Twitch Upon a Star

by Herbie J. Pilato

  Adds Moorehead biographer Charles Tranberg today:

  Aggie Moorehead absolutely loved Dick York! And this never wavered. They both had a deep spirituality. Aggie’s was more of a conventional God-based spirituality which was developed from a childhood as a minister’s daughter. She was a fundamentalist. Dick was not. He was spiritual, but he was more of a deep thinker. He was the type of guy who could find God anywhere. God is being outside looking at a beautiful mountain range. He was interested in all kinds of philosophies, not only the Christian faith. But still Aggie saw him as a fellow seeker of wisdom and somebody who felt that there was a supreme being. They had lots of conversations on the set, between scenes, on things like this. When Dick left the show, she was not happy. She felt he was a big part of the success of the show and even said that he had the hardest part of all because he had to make all these supernatural things happening to him seem real, and that took real acting, another thing she appreciated. She thought he was a superb actor.

  With specific regard to the Darrin switch, Tranberg adds:

  Aggie didn’t like the Darrin switch. She hoped it wouldn’t happen, but she accepted it, because this type of thing does happen in the theatre all the time as she noted. She took out her disappointment on Dick Sargent, who was hired to play the new Darrin. For a while on the set she made his life difficult. He wasn’t happy about the way she treated him either. She certainly didn’t have the rapport on-screen that she had with York. Eventually as time went by, she did mellow somewhat, even inviting Sargent to her annual Christmas-Birthday bashes, but there certainly wasn’t the same bond with Sargent that she had with York.

  Although Agnes Moorehead claimed no lack of communication between herself and Dick Sargent, or any personal objection to him replacing Dick York, David White, the irascible Larry Tate on Bewitched, recalled things differently.

  In the fall of 1970, the Bewitched cast and crew traveled to Salem, Massachusetts (the show’s first on-location filming) for an arc of episodes having to do with Samantha attendance at a Witches’ Convention. On the plane-ride back to Los Angeles, White was seated next to Sargent, who he said, had a tear in his eye. Apparently, something Moorehead said had made him cry. “He was very upset,” White said.

  It was like that from the beginning. At the first table script-reading with Sargent the year before, in 1969, White said Moorehead rose from her seat, turned to all of those who would listen, and stated pointedly, “I am not fond of change.”

  In 1992, Sargent granted an interview to author Owen Keehnen, which appears in Keehnen’s book, We’re Here, We’re Queer (Prairie Avenue Productions, 2011). According to Sargent, Moorehead said, “They should never meddle with success.”

  “Meaning,” Sargent explained, “Dick York should never have been replaced, which I thought was a very cruel and unthinking thing to say in front of me. But that was her. She came to rehearsals with a Bible in one hand and her script in the other. She was certainly the most professional woman in the world, and she was so good [an actress]. Thank God we became friends eventually.”

  In 1989, Sargent only praised York’s performance as Darrin, calling him “excellent!” In 1992, Sargent told Keehnen that he was set to play the famous Mr. Stephens before York, and even actor Richard Crenna (The Farmer’s Daughter), who was in the running for the role. “I had the interview and by the time they got back to me, I had already signed on a series called Broadside, so Dick York got it. But I was the original choice.”

  One year before, in 1988, York assessed Sargent’s take on Darrin. Although York wanted the summer of 1969 to “rest up” in order to continue playing the part through that fall and for the remainder of the series, he had nothing but kind words for Sargent: “The man had a job to do, and he did it well. He was an actor, and he did a fine job. I never held anything against him.”

  As to York’s relationship with Elizabeth, Bewitched writer Doug Tibbles recalls:

  He was quiet, and now looking back, that was because of the pain he was in. He did not seem loaded the way people on pain medication [do]. It didn’t seem that way at all. He just seemed like a nice quiet professional. He was semi-detached. Through my eyes, his relationship with Elizabeth was simply professional. I mean, they were kind of almost sweet. But you couldn’t tell if it was just two polite people or two people just being polite. I didn’t see tons of closeness and I didn’t see tons of distance. It was somewhere in the middle.

  That’s kind of where Elizabeth found herself when she ultimately confronted Moorehead about her mistreatment of Sargent, of whom Lizzie was fond and enthusiastic about his joining the Bewitched cast. She made every attempt to keep peace on the set. At one point early on, she walked with Sargent to see Moorehead, who proved to be nothing less than unwelcoming. As Lizzie explained in 1989, upon greeting Sargent, Moorehead outstretched her arm and instructed him to kiss her hand, as if he was greeting royalty. Lizzie was stunned. “Oh, Aggie,” she said with a ting of sarcasm. “How wonderful … I can always count on you to make people feel at home.”

  Moorehead responded with an icy glare, but Lizzie would have none of it. “Don’t you look at me that way,” she told her.

  Lizzie thought “Aggie’s response was great, because that meant we were really communicating.”

  Later that day, she walked into Moorehead’s dressing room, something she rarely did, and communicated some more:

  Now, you know how you can be, and I know how you can be. So, I don’t want you to be like you and I know you can be. Obviously you’re being difficult because you know what I’m telling you is true, and that I should have never come in here … and that we should have never had this conversation, because it may sound like I think you’re stupid. And if that’s true, well, then, I’m sorry. I do apologize. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings by telling you something that you already know.

  As Lizzie went on to explain in 1989, Moorehead feigned ignorance. “She pretended as if she didn’t understand what I meant and was a little aggravated.”

  A short time later, she and Moorehead were back on the set, and ready to shoot a scene. Suddenly, in the middle of rehearsal, Moorehead turned to her TV daughter and said, “You’re right.”

  “That was all that was ever said about the incident,” Lizzie recalled. She believed Moorehead enjoyed the challenge of their relationship because “she knew I loved her dearly. We really did have a mother-daughter relationship. I truly did adore Aggie. She was heaven.”

  A few graffiti artists in Hollywood would have agreed. Sometime in the mid-1980s, the phrase, “Agnes Moorehead is God,” was canvassed across the side of a Tinseltown structure, once standing opposite the Capitol Records building on Vine Street. Upon learning this in 1989, Lizzie’s eyes widened and smiled in bemusement. “Huh!” she said, “She finally made it, eh?”

  In playing opposite two Darrins on Bewitched, Elizabeth shared unique interplays with Dick York and Dick Sargent. But off-screen, she may have considered Sargent more of a friend. According to what Bewitched third-season producer William Froug revealed to www.emmytvlegends.org, documented on September 14, 2001, Lizzie had issues with York. Froug said executive producer Harry Ackerman hired him on the show to “take the fall,” to buffer any personal tension that transpired on the set—between Lizzie and York, as well as between Lizzie and Bill Asher. Froug explained:

  Asher and Liz were in a troubled marriage … They lived together, they drove [into work] together, but there was tension there that nobody but them could know about. So they needed someone in the [producer’s] chair. And I was the guy they chose. It was [a] perfect [fit]. Nothing to lose for them, and nothing to lose for me.

  Consequently, Ackerman hosted an initial meeting with Froug, Asher, and Lizzie; and as Froug went on to explain:

  The first thing out of Liz’s mouth was, “We’ve got to get rid of him!” Now, I’m brand new, and I’m wondering, “Who the hell is him?” So, after the meeting … I finally had to say to Bill, “Who is him?” And
he said, “Dick York. Liz can’t stand him.”

  As Froug perceived it, “Dick was madly in love with Liz,” and whenever York was forced to rest between filming, due to his severe back ailment, he would glance over to Lizzie, “longingly.”

  “It was pretty clear he was very smitten,” Froug said, “and it was equally clear that she couldn’t stand him because of that. Liz was the kind of woman that if you loved her, you were in trouble,” Froug concluded. “She was a tough cookie!”

  Beyond Froug’s somewhat indiscreet personal opinion from behind-the-scenes, on-screen, Elizabeth and Dick York were pure magic.

  Charles Tranberg profiled York for Classic Images magazine in October, 2011. As he sees it, Lizzie had veto power over casting the show’s pilot. Had she not approved of York, he would never have made the initial cut, much less come to play the role. Tranberg explains:

  I think she thought that he was a strong counterpoint to her, and certainly their scenes together were magical. They had on-screen chemistry from day one. Whatever problems they might have had off-camera never showed up on-camera—not even towards the end when York was increasingly ill due to his back problems and the psychological effects that the medication he was taking was causing. She probably became frustrated with him due to missing some shows, but when they worked together on-camera … the chemistry was spot-on.

  Tranberg also says York recognized in Elizabeth a trace of his wife Joey, the former actress known as Joan Alt, and whom he had known since they were children:

  I think that always had a great effect on him and how he worked with and perhaps acted around Elizabeth. He realized how good they were together on camera. I think her interpretation of Samantha appealed to him both as an actor and maybe a bit as a man.

  No maybes about it. As York acknowledged in his memoir, The Seesaw Girl and Me, (New Path Press, 2004), he “first fell in love with Elizabeth Montgomery by leg distance,” after seeing her perform with Tom Poston in the “Masquerade” episode of Boris Karloff’s anthology series, Thriller. “My God,” he thought, “what a pretty dark-haired girl. And those legs! Oh my God!”

  A few years later he auditioned for Bewitched, and had a chance to get a closer look, when Lizzie was sitting outside the casting office that housed Bill Asher and Harry Ackerman. “She unfolded those gorgeous legs and looked at me,” York wrote, “and I saw her in person for the first time. She had full lips and dark, soft hair. She was sex all over.”

  A few minutes later, he and Lizzie walked in to read for Asher and Ackerman. By this time, of course, Lizzie already had the part. This audition was for York, who told her right before they read together, “Oh, God, you’d be wonderful” for the part of Samantha.

  York also noted in his book, “I’ve known Elizabeth Montgomery all my life, and she’s kind of been my wife because she reminds me of Joey.” He explained how he walked into the audition “more confident than I’ve ever been in my life.”

  At this point, he had his arm around Lizzie, and quipped to Asher and Ackerman, “I don’t know about you guys, but this girl is perfect. Let’s sit down and read this turkey and see if I’m the right guy for her.”

  York’s confidence paid off. He was more than right for the part. He was perfect.

  Off-screen, as Charles Tranberg assesses, Lizzie’s relationship with York was also ideal.

  At least, in the beginning, she reportedly invited the Yorks to play tennis and socialize every now and then. But they were a private couple, and when away from the set, he liked to spend time with Joey and their children. Tranberg explains:

  I don’t think Elizabeth resented this, because she was a strong believer in family first, too. But as the time went by something, and I’m not certain what it is, soured their off-screen relationship. Not to the point that Elizabeth was demanding that they get rid of Dick, she knew how important he was to the show, as did Bill Asher. I don’t know what it was; that she was getting fed up with his illnesses and I’m not sure how much empathy she had for his pain. They accommodated him on the set, certainly.

  I do know that she felt the show was stronger when it was focused on Samantha-Darrin, and that when he was sick and missed shows it affected the balance of the show. I recall Mrs. York telling me, and I don’t think she would mind my revealing this, that when Dick was nominated for an Emmy … finally! … in 1967, the cast, as usual, had a table at the awards ceremony. Elizabeth was also nominated as was Agnes Moorehead and others associated with the show.

  But Dick was not there, so, at some point, Elizabeth excused herself and called Dick’s house to see if he was coming. Apparently she was told that the whole family was gathered around the master bed watching the telecast on TV, and they were having more fun doing that. My guess is that Elizabeth probably didn’t think that was being a professional and showing support for the show.

  Into this mix, David Pierce, author of The Bewitched History Book (Bear-Manor Media, 2012), assesses Lizzie’s alternate interpretations of Samantha in playing opposite first York then Sargent:

  Many fans of Bewitched have varied opinions of the chemistry between Elizabeth Montgomery and her TV husbands, Dick York and Dick Sargent. I think she she had more chemistry with the former but I think the reason for it wasn’t so much because of him, but because of what was going on in her life at the time she worked with him. Liz had just recently married Bill Asher and they were just starting their family. By many accounts, Bill and Liz were very much in love and Liz had mentioned how much she loved being a mother. Being able to work with her beloved husband who worked her schedule to make it easier to be with the children made her very happy, and that I think that translated into her acting with Dick York. The show was successful which would also have contributed to her happiness. With Dick Sargent, I think she had great chemistry with him as well, at least at first. However, her personal life starting going into shambles with the breakdown of her marriage, and though I think she could’ve maintained the energy, she didn’t have it in her. Therefore, though Dick Sargent gave it his all, I personally believe Liz didn’t, and it shows in her performances toward the end.

  In 1989, Elizabeth herself concluded of the dual Darrin days:

  I don’t know who anyone’s first choice was [to play Darrin], all I know is that, Dick York, Dick Sargent, and Richard Crenna were there. And any one of the three I would have been totally delighted with…. It’s really difficult to compare a couple of actors like that when you’ve been that close to them. But I felt that Dick Sargent was a more easy-going presence, actually. But don’t forget, too, by the time he came in, that marriage was five-years old. So the characters themselves changed automatically. The newness of the relationship was done, and the relationship matured. So, I felt that Darrin, in any case, was becoming more of an easy presence, which made the problems even funnier at times. And he would sort of lapse into this kind of complacency, whenever he could. It was almost as if Darrin grew in the relationship … he felt maybe he wouldn’t have to be on his guard as much. So, when he was suddenly confronted with something … like five years into the relationship … he wasn’t quite the nervous wreck [as when York played him]. It was a marriage that had worked for six years [by the end of spring of 1970, Sargent’s first season]. I mean, how many of those do you find around, especially with a mother-in-law like Endora.

  Beyond the Darrin debacle, Lizzie found it challenging to address other issues with Agnes Moorehead, Endora’s alter ego. For one, she said it was “impossible to talk politics to her … so you’d stay [away] from all sorts of really complicated areas like ice cream and religion.”

  But Bewitched writer Doug Tibbles rememberd Moorehead as “kindly and polite … removed and semi-serious. I don’t think it was directed at Elizabeth. It was simply her carriage.”

  Lizzie remembered how such carriage led to a terse, if comical, interaction between her and Aggie when film legend Ida Lupino was hired to direct the Bewitched episode, “A is for Aardvark,” the plot which Bill Asher once
said represented the message of the entire series.

  Darrin is home sick in bed. Tired of running up and down the stairs to cater to his every whim, she grants him the gift of witchcraft. At first he goes wild with the power, but ultimately discovers that having material things without working for them is meaningless. And once he’s feeling better, he buys her a watch (with money he earned from McMann & Tate), that’s inscribed, “I love you every second.” Samantha cries real tears, and their love is stronger than ever.

  However, as Lizzie acknowledged in 1989, there was no love lost between Lupino and Moorehead, nor herself and Moorehead while filming this episode. Lizzie thought Lupino was “terrific, and really liked her, but she had her hands full with Aggie.”

  Elizabeth recalled Moorehead standing up against the television set in the Stephens’ living room, and having “one of her snits. She had that attitude,” which Lizzie felt was exacerbated by Moorehead’s heavy eye makeup, or “whatever it was that (make-up artist Ben Lane) used to paste on her eyelashes. I just never understood how she could (have) … all that gook in her eyes.” So Lizzie finally asked:

  “Aggie, can you take a nap?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “How can you close your eyes with all that shit up there?”

  “Don’t talk to me that way!”

  “It was amazing, because she was giving Ida this really kind of weird look,” Lizzie went on to remember.

  But Lupino was legitimately concerned about Moorehead’s well-being. “What’s the matter, Darling? Are you okay?”