Pamelyn Ferdin is a former child actress who appeared in many roles on TV, commercials, and movies. She had a recurring role as Felix Unger’s daughter on “The Odd Couple”, and was a regular on the short-lived “Paul Lynde Show”.
She left acting in her late teens, worked for a while as a registered nurse, and became an animal rights activist.
As a grade-school kid, I had a serious crush on her, but I had to keep it secret. All my buddies thought she was homely. She had a distinctive prominent nose, and a distinctive nasal voice. Both of which I thought were cute as hell. Kind of a gentile version of Fran Drescher.
As Paul Lynde’s growing, precocious 14-year-old daughter, Ferdin was given more risque dialogue. She once made a sassy remark about waterbeds which prompted Lynde to comment, “It’s a pity. She’s too old to spank, too young for religious sacrifice!”
I’ve never heard her called a great beauty. Hence, the title of this thread.
In 2004, she accused the parents of Kelly Keen, a three-year-old child killed in a coyote attack, of murdering their daughter and using the story of an animal attack to cover up the crime. This was part of her protest against public efforts to control the coyote population near suburban homes.[21]
IMDb says, yes, she voiced Lucy in several specials. I remember her from TV series like Space Academy, and from the animated adaptation of Charlotte’s Web.
“And the Children Shall Lead,” yes. One of the worst Trek episodes, the kids were doing bad things, but that was because they were all possessed and controlled by an evil attorney.
Aside from ‘Star Trek,’ I remember her mostly from the ‘Night Gallery’ vignette ‘Brenda.’ Weird story about a friendless obnoxious kid who befriends a. . . Swamp Thing-ish monster.
In the short-lived CBS sitcom Blondie (1968), she played the daughter of Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead (“Cookie,” I think) opposite Peter Robbins (the original voice of Charlie Brown in the Peanuts specials) as their son Alexander.
I always thought she was kinda cute myself, and she was everywhere for a while. There was hardly a commercial for kid-oriented products like Barbie dolls and sugary cereals that she wasn’t in.
Here is the pilot for the Blondie TV series. You can tell immediately that it was produced by one of the guys responsible for Leave It to Beaver in the '50s. I remember watching one episode, and when I looked for it again, it was gone.
The reporter who comes to interview the “Senator” is Marj Dusay, who played Kara (one of the “mentally challenged” Eymorg of Sigma Draconis VI) in the “Spock’s Brain” episode of Star Trek TOS.
Did you all catch the background music lifted from Gilligan’s Island? After watching this pilot, I can understand why the show ended after 13 weeks, with the final episode never being aired.
She was definitely a frequent figure in my childhood TV. In my mind, she was generally the “sassy” kid. Not sure if it was partially the characters she played, but she never impressed me as particularly “cute.” Of course, in TV, the ugliest, nerdiest character would likely be a knockout IRL.
She was in the final two season of Lassie. And her stints as Lucy van pelt are really distinctive.
But, I always thought she had an annoying voice, and I really can’t get past her extreme animal activism. Emphasis on “extreme”, not “activism”. I think you should adopt, not buy pets, too. But I’m not for accusing parents of murdering their kids in the name of activism.
When she was younger, she had a hook in her nose that wasn’t as noticeable when viewed from the front (as in this picture). Later, she appears to have had cosmetic surgery.
