Our mission this week is to explore the theme songs of old TV comedies which contained lyrics that set-up the backstory of the show. Yesterday we wallowed in ‘The Partridge Family’ theme and frankly I thought the rest of this week would be a breeze. You know, ‘Brady Bunch’, Gilligans Island’, ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ blah blah etc. But I got to thinking; there must have been plenty of these story/themes for shows that flopped and it might be more interesting to delve into those. In the end, I’ve decided to make a compromise–I’ll post one obscurity along with one favorite. Above is the theme from a bomb sitcom starring Phyllis Diller called ‘The Pruitt’s Of Southhampton’. The premise is essentially the same as ‘Schitt’s Creek’ as you’ll see. The music (and lyrics?) are by the adorably named Vic Mizzy. Thirty episodes were cranked out and aired on ABC in the 1966/67 season. According to Television Magazine, the show finished 77the among the 91 shows rated during that season. In 2002, TV Guide ranked it number 20 on its list of ’50 Worst Shows Of All Time’. As an antidote, below I’ve posted the theme from ‘The Patty Duke Show’, wherein we learn the idiotic set-up of the identical twins story that somehow was thought to be a good idea for one of the foremost young actresses in the business’s entry into the lucrative world of television comedy. (By the way, the show was created by the ubiquitous Sidney Sheldon, a decade plus before his emergence as a novelist of great success and little repute). It also aired on ABC, but unlike Diller’s misfire it lasted a more than respectable three seasons, from September 18, 1963, to April 27, 1966. The song, simply titled ‘Cousins’, was written by Sid Ramin and Robert Wells. If I’m not mistaken, Wells was the lyricist of ‘The Christmas Song’, co-composed with Mel Torme. That tidbit of knowledge ought to provide a good, solid wisecrack to wrap this up. I said ‘ought to.’…