Bewitched and Beyond: The Fan Who Came to Dinner (19 page)

My friend Julia and I dug it up (it weighed a ton for something dead), put it in the back of her truck and carted it home.

As perfect as it looks in the picture above, nothing compared to seeing it in person.

On April 19, 1998, we attended the Elizabeth Montgomery Charity Auction held in Beverly Hills.

The usual cast was there — Kasey, Bernard, Sandra, Erin, me and this time, Erin’s twin sister Diane. The only thing I ended up winning was a blue and white denim jacket that Elizabeth had once worn. We were all a bit disappointed that there was nothing much from
Bewitched
at the auction, but one of the highlights of the day was when Erin and some male dancers did a rendition of the
Bewitched
theme on stage, just as Elizabeth had performed it on
The Hollywood Palace
many years earlier.

Kasey and I had also gotten wind of an upcoming yard sale to be held at Elizabeth’s former home on Benedict Canyon Rd. on June 13, 1998. We attended, but I could still kick myself every time I think of the fact that the green shaded two-armed lamp used in the Stephen’s foyer on
Bewitched
was for sale and I didn’t get it! Ugh!!

1999, as we all remember, ended with the Y2K scare.

Can you remember how up in arms we all were then? Kasey and I celebrated that New Years Eve at Amanda and Lisa’s house, along with Bernard and Jacque Fox. As we watched the ball in Times Square fall, we also waited for planes to fall from the sky, and computers that run the world to blow up! We waited and waited… but nothing. We did hear some fireworks but that was the biggest bang we got out of that New Years Eve.

FUN SIDE NOTE:
Just months before her passing in 1999, I saw Ellen “Grandma Walton” Corby at the Motion Picture Hospital. She could no longer talk and was in a wheel chair. Our eyes met and I happily exclaimed, “Grandma Walton!” She got this huge smile on her face and puddled up. I gave her a big hug. It was a nice moment, and I think it made her day to be recognized and called “Grandma” one more time.

KR as “Momma”

For one of the decorating ideas in our first Halloween book, I wanted to do a haunted tree like the one in the Ray Bradbury book,
The Halloween Tree;
something dead and gnarled and loaded with grinning Jack O’lanterns.

Left to right:
KR, Bernard, Me, Sandra, and Erin at the Elizabeth Montgomery Benefit Auction

Me and some of my treasures from the Elizabeth Montgomery yard sale.

Chapter 27

Bad Blood on the Set

OK, here we go, the moment all of you have been waiting for… “dirt.” But don’t get too excited, there isn’t much!

To most people,
Bewitched
looked like one big happy family, but that wasn’t always the case. Bill Asher was a dear friend (oddly, I am editing this chapter on the same day that I got the call from his wife Meredith and told of Bill’s passing. It is 12:04 PM, West Coast time on July 16, 2012), but I am told there was a bit of an autocratic attitude with him and Elizabeth, especially after season two. Kasey and I discussed it often. She had her theories.

Bill and Elizabeth saw a chance to get ahead, and after the first two years, there was tension between Bill and then producer, Danny Arnold.

Somehow, during persuasive renegotiations of their contracts, the Ashers were able to oust Danny Arnold, and along with him went Irene Vernon (the original Louise Tate. It was reported that Irene left the show “to go into real estate.” She
did
go into real estate, but would’ve stayed with
Bewitched
for its entire run if things had been different. Unfortunately, Arnold had brought her in, and the Ashers were cleaning house.

Also, as stated earlier, “the older man and the trophy wife” was fast becoming the “in” thing. Irene Vernon was truly funny and wonderful in the role; even Kasey agreed with that, but then there’s —
ratings.

I was also told that the Ashers even wanted to get rid of David White, because he and Danny Arnold were very good friends, but at that point, ABC stepped in and said, “Absolutely not!! David White is the show’s fourth main character. He stays!” In time, things were eventually smoothed out, and they all ended up becoming good friends.

Sandra Gould had her share of problems with the Ashers as well. Back in the early 1990s, when the networks were doing all those “clip” shows that interviewed former cast members, one particular show called
TV’s All-Time Favorites
(1995) wanted to do a “favorite neighbor” segment and asked permission to include “Samantha Stephens and Gladys Kravitz.” They specifically wanted to use Sandra Gould’s portrayal of the role because she was more widely known to the audience as Mrs. Kravitz, due to the many years of color-only re-runs. (All of Alice Pearce’s episodes had been shot in black-and-white).

No matter which Gladys is your favorite, Sandra Gould
was
at the time the better known of the two. It took everyone by surprise when Elizabeth Montgomery refused to allow them to use a clip unless they used one with Alice Pearce. I asked Sandra if she knew why, and she sadly replied, “I don’t think she ever really liked me
or
my Gladys Kravitz.”

Although Elizabeth never acted nasty to Sandra on the set, William Asher apparently did. According to Sandra, there were many times when he would call her “Alice” instead of “Sandra.” And that did not bode well with the second Mrs. K. She felt that he was doing it deliberately.

The day finally came when she’d had enough, and in front of God and everyone, began to throw a full-fledged temper tantrum right there on the set! She freely admitted to screaming and kicking things, and then running off to her dressing room, refusing to come out until Bill came in to apologize. Surprisingly, he did come to her dressing room to apologize, and according to Sandra, she also made him
kiss her foot
! She swore he actually did, and she used to laugh (and gloat) a little when telling that one!

More than once, Kasey said that she and Elizabeth had their moments as well, and during the last couple of seasons of
Bewitched,
Kasey wasn’t used on the show very much. One theory that always floated around was that Elizabeth always worried when other pretty women were on the set:

Chris Noel, a lovely blonde actress in the episode “Love is Blind” (with a pre-Batman Adam West), didn’t get along with Elizabeth at all. She said that Elizabeth was especially cold to her. She was of the opinion that it was due to Elizabeth’s jealousy. If you’ll notice “pretty” girls most only played bad clients or terrible witches. Also, episodes were becoming more costly, and if the character of Louise could be taken care of via the phone, it was, in a word — cheaper.

As both the Asher marriage and the show began to fade at the beginning of season seven, Kasey remembered that Elizabeth stopped wearing Samantha’s traditional heart-shaped necklace, which had been a present from Bill at the beginning of
Bewitched.
It was later replaced by an “S” for Samantha. She also showed up in the make-up room one day wearing a button that simply stated, “New Game in Town”!

Kasey said that Elizabeth was the one who stopped season nine in its tracks. “There was supposed to be a ninth season because the Ashers had signed a three year contract to continue for seasons seven, eight, and nine. But in the end, Elizabeth eventually left the set, left her house, left her husband, and left the country with the assistant director!”

How true? I don’t know. But that’s what was told to me by more than just Kasey.

Dick York peers thru the door to the kitchen in the episode “Business Italian Style,” shot on June, 8th, 1968.

Chapter 28

A Bit More
Bewitched
…again

During one of the many meetings we had at Sony regarding
Bewitched… Again!,
we had somehow gotten to the top executive in charge of sitcom development…
again.

This time, we had done even more homework. Kasey and I had polled over a thousand fans via the “new” internet to gauge their interest in the project. We printed EVERY response. Two reams of paper.

We walked into the executive’s office and I began my pitch. I looked down at the glass coffee table in her office. “These are the people that would like to see our
Bewitched
reunion/new series.”