The Infamous Scene That Took 'bewitched' off Air

the controversial reason why Bewitched

really went off the air

just originally aired on September 17

1964 and it's still beloved by fans

today the show itself only lasted eight

seasons but Samantha's signature Twitchy

nose is something nearly everyone still

recognizes to this day

multiple spin-offs hit the Airways over

the years but none of them could quite

capture what the original series did so

well

here are some things you probably didn't

know about Bewitched including some

Revelations by the cast and crew

the films that inspired the iconic show

after watching the films I married a

witch and Bell book and candle Soul sax

created the TV show he based the pilot

episode script off the elements of both

movies

in interviews after the show aired he

said he wasn't concerned about any legal

action because both movies were owned by

Columbia pictures that studio owned

screen gems which produced the Bewitched

TV series

anti-aging potion in real life

Elizabeth was a beautiful young woman in

the 1960s and well into her later years

she must have used an anti-aging spell

on herself seriously she probably just

took excellent care of herself

exercising and eating the appropriate

Foods

despite the fact that she appeared to be

healthy on the outside she was actually

suffering from undisclosed health issues

that were kept hidden away

almost was Darren

while the show was casting in its early

days Richard Sergeant came close to

being signed on to play Darren Stevens

however while the pilot searched for

someone to fill Samantha's role Sergeant

took another job we'll never know how

krenna would have done if he'd been

seriously considered for the part or how

differently the show might have turned

out with a different actor playing

Darren

Elizabeth Montgomery assumed multiple

roles in Bewitched

Elizabeth Montgomery played Elizabeth

Samantha's cousin Serena and also played

herself and went credited for playing

Serena she used the moniker Pandora

spocks her appearance varied depending

on the character in and then there were

three we see her as both Serena and her

cousin

York steps up

Richard's Sergeant passed on the role of

Darren to play Richard Crenna but after

The Real McCoys krenna also turned it

down Dick York ended up getting cast

instead though later Sergeant took over

again for a short time unfortunately the

show didn't make it past the cast

changes

dick York's real reason for leaving

York's departure from the show was never

explained but it was rumored that he had

to leave because of an addiction to pain

medications it's said that while filming

condura dick tore most of the muscles on

the right side of his back and was

prescribed pain medication by doctors

however this became a long-term problem

and affected his ability to film future

episodes

enter dick sergeant

during season 5 of Bewitched a new

doctor gives York some B12 when he

visits the physician's office during a

lunch break from filming York had an

adverse reaction to the vitamin and

experienced a seizure on set after which

he was rushed to the hospital he never

returned and the series went darinless

for several episodes until dick Sergeant

stepped in it was one of just a few poor

moments for the well-liked program

Elizabeth Montgomery's real-life

pregnancies

Elizabeth Montgomery got pregnant three

times while filming the TV series the

first child was born in July 1964.

producers were able to write two of

Montgomery's pregnancies into the script

adding Tabitha and Adam to the Stevens

Family

not a popular choice to add children

into a show when an actor gets pregnant

oftentimes Hollywood tricks like

creative camera angles are used to hide

it from viewers

dick York's charm is Darren Stevens

Darren Stevens was the Mortal spouse of

wife Samantha Stevens I'm Bewitched

despite his Fame Dick York only took on

a few more projects after Bewitched

ended its run given his health issues

this isn't really much of a surprise for

fans of the series

Alice's Emmy Award

two months after her Death actress and

producer Bernadette mcentee was

presented with a posthumous outstanding

supporting actress Emmy for a portrayal

of nosy Gladys It's Not Unusual for

actors and actresses to be given honors

posthumously however she began the

decision to conceal her illness from her

fellow cast members and show producers

which was unusual because the series had

just begun and her passing came as a

surprise to everyone in the business

the truth behind their costumes

in the TV business it was standard

practice to try to minimize expenditures

for new programs and even some

well-established series at that time in

the program's popularity this was also a

great method for supporting cast members

to bring their own Flair into their

parts

official broach

Agnes Moorhead often sported a starburst

approach with eight and a half carats of

old mine diamonds which her Bewitched

co-star and close friend Elizabeth

Montgomery frequently admired upon

moorhead's death in 1974 it was revealed

that she had willed the treasured piece

of jewelry to Montgomery in a touching

gesture

off-camera friendships bloomed

despite his reported drug habit Agnes

Moorhead didn't want to see Dick York

leave the show after it had finished

taping

made his alleged addiction to

painkillers Maura didn't want to see

York depart the series Sergeant

allegedly squabbled with her on several

occasions and upset him on a regular

basis

[Music]

cold shoulder

Moorhead as stated before enjoyed York's

work on TV and was distressed when Dick

Sergeant replaced him it turns out that

those disagreements may have actually

helped improve one friendship on the set

of Bewitched Elizabeth Montgomery and

Sergeant became friends for life because

they stuck by each other during tough

times while filming the series

Mary and Lauren's interesting collection

it's difficult to forget Aunt Clara the

amusing yet bumbling character in the

show Marion Lawrence real life obsession

with doorknobs inspired Aunt Clara's

obsessive love of them the actress had a

collection of over 1 000 antique

doorknobs it may appear odd that someone

would collect doorknobs from old doors

nevertheless watching any collector

program on TV today will reveal that

such knobs can be quite valuable and

sought after by collectors

Larry Tate's son's tragic naming and

fate

I'm Bewitched when Larry and Louise Tate

were blessed with a son David White who

played Larry requested that he be named

Jonathan after his wife died of

complications during her second

pregnancy White had a son off screen

named Jonathan whom he'd raised as a

single father

the show's creators considered it an

incredible gesture and accepted right

away to Name the character after Larry's

real-life son

David White's heartbreaking sorrow

Larry's son Jonathan was killed in the

bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over

Lockerbie Scotland in 1988. two years

later David died of a heart attack and

they're buried together at the Hollywood

Forever Cemetery

for years many people thought that the

cast of Bewitched had been cursed

because various cast members passed away

at a young age

Tabitha's post Bewitched life

rolls on hit shows like Lassie and

bewitched made dozens of commercial

appearances did swimwear modeling

auditioned for parts with huge Stars

such as Helen Hunt and Jody Foster her

family eventually decided to move to

Orange County which gave her a chance

for a normal teenage experience

eventually she was crowned homecoming

queen at her high school before moving

forward in line

the secret behind Samantha's Magic

in the 1960s before CGI made magic with

the push of a button stagehands had to

work hard to produce Samantha's magic

Elizabeth Montgomery would stand in

place with her arms up while the

director yelled cut and frantic

stagehands ran onto the set to remove

any clutter it wasn't as high-tech or

based on today's standards but it worked

quickly and provided a low-cost solution

that fueled the show's Magic

the show ended because its star wanted

out

before bewitch started series star

Elizabeth Montgomery had considered

retiring from acting Bill Asher her

husband and a producer convinced her to

do the show after eight seasons the

network was ready for more but

Montgomery was over it Kirby J Pilato

the author of twitch upon a star

explained Bewitched was actually renewed

for Seasons 9 and 10 but she wanted out

it was at the same time that

Montgomery's marriage to Asher began to

unravel the sitcom came to an end in

1972 and the couple divorced a year

later

sense of humor

in an interview with Fox News in 2017

Aaron Murphy who played Tabitha on the

show spoke about the cast while

Elizabeth Montgomery may have seemed

like a goody two-shoes Murphy says she

wasn't scared to get her hands dirty she

had a filthy sense of humor she was just

one of those people who was so beautiful

but didn't mind looking silly kind of

like Lucille Ball they could read really

campy and funny there was no hesitation

there

Samantha's unorthodox arm workouts

Elizabeth was told not to drop her arms

because there was no CGI and everything

had to be manually performed and

relocated on set

Elizabeth was required to keep her arms

in the same position while the director

yelled cut and everyone else moved

around her she was only permitted to

lower her arms and continue the scene

after the director shouted action

the mysterious theme song

the famous song does in fact have words

the words are never sung during the

show's opening credits but the theme for

Bewitched did have lyrics You've Got Me

under your spell sings one of the lyrics

fading to listen to what ended up in The

Cutting Room floor before the program

aired

Darren's perspective

the lyrics to Bewitched theme song are

pretty interesting when you think about

it they were written from Darren's

perspective as if he knew his wife was a

witch of course they could also be

interpreted as being about a man who's

simply Spellbound by the woman he's in

love with either way it's an interesting

little piece of trivia

Elizabeth Montgomery's obituary is so

wrong

Elizabeth Montgomery was a private

person who never divulged her age or

other personal information to the public

even at the time of her death only her

57 years were published when she was

actually 62.

similarly because Elizabeth chose not to

reveal her marriage to Robert Foxworth

publicly several obituaries listed her

as a living single even though she

wasn't

death certificate inconsistencies

did you know that the late Hollywood

Superstar Elizabeth Montgomery had her

own age and marital status and gregly

listed on her obituaries not to mention

even her death certificate got her own

name wrong

if you take a look at it you'll see that

it lists her full name as Elizabeth a

Montgomery however Avid fans of hers

will remember that her middle name was

Victoria not Anne nevertheless she kept

fairly private given how often she was

in the public eye

[Music]

drunk on set

Bewitched on the other hand was filmed

in the 1960s and alcohol consumption was

regarded far more lightly in America

than it is today

various hollywood-based Unions would not

allow the usage of alcohol on a working

set nowadays

record-breaking drinking habits

the rules were more stringent when

children were on set according to the

show actors were instructed to imitate

the appearance of various alcoholic

beverages with iced tea

in a moment of Life imitating art Dick

Wilson frequently played a drunk on the

series

Elizabeth almost didn't make the cut

the show's Creator saw sex earnestly

wanted an actress by the name of Tammy

Grimes to play his lead witch who was

first supposed to be called Cassandra

not Samantha sex like that Grimes had a

natural elephant look however in the end

Saul Sachs and Bill Asher chose

Elizabeth Montgomery for the role it's

hard to Envision anyone else playing her

part so perfectly especially someone who

doesn't fit the description of looking

elfish

Cassandra wasn't meant to be

Grimes was replaced by Elizabeth

Montgomery as the female lead and

although she auditioned for the original

role she remained under contract with

screen gems and was unable to take the

part

the character was renamed Samantha

Elizabeth Montgomery was cast and

history continued to move forward

Grime starred in numerous movies and on

Broadway for many years after that she

passed away in 2016 at the age of 82.

home is where the magic is

for the Bewitched set the house from

which Gidget was filmed was duplicated

and reversed the patio and interior

living rooms were duplicates from an

earlier Gidget film this was a common

practice for movie studios to get the

most out of their money when they had

limited funds and needed to recycle

[Music]

Gladys Kravitz's hand-me-down

the lot and neighborhood known as

Blondie Street after the early serial

movie of Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead

had been used for about 50 years its

made appearance is in a variety of

television shows and sets in different

time periods for example during the Run

of Bewitched Samantha and Darren's nosy

neighbor Mrs Kravitz also lived in the

Partridge home

the debut of The Partridge Family came

before the end of Bewitched run so for

two series both families shared a home

on screen

Gladys Kravitz and The Partridge Family

the house was lived in by The Partridge

Family and Gladys Kravitz was a modest

two-story house with a white picket

fence the fence was taken down in 1999

and bay windows now replaced the front

windows used in the Bewitched days the

front door is also fairly different the

picture below is from the year 2000 if

you're facing the Partridge house the

home next door to the right was used in

I Dream of Jeannie as Major Nelson and

Jeannie's house more of that later

when filming The Partridge Family about

three feet of Genie's front yard had to

be removed in order to widen the

driveway to accommodate the bus

it's since been restored to its original

win

there were two tabithas

the casting of twin sisters Aaron and

Diane Murphy as the Steven's daughter

Tabitha was arranged

it's typical for twins to be utilized

particularly for roles involving babies

because the role was shared the

youngsters could work on set at

different times avoiding any accusation

of child labor laws being broken this

method is still in use today

a natural Talent

well one baby may have been favored over

the other due to their distinct

personalities they still received equal

credit for the part

War of the witches

when I Dream of Jeannie debuted on NBC

only one year after ABC aired its

popular show Bewitched people drew

comparisons between the two Elizabeth

Montgomery was not pleased by this turn

of events in fact even now casual

viewers often mix up some episodes from

the shows

nothing personal

Elizabeth Montgomery never felt any

personal animosity toward either I dream

of Jeannie's Stars Barbara Eden or Larry

Hagman although both shows were about

gorgeous blonde women with magical

powers Genie was a two thousand year old

Genie Who falls in love with a NASA

astronaut and they shared similar

plotlines occasionally in the end both

the shows are remembered for their

quirky characters and the charm they

brought to television screens

[Music]

tragedy over the airwaves

following the conclusion of the TV

series many of the show's Stars

experienced bad luck and several events

on the set took place during filming

including this tragedy

I confess

I confess in which Darren becomes

furious with Samantha for employing her

magic excessively was the episode that

was cut short to announce Martin Luther

King's assassination he fears she'll out

herself as a witch this way and decides

they should tell everyone right away to

persuade him not to do it Sam has Darren

dreamed that he explains his talents to

everyone that response as he gets from

his confession cause him to remember

never actually a nose wiggle

Aaron Murphy the actress who played

Montgomery's daughter Tabitha has

revealed that Montgomery's nose wiggle

was actually a camera trick if you look

closely at Samantha's nose you'll notice

that it never actually Wiggles her upper

lip is moving instead

some people have claimed that Samantha's

mouth movements did move her nose but in

fact human noses don't have the muscles

required to move like that

sharing actors with Genie

Bewitched featured a slew of humorous

strange Side characters Paul Lind played

Uncle Arthur my favorite surprisingly

Lind also appeared three times on I

Dream of Jeannie as an IRS agent a film

director and a NASA commander on

Charlotte's Web he was the rat Templeton

he was also a frequent and popular guest

on game shows

Dr Bombay the witch doctor

Bombay the Stevens Family Physician was

a witch doctor portrayed by character

actor Bernard Fox usually appearing in

outlandish costumes Dr Bombay made two

appearances on the spin-off series

Tabitha an amazing character actor

Bernard Fox went on to make appearances

in other shows and films throughout his

career including Titanic and the mummy

before he passed away in 2016.

hocus smokes

many of the heavy smokers on Bewitched

smoked in real life Elizabeth Montgomery

supposedly was a chain smoker as well as

Paul Lind Dick York averaged smoking

three packs a day in contrast Tabitha

actress Aaron Murphy said in an

interview later on I remember my parents

constantly saying smoking is bad smoking

is bad and I would think to myself

smoking is that harmful why does

everybody around me do it

a curse

some fans speculate that there was a

real-life curse on the show a high

percentage of its cast ended up dying of

cancer-related causes many also died

young besides Elizabeth Montgomery other

major cast members to diet relatively

young ages under 65 include Alice Pierce

of cancer Paul Lind the heart attack

Dick York of emphysema and Dick Sergeant

cancer it's hard to say whether the sad

statistic can be attributed to

Witchcraft or to unhealthy lifestyle

decisions

before Jaws there was Bewitched

Dreyfus made his television debut in

1966 with a role on the program man's

best friend in it he portrays a guy

named Rodney who was formerly a

demanding little warlock that Samantha

had looked after Rodney has grown older

and now professes his love for Samantha

while turning himself into a dog to

remain in her house

the dog and Sam's at her Wits End trying

to figure out how to get rid of it

Richard Dreyfuss is now undoubtedly one

of Hollywood's biggest stars

more Tabitha please

many fans of Bewitched were sorely

disappointed with the spin-off Tabitha

the series was based on Samantha and

Darren's daughter as an adult however

the original actress Aaron Murphy wasn't

a part of it Lisa Hartman Black played

Tabitha in the show Knots Landing and

went on to have a very successful career

Clint Black well-known country musician

married Lisa Hartman later down the road

broadcasting publicist Joni Hartman

Rogers passed away in 2017 February

unexpectedly

Aaron Murphy's later years

Murphy also worked as a makeup artist

casting director stunt double Fashion

Stylist acting teacher and motivational

speaker in her later years however one

of her most important tasks is an

outspoken supporter for Autism Awareness

her son Parker was diagnosed with a

condition Murphy is also a businesswoman

who sells low calorie Frozen vodka

martini pops she's certainly made an

impact with the time she spent outside

of Show Business

real life relationships

people are interested in the behind the

scenes connection between Samantha and

Tabitha Aaron Murphy a child actor on

Bewitched recently gave an ABC interview

about her experience on the series she

stated that she was extremely close to

her television parents even calling them

by their nicknames Darren Daddy and

mantha Mommy

I looked up to her as a parent and she'd

tell me what I should do like a parent

Murphy says in many ways she's more

similar to Agnes Moorhead than her own

mother which is amusing in addition she

was quite close with Agnes moorhead's

character who played her grandmother on

the show

changing characters

as we learned earlier the producers had

to change both the actor who played

Darren and the actress who played nosy

neighbor Gladys Kravitz

the original actress for Gladys was

Alice Pierce but she died from ovarian

cancer before season three

Sandra Gould replaced her and made her

debut in that season later she also

reprized her role as Gladys five years

later in a spin-off series

switching Darren's was bad for ratings

the Darren change took place after the

series had been on air for three seasons

audiences are rarely receptive to such a

substantial character switch and 1960s

fans were no exception the shift was

poorly received by audiences and

viewership dropped sharply in the

program's final three years

some fans weren't ready to accept

another actor in the role because they

preferred dick Sargent's performance

even if many people appreciated his

portrayal

secretary switcheroo

Marsha Wallace who played Darren's

secretary on the show later voiced

teacher Edna Crabapple on The Simpsons

Marshall also starred as Bob Newhart's

assistant in the 1970s on The Bob

Newhart Show and she died her role on

The Simpsons was retired

coincidental birthdays

Elizabeth Montgomery gave birth to her

real-life daughter Rebecca Asher on the

birthday of the Twins playing Tabitha

June 17th was this a coincidence or did

something more magical take place

the picture here is of Diane Murphy one

of the actors who played Tabitha which

she did along with her twin Aaron of

course and Elizabeth's real daughter

Rebecca Asher Asher has worked on Films

such as Donnie Darko Knocked Up and

Anchorman the Legend of Ron Burgundy

Bernard Fox dies at 89.

after a full career including playing Dr

Bombay on Bewitched actor Bernard Fox

passed away December 14 2016. Bernard

also played roles on other well-known

television shows and films including

James Cameron's 1997 epic Titanic for

which he received a screen actor's guild

nomination

a fifth generation performer Fox was 89

years old when he passed away in Van

Nuys California due to heart failure he

died at Valley Presbyterian Hospital

finally out

on National Coming Out day October 11th

in 1991 Bewitched star Dick Sergeant

appeared on a Geraldo Rivera TV event

and officially announced his

homosexuality although he acknowledged

that his decision to come out could have

armed his career he said in a later

interview that the relief of living

openly as his real self was worth it

I'll probably never be allowed to play a

father symbol again I'm afraid for my

career I'm probably going to lose a

whole lot of work I may even have to

sell the house someday but this is more

important he continued I like myself

probably more than I have most of my

life

in 1992 Elizabeth Montgomery

co-martialed the 1992 Los Angeles pride

parade with sergeant in support of his

decision the events pictured here

a long lasting Legacy

Bewitched is still popular with fans

today despite having aired its final

episode several decades ago many young

people are familiar with Samantha's Clan

and their witchy ways the show can still

be found on TV having aired throughout

the world in syndication since the show

ended in 1972. the show has also been

released on DVD so that a new generation

of viewers can fall in love with the

classic show the complete series can be

found online for just 30 bucks so if

you're looking to get your hands on this

iconic television series you're in luck