Bewitched aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) for eight seasons from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. The series is summarized in the 1964 pilot as follows: “Once upon a time, there was a typical American girl, who happened to bump into a typical red blooded American boy. And she bumped into him, and bumped into him. So, they decided they'd better sit down and talk this over before they had an accident. They became good friends. They found they had a lot of interests in common-radio. television, [and] trains. And when the boy found the girl attractive, desirable, irresistible, he did what any red-blooded American boy would do: He asked her to marry him. They had a typical wedding, went on a typical honeymoon, in a typical bridal suite. Except, it so happens that this girl is a witch."
There are many behind-the-scene secrets about Bewitched that you may find of interest. Here are just a few bits of information on Darrin and Samantha Stephens and all their unique family and friends:
1. After suffering a spinal injury on
the set of the 1959 western They Came to Cordura, Dick York
(Darrin #1) continued to endure severe pain for the rest of his life.
York’s health got so bad that he had a seizure during a lunch break at Bewitched, and had to be rushed to the
hospital. He never appeared on the set again.
2. Perhaps done to appease folks who
were worried about potential satanic messages being spread from the quirky show
even before it aired, the two leading ladies were adapted from a story in I
Samuel 28 about Saul consulting the “Witch of Endor” to bring back the spirit
of Samuel, Samantha and Endora.
3. Infant Cynthia Black was used for
the first episode when the Stephens welcomed their baby girl to the
family. Then the role was taken over by twins Heidi and Laura Gentry before
being replaced again by another set of twins, Julie and Tamar Young. Starting
with season three, Erin and Diane Murphy were given the role with Erin
eventually taking over full time.
4. Apparently,
Bewitched didn’t have much of a
wardrobe budget. Supporting actors had to supply their clothing for use on the
show.
5. If
you got the sense of déjà vu later in the show’s run, you weren’t alone. Some
of the shows starring Dick Sargent repeated entire plotlines of episodes that
originally starred Dick York, with some lines of dialogue repeated
word-for-word.
6.
It’s
hard to forget the lovable but bumbling character of Aunt Clara. In the show,
Aunt Clara’s obsession with door knobs was based on actress Marion Lorne’s
real-life obsession with them. The actress had a collection of more than 1,000
antique door openers.
7. The
producers of Bewitched went to rather extreme lengths to hide the
obvious fact that Elizabeth Montgomery played Samantha’s cousin, Serena.
Whenever Serena was featured on the show, her role was credited to a fictional
actress by the name of Pandora Spocks.
8. The
“Sisters at Heart” Christmas episode’s basic script and story idea was written
by twenty-two African American tenth graders in the English class of Marcella
Saunders at Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles.
9. In
the 1960s, there was no such thing as technology. All magic tricks in the show
were created by a team of talented stagehands. Other significant effects
included ‘invisible’ wires, backward-motion and fast-motion film.
10.
Although Bewitched was better than the movies that inspired it, the concept
was taken by creator Sol Saks from I
Married a Witch and Bell, Book and
Candle.
11.
Because there was no computer-generated imagery
(CGI),
and everything had to be manually done and moved on set, Elizabeth was expected
to keep her arms in the same position while the director yelled cut. Everyone moved
around her. She was allegedly allowed to have crutch-like devices to help keep
her arms up for long periods of time. She was only allowed to lower her arms
and continue the scene when the director yelled, “Action.”
12.
The
house that was used for the 1959 movie Gidget was copied in reverse for
the Bewitched set. The patio and interior living rooms were duplicates
from another Gidget movie. The facade
of the home also appeared in shows like Dennis the Menace and I Dream
of Jeannie.
13.
Montgomery’s
nose wiggle was actually a camera trick, according to Erin Murphy, the actress
who played the daughter, Tabatha. If you look closely, you’ll notice that
Samantha’s nose never wiggles. It’s actually her upper lip. Some folks claim
her mouth moving did move her nose.
14.
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 die at relatively
young ages (under 65) include Alice Pearce (cancer), Paul Lynde (heart attack),
Dick York (emphysema), and Dick Sargent (cancer). It’s hard to say whether this
sad statistic can be attributed to unhealthy lifestyle decisions.
15.
Samantha’s
husband Darrin was played by more than one actor. Without warning or
explanation, producers replaced Dick York with Dick Sargent, apparently hoping
the audience either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care. The act of switching out
actors without explanation like this became known as “The Darrin Syndrome.”
16.
On
April 4, 1968, Bewitched was interrupted to announce the tragic news
that civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. Eerily,
the first day of rehearsal for the show was on Nov. 22, 1963, the day of the
assassination of President Kennedy.
“I’d never thought much about a series,
because I liked the idea of picking a script I liked with a character I thought
I could sustain for an hour. In a series, you live with one character day in
and day out - and you only hope it will be one that will not drive you crazy. “(Elizabeth
Montgomery, Samantha Stephens on Bewitched)[i]
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| Bewitched |
[i] Sources used:
·
“11 Things You Probably Never Knew About
‘Bewitched’” by Jess Catcher
·
“25 Little-Known Facts
About Bewitched” by
·
“'Bewitched' secrets: 6
Things You Didn't Know” by Sean Daly
·
“Bewitched: Astonishing Facts Revealed About the Cast and Crew” by Trend
Chaser
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