Which factor, do you think, played a large part in Bewitched's
drop in ratings? Is it;

a.) Cast Performances
b.) The Changing Times
c.) The Recycled Scripts/Plots and The Cheap Sets
d.) Dick Sargent (the famous Darrin switch)

Mine is letter D. Dick Sargent (not to offend devout D. Sargent
fans but the magic between and Samantha and Darrin disappeared
when Sargent became Darrin).

When they started using the same stories over and over again in the final season.
I can see why Elizabeth Montgomery was mad about this season- it was 26 episodes too long and it was getting dull quick. Except for a few good moments, the 8th season was clearly a bomb.
They should have ended it with the 7th Season.

When they started using the same stories over and over again in the final season.
I can see why Elizabeth Montgomery was mad about this season- it was 26 episodes too long and it was getting dull quick. Except for a few good moments, the 8th season was clearly a bomb.
They should have ended it with the 7th Season.


Like many great shows it went one season too long. The 7th season would had been perfect to end the show. It could had went down as a classic but they were squeezing blood out of a turnup by adding an 8th season full recycled storylines from the first two seasons with somewhat a different twist to it and a few with the same exact dialogue except a different actor playing Darrin. Liz lost interest in the show during the middle of the 7th season. She had a whatever attitude plus her and Bill Asher were having problems with their marriage towards the end of Bewitched. I heard he was having an affair with someone who was working on the show. One of the highlights of the 8th season was Liz's singing. She got a lovely voice. Watching the episodes featuring Tabitha. Erin Murphy was a natural.

Times were changing. Norman Lear came along and began pushing the envelope and social issues were being addressed directly. Bewitched still had a 1960s feel and look about it. Bewitched ran its course but ABC and Asher did not see it and had the nerve to want a 9th season. That would had been horrible to see.

Which factor, do you think, played a large part in Bewitched's
drop in ratings? Is it;

a.) Cast Performances
b.) The Changing Times
c.) The Recycled Scripts/Plots and The Cheap Sets
d.) Dick Sargent (the famous Darrin switch)

Mine is letter D. Dick Sargent (not to offend devout D. Sargent
fans but the magic between and Samantha and Darrin disappeared
when Sargent became Darrin).
I agree the chemistry just wasn't there between Darrian number two and Samantha.I do think the recycled plots hurt the show too,it just reminded people of when the same plots were done in earlier seasons and done much better.Factor that most hut the show was changing Darrian's.I also thinK Dick York's Darrian had better chemistry with Endora.

They got a bit too hokey and aimed toward kids. I mean with the story book characters that kept coming to life and such. It was...well, just silly by that point. Also the new Darrin didn't help matters, but they just weren't adding anything new in a good way :(

Which factor, do you think, played a large part in Bewitched's
drop in ratings? Is it;

a.) Cast Performances
d.) Dick Sargent (the famous Darrin switch)

Mine is letter D. Dick Sargent (not to offend devout D. Sargent
fans but the magic between and Samantha and Darrin disappeared
when Sargent became Darrin).
I think it was a combination of cast performances in the way of Elizabeth not being interested in the show, it came across on screen during the 8th season. She didn't seem to have the same energy. Darrin also had a bit to do with it too, people not use to the switch. Plus there wasn't any chemistry between Sargent and the kids, he seemed more like a step-dad to them. He didn't seem to care for the kids. The show dealt with a serious issue when Tabitha wants to be like her friend who was black, Tabitha zapped spots on them so they could be alike.

I would say both the casting of Dick Sargent as Darrin and the weaker stories in
the later seasons. Most long-running shows reach a peak at some point and
either slide downhill from there or quit while they're ahead. BARNEY MILLER and
EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, for example, stopped while they were still on top.

I'd say all of the above, although the Dick switch and the recycling were probably the main reasons. A show an only run but so long and when you think of it, this show was a series of variations on about maybe 3 or 4 different plots.

I find it odd that Dick Sargent was the actor that they wanted to play Darrin originally. If he had started in the role I don't think this series would've made it into the color era.

I'd say the recycled plots and the switching of Darrins.

I vote for recycled plots: every show, someone gets turned into an animal or a stuffed/storybook character comes to life;that someone runs loose or whatever, bla bla....

Darren #2 :barf:

Ditto.

Around the 1970-'71 season, shortly after the "Salem Trip" storyline. After those episodes, for some reason, the series began to literally repeat itself, using rewritten scripts more often...and ABC's decision to move the show from Thursdays to Wednesdays in the fall of 1971. Perhaps it would have been more interesting to allow actual filming in the "European Trip" episodes, but the Ashers {as in "Ashmont"} knew there was a drop in ratings and revenue and....suddenly, everything and everyone was getting tired, including Liz. She wanted to move on, and rightfully so. The projected "ninth season", for contractual reasons, became an additional Saturday morning schedule of repeats in 1972-'73.

I would say all the above. Like any show after so many seasons on the air you run out of ideas and it's just not the same.

The show would have basically run its course after eight seasons anyway but I think it started to fail terribly as soon as Dick York left and Dick Sargent took over. He was a lousy actor. And it
hurt Elizabeth as an actress because she seemed
to get lazy because there was nothing to play to.
I don't know why Elizabeth seemed to like Sargent
more than Dick York, but she had to work harder
to keep up with York--and she did. Sargent was
no challenge at all and it seems like she didn't
even try. It's just became a kid's show. I'd like
know what Agnes Moorehead thought of Sargent's acting. And the bit about Sargent being the first
choice seems just a silly exaggeration to save his ego at being a fill in. York had a much better career before the show. And it was a very good
point that if Sargent had started the show, it would have been canceled before it ever got to color.

^^^ So true ^^^^

Both "C" & "D". The recycling of scripts didn't help keep the show very fresh towards the end...as the children were getting bigger you would think the writers could have created all kinds of new and fresh storylines for the series.
Also on a personal note, I always loved Dick York as Darrin, and though Dick Sargent gave a good performance in the role, it pales in comparison to the original and I can't help think that was a factor that didn't help keep the shows ratings high in the end. I actually thought Samantha herself looked great in the final season with her "hip" long straight hair and think that quite a few more things could have been done with the series...exploring Adam's growth would have been interesting , and perhaps Samantha's desire to be more than a wife and Mom...I don't know....i really loved the series so naturally would have liked to have seen it go on even longer.

Even though it was clear the end of the show was
near, I really wanted it to continue for another season because I loved the new "hip" Elizabeth
look too. She was kinda dowdy looking the previous couple seasons and then just exploded into the
sexiest looking woman on TV in that last year. She
was so sexy that her looks alone made the show
worthwhile. Maybe she decided to go all out in
that department as it might be the only thing left
to do that might save the show.

I agree with C and D. I also find the eighth season boring - there are only a few episodes I like. I think it would have been best to have ended with the 7th season.


A NINTH season? I would've hated to see that.

Wasn't Elizabeth offered a contract for doing two more years of Bewitched? That would have made Bewitched ten seasons long.

The show should have ended when Dick York left.

...as I've mentioned before, there was supposed to be a "projected" ninth season in 1972-'73- the result of the Ashers signing a contract with ABC and Screen Gems/Columbia a few years before- but Liz basically decided to "pack it in", and that "phantom" season became an extra Saturday morning repeat on ABC's 1972-'73 schedule...and the Ashmont "TEMPERATURE'S RISING" series thrown in the bargain, I believe.

As for Samantha, 'cherisland', I don't think she ever wanted to be anything more than a "wife and mother"...even in the pro-feminist 1970's. She made it clear, in her intimate talks with Darrin, that she WANTED to be where she was, without any witchcraft getting in the way of her happiness and efforts to appear as a "normal" woman. Of course, she used her magic when she HAD to, but other than that....she did "taper off", as she vowed to do at the end of the first episode.

And I admire Elizabeth Montgomery's guts as well. She walked away from what could have been a "10 year series"....declared her independence from Bill Asher...and worked on TV only when SHE wanted to (one movie a year)! Look at the "still" you reproduced in your message. I look at her face, and I just don't see "Samantha doing her thing".....I see Liz quite serious at maintaining the illusion that she's really doing whatever she's about to do...
and that look transcends everything she did in the past seven or eight years.
She IS in control of whatever she's doing, on-screen AND off...and I admire her for that! She was quite a woman!!!!

I agree with you "TV Knowledge Fan" regarding Samantha's not wanting to ever be more than "a wife and a mother" (that was always very clear in the series)...what I meant was that if the series were to continue into a 9th or 10th season (to keep the series "fresh") it might have been interesting if the writers had played with that core belief a bit and seen what it would be like if Samantha ( it being the pro-feminist 70's) had evolved to a point where she may have wanted to try doing more (without the use of her powers of course!) or at the very least it would have been interesting to see how she reacted to the whole "pro-feminist thing". The possibilities would be fresh for all kinds of different storylines...Serena would have been a perfect character to bring Sam into these types of storylines too. And why couldn't she still be the loving mother and wife and still do more? As you stated, Liz did that in real life and very successfully I might add.

I do agree with you about admiring Elizabeth's "guts" at walking away from a potential 10 yr series and asserting her independence. Its just the selfishness in me that wanted to see more "Bewitched" (lol)...I'm all for Liz doing what she wanted to do. She was indeed an incredible woman and an amazing actress who could do it all...and some of my all-time favorite movies are ones that she starred in. :)

...for your kind reply and additional comments.

The "still" you included in your last message is just as good as the last one {what IS Samantha really thinking as she delivers her personal toast? And what is LIZ thinking as well?? ;) }. Oh, yes, one other possible reason why she altered her hair style towards the end of 1971 could be the fact that, at that time, Clariol (then a Bristol-Myers division) was one of the show's "primary" sponsors, and they probably wanted Liz to "sport" the latest hair style in tune with their advertising [I've seen a 30 second "intergrated commercial" that she gave at the end of one episode during that season, where she "pops" in a can of the sponsor's hair spray and delivers some kind words about it to the viewer].

It might have been interesting to see a "new direction" in Samantha's life as she might have grappled with the idea of being a "liberated" woman while remaining a "faithful" wife and mother, if a ninth season had been produced. That's why there's 'fan fiction' to fill in those kind of gaps when that kind of situation never happened on screen! Sure, why not have Serena pose as Sam and try to embarrass Darrin by acting like a "liberated woman" at the exact moment his latest client is a stuffy, conservative "family-oriented" oaf with the same kind of product Larry Tate is more than anxious to have enter the agency's coffers {"Larry, I can't control Samantha!"/"Darrin...just remember WHO controls your paycheck....I'm all for liberation, believe me! But if Sam doesn't behave herself in front of Mr. Thompson this evening---I may have to liberate YOU.....permanently."}. Or has this idea been rehashed before?

you saw a commercial thahe did during the show in the 71 season? I always thought that those "cast commercials" ended in 1969!

Well, now I've learned something else about TV!

The show would have basically run its course after eight seasons anyway but I think it started to fail terribly as soon as Dick York left and Dick Sargent took over. He was a lousy actor. And it
hurt Elizabeth as an actress because she seemed
to get lazy because there was nothing to play to.
I don't know why Elizabeth seemed to like Sargent
more than Dick York, but she had to work harder
to keep up with York--and she did. Sargent was
no challenge at all and it seems like she didn't
even try. It's just became a kid's show. I'd like
know what Agnes Moorehead thought of Sargent's acting. And the bit about Sargent being the first
choice seems just a silly exaggeration to save his ego at being a fill in. York had a much better career before the show. And it was a very good
point that if Sargent had started the show, it would have been canceled before it ever got to color.
Bill Asher -Liz's then husband and the shows producer prefered Dick York he has said he was the better Darrian and had far more chemistry with Liz.Agnes Morehead prefered York too.I agree Liz seemed to quit trying after York left-he kept her on her toes.York and Morehead brought the show energy they played off each other very well.I also found that Sargent didn't work as well with Tabitha as York did.

The projected "ninth season", for contractual reasons, became an additional Saturday morning schedule of repeats in 1972-'73.

Actually Saturday morning reruns began in 1971, which means that from January to July 1972, ABC was airing Bewitched twice a day on Saturdays.

As far as the original question goes, I go for mostly (C), recycling stories. A book called "What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events In Television History" lists as #79 of the 100 events ("New Darrin, Old Scripts") when Bewitched started recycling scripts after Dick Sargent took over for Dick York. The book opines that the producers probably thought they could get away w/ it because Sargent had taken over for York.

I think that D, the Darrin switch, caused the ratings to drop. I think one of the main reasons they chose Dick Sargent to replace Dick York was beause they did look a lot similar. I guess they didn't want people to notice a real difference between them. However, looks aren't everything. The spark between Samantha and Darrin died off. It sort of just turned into same old, same old. The show starts to bore me once Dick Sargent comes in. I'm surprised it lasted eight seasons.

Jessica

I also found that Sargent didn't work as well with Tabitha as York did.
Exactly, it was like he was the kids Step-Dad. The two pics of Elizabeth, it looked like Serena instead of our Samantha.

I think it was a combination of the changing times and Dick Sargent's arrival. I like Sargent as an actor but wasn't a big fan of his Darrin character on this show. By the time Sargent arrived it was late 1969 and TV was starting to change a bit. Just my opinion. :)

Man, the Sargeant years have no pizazz whatsoever. There were not that many great episodes either. True, they had less writers; however, the chemistry was an implosion.

Man, if it wasn't for "They Came to Cordura" who knows what we would have seen.....

I beleive it was the recyled plots and the fact that the times were changing. I mean thanks to All in the Family alot of things were changing on television and alot of people wanted this new type of humor instead of this clean humor. just because it was something new.

I think we need (e) All of the above as an answer as it was a combination of all the above factors, although I don't think the "Sargeant Factor" played that great a role in the cancellation of the series.

Elizabeth Montgomery probably was feeling creatively tired of playing Samantha--which is understandable, she'd played the part for 7 years, shooting an average of 32/33 episodes a season--a very demanding pace as 22-26 shows is the average today. Remember, she was in virtually every episode--no wonder she was burning out!

Also, the death of Marion Lorne probably played a small role in that it had taken away a much beloved character. While Alice Ghostley did her best to fill the "bumbling lovable witch" role, she didn't have the same chemistry that Mrs. Lorne had with the audience.

Also, as others pointed out, the scripts in the last season were simply rehashes of previous episodes with the actors, for the most part, phoning their roles in.

I think though,the primary reason the show was cancelled was that the times had changed. With the advent of "All in the Family", the entire sitcom beast had changed. Bewitched's efforts to be more 'relevant' came across as weak at best--comically inept at worse. Like "I Dream of Jeannie" and CBS's rural comedies, it had no place in the early 70s world.

I vote for C & D. If the writers were running out of ideas, that should've been a red flag right there. It would've been great had the show called it quits at the end of Season 5 while still on top. Nothing against DS, whom I liked in other roles and seemed to be a very nice man in real life (according to various articles I read), but there was absolutely none of the romance or spark with him & EM that made the first 5 seasons so memorable. With DY, most of the fun watching his Darrin and Samantha fight was waiting for them to kiss and make up. So I think it's a combination of those 2. I wasn't born yet while the show was in production so I can't vouch for the changing times. As for lackluster performances, if the writing is bad, then the performances will suffer, IMHO.

Definitely when Dick York left the show, no question in my opinion. Michael

The Sargent era was when the house got a garish 1970s makeover. Yes, I know there was a fire on the set that forced their hand, but the mustard gold wallpaper, the shag carpet, UGH!! MY EYES!! :eek:

Even though it was clear the end of the show was
near, I really wanted it to continue for another season because I loved the new "hip" Elizabeth
look too. She was kinda dowdy looking the previous couple seasons and then just exploded into the
sexiest looking woman on TV in that last year. She
was so sexy that her looks alone made the show
worthwhile. Maybe she decided to go all out in
that department as it might be the only thing left
to do that might save the show.

I agree. She went from being like you said, dowdy, into this earthy hippie type who was just yummy!! It was probably just a sign of the times to try and make Samantha more hip. Worked for me!:D

The show should have ended when Dick York left.

I agree 100%. I just bought seasons 1-5 which is all I'll be getting. I was never too crazy about Dick Sargent as Darrin. I think they should have stopped the show after season 5 like Elizabeth Montgomery and William Asher originally wanted to do while they were still on top. It's too bad Dick York had to leave because of his back problems. I read somewhere that he was sick about not being able to finish the show. I really enjoyed the chemistry between him and the other actors.

^ I agree 100%. I also have Seasons 1-5 on DVD and I'm stopping there. Carrie, have you ever read Dick York's autobiography? It's awesome! You can find more info at this link:

http://newpathpress.com

I'm a completist so I will buy the DS years--because there are still good episodes worth having in those seasons (ok, season 8 may be pushing it LOL). The Salem episodes alone are worth the season 7 set. And furthermore, wasn't BW's competition during the last season, All in the Family?

I think all 4 of those reasons resulted in that. Times started changing and the type of comedy Bewitched offered wasn't up to date. The writers were already running out of stories during Season Five. And by Season Seven, I think they were out. Literally, out of ideas. When the writing wasn't sharp, a decent actor like Dick Sargent, came off as a horrible actor. When that happened, like other people have said, Liz got lazy and bored. That was the downfall.

I'm a completist so I will buy the DS years--because there are still good episodes worth having in those seasons (ok, season 8 may be pushing it LOL). The Salem episodes alone are worth the season 7 set. And furthermore, wasn't BW's competition during the last season, All in the Family?
I think "THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY" was against "AITF" in it's ("THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY"s) last season. And I think "BEWITCHED" was on against "THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW".

My vote is for Dick Sargent replacing Dick York as Darren and also the show was starting to get stale, especially with script recycling.

My vote is for Dick Sargent replacing Dick York as Darren and also the show was starting to get stale, especially with script recycling.
My feelings exactly.

It was like Sam was indeed on a second marriage!!! with all those recycled scripts. Too bad we weren't there then, we have plenty of fresh BW ideas :)

^ I agree 100%. I also have Seasons 1-5 on DVD and I'm stopping there. Carrie, have you ever read Dick York's autobiography? It's awesome! You can find more info at this link:

http://newpathpress.com

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out!

:)

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out!

:)
Let me know what you think of the book, Carrie. It's awesome!! :D

I definitely will. Thanks again!