Twitch Upon a Star (38 page)

There was little noteworthy comparison between
Bewitched
and
I Dream of Jeannie
.
Samantha
and
Darrin
were trying to lead a normal life with their children. There was a great deal of love within the
Stephens'
household, and there wasn't that kind of love on
Jeannie
. And the humor on
Bewitched
was less impacted. It didn't hit you over the head with one-liners as much as it allowed the humor to develop from the situation.

Absolutely not; it's not about the money. That has nothing to do with it; for the networks and studios that might not be the case, but screw that. I'm approached about this all the time. And I know there are people out there who really want to do this … but there's not a shot in hell … forget it. I think once you've done something, you've done it … and that's fine. And I'm proud of it. But now, let's just, as my grandmother used to say, “Leave it lay where Jesus flung it!”

I wouldn't want to do it again. It's still playing all over the place in reruns. It was a wonderful experience, and I had a blast doing it. But when you've done something like that, let it have its life and let it go where it's going.

The conceit of one actor portraying multiple roles is probably as old as the acting profession itself. Classic playwrights in their work as varied as William Shakespeare's
King Lear
to James M. Barrie's
Peter Pan
have created multiple parts designed to be played by the same actor. The idea that one actor could play two roles simultaneously was born near the dawn of film-making and achieved early renown in the films of Mary Pickford. Pickford, known as
America's Sweetheart
with her long curls and petite five-foot frame, could play children as easily as adults and often performed in movies requiring her to age from childhood into adulthood. In several films, such as
Stella Maris
and
Little Lord Fauntleroy
, surprisingly sophisticated split-screen effects were used to enable her to appear onscreen in two roles at the same time. In
Little Lord Fauntleroy
, the petite Miss Pickford portrays the title male role and his own mother and in one scene we actually see Miss Pickford as a boy kiss the cheek of Miss Pickford as the mother using a split-screen technique as sophisticated as any used today. Later, in 1921, Buster Keaton played nearly every role in his two-reel short entitled
The Playhouse
. In the fifties, Alec Guinness played eight roles in
Kind Hearts and Coronets
and Peter Sellers played almost as many in 1964's
Dr. Strangelove
. Examples of one actor portraying twins are too numerous to mention, but
The Parent Trap
is one of the more famous examples. However, the idea of one actor playing identical
cousins
may go back to the first silent version of Anthony Hope's
The Prisoner of Zenda
in 1913, which has been remade countless times. In that story, the heir to the throne of a mythical European kingdom is abducted just before his coronation and his identical British cousin, a commoner, is drafted by the palace to pose as his royal relative until the kidnappers can be thwarted. To the baby boomer generation, the most famous identical cousins may be
Patty
and
Cathy Lane
, both portrayed by Patty Duke in
The Patty Duke Show
from 1963 to 1966, a series that Bill Asher and Sidney Sheldon co-produced. Imitation is the sincerest form of praise, one might say!

Are you crazy?
Sam
didn't even have enough wattage to keep the same
Darrin
for the run of her show. She also received frequent paranormal assists from
Endora
and her TV coven. Meanwhile, bottled
Jeannie
not only kept
Major Nelson
(Larry Hagman) in a trance for five seasons, she wed him, kept her evil sister in check, and did it all with nothing but her crossed arms. We think
Tabitha
was stuffing the ballot box.

What a fuss! When Nick at Nite sponsored a '60s sitcom showdown pitting
Samantha
against
Jeannie
, we weighed in with our opinion. We chided the 810,938 viewers who picked
Sam
, and boy, did we hear it. Since we couldn't make the letters go away by blinking, we decided to devote this page to your most(ly) bitter rebuttals.

Don't you realize that
Bewitched
all but put the ABC network on the map? Get a grip,
TV Guide
.—Mason Cargone, North Chili, New York

Put them in a sealed vault, which one do
you
think would get out?—Yancy Mitchell, Ardmore, Tennessee

Bewitched
appeared a year before
Jeannie
, so there wouldn't have been a
Jeannie
if not for
Bewitched
, nor a blink if there hadn't first been a twitch.— Randolph Sloan, Greece, New York

Whoever wrote that Jeer, was male and prefers a pleasing-you-pleases-me-syndrome slave to a loving, equal partner in relationships.—Wendy Martin, Owosso, Michigan

Any woman who calls her husband “Master” is already a loser.—Jimmie Welt, Gunter, Texas

Of course
Samantha
had more power than
Jeannie
. She didn't have to rely on a skimpy costume to keep ratings high!—Mary Campbell-Droze, San Mateo, California

How many women are powerful enough to replace their husbands— unnoticed—with someone who not only goes by the same name but is a foot and a half taller?—John Moreland, Pasadena, California