The Pruitts of Southampton

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The Pruitts of Southampton was a situation comedy that aired during the 1966-67 season on the ABC network.

The program starred Phyllis Diller and Gypsy Rose Lee. The premise was that the Pruitts, a supposedly incredibly wealthy family living on Long Island in the Hamptons, were approached by the Internal Revenue Service about overdue taxes. An audit revealed that the Pruitts were in fact broke; rather than reveal this fact publicly and cause the economic depression which would presumably result from this revelation, an improbably charitable IRS allowed them to continue living in their mansion and maintaining the pretensions of great wealth, which was difficult given their reduced circumstances. During the latter portion of its run this program was referred to as The Phyllis Diller Show. It was based on the novel House Party by Patrick Dennis.