sides of the same personality : Patty , emotional and Cathy , rational . In her autobiography , Call Me Anna , Duke writes that Sidney Sheldon , who claims to have written all 104 episodes of the series , invited her to Los Angeles to spend time with his family in the hope that her presence would spark an idea for the TV show . “ And though he tells it jokingly ,” Duke writes , “ I think it ’ s pretty
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