I've been musing about 1960s actors that might have been interesting replacements for Dick York in season 6:

Dean Jones

Dean proved time and again in his Disney comedies that he could be strong, flustery, blustery, demanding, angry, and unreasonable - but still lovable and appealing. An accomplished actor, he could make absurd situations believable with great simplicity. And he had a light, masculine romantic appeal too. All of these traits would serve the role of Darrin Stephens perfectly.

I was no fan of Dick Sargent's work on this series, that said, I do believe he played the character of Darrin exactly in the manner Elizabeth Montgomery wanted it played. She wanted her character to be the central focus of the series, she wasn't interested in sharing the spotlight. Dick York was funny, the series was a huge hit, if you were the showrunner, part of the writing team, it was easier to develop the comedic situations with York having a large role, much larger than Montgomery was comfortable with.

While I think Jones could have played the part, I don't think Montgomery would have supported that choice.

Alan Brady's Hair stated:

"There's a thread around here somewhere in which Ray Fulmer of Hazel was suggested, which I thought was a decent idea"

Yeah, that is interesting, and I think he could have played it at least as well as Sargent. I remember in the fall of 1969 Fulmer had landed a lead role in the daytime soap The Guiding Light, so I'm pretty sure that he would have been more than happy to be cast in Bewitched.

I was no fan of Dick Sargent's work on this series, that said, I do believe he played the character of Darrin exactly in the manner Elizabeth Montgomery wanted it played. She wanted her character to be the central focus of the series, she wasn't interested in sharing the spotlight. Dick York was funny, the series was a huge hit, if you were the showrunner, part of the writing team, it was easier to develop the comedic situations with York having a large role, much larger than Montgomery was comfortable with.

While I think Jones could have played the part, I don't think Montgomery would have supported that choice.

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I think your statements about Lizz wanting the spotlight only on herself are dead wrong, because in the Sargent years there were a lot of episodes that focused on Tabitha, so if Lizz really wanted the spotlight on her so badly she wouldn't have let Bewitched to focus so much on Tabita in the last seasons.

If Jim Carey had been older he would have made a good Darrin. The later years Darrin was watered down. I think Jim would have been perfect for the movie.

I think your statements about Lizz wanting the spotlight only on herself are dead wrong, because in the Sargent years there were a lot of episodes that focused on Tabitha, so if Lizz really wanted the spotlight on her so badly she wouldn't have let Bewitched to focus so much on Tabita in the last seasons.

Tabitha was a supporting character, there was no way anyone would perceive of her in any other light. Dick York saw the series as Bewitched starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York, that's a long way from Montgomery's vision of the series. Agnes Moorehead shined on the series as Endora, from her long career she knew how to play a supporting part and knock it out of the park without stepping on the toes of the star.

He was already too famous at the time Bewitched started to do a TV series, but I think Jerry Lewis would have made a great Durwood !!;):D

Jerry Lewis would have been great. I agree he was to big of a star.

That Tabitha was in a supporting role has nothing to do with it, the point is that Tabitha stared in several episodes 4 or 5 a year the last 3 seasons, Liz let her shine in them with her and Aggie and all in supporting roles, thus proving Monliz's point and disproving yours.

Tabitha was a supporting character, there was no way anyone would perceive of her in any other light. Dick York saw the series as Bewitched starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York, that's a long way from Montgomery's vision of the series. Agnes Moorehead shined on the series as Endora, from her long career she knew how to play a supporting part and knock it out of the park without stepping on the toes of the star.

Elizabeth Montgomery was always the star of Bewitched with York and AM in co-starring roles with the rest as supporting players in the cast.
This how it is depicted even in the animated opening on Bewitched and was the case with her being hired first and then getting to pick the cast that would support her show Dick York included.

This was always the case throughout the DY years exactly as it was in the DS years as well.

Now Dick York tried to make it otherwise with an attempted coup where he tried to make himself at the very least on the same level of Elizabeth Montgomery in terms of money,fame, network promotional support and cast credit if not more so.

His attempted coup was an abject and total failure with all remaining as it had been and his gaining nothing out of his sickout in season 4.

Samantha was always the central dominating character and center of Bewitched from episode one to 254, this was never deviated from at any point in the series.

Why should she want to share being the star of Bewitched?, it was her show, she was the star and nobody else could lay claim to that status and standing on Bewitched for the total run of the show, that was simply the natural order of things on Bewitched.

Elizabeth Montgomery was completely comfortable with Dick York's large supporting role on the show throughout his run on it, she just didn't want him to steal the whole show from her and take it over as he attempted to do in his failed attempted coup d'etat in early season 4.



I was no fan of Dick Sargent's work on this series, that said, I do believe he played the character of Darrin exactly in the manner Elizabeth Montgomery wanted it played. She wanted her character to be the central focus of the series, she wasn't interested in sharing the spotlight. Dick York was funny, the series was a huge hit, if you were the showrunner, part of the writing team, it was easier to develop the comedic situations with York having a large role, much larger than Montgomery was comfortable with.

While I think Jones could have played the part, I don't think Montgomery would have supported that choice.

Alan Brady's Hair stated:

"There's a thread around here somewhere in which Ray Fulmer of Hazel was suggested, which I thought was a decent idea"

Yeah, that is interesting, and I think he could have played it at least as well as Sargent. I remember in the fall of 1969 Fulmer had landed a lead role in the daytime soap The Guiding Light, so I'm pretty sure that he would have been more than happy to be cast in Bewitched.

Tabitha was a supporting character, there was no way anyone would perceive of her in any other light. Dick York saw the series as Bewitched starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York, that's a long way from Montgomery's vision of the series. Agnes Moorehead shined on the series as Endora, from her long career she knew how to play a supporting part and knock it out of the park without stepping on the toes of the star.

It doesn't matter if Tabitha was a supporting character, the thing is, there were a lot of episodes that focused on Tabitha , the spotlight was on her, so why would Lizz let the spotlight be on another character if she wanted to be the star of the show as badly as you say?

Why would Lizz be alright with that if she wanted Bewitched to revolve only around her and not anyone else? It doesn't make sense to me

That maybe how Dick York saw it but more then likely it was how he wanted to change the show to being which i might add it never became.

Liz's vision of the show was it's reality as well, York's vision of the show was his wish list that went unrequited and unfulfilled.

Tabitha was a supporting character, there was no way anyone would perceive of her in any other light. Dick York saw the series as Bewitched starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York, that's a long way from Montgomery's vision of the series. Agnes Moorehead shined on the series as Endora, from her long career she knew how to play a supporting part and knock it out of the park without stepping on the toes of the star.

How about Jerry Van Dyke? Goofy, appealing, broad...

Richard Crenna was a strong candidate when Darrin was being cast in 1963, he was well thought of by William Asher at the time but had recently concluded a long run on the TV series the McCoys and was not interested in reentering the grind of weekly series TV.

He would have been a superb choice.

Jerry Van Dyke or Jerry Lewis? No, both played any character they played the same, silly,goofy, over the top and zany, for Darrin the character to work he had to be serious, real, with his feet firmly planted on the ground in his characterization.

He had to be respected by the other characters and the audience in the role, neither of the before mentioned would have been.

Cliff Robertson would have been superb, he was very good friends with Liz and had worked with her many times on Robert Montgomery Presents.

Richard Crenna is an interesting thought and so is Cliff Robertson (who was very funny on Batman as Shame).

How about Pete Duel? I loved him on Gidget.

I always thought Pete Duel favored Dick York.

While I definitely think the tragic Peter Duel had the skills to have brought just the right balance of realism to the escapism of the series along with being able to have shown a good amount of passion towards Samantha (and easily could have done the more physically tasking stunts), one of the reasons almost all of Sam's witchy family and friends didn't 'get' what drew Sam to Darren was that Darren leaned more being goofy rather than handsome in appearance. While both Mr. York and Mr. Sargent fit that bill quite well, Mr. Duel was considered quite handsome by a good number of viewers. While I believe Miss Montgomery wouldn't have had any problems with a new Darren getting more fan mail than Sam did, I think it would have made it more unbelievable that the witchy family would have STILL considered Darren goofy instead of handsome and I'm not sure the show would have had the right comic balance if Serena or for that matter Endora, Hagatha or Enchantra were to genuinely flirt with Darren (and I don't think network TV would have been ready for Uncle Arthur to have done so).

Bill Bixby!

In a way, he'd already been playing the part on My Favorite Martian.

I think Dick Sargent was the best choice because there was no one who could top Dick York's skill and talent. The second Darrin became a different character. And Lila Garret (Bewitched writer) recently stated on Mo Rocca's podcast that the change in tone with Sargent was a deliberate choice by the writers based on his acting style.

It is interesting in Sargent's first couple of episodes you can see him trying to imitate York. But that was eventually dropped as it just wasn't him.

Elizabeth also touched on that by stating that Darrin 2 was the calmer Darrin because it was 5 years into the marriage and he had "naturally mellowed" by then. The writers, per Garret, as mentioned above did change to writing more comedy for the ancillary characters because Sargent wasn't as funny in his reactions than York. Sargent's Darrin became "more of an observer."

You can see Elizabeth kind of take on the broader comedy shtick (at times) that Dick York used to do to keep that humor alive on the show. She was good at it and it would appear to be an intentional choice on the production team.