Read Twitch Upon a Star Online
Authors: Herbie J. Pilato
Twitch Upon a Star (37 page)
Whenever
Serena
showed up, Lizzie was billed in the credits as
Pandora Spocks
, a subtle nod to the famous Greek myth of
Pandora's Box
.
Pandora's Box was an artifact, taken from the myth of
Pandora's
creation as it is explained around line 60 of
Hesiod: Works and Days
. The “box” in question was actually a large jar given to
Pandora
(translated as “all-gifted”) which contained all the evils of the world. When Pandora opened the jar, the contents were released, except for the virtue of hope.
Today, opening Pandora's Box means
to create evil that cannot be undone
. In
Serena's
world on
Bewitched
, it meant Lizzie's interpretation of
Samantha's
free-spirited cousin would be significantly hipper than her performance as the more conservative
Sam
. Lizzie played
Serena
to the hilt, further amusing herself with the
Serena/Spocks
billing.
“I just thought I was so clever when I came up with the name,” Lizzie said in 1989, even though a
Bewitched
co-worker had another suggestion when doing the show.
“Why don't you just call her
Pandora Box
?”
“Um, I don't think so,” she replied. “My choice is a little subtler and funnier.”
She was also clear on another matter: Her real-life cousin Amanda did
not
serve as the prototype for
Samantha's
cousin
Serena
. She explained in 1989:
We had always been very close as kids. But she was not the inspiration for
Serena.
And instead of making
Serena
out to be
Samantha's
long lost sister, I thought to make her
Samantha's
cousin.
However, another
Bewitched
character,
Uncle Arthur
, played by Paul Lynde, had at least been named after Lizzie's real-life relative. “I always adored my Uncle Arthur,” she acknowledged in 1989, while she also thought highly of Lynde. “I got along very well with Paul,” she said ⦠almost to a fault.
One morning on the set of
Bewitched
, the two shared a laugh so hard, director Bill Asher screamed, “I give up!” called for lunch at 10:30 AM, and walked off the set. That's when Lynde pointed to her and said, “It's all
her
fault.”
“We were a mess, just an absolute wreck,” Lizzie mused in 1989, recalling the incident during which they behaved like childhood playmates reprimanded by a grade-school teacher.
One of her favorite
Bewitched
episodes was the first season episode “Driving Is the Only Way to Fly,” which featured Lynde in his first guest-star appearance on the show, not as
Uncle Arthur,
but as
Harold Harold
, a very nervous mortal driving instructor for
Samantha
. Lizzie recalled:
“Driving Is the Only Way to Fly” was one of my favorites! I mean, I totally truly enjoyed that. When you're working with somebody who's totally off the wall like [Lynde was], it gives you a lot of [creative] freedom. And Bill having known Paul for a long time, trusted him a lot and vice versa. So stuff that we would do also bled over into [Paul's performance] ⦠His instincts were fascinating. I wish he would have known. I wish he [had] understood how important he was despite all of his problems [alcoholism, manic depression]. I tried to help himâ¦. It was wonderful because when you work with somebody really like that you find yourself kind of using another part of your imagination that you don't use with people that you [usually work] with. It was on a different level [with Lynde].
No doubt Lizzie laughed a lot with Lynde whenever he played opposite her as
Samantha
, be it as
Uncle Arthur
or
Harold Harold
. But he hardly cracked a smile whenever she portrayed niece
Serena
to his
Uncle Arthur
. “Paul couldn't stand
Serena
,” Elizabeth admitted. “His attitude was very different when I played her as opposed to when I played
Samantha
. But so was everybody else's. I'd walk on the set as
Serena
and the crew acted entirely different toward me than when I was
Sam
.”
Vi Alford, the wardrobe designer, not only functioned differently around Lizzie when she donned the
Serena
black wig and garb, she would periodically fail to recognize the actress. “There were times, when Vi would forget that I was playing
Serena
,” Lizzie recalled. “I'd be standing right next to her, and she wouldn't even know I was there.”
Former actor Peter Ackerman is a married Episcopalian priest with children who serves as Rector of St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Springfield, Virginia. In the 1960s, he was the child of a TV star and a network executive who oversaw nearly every hit Columbia/Screen Gems series of the era, including
Hazel, Dennis The Menace, I Dream of Jeannie, Father Knows Best
, and
Bewitched
.
Peter is the son of
Bewitched
executive producer Harry Ackerman, who also served as the head of Screen Gems (and before that CBS) and actress Elinor Donahue, best known for her roles on
The Andy Griffith Show
and
Father Knows Best
(the latter during which she met and married Harry). So, like Lizzie, he's the offspring of noteworthy parents in the entertainment industry, parents who raised him with strong family values at the height of their Hollywood careers. Again, like Lizzie, Peter's interest couldn't help but be piqued by the industry that surrounded him. He recalls a rare show business party at the Ackerman home with all the trimmingsâcaterers, bartenders, servers, TV stars, athletes, and more:
I remember waking up as a little kid, practically invisible to a discussion with a fellow who had just returned from Africa studying pigmies. I still remember where I was standing in the house when I said to myself, “This is what I want to be a part of when I grow up.”
He was afforded the luxury of visiting the sets of Columbia's most classic shows, namely, the adventures of
Samantha
and
Darrin
, where he would meet and chat with Lizzie, Dick Sargent (the second
Darrin
), Agnes Moore-head (“She clearly liked kids”), and Paul Lynde (“⦠did not like kids”).
One day, Peter visited the
Bewitched
set when Lizzie was in her
Serena
guise. “I was probably the most gullible kid in those days,” he recalls. “And it didn't help that outside my Dad's office were two autographed photos, one of and signed by Liz, and one of and signed by Liz as
Serena.
”
When he finally did meet Lizzie as
Serena
, “she couldn't have been nicer,” he says. But then someone, probably Bill Asher, yelled from the set, “Heyâwhere is Liz?!” At that point, Lizzie/
Serena
turned to Peter and said, “I think she went to tinkle,” politely excused herself and then left to see if they needed her on the set. “For years,” Peter concludes, “I told my school friends that Liz and
Serena
were two different people, and I was convinced!”
Upon its debut,
Bewitched
had immediately established itself as a hit for ABC. So much so, rival network NBC and
Samantha
proprietor Columbia Studios sought to regurgitate the magic formula, at first requesting the assistance of
Sam
-scribe Sol Saks, who declined. “I had already created one show about a witch,” he said in 1988. “I didn't want to do another.”
Consequently, NBC approached producer Sidney Sheldon, who had befriended Bill Asher on
The Patty Duke Show
, which they had co-created. Sheldon agreed to do a new supernatural sitcom, and suggested to Columbia and NBC a concept that ultimately became
I Dream of Jeannie
, starring Barbara Eden as a female genie in love with her male master played by Larry Hagman. But Sheldon was concerned that Asher might object to
Jeannie's
similarities to
Bewitched
. “Sidney was very polite about the whole situation,” Bill explained. “He came to me and said, âHow do you feel if I do a show about a genie?' And I told him I didn't care.”
Lizzie, however, was irate. When she first got wind that Sheldon was developing
Jeannie
, she gave it little thoughtâuntil, that is, she and Bill met for a social chat with Sheldon in Beverly Hills.
As she recalled in 1989:
Sidney was a friend of Bill's, and he invited us to lunch. The more Sidney talked about what he was going to do with his show, the more I sat back in my chair in awe. I thought to myself, “Elizabethâare you hearing this right? Are you really listening to this conversation?” I was in such a funk. And when I heard Sidney say, “I must think of some way for her (Jeannie
blinked
her eyes) to motivate the magic just like
Samantha
does (with her nose twitch),” I just couldn't believe it. I had to prop my hand under my chin to keep my mouth from falling open. I was annoyed. That doesn't mean I was annoyed with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman. I was annoyed with Sidney. I was struck dumb. And I usually have something to say. But as I recall, it was a silent drive home.
Despite such a detour, Sheldon's show enjoyed a smooth ride with home viewers. Like
Bewitched
on ABC,
Jeannie
proved to be a ratings dream for NBCâfrom the moment it debuted in the fall of 1965. What's more,
Samantha's
training reels were not derailed, as
Bewitched
continued to inspire
Jeannie
. Lizzie offered her double-play of
Samantha
and her mischievous raven-haired look-alike cousin
Serena
. Eden later delivered a twin take as
Jeannie
and her brunette doppelganger sister, all of which further infuriated Lizzie. “People were even laughing about
that one
,” she said in 1989, particularly because
Bewitched
and
Jeannie
were filmed at the same studio. “Had I been Barbara, I would have said, âNo, sorry. How can I do this? How can I play the dark-haired double to this character?'”
By this point, Lizzie was “flabbergasted,” and thought, “Sidney Sheldon should have said,
Wait a minute. I've known Bill Asher for years, and I'm his friend
. (“At least I think they were,” she added.)
I can't go in there and steal from this other show
, which is in essence what it was.”
Although Lizzie was always cordial to Barbara during the
Bewitched-Jeannie
cross-over years, she was periodically annoyed with her, particularly in the Screen Gems makeup room that both women shared while working on their respective shows. For a time, actress Sally Field was there right beside them, during her time on
Gidget
and
The Flying Nun
, both of which, like
Bewitched
and
I Dream of Jeannie
, were produced by Screen Gems, and aired on ABC in the 1960s.
When Field appeared on
The Rosie O'Donnell Show
(May 10, 2001), she talked about having her makeup applied in that room, while she sat between Lizzie and Barbara. Apparently, Barbara liked to sing, which she happened to be doing a lot of this one particular morning, and it got on Lizzie's nerves. According to what Field told O'Donnell, when Barbara left the makeup room one day, Lizzie turned to her in frustration and said, “Does she have to sing
all the time
?!”
In her memoir,
Jeannie Out of the Bottle
(Crown/Archetype, 2011), which she wrote with Wendy Leigh, Eden apologized to just Sally and not Elizabeth for the musical annoyance. Apparently, Eden used her
Jeannie
time in the makeup room to rehearse for a nightclub act she was performing in Las Vegas. “Sorry, Sally! If only I'd known, I'd have practiced in the shower instead.”
On September 21, 2005, a few years later, Eden appeared in the second episode of TV Land's
TV Land Confidential
series. She mentioned the morning makeup sessions, some baby talk, and ignored the singing sensationalism. In the
Confidential
segment “When Real Life and Screen Life Collide,” Eden explained how she'd frequently see Lizzie in the makeup department. “In fact,” she said, “we were pregnant together. She had many babies on that show [
Bewitched
].”