Who remembers Dick York? (films, house, children, television)
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The show ran for 8 seasons, I have them all on DVD.
Lots of interesting guest stars....
Richard Dreyfuss ...a couple of episdes
Adam West!!! ....one first season episode before Batman!
Boyce and Hart ....they also guested on I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched are often compared....
but I prefer Betwitched....Jeannie sometimes was a bit too goofy/silly,
they were both good shows.
Elizabeth Montgomery was married to show producer William Asher at the time
and three kids with him...first one born 1964 ...the other two born 1965 and 1969
were during the shows run and had to be "encorporated" into the "storyline",
hence "Tabitha" and "Adam".
EM fell in love with the show's director during the final season,
killing the show and her marriage.
IIRC Elizabeth Montgomery was *not* happy with I Dream Of Jeannie; felt it was a rip off of Bewitched, which of course in a way it was.
For first EM pregnancy it was hidden/worked around on Bewitched. The second and third time Elizabeth Montgomery was "waiting" it was written into the show.
I never knew until I just now read about Dick Sargent that he was gay. Or the reason Dick York was replaced. I had a crush on Paul Lynde before I knew he was gay. I watch the reruns on MeTV. I remember watching the very first episode, where I was, and the very beginning where Samantha tells Darrin she is a witch. Just like one knows where they were when President Kennedy was shot. Maybe because it premiered on my 9th birthday, September 17, 1964.
After "Bewitched ", Elizabeth Montgomery never acted in a comic role again. She became a staple of dramatic TV movies until her death.
That is what she wanted from the start.
Miss Montgomery tried a few times to leave Bewitched in order to expand her craft/do other things in acting. However the series was doing so well and making money for the network the "shirts" kept convincing EM to stay.
IIRC in the end the last few renewals saw EM (and her husband) get substantial sums, more creative control and a cut of the action. How could EM say no?
As stated previously you can see in the last few years of the series, and certainly the final season EM's heart just wasn't in it. IMHO she seemed to be "phoning things in " as it were. Also as mentioned there was much recycling of scripts and ideas from previous seasons instead of writing new material.
In a way you cannot blame Miss Montgomery. She was still a relatively young woman with a long acting career ahead. There is a danger for all sitcom actors that they get pigeon holed into a certain role and either the public will not accept them in any other, or they simply get sick of the actor all together.
Lucille Ball is an example. Her last few versions of "Lucy Show" or whatever really were horrible. You hand this old woman still playing a version of Lucy Ricardo and it just didn't work.
You also have to take into account by the early 1970's the whole genre of "supernatural" entertainment was pretty much over. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters... audience tastes were changing.
I never knew until I just now read about Dick Sargent that he was gay. Or the reason Dick York was replaced. I had a crush on Paul Lynde before I knew he was gay. I watch the reruns on MeTV. I remember watching the very first episode, where I was, and the very beginning where Samantha tells Darrin she is a witch. Just like one knows where they were when President Kennedy was shot. Maybe because it premiered on my 9th birthday, September 17, 1964.
Some have called "Bewitched" one of the "gayest" television shows for 1960's or 1970's with so many gay men as either main actors or recurring characters.
Paul Lynde, Maurice Evans ,Dick Sargent, George Tobias (rumored, but never confirmed).
Dick Sargent like many other actors in Hollywood at that time feared coming out as gay would harm his career. That he also preferred African American men probably wouldn't have gone over well in some circles either he felt, so the guy kept things to himself until around 1991 when he "came out".
Miss Montgomery tried a few times to leave Bewitched in order to expand her craft/do other things in acting. However the series was doing so well and making money for the network the "shirts" kept convincing EM to stay.
IIRC in the end the last few renewals saw EM (and her husband) get substantial sums, more creative control and a cut of the action. How could EM say no?
As stated previously you can see in the last few years of the series, and certainly the final season EM's heart just wasn't in it. IMHO she seemed to be "phoning things in " as it were. Also as mentioned there was much recycling of scripts and ideas from previous seasons instead of writing new material.
In a way you cannot blame Miss Montgomery. She was still a relatively young woman with a long acting career ahead. There is a danger for all sitcom actors that they get pigeon holed into a certain role and either the public will not accept them in any other, or they simply get sick of the actor all together.
Lucille Ball is an example. Her last few versions of "Lucy Show" or whatever really were horrible. You hand this old woman still playing a version of Lucy Ricardo and it just didn't work.
You also have to take into account by the early 1970's the whole genre of "supernatural" entertainment was pretty much over. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters... audience tastes were changing.
Yes. In 1971 CBS for example, "cleaned house" and got rid of all their old hokey 60s shows,
Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies, and bunch of others, include Ed Sullivan, got the axe.
Remember, CBS was also the same network that started running cutting edge "All In the Family" in 1971.
Getting back to Bewitched.....David White did a good job playing Darrin's boss, Larry Tate.
Always had the coolest 60s/early 70s cars too. Larry Tate drove a 1970 Corvette Stingray
and Darrin drove a Chevy Camaro for a few seasons.
Yes. In 1971 CBS for example, "cleaned house" and got rid of all their old hokey 60s shows,
Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies, and bunch of others, include Ed Sullivan, got the axe.
Remember, CBS was also the same network that started running cutting edge "All In the Family" in 1971.
Getting back to Bewitched.....David White did a good job playing Darrin's boss, Larry Tate.
Always had the coolest 60s/early 70s cars too. Larry Tate drove a 1970 Corvette Stingray
and Darrin drove a Chevy Camaro for a few seasons.
Yes, good ole "Larry Tate"; one of the last "company men" generation of executives. Guys who simply believed in selling their soul and or whoring themselves (and perhaps families) out to make and keep a client happy.
Leaving aside the hocus-pocus when you watch Bewitched it was the story of a suburban wife married to man that was "going places". Young generation today probably does not know that into the 1960's and perhaps even 1970's companies had "executive training" schools for guys "moving up". As part of that process a man's wife was "examined" as well. Larry's constant dropping in on Sam and or Darrin, all those dinners for clients (often at the last minute), the entertaining and so forth that Sam did was in line with what was expected of an executive's wife back then. When "Sam" got "out of line" Darrin as "ahem" told to "speak to her" and find out "what is her problem... we've got a deal on the line here...".
As for CBS "clearing house" , ohh yes!
Here is a list of top rated network television shows for 1971-1972 season.
Simply put networks got shot of scores of shows that featured rural/country related living/themes as younger audiences wanted things dealing with urban issues/settings.
Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle USMC, Petticoat Junction, and so forth; the lot found themselves cancelled.
Getting back to Bewitched.....David White did a good job playing Darrin's boss, Larry Tate.
Always had the coolest 60s/early 70s cars too. Larry Tate drove a 1970 Corvette Stingray
and Darrin drove a Chevy Camaro for a few seasons.
Leaving aside the sponsorship angle that was behind all that product placement; as the series went on there were plenty of signs that the Stephens along with Tates were upper middle to well off.
Sam typed on a Hermes typewriter. Had Gucci shoes and a Louis Vuitton handbag. Then there were of course the cars....
Darrin and Samantha were almost textbook upper class Westport, Connecticut couple. Heck even today those suburbs are filled with cute blondes that are SAHM. Though most today drive a Range Rover not anything by GM. *LOL*
Interview with Dick Sargent: "Let's see...Oh, one of the twin little girls who played our daughter Tabitha, she grew up and became openly lesbian. I think she's an activist, too. But she doesn't get much publicity."
Reporter: "I'm not surprised. I wrote to a magazine that featured only the heterosexual twin, who was married and having a baby--like that's news."
I never heard this before. I just went to someone's Pinterest page and yep, there they both are, as adults. Erin has 6 children by 3 marriages, per her Google bio.
They are now 53 years old! Where does the time go?
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