While looking up information on KISS, I ran across this amazing lost piece of campamericana: they were once on a Paul Lynde TV special, where the four rockers sang “Beth” to Paul. As Uncle Arthur and as a guest on various bad variety shows, Paul Lynde warped my mind as a kid in the seventies. I used to watch the Donnie and Marie show regularly, not because I enjoyed them, but because Lynde was likely to show up.

But I never saw The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. Phil Hall describes it aptly on Film Threat:

The saving grace to this madness is Paul Lynde. It is difficult to capture his style, since he was very much a performer who needed to be seen and heard in order to be truly appreciated. With his bitchy sing-song voice, a head that shook slightly while talking, eyes that narrowed with undisguised malice and lips that sneered into a snarl, Lynde was truly the queen from hell and his one-liners and putdowns were masterworks of gay venom. When Betty White makes a cameo appearance as the winner of a witch’s beauty contest, Lynde remarks how much that particular witch resembled Betty White. Then he paused, grimaced, and bleated: “But then again, so many witches do!” Ouch!!!

Unfortunately, the extension of copyright since 1976 makes it unlikely anyone will spend the money on song rights necessary to bring this to DVD.