Antenna TV now into the Dick Sargent years - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

MichaelKeith · 03-11-2014, 02:29 PM

Antenna TV has reached the sixth season of Bewitched weekdays, where Dick Sargent takes over the role of Darrin. Now let me first say that I loved Dick York in the role of Darrin, in fact, to me he WAS Darrin.

However, any actor, no matter who he was, would have had an enormous task trying to fill the shoes of York. And given that, I have to say that watching these sixth season shows has given me the opinion that Dick Sargent did a decent job in the role. Better than York, NO, but given the task, he did alright.

Personally I wish they had just cancelled the show after the fifth season when York departed (which in fact I believe Liz wanted to do), but the network threw more money at Liz and Asher than they could refuse so continued the show.

I've also read that York just wanted the summer hiatus to rest up and then he believed he could have finished the run of the series. Of course, in a kinder/gentler world not ruled or dictated by the bottom line--money, this would have been a nice thing for the producers/network to have done.

But let's face it, York did in fact miss almost half of season five and a good number of season four episodes and without the Darrin character, the central conflict/premise of the show was gone and to me the Darrin-less episodes were the worst of the series.

I wish Mr. York had not suffered that back injury in 1959 and his life would have been so much better. It's a shame that such a bad thing happened to such a good human being. I have loved his acting in every movie or tv show he acted in. It's just tragic that the accident happened to him.

KatieAnn · 03-12-2014, 06:36 PM

I'm watching the sixth season on dvd and I definitely agree that Dick Sargent "did a decent job." Not "better" but "different" and "decent."

They are all such pros that it feels like he was there all along. I think maybe because he didn't play it "big" or try to imitate York it was easier to accept him in the role of Darrin. I think he had nice and easy chemistry with everyone right from the beginning of his run.

03-11-2014, 02:29 PM	#1
MichaelKeith Member Senior Member Join Date: Mar 01, 2007 Posts: 1,139	Antenna TV now into the Dick Sargent years Antenna TV has reached the sixth season of Bewitched weekdays, where Dick Sargent takes over the role of Darrin. Now let me first say that I loved Dick York in the role of Darrin, in fact, to me he WAS Darrin. However, any actor, no matter who he was, would have had an enormous task trying to fill the shoes of York. And given that, I have to say that watching these sixth season shows has given me the opinion that Dick Sargent did a decent job in the role. Better than York, NO, but given the task, he did alright. Personally I wish they had just cancelled the show after the fifth season when York departed (which in fact I believe Liz wanted to do), but the network threw more money at Liz and Asher than they could refuse so continued the show. I've also read that York just wanted the summer hiatus to rest up and then he believed he could have finished the run of the series. Of course, in a kinder/gentler world not ruled or dictated by the bottom line--money, this would have been a nice thing for the producers/network to have done. But let's face it, York did in fact miss almost half of season five and a good number of season four episodes and without the Darrin character, the central conflict/premise of the show was gone and to me the Darrin-less episodes were the worst of the series. I wish Mr. York had not suffered that back injury in 1959 and his life would have been so much better. It's a shame that such a bad thing happened to such a good human being. I have loved his acting in every movie or tv show he acted in. It's just tragic that the accident happened to him.
	Last edited by MichaelKeith; 03-13-2014 at 12:13 PM. Reason: correction

03-12-2014, 06:36 PM	#2
KatieAnn Member Forum Regular Join Date: Sep 15, 2011 Posts: 520	I'm watching the sixth season on dvd and I definitely agree that Dick Sargent "did a decent job." Not "better" but "different" and "decent." They are all such pros that it feels like he was there all along. I think maybe because he didn't play it "big" or try to imitate York it was easier to accept him in the role of Darrin. I think he had nice and easy chemistry with everyone right from the beginning of his run.