Ratings

[bb25]

Here's a quick list of Bewitched's ratings...

1964-65: #2 (trailing only Bonanza)
1965-66: #7 (tied with The Beverly Hillbillies)
1966-67: #8
1967-68: #11
1968-69: #12
1969-70: #25

The ratings were below the Top 30 from 70-72...does anyone know them?

[buddy love]

No, I don't know what ranking Bewitched had in the 70-71 and 71-72 seasons except that it was under the top 30. But it is interesting to note that Bewitched began its long drop out of the top 15 after Dick York left the series. I think this more than anything indicates that people did care that York was no longer on the show contrary to what many such as Bill Asher and Elizabeth Montgomery said that hardly anyone noticed or cared.

[Arfies]

Chuck T said that in his search of the Agnes Moorehead archives, he found several letters to Aggie asking basically, "Where is Dick York?" So people DID notice- and cared. I think William Asher did say the role of Darrin was played best by York.

[bb25]

I agree. Dick York was so much better...in fact I haven't heard of anyone who actually preferred Dick Sargent in the role...

[WstrnElect]

I prefer Dick York's portrayal of Darrin as well, although I have come to appreciate Dick Sargent a great deal more over the years.

If you think about it, imagine the job Sargent was being asked to do at the time, and if you think about how difficult a job that was, I think he pulled it off rather well. Thanks to pretty much a washout in my area over the weekend as far as the weather was concerned, I got to see much more of the TVL marathon than I had planned. I decided to try to be objective about both actors, and while I would still give the edge to Dick York, there were a few things that Sargent brought to the role. Some of his quips back and forth with Endora are priceless. In what I could determine to be some of his earliest performances, it almost seemed he was trying to emulate many of the characterizations that Dick York brought to the role, but by the later episodes, he had pretty much brought his own style to Darrin. It was a difficult transition to be sure, but I think, considering the circumstances, he did a fine job. It also brought Darrin back as a true regular, rather than a semi-regular, which Dick York had become by his last season. In the episodes where he did not appear, his absence is huge. Yes, I would have rather seen Dick York finish out the series, but Sargent did bring genuine credibility to the role. My point for bringing this up is that Sargent usually gets tangled up in the mess by simply being described as the "other" Darrin, or as the second banana in the role to Dick York. While I may not prefer his performance to York's, he deserves better than to be downplayed as a performer, because he did a better job than that.

Just MHO for the day.

Kurt

[TV Guy]

I prefer York, too, but I agree that Sargent was pretty decent in a thankless job. The real problem with the Sargent years is not Sargent himself, but rather the scripts. Instead of the romantic comedy of the early years, the show became very formulaic, with a lot of episodes dealing with the same plots over and over again (an historical figure is accidentally brought to the present; one of the witches is sick and loses control of her powers; Sam is caught doing witchcraft and passes it off as one of Darrin's ad campaigns).

Also, the interplay between Darrin and Endora became more hostile and mean-spirited -- she seemed to play a lot more dirty tricks on him, and spent a good deal of time trying to break up the Stephens' marriage. Those things happened much less frequently in the earlier episodes. In fact, in the episode where Tabitha was born, Darrin and Endora briefly embraced, and she called him by his correct name. In the earlier years, Endora at least accepted the Darrin and Sam's marriage -- remember when Maurice first met Darrin, and Endora actually defended him? Later on, she seemed to hate him and just wanted to get rid of him. They could have kept the relationship antagonistic without making them hate each other.

[Freakzilla]

I agree that the years that Dick Sargent weren't as well-written as the previous seasons. The show even resorted to doing remakes of black and white episodes during those years. Also, Marion Lorne, the actress who played Aunt Clara, died and they sort of replaced her with Alice Ghostly's character Esmerelda. So there were many things that contributed to the show not being as good.

[TVgen62]

Originally posted by TV Guy
Also, the interplay between Darrin and Endora became more hostile and mean-spirited -- she seemed to play a lot more dirty tricks on him, and spent a good deal of time trying to break up the Stephens' marriage. Those things happened much less frequently in the earlier episodes. In fact, in the episode where Tabitha was born, Darrin and Endora briefly embraced, and she called him by his correct name. In the earlier years, Endora at least accepted the Darrin and Sam's marriage -- remember when Maurice first met Darrin, and Endora actually defended him? Later on, she seemed to hate him and just wanted to get rid of him. They could have kept the relationship antagonistic without making them hate each other.

Interesting that you should notice that. I offered a hypothetical storyline on the TVLand message board once. The idea was that "something" happened during the summer (while the show was in reruns) before Sargent's appearance. Here's my idea:

One day, Endora suddenly realized that she was becoming soft towards Darrin. Appalled by the idea that she was becoming fond of "Derwood", she decided to change his appearance. If he looked different, it would be easier for her to hate him again because she'd no longer think of him as Darrin. (It's possible that she made him look like someone else she knew and hated.) The spell would need to affect anyone that knew Darrin so that when they saw him, he'd look the same to them. (This would have to include Samantha and Tabitha and would also explain why they didn't "notice".)

I came up with this as a possible "untold story" in an effort to ease any bitterness viewers and fans still have over 2 Darrins. Any other suggestions out there?

[Arfies]

I wrote a fan fiction posted on harpiesbizarre.com :

The Ballad of Grover the Morph

by Jenny Norton (Arfies)

- as might be told by Gerry the Wood nymph -

'Twas before the days of Darrin the Bold
When this story and its lore be told.
With Grover the Morph, an ancestor of he
In Ireland- 13th century.

Now, Grover, one to kiss and tell,
Into love with a wood nymph he hopelessly fell.
Their lives were a blend of bliss and of song
But their happiness- fate had it not to be long.

One evil witch, with malicious intent
To their union was a spell aimed to prevent.
To irk every wood nymph who lives amongst trees
(Witches and wood nymphs are enemies).

The witch changed the Morph into a different man
And that no one took notice was part of her plan.
No wood nymph, no mortal, no being that be
Would know that poor Grover changed permanently.

But the forest told the wood nymph what happened. In shock,
The girl- vengeful, crying, and spirit deadlocked
Vowed to make witches pay for her love that was lost
A "taste of their own medicine" was the cost.

Wood nymphs from all over, their pride all-for-one,
All asking the eldest on what was to be done.
The elder was wise and suggested a curse
For the cruel witches' fates to be made even worse.

There goes a prophecy known by a select few
That someday, mortal and witch rendezvous
They'll fall in love- and now, a cross-over:
That mortal will be a descendant of Grover.

"What to do? Simple. Put a spell that will change
The form of every male relative long-range.
Grover's descendants won't realize it or notice.
Nor will mortals or witches. Just us nymphs would know this."

The proposal was greeted with rousing applause.
So the nymphs cast their spell, all believing their cause.
Male descendants would transform at varying ages
And déjà-vu would occur in that life by the mages.

And so ends this legend of Grover the Morph
But the spell's vengeful purpose had seemed to be dwarfed
For some mere mortals knew (for some reason, weren't dense).
The nymphs weren't expecting a TV audience.

The End

[spunkygirl]

I think alot more people wondered where Dick York was than they thought. I prefer Dick York's Darrin. For years I couldn't stand DS Darrin, but he has grown on me some. I hated the fact that they just remade BW episodes with DS, it just made the series lose creibility with alot of viewers IMO.
Yeah I noticed in the later Years Endora really seemed to hate Darrin more than she did.

[Cashodeen]

Originally posted by buddy love
No, I don't know what ranking Bewitched had in the 70-71 and 71-72 seasons except that it was under the top 30. But it is interesting to note that Bewitched began its long drop out of the top 15 after Dick York left the series. I think this more than anything indicates that people did care that York was no longer on the show contrary to what many such as Bill Asher and Elizabeth Montgomery said that hardly anyone noticed or cared.

Elizabeth really said that hardly anyone noticed or cared that Dick York left? And she was referring to us viewers? Now that's a shock.

As far as the replacement situation, I really have nothing to add because it's all been said wonderfully here. The majority of us viewers favored York, but with the responsibility Sargent was left with, he should be given a lot of credit. Writing also played a great factor in the show's decline.

[623e68thst]

I remember on the "E! True Hollywood Story" they said that the writers considered explaining that Darrin's looks changed because of a spell by Endora.

But then they decided that it would harm the relationship between Samantha and Endora too much.

I also think it would be hard to explain such a permanent spell when every other spell cast on the show could be un-cast within one or maybe two episodes.

[TV Guy]

Originally posted by 623e68thst
I remember on the "E! True Hollywood Story" they said that the writers considered explaining that Darrin's looks changed because of a spell by Endora.

I remember hearing that too and thinking how ridiculous it was. Aside from placing a permanent wedge between Endora and Samantha, just how the heck would they have explained the change to Larry Tate? Or Gladys Kravitz? The standard "it's all part of one of Darrin's ad campaigns" explanation wouldn't have cut it. Completely unworkable.

[That Other Fan]

Off the top of my head but...


A Warlock, who Samantha left upon meeting and falling in love with Darrin, could've changed Darrin's appearance. The curse would've been revenge directed at Sam for all of the pain he suffered upon learning of her marriage to Darrin (how could he hurt Sam the most? Destroy her marriage).

For some reason that I cannot logically explain at the moment... Samantha, Endora, nor anyone else in her family (LOL, not even Dr. Bombay) could break the curse, so Sam casts a spell so that every human he encountered would continue to see Darrin's former image.


A tad to advanced for Bewitched, IMO, but I gave it a shot.

It would've been a creative way to introduce Dick Sargent, saved Sam and Endora's relationship (made them even closer possibly), and gave the show a very different direction.

[TVgen62]

Originally posted by TV Guy
I remember hearing that too and thinking how ridiculous it was. Aside from placing a permanent wedge between Endora and Samantha, just how the heck would they have explained the change to Larry Tate? Or Gladys Kravitz? The standard "it's all part of one of Darrin's ad campaigns" explanation wouldn't have cut it. Completely unworkable.

I thought of that. Read the hypothetical scenario in my earlier post [in this thread] and you'll see how I addressed that issue. (Gee! All this time I thought I had an original idea!? Oh, well.)