Twitch Upon a Star (30 page)

Essentially, Lizzie, Bill, and the rest of the
Bewitched
cast and crew did what should always be done in the midst of tragedy: realize that, for the living, life must go on.

On July 24, 1964, the summer before
Bewitched
debuted, Elizabeth and Bill welcomed a 7 lb. 6 oz. baby boy they named William Allen Asher, Jr. On October 5, 1965, Elizabeth gave birth to their second child, a 7 lb. 2 oz. boy named Robert Deverell Asher. On June 17, 1969, the Asher's youngest was born: a beautiful 7 lb. 13 oz. girl they named Rebecca Elizabeth Asher.

Through it all, on the other side of the screen,
Samantha
and
Darrin's
little
Tabatha
(later changed to
Tabitha
with an “i”) was born on January 13, 1966 in the episode “And Then There Were Three.”
Tabitha's
brother
Adam
later materialized on October 16, 1969 in the episode, “And Something Makes Four.”

In reality, Billy Asher, Jr. arrived during
Bewitched's
first season which began production in the summer of 1964—some eight months after Lizzie filmed the show's pilot in November 1963. For that initial episode, she was showing slightly, and strategic camera angles and wardrobe choices were utilized to conceal her condition.

In June, July, and August of 1964, she was in a fully expectant/recovery/rest period that forced her to miss most of the shooting schedule for the show's first full season. She then returned to the set the first week of September 1964, just in time to complete filming of the episode, “Be It Ever So Mortgaged.”

Elizabeth became pregnant with her second child Robert (named for her father), around New Year's Day, 1965 (the second part of the first season of
Bewitched
), and worked through the following summer, taking maternity leave from September 10 to December 10, 1965.

She became pregnant with her third child Rebecca (named for her maternal grandmother) in mid-October 1968 during production of
Bewitched's
fifth season—and beginning with the non-
Darrin
episode, “Marriage Witches, Style,” which began filming on January 20, 1969. To allow Lizzie some headway on this her third pregnancy,
Bewitched
filmed four episodes early in March and April 1969: “
Samantha's
Better Halves,” “
Samantha's
Yoo-Hoo Maid,” “
Samantha
and the Beanstalk,” and “
Samantha's
Curious Cravings.” Following Rebecca's birth, Lizzie returned to the
Bewitched
set on August 22, 1969 to film “
Samantha's
Caesar Salad.”

Ultimately, Lizzie's first pregnancy (Billy, Jr.) was hidden from the TV viewers, while her second (Robert) and third (Rebecca) pregnancies were written into the show when
Samantha
became pregnant with
Tabitha
(Robert) and
Adam
(Rebecca). Although most people associate twins Erin and Diane Murphy with the role of
Samantha
and
Darrin's
daughter, there have actually been ten little witches on the show since 1966. Cynthia Black, who was two-and-a-half weeks old when she appeared on the series, played Tab
a
tha in episode 54, “And Then There Were Three.” Then, twins Heidi and Laura Gentry took over the part the following week. The Gentry girls were born on August 16, 1965.

A few weeks later the role of Tab
a
tha was given to slightly older twins Tamar and Julie Young, and they stayed for the remainder of the second season. The Young girls were born on June 24, 1965. The last set of twins, Erin and Diane Murphy, became cast members at the start of the third season. The Murphy girls (fraternal twins) were born on June 17, 1964, so the now-spelled Tab
i
tha had physically aged more than a year between seasons two and three. This was necessary as the part would expand once it was announced that she was indeed a witch.

However, before all that transpired, the birth of
Bewitched
itself became just as intricate.

Resulting from an extended
affair
between several pertinent parties, the seeds of
Bewitched
were planted by Columbia/Screen Gems studio executives William Dozier and Harry Ackerman, the latter who had long-envisioned a supernatural sitcom that he titled
The Witch of Westport
.

In early 1963, Dozier and Ackerman, both of whom died in 1991, hired writer Sol Saks to write the pilot script, “I,
Darrin
, Take This Witch,
Samantha
,” and
Bewitched
was born.

Dozier, then Vice President of Screen Gems West Coast operations, detailed
Samantha's
genesis for
TV Guide
, January 27, 1968, in the article, “The Man Who Helped Deliver a $9,000,000 Baby Tells How it All Happened.”

With periodic meetings in 1963 Dozier and Ackerman discussed potential new TV projects, one of which was about a mortal wedded to a supernatural who did not reveal her persuasion until their honeymoon.

Shortly after these meetings with Ackerman, Dozier lunched with George Axelrod, the author of the 1952 play
The Seven Year Itch
, starring Vanessa Brown and Tom Ewell (who later reprised his role in the 1955 feature film adaptation starring Marilyn Monroe). It was then Dozier suggested the concept for a sorceress sitcom, the notion of which delighted Axelrod who very much wanted to write the pilot, which was not yet titled
Bewitched
.

An agreement was bartered with Axelrod's agent Irving Lazar and work was to commence immediately. But there was an issue. Lazar had also managed to cut a significant deal for his client to write, produce, and potentially direct several feature films for United Artists, which also wanted Axelrod to start work at once.

To alleviate the conflict a generous Dozier released Axelrod from his Screen Gems commitment and then met with writer Charles Lederer who, like Axelrod, immediately recognized the potential of a weekly witch series. But Lederer was also too involved with another job in this case, writing the screenplay for MGM's 1962 feature,
Mutiny on the Bounty
(starring Marlon Brando).

In stepped Sol Saks, with whom Dozier and Ackerman had both worked at CBS where he had penned
My Favorite Husband
for Ackerman and
Peck's Bad Girl
for Dozier. Now Saks was commissioned to write the pilot script he tentatively titled
Bewitched
.

Around the time Saks was hired, New York actress Tammy Grimes was under contract to Screen Gems. Then the star of Broadway's hit,
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
, Grimes had signed not only to do a series for Screen Gems, but one or more films for its feature film unit Columbia Pictures. Upon reading his witch script, Grimes requested changes from Saks, who sent along revisions after she returned to New York.

While that transpired, Dozier had separate business in that same city, where he was approached by an enthusiastic agent named Tom Tannenbaum who wanted very much to team his clients with a show for Screen Gems. Those clients were Lizzie and Bill Asher.

As fate would have it, Dozier was a friend to Elizabeth with whom he had long wanted to do a series and Ackerman, Dozier's Columbia colleague, was a CBS executive during the reign of
I Love Lucy
, countless episodes of which Bill had guided. Now with Screen Gems, Ackerman was executive producer for a host of the studio's very popular TV programs, not the least of which was
Father Knows Best
, co-starring Elinor Donahue, who would become his wife in real life.

Who would
Darrin
wed on
Bewitched
? That die was yet to be cast. For the moment, Dozier and Ackerman were working on finding
Samantha.

By this time, the Columbia-contracted Grimes was considering the lead in playwright Noel Coward's new Broadway musical,
High Spirits
, which he had also signed to direct. Based on his previous hit play,
Blithe Spirit, High Spirits
centered around a female ghost, and like
Bewitched
, embraced a fantasy-comedy premise.

Grimes' choices were similar but different: Would she portray a sorceress or a spectre? She ultimately chose the latter and, like writer George Axelrod, was released from her contract with Columbia.

In 2007, she told writer Peter Filichia and
Theatre Mania's
online magazine, “I vetoed the script they gave me.” In 1963, she told the studio, “This
Samantha
has all these powers? Well, then why isn't she stopping wars? Why isn't she fixing traffic in Los Angeles, saying to all of those drivers, ‘
Just a second—I'll soon get you all home
.'”

However, she said, Columbia didn't agree with her, so they “went to Elizabeth Montgomery.”

When asked if she regretted the decision, Grimes replied: “No, but I used to wonder what would have happened if I'd done it. I probably would have done far more television and less theatre. So it's all right.”

Yet as Harry Ackerman recalled in
The Bewitched Book
(Dell, 1992), Grimes did indeed regret not starring on
Bewitched
as
Samantha
, who when she read the script was named
Cassandra
. “I run into her every two or three years, and she's still kicking herself for not having done (the show).”

In 1989, Lizzie said she “met Tammy in New York when I was about fourteen.” Although she years later decided to end
Bewitched
, and made every creative attempt to distance herself from the series after it ended, Elizabeth threw herself into the role of
Samantha
and felt “eternally gratefully” to Grimes for rejecting it. “I didn't get the part because I beat out hundreds of women in some huge casting call which was painstakingly narrowed down to me,” she explained. “Tammy said
no
, I said
yes
, and I was simply at the right place at the right time.”

That “right time” occurred shortly after she and Bill Asher completed production on
Johnny Cool
, in which she starred and he directed, and during which they fell in love. Enamored with him, she at that point became disinterested in acting, mostly because of the grueling schedules and distant film locations that meant extended periods of time away from the new love of her life. Bill, however, did not want her to disengage from her craft. “I felt that would have been a great loss,” he said in 1988. “She had a lot to offer the industry, and she should be working, for herself, as well as for her contributions to the business.”

Consequently, he suggested the possibility of working on a series with her during which there would be no periods of separation. “And Liz was all for that,” he added.

Although Lizzie and Bill met for the first time on the set of
Johnny Cool
, she was well-aware of his work. As she recalled in
Modern Screen
magazine in 1965, she had rejected a number of series and always said if she did decide to do a show, “it would be wonderful to get William Asher.”

Got him, she did. But initially Bill wasn't all that excited about “getting” Lizzie, as a thespian, that is. He always said the last thing he'd ever do was fall in love with an actress. Yet, as he too told
Modern Screen
, he soon realized that Lizzie was “special, very definitely special. She has none of the
personality
which usually goes with a personality. She doesn't possess the slightest affectation. She isn't affected by adulation. She's first of all what she is. Second, she's an actress.”

“What he means,” Lizzie chimed in at the time, “is that the only drive I have is to get home.” Still, she often wondered if it was possible to be both a good actress and a happy woman. When she met actress Julie Andrews, whom she deemed “enormously talented,” she knew it was possible. In her view, Andrews appeared “extremely happy.”

Like Lizzie, Andrews would for years be associated with an iconic magical female role, this time, on the big screen as
Mary Poppins
, co-starring Dick Van Dyke, released in 1964, the same year
Bewitched
debuted on the small screen. It was produced by Walt Disney, for whom Lizzie as a youth had long desired to be hired as an artist.