The Heartbreaking Reason Elizabeth Montgomery Left ‘Bewitched’
Bewitched was a classic series starring Elizabeth Montgomery as the beautiful witch married to a mortal who tries, most of the time unsuccessfully, to become a normal suburban housewife. Despite being renewed for Seasons 9 and 10 due to its popularity, it ended in Season 8. Why? Turns out that Montgomery wanted out of the show.
Peter Ackerman talks about the reasons in his new memoir Mom, Dad, Me, and Classic TV – Growing Up with Classic Television’s Harry Ackerman and Elinor Donahue. Ackerman is the son of executive producer, Harry Ackerman, who worked on Bewitched. Ackerman recalls that the ratings were going down a bit based on how silly the show had become.
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One of the later episodes was directed by another man, instead of Montgomery’s husband Bill Asher. Ackerman, who was about 10 at the time of filming the show, explained, “I think she was wearing jeans at the time. She was pretty much bent over. So her rear end was sticking out a little bit. The director said, ‘Oh Liz honey, I could look at that all day.’ Everybody kind of laughed at it. I was, what you say today, weirded out. My mother was an actress. And this was my Aunt Liz. How could anyone make that kind of comment? I thought, ‘Surely, no one would ever make a comment like that to my mother on set.’”
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He continued, “It really bothered me. I don’t know how much later it was, but I overheard my dad talking to my mom after he had taken a phone call from Liz. It was a Saturday morning. He was pretty adamant about how that conversation went. My mom went to him after he hung up the phone and said, ‘What was that about?’ [Montgomery] had said to my dad, as he related to my mom, that the studio wanted to continue with the series. The network wanted to continue with the series. However, she would only do it if my dad would agree to basically fire her soon-to-be ex-husband. They had broken up at that point and hired this other fella who was directing that episode to be the new director. My dad said, ‘Liz, Bill Asher is my partner. I’m not going to do that to him.’ And she said, ‘Well then, ‘Bewitched’ is done.’ That’s what my dad told my mom.”
So, the show was finished in 1972 and Montgomery and Asher divorced just a year later. Reportedly, Asher had an affair and broke her heart.
Classic TV Shows of the ’50s & ’60s
September 2020
Test your knowledge, from Bonanza and Gunsmoke to I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek and more fun TV of the 1950s and 1960s.
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