The Paul Lynde Show  The Paul Lynde Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC. The series starred comedian Paul Lynde and aired for one season, with original episodes airing from September 13, 1972, to March 14, 1973. It was added to the weekend schedule of the Antenna TV network in July 2018. The series starred Lynde as Paul Simms, a general-practice attorney and the father of a family that consisted of his wife Martha (Elizabeth Allen) and daughters Barbara (Jane Actman) and Sally (Pamelyn Ferdin). The Simms family lived in the fictional city of Ocean Grove, California. It also starred John Calvin as Barbara's husband, Howie Dickerson, an eccentric university student who was of genius intelligence (IQ 185) and was a whiz with everything and full of advice, but inexplicably, he could not manage to hold down a job, and Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara as Howie's parents, Barney and Grace Dickerson. Howie's misadventures around the house and his lack of steady employment drove his father-in-law to distraction and got him in a slow-burn anger. Critics perceived the show as derivative of "All in the Family", then television's most popular primetime program, and the Paul Simms role bore similarities to Lynde's best-known film role, that of Harry MacAfee from the film and musical "Bye Bye Birdie". For his role in the series, Lynde was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe. Scheduled opposite the first half of the Top 30 hit "The Carol Burnett Show" on CBS and the Top 20 hit "Adam-12" on NBC, the first episode proved to be a major hit; strong negative reactions led to bad word of mouth and a resulting collapse in ratings. The show was canceled after a single 26-episode season. The show was based on the play "Howie", about a lawyer, played by Lynde, whose daughter marries a slacker named Howard, or "Howie". The Lynde character despises him as he is not interested in earning money or traditional pursuits. "Howie" was developed for CBS in 1962, as a replacement for "The Dick Van Dyke Show", but when that series was saved from cancellation, plans for "Howie" were shelved. William Asher later resurrected the "Howie" concept for ABC and Screen Gems as a replacement for "Bewitched". Asher and then-wife Elizabeth Montgomery were contractually obligated for two more seasons of "Bewitched" for ABC.