Were There Any Good Dick Sargent Episodes of Bewitched?

[TMC]

The biggest problems that I've heard about this era:

• So many of his episodes were really just redone Dick York black and white episodes. What didn't help was that as soon as Bewitched went from black and white to color it went from a sophisticated comedy appealing to a younger demographic to a run of the mill sitcom.
  
  Sargent really had no personality (he was written as being slightly less insufferable than Dick York's Darrin) and was too deadpan, humorless (Sargent couldn't be "goofy" like York), and dour.

[tcr1701]

For me Bewitched had three distinct "eras" with quite different tones. The black and white seasons were a romantic comedy with an emphasis on the Samantha/Darrin relationship. Seasons 3-5 with Dick York were more traditional sitcom fare with an emphasis on the magic. Then you have the more cynical and often angry Dick Sargent years. It's almost three completely different shows.

[Willbo]

I think the episode where they go back to Pilgrim times with Gladys is a good one for Sargent. It is my favorite episode of his. But that may be about it. I did not care for his Darrin.

[tcr1701]

Originally Posted by Willbo

I think the episode where they go back to Pilgrim times with Gladys is a good one for Sargent. It is my favorite episode of his. But that may be about it. I did not care for his Darrin.

That was a Dick York episode:

[Bonniegirl]

Sure!! I liked the eps.when Samantha was pregnant. The one where she had the food cravings was hilarious! !!!

[tcr1701]

The first few he filmed where he tried to mimic Dick York were interesting - if only because Sargent put some life into his performance. Sargent always seemed rather stiff and uncomfortable in the role. especially if acting out something a spell made him do.

That's not a criticism per se as his acting style is always reserved in most everything he was in. I watched him on a Charlie's Angels episode recently which was just 6 years after Bewitched and he was essentially playing it the same way he did Darrin.

[1960'sTVfan]

I like all of them. Dick York or Dick Sargent, doesn't matter to me. Dick York is the better Darrin but I don't dislike Dick Sargent, Sargent is just a little different in the role and has his own style. I enjoy the Sargent seasons equally as much as the York seasons.

[Willbo]

Sorry about my confusion. There is an episode where they go back in time and I liked that one. Thought he did a good job. There are episodes that I like in seasons 6 to 8 but most are not focused on Darrin. I do like the craving episode.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by retroTVfan4ever

I like all of them. Dick York or Dick Sargent, doesn't matter to me. Dick York is the better Darrin but I don't dislike Dick Sargent, Sargent is just a little different in the role and has his own style. I enjoy the Sargent seasons equally as much as the York seasons.

I wonder if Dick Sargent was unfairly pinned as the fall guy for the quality issues of the last few years of Bewitched? Basically, by the start of the eighth (and final) season, it would be easy to suggest that both Bill Asher and Elizabeth Montgomery had become completely bored with the show, and it was really showing. Elizabeth basically phoned it in during that final season; continuity went completely out the window. Plus, the writers got so lazy that they basically just started remaking older episodes in a rather half-baked fashion.

[KatieAnn]

Over the last year I've seen the entire series and it's just started airing from the beginning again, and the feel of the show is so different in the early years. I like Dick York in the beginning, he's not as harsh in those episodes, you can see how the characters love each other and are learning about each other, it's sweet.

Somewhere along the way Dick York becomes much too angry in the role, and maybe the character has a right to be that angry, especially because of all the interference from Sam's family, but I find Dick Sargent to be a relief once he starts airing. He's much more mild mannered. There is not an episode where I don't like him.

[tcr1701]

Originally Posted by KatieAnn

Somewhere along the way Dick York becomes much too angry in the role, and maybe the character has a right to be that angry, especially because of all the interference from Sam's family, but I find Dick Sargent to be a relief once he starts airing. He's much more mild mannered. There is not an episode where I don't like him.

Around late season 4 to 5 they really started to write Darrin far too angrily. It permeates most of season 5 especially, but Darrin lightens up a bit toward the end of that year (thankfully). Dick York mentioned that he hated them writing Darrin as "always mad at Samantha" - Dick Sargent commented on this exact same issue for him.

I still always see Dick Sargent's Darrin as the angrier one, though and pretty unlikable much of the time. Probably because Sargent plays it more austere than York did. Sargent's Darrin often seems like he is either seething with anger inside or just sick of everyone. Of course that's how Darrin was written most of the time.

I think the writers simply ran out of story ideas after season 4 and just started writing Darrin as always angry to create conflict for the story. It's writing a character to suit the script rather than the script around the character.

[biffbronson]

My favorite episodes are always the ones related to time travel, so among my Sargent favorites are when he and Sam meet Henry VIII. I also love the Salem episodes, with Serena going back in time to when she knew Newton (who was turned into a bedwarmer). I love how there's potential romance between he and the curator lady.

Those will always be the ones I favor from the Sargent era.

[stevea]

I agree, time travel is fascinating. There was a good Sargent episode where Sam went back to the time of Darrin the Bold in the 14th century, to undo Endora and Serena's latest spell.

I think time travel is why I liked Dark Shadows so well.

[Larry Tate]

Dick Sargent was great and i enjoyed all of his episodes, especially his time travel episodes as Darren the Bold or when he was sent back as Darren with Samantha having to come to save him from the predicament he found himself in the past.

As well the two parter where Maurice gave him a lighter that gave him the powers of a Warlock and his rising to the temptation in a fausten way.

I think Dick Sargent if the role of who Darren was and how her would react to his supernatural situation much better then Dick York would have at that point in Darren's marriage to Samantha.

He would have been more low key and not so hysterical in his reaction to the witch worlds's impact on his mortal life by that point in time so Dick Yorks screaming and hysterical reaction would have seemed odd and out of place.

I also found DS's attitude a refreshing change of pace from DY's intensity as it had grown somewhat tiresome by that point in time.

DY as Darren was more romantic and sexual with Samantha but DS as Darren was more loving and affectionate and more since after 6 years of marriage.

There is no doubt that DY was much more the nastier and angrier and unlikeable as Darren of the two and by a wide margin.

Elizabeth herself stated several times on camera that she was NEVER EVER bored on the show with it of the character she played on it.

[Larry Tate]

Remakes?????...........What Remakes????
Thank God we had 3 more seasons of Bewitched with Dick Sargent
I do not see what I want to see rather what is actually to be seen & is on the screen itself.

Others see what they choose to through a prism that is distorted by the affection that they feel for DY, hence I believe the place from where all the hatred for DS comes from by the Yorkies who express it.

What I saw was DS as Darrin clearly in love & devoted to Samantha with great affection for her & totally devoted to being with her evermore.

Most Yorkie's have the view that you express but most Bewitched fans in total, although may prefer DY, still very much like & enjoy DS as Darrin & his seasons a great deal.

He was very popular with the original generation of Bewitched fans that count the most the & although they are not as vocal as the Yorkie's they exist just as much to the same extent.

Although the ratings which are a relative thing to other shows did go down, the actual number of Households & people watching Bewitched were actually higher in the DS years then the early DY years for example.

As well the changeover prior to season 6 was not publicised & was largely unknown to the Bewitched Fan base till it happened. So when the fans tuned in to see the first episode of Season 6 they were expecting to still see DY, the ratings for this episode where they were tuning in to see DY were exactly the same as they were for the rest of the season when when they were tuning in to see DS, as they knew of the switch after seeing the first episode.

As well after the switchover there was no reaction from Bewitched fans, nobody called or wrote & cared or had a problem with it.This according to Screen Gems executives of the time like Bill Asher, Harry Ackermen, Richard Baer & Richard Michaels.

Thank goodness that the show did not end after season 5, that would have been a huge mistake & instead it should have been as it was done with the show continuing onwards for 3 more Wonderful Seasons.

Yes, Liz & DS were very good friends in a personal sense while she & DY were merely fellow workers who otherwise were not acquainted & were nothing more, which is why they had zero contact after DY left the show.

The Dynamics of the show as to how the characters such as Darrin, Samantha & Endora etc. interrelated & the Premise of the show was unchanged by the changeover from DY to DS, everything was maintained as it had been with consistency.

The 8th season was excellent & very enjoyable, all this Liz was bored,unhappy, hated being there, was a hateful Samantha & changed the character is a lot of Rubbish & is not what one sees on the screen, rather one sees the opposite of all this hateful comments.

Furthermore Elizabeth Montgomery is on record in many interviews that she loved doing all 8 years of the show, was never ever bored for a minute or unhappy doing the show during the 8 seasons & that it was a great experience throughout the entire run of the show & that she would not change anything about her experience in doing the show.

Her words are the truth & after all she should know as they were her feelings.
In fact what one sees is a happy & joyful Samantha, more so even then the previous seasons & that is saying something.

Good examples of this are Bewitched,Bothered & Baldoni, Three Men & a Witch on a Horse, where Adams powers were tested & the final episode, all that i have described is clearly delineated in those episodes.

#72 "What every Young man should know" from season two is a remake of the Pilot.

Remakes began as early as that not only in the last three seasons as so many say.

I would say from season 3 on there were 2,2,3,3,4,4 (out of the first 22 episodes in season 8) remakes, it was only at the end of season 8 that they were largely the case with 3 of the last 4 episodes being remakes.

These facts just show how creative & diverse Bewitched was, that although they stuck to their main premise through all 8 years they still never became formulaic or just rehashed themselves on a regular basis, quite the opposite was the case with varied &
unique episodes being the norm the vast majority of the time rather then them being glorified remakes of each other as has been suggested.

I must say as well that episodes where a spell was placed on Darrin or when he was transformed, ones time travel back & into the future, witch illness ones etc. were never remakes but all unique & creative episodes in the form of sub premises of the main premise, otherwise you might as well say that each time Samantha twitched her nose or Darrin kissed her that this made it a remake episode.

This would make as much sense as it would be to say the ones i referred to above were remakes as well,
& not the word for word of the entire episodes(which none of them ever were)which so often are claimed to be the case by those people who claim most if not all of the episodes the last 3 seasons & especially they say the last season were remakes..............they weren't needless to say.

Even when they were remakes they changed them around so much that they were dissimilar and ony had the odd line in the odd scene that was word for word the same with 98% of the dialogue utterly different from the original episode, this was not like the Japanese or Russian versions of Bewitched where they took the original scripts for each Bewitched episode and then remade them literally word for word scene for scene, when Bewitched even had a rare remake then this was not the case, far from it.


I don't think the issue was the lack of new writers but rather that if you were going to stay true to the fundamental premise & the original characterizations then one was limited in what one could do over 8 years.

The alternative would be to go off on a completely different tangent that would not have been good or healthy for the show.

The fact that they stayed true to their original intent & premise is laudable in my view.

Actually a good quarter to a third of the shows the last few years were from new writers.

To me Little Pitchers Have Big Fears", "Soapbox Derby" are the same as It's Magic and Prodigy,the sort of Good Sam helps the Mortals sub premise and therefore would not constitute a remake, same as a spell on Darrin would not even though it had been done before & the basic aspects of it were the same in premise such a spell, complications for Mortal Darrin, he freaks, he & Sam work to fix it out, she uses magic as a last resort to do so, Witches ,laughing at all the mischief they created, mortals saying did i just see that................that sort of thing, but they were not remakes either.