The Infamous Scene That Took ‘Bewitched’ Off Air

Bewitched was one of the most successful television shows of its era the show told the story of Samantha a young witch who got married to an ordinary man and although she had promised him that she'd stop her Supernatural activities circumstances would force her back into her witchy ways from time to time with such a fascinating storyline it would be no surprise that bewitch gripped audiences take it like this in today's TV landscape a show surviving Five Seasons would be considered a pretty successful one and bewitched lasted eight seasons overall running from September of 1964 to March of 1972. interestingly though despite being a huge Money Maker for ABC Studios and its Legion of adoring fans the ending of Bewitched was actually quite abrupt fans were shocked to hear that it would end even though it had run for eight seasons in this video we'll be taking a trip down memory lane to check out why Bewitched was taken off the air and if you've got a television show to pitch to a studio you may well want to learn a thing or two from this join join us as we have a look at the reasons why Bewitched was taken off the air the origins of Bewitched Bewitched hit the airwaves on September 17th of 1964. audiences were suddenly introduced to a couple Darren and Samantha Stevens who were played by Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York the premise of Bewitched was pretty interesting Darren on the show was your typical American husband who had a traditional set of family values however while Darren was pretty easy to come by the real spice on the show would be Samantha a witch who had to learn to live a normal life primarily because she was trying to be a good wife to the man that she loved there had been attempts to try this storyline in the past in fact show producer Saul sacks claimed that at some point he actually Drew inspiration for Bewitched from I'm married a witch a 1942 comedy and fantasy film that starred Frederick March in Veronica Lake he also claimed that he had drawn inspiration from Belle book and candle a 1958 movie about a witch who cast a spell on a handsome man only to make him fall in love with her problems in the Stephen's household in almost no time Bewitched became one of the most popular and successful television shows it had a lot of fans many of whom were attracted to both the storyline and the actors themselves however it appears that this also led to several challenges most notably amongst those challenges was the problem with Dick York himself with Bewitched being wildly popular the cast and crew had to work very hard to keep the show going for as long as it possibly could and for Dick York this posed a bit of an issue besides that dick also reportedly sustained a severe injury to his lower back while on the set of a separate film a western drama called Inherit the Wind according to reports he suffered a huge back injury that tore muscles along the right side of his back this injury would lead to a lengthy recovery process with Dick York eventually becoming addicted to painkillers as a result at some point he literally passed out on the set of Bewitched producers who were well aware aware of his substance abuse issues and health challenges then decided it would be in everyone's best interest if the role of Darren Stevens was recast after shooting on the fifth season would rap He was then replaced with Dick's Sergeant the character replacement was a bit unusual for audiences at the time but in time they learned to accept dick Sergeant as being Darren Stevens the show would then go on with the new leading man playing the role until it ended in season 8. the Infamous final moments one of the most peculiar things about Bewitched is that the show itself was quite popular amongst audiences many appreciated its story lines and Elizabeth Montgomery's charm was enough to keep many people glued to their television sets however like every other television show Bewitched began to get a little stale at some point the fans did still love the show but there was seemingly a need for fresh content besides that more sitcoms and television shows were being created and fans were pretty much spoiled for Choice when it came to their content at some point Bewitched seemingly just couldn't keep up and by the end of the sixth season ratings had began to drop slightly they were still pretty great but compared to the initial reasons it would be obvious that things were beginning to die down finally there was the fact that the cast members themselves were pretty tired Elizabeth Montgomery reportedly got bored of the role after a while and she wanted to try something else if you know anything about television it's never a good sign when your leading lady is no longer interested the studio agreed to let the show go on for two more seasons and there were even rumors of a ninth season in the works although that would essentially depend on the performances and the ratings of season 8. now when you think about today's television shows you'd notice a bit of a pattern for most shows there are announcements that there would be an extension before the current season ends so a show could be on his fifth season and the studio would announce a renewal for season 6 and 7. this would create a bit of pressure for most television show Runners today to end their shows on a high with a satisfying ending that ties everything up just think about a series such as friends The Big Bang Theory and more that all had satisfying endings but as we all know things don't necessarily always end in such a satisfying manner back in the day things were not quite like that a producer really didn't have any advanced knowledge of the fate of their show and the only way that they would know if it was being renewed would be after the preceding season so for Bewitched showrunners there wasn't really an opportunity for them to end things the way that they wanted and fans may have won it as well all they were looking to do was to End season 8 with an ordinary episode and then hope for a ninth season to be announced by the studio unfortunately however despite all of their best efforts to create something perfect the showrunners did not quite nail The Landing bewitched's final episode titled the truth nothing but the truth so help me Sam drew a lot of flack from many fans as it seemed like the showrunners had just taken a previous episode and then recreated it in the final episode Endora Samantha's mother gave Darren a pin that would force him to always tell the truth the show had a similar concept to a previous episode titled speak the truth that would air in 1965. apparently it seemed like the showrunners decided that enough time had passed and fans would not realize that they had essentially just ripped off a previous episode of their own show the entire thing caused quite an outrage fans were angry about this blatant rehashing and even more irritated that the final episode of Season 8 would fail to live up to the hype and quality of other season finales with the ratings being pretty poor it would be clear that beware switched was done the studio would not renew it for a ninth season and the show would seemingly die a silent and unfulfilled death so it would not be necessarily a scene that took Bewitched off the air it was just one poorly done episode that ultimately failed to live up to the fans expectations to be fair though the writing was on the wall for Bewitched the show had been a really hot piece of content in its early days but it just could not keep Up In The End by the time that it was all said and done the showrunners had decided to Simply cut their losses and move on to the next thing were there other reasons for Bewitched ending now the word on the street is that Bewitched ended primarily because it had run its course and the time had come for it to go but over the years it has also become clear that this might not necessarily have been the case different Tales of issues and conflicts behind the scenes have come out since then and they're just as juicy as they are serious one of the biggest issues appeared to be with Elizabeth Montgomery herself for those of you who may not know she was a stunning Beauty and was pretty much the Scarlett Johansson or Margot Robbie of the time and as you would expect a lot of men had eyes for her but while she played the role of Samantha a woman who loved and was devoted to her husband it appeared that Elizabeth did not necessarily espouse those same qualities of loyalty in real life over the course of her life she was married four times and by the time that she would be cast on Bewitched she was on her third marriage to William Asher a producer of the show despite all of that she had struck up a relationship with Richard Michael a man who had been hired to work as a director on the show during its final Seasons Richard and Elizabeth hit it off almost immediately after he was hired and as the series continued on the bond between them only became deeper considering that they both worked on the same show it was almost impossible for them to hide their affections for one another and soon enough other people began to notice and know as well after Richard's wife found out about the affair that he was having with Elizabeth Montgomery she then divorced him in 1972 and that same year of bewitched's Infamous final episode and then a year later Elizabeth Montgomery and William Asher would also go their separate ways the two had been trying to make it work after William found out about Elizabeth and Michael but the Schism between the two of them was just too wide and considering that William himself had been unfaithful to Elizabeth in the past it seemed as though it was just too much to handle for the both all although the two of them were in love with each other Elizabeth and Richard actually never got married after they had divorced their respective spouses Elizabeth did get married once again later tying the knot to Robert Foxworth in 1993 and then staying married to him until she passed away in 1995. what's even more crazy may be the fact that these are all just the relationships that Elizabeth had that people know about as one of the hottest actresses of our time she was linked to many different men from Elvis Presley to Dean Smith and in fact Dick York the man who played her own husband on Bewitched confirmed that he had also fallen in love with her and so you see Elizabeth was quite the alluring woman and considering that she herself appeared to be a bit down for cheating it's easy to see why things might have gotten a bit tense on the set of Bewitched Elizabeth's other problems besides the fact that she was having an affair with one of the show's directors while being married to one of its producers Elizabeth also appeared to have several other challenges of her own first was the fact that she seemed to not enjoy acting or even her role on Bewitched for so long According to some reports she didn't necessarily enjoy working with Dick York so much even though the man was in love with her she allegedly had planned to quit the show after its fifth season but was given a fat paycheck and decided to stick it out until the end when Bewitched did come to an end she became especially selective of the types of roles that she would take on she ditched television altogether playing roles in movies instead of course who could blame her if you spend eight years doing the exact same thing it kind of gets old after a while aside from her acting she was actually a pretty Savvy businesswoman as well owning 20 percent of Bewitched and was paid huge royalties from the show whenever it aired considering that it was a huge television series in high syndication I would wager that she got paid rather handsomely the Financial Freedom that she received from all of her royalties would allow her to be a lot more free with her choice of roles and projects and it appeared as though she was done with anything that looked like Bewitched after the show it wrapped up Agnes moorhead's relationship with indora moving on from Elizabeth Montgomery another actress that seemingly had issues while working on Bewitched was Agnes Moorhead Agnes played Endora the overbearing mother of Samantha who never really liked her marriage to Darren and in that role she had great success becoming quite the icon nevertheless while Agnes appeared to relish her role as Endora she apparently did not enjoy the character when ABC Studios had planned the pilot for Bewitched they already had the roles planned out and Agnes who had already built quite a career in film and Broadway was cast in the role of Endora however she was not so interested in the role in fact she was more interested in the role of Hazel another lead character on the show it's understandable that she would feel that way the woman was building quite a strong resume within Hollywood and she felt like a supporting character was quite frankly beneath her think about it if you were saved Jessica chaston would you really be interested in playing the supporting character of a tele Vision series things would become compounded by the fact that Bewitched was a show on ABC Studios a media house that was not seen as a giant at the time and so they didn't necessarily have the clout to pull Agnes in after she asked to be cast as Hazel and then was rejected she moved on to other things however it was William Asher along with Elizabeth Montgomery herself who stopped her and convinced her to stay begrudgingly she accepted the role and decided to do the pilot even though she didn't particularly enjoy the work as it happened the pilot turned out to be a smashing success and Agnes's character quickly became a fan favorite it looks like Americans really dug the whole overbearing mother vibe that she brought on with the pilot being success Agnes then decided to commit to the role of Endora but even at that she didn't particularly like playing it still though the fact that she was contractually obligated to play the role meant that she had to keep up with it plus given the consummate professional that she was she decided to Soldier through the series all the same all in all Agnes played indora from the shows beginning until its end and she appeared in a total of 146 episodes and while she wasn't particularly fond of the role of Endora she did build quite the fan base she also had a relatively solid relationship with Elizabeth Montgomery so everything seemed to work out for everyone at the end of the day today she remains best known for her role as Endora her Cog leagues are also quite impressed at her professionalism and ability to stick with the role that she didn't like for so long she eventually died in April of 1974 in Rochester Minnesota but while she's no longer with us her performance as Endora is definitely Evergreen mishandling dick York's exit like said before Bewitched went through a huge change in its Fifth Season Dick York the man who had played Darren Stevens for so long suddenly was forced to exit the show and then would be replaced by dick Sergeant now if you know anything about television shows you'll know that it's never a seamless process when a character is recast think about Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or Dario on Game of Thrones and considering that Darren Stevens was a major character that many fans loved it was definitely not easy to explain what had happened for the first five seasons of the show Dick York and Elizabeth Montgomery had awesome chemistry and it's why the dynamic between the two was so great as well there was no indication that there was any beef on their end and things all seemed to go Swell this was why Dick's departure and eventual replacement was so sudden to the fans now we all know what happened in the end Dick York had an accident and Avenged actually had to leave the show due to health reasons and addiction but the fact that ABC Studios and the showrunners did not necessarily say anything about the recasting was what apparently struck a few fans the wrong way when he left rumors began to fly around that he might have had a dispute with the network probably due to a contract problem or something similar considering that dick York was a huge star and his profile was already Rising many of his fans believed the theory was true and they stuck with it another rumor would be that dick had gotten into an argument with his co-stars over roles and acting strategies some even believe that dick was in love with Elizabeth and that their relationship had somehow affected their work dick did love Elizabeth and all but that was still not the case all in all ABC Studios decision to Simply recast him after his accident and not say anything about it was a lesson in public relations management today many actors have been recast in roles especially until television and Studios have gotten much better at managing the situation and the expectations of their fans as well but with this being one of the first instances where such a thing would happen I think it's safe to say that ABC Studios did not necessarily handle things in the right way and that would have also affected the show in many different ways from the Fan's point of view cost cutting measures another huge issue for Bewitched appeared to be that its showrunners were actively looking for ways to cut costs and seemingly cheap out on things a perfect example of this would be with the Wardrobe budget According to some reports the showrunners were being so Frugal that they would literally tell the actors to bring their costumes from their own wardrobe at times even Samantha and indora would wear clothing that was straight up from their own closets so if you see Samantha Stevens putting on anything there's a significant chance that the outfit actually belonged to Elizabeth Montgomery in real life now when you consider that Elizabeth also had to play the role of Serena Samantha's cousin who had made several appearances on the show you can imagine just how much of a sacrifice that she had to make overall Bewitched a legacy lives on although Bewitched has been off the air for many decades now the show remains quite the American Icon it had a legion of adoring fans many of whom especially loved the relationship and dynamic between Darren and Samantha it was the picture-perfect relationship between a man and his wife even though as it seemed not everything was perfect when the cameras were not rolling and despite its popularity drop in the end there was always an audience for Bewitched the show was one of the most successful sitcoms of its generation and defined the blueprint for what many other successful television shows would end up being in the end it was canceled abruptly and there will always be the question of what could have happened if the studio had decided to renew it for a ninth season however Bewitched remains a huge hit for many generations through syndication to show just how popular the show was it's literally become a part of the everyday American language for instance the character of Gladys Kravitz literally became the symbol of nosy neighbors who get all up in everyone's business and can never really seem to mind their own despite the fact that Gladys was a relatively minor character people still related to her as well as the irritation of having a nosy neighbor themselves besides this Bewitched was actually one of the very first television shows to be filmed in color in the 38th episode of its second season the the show made the transition from black and white to shooting in color bringing a new form of Vibrance in life Bewitched was also quite successful on the awards front as well it had three prime time Emmy Award wins as well as multiple nominations during its run to date Bewitched remains one of the most popular sitcoms of all time and is a classic with many members of the older generation absolutely loving it and new fans being gained all the time just as well many young people look to it as one of the markets of TV's Golden Age all in all Bewitched is one of the most popular and consequential television shows of all time its success would lead to super stardom for many of its cast members and it was a huge Cash Cow for its studio and show Runners things might have ended pretty sourly for the series but you get the sense that if they had handled it better it wouldn't have been that way in the end but what do you think was Bewitched just an unlucky television show and how would you have handled its final moments let us know in the comments below and I'll see you next time

Channel: Top Discovery

Views: 2,189,044

Keywords: discovery, unexplained, mysterious, top 10, top 15, top discovery, space, universe, science, techology, mystery, facts, interesting, discovery channel, discovery plus, scientists discovery, aliens, ufo, terrifying discoveries, top, they discovered, invention, future, galaxy, james webb, elon musk, business, entertainment

Id: vBBUEA4QW9w

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2023