Bewitched Season 6?? (1 Viewer)

[DeWilson]

BEWITCHED was VERY popular in JAPAN and even lead to the whole "Magical Girl" concept in Manga and Anime! It's no surprise that Liz would do these commercials.

 

[Jdcrackers]

Thanx David for sharing those rare commercials... are those the only three Liz did? It was so interesting to see her... Does anyone know how much the Japanese versions of Seasons 6, 7 and 8 would cost? Thanx

 

[Jdcrackers]

Has anybody heard anything regarding Bewitched Season 6 yet? I sure hope we hear some news soon! I am getting antsy to see the Dick Sargent years...

 

[FrancisP]

The ratings don't lie. The show ran 5 seasons with DY and 3 seasons with DS. The ratings dropped 10% in season 6, 40% in S7, and 50% in S8 down to a 10 share. I really do think that DY was underestimated. While the ratings had dropped from S1, it looks like the changes in S6-S8 destroyed the remaining audience.

It certainly looks to me that DY was fired. I suspect the network, Elizabeth Montgomery, and Dick Asher thought that Samantha was the star and you could get a monkey to play Darren.

It will be interesting to see what the transfers look like. It seems that they have gotten progressively worse. S5 was very rough. Apparently Sony is putting less and less effort into these releases.

 

[David*P]

What I'm going to respond with is something that I posted in the Season 3 thread about two years ago...interestingly enough, it was in response to your same assertion that DY was fired, which is unquestionably not the case. I only repost it here for the benefit of other readers, as you should know by now, as DY said it himself, he was NOT fired:

According to the man himself, in his published memoirs titled The Seesaw Girl and Me Dick York says that he resigned. He collapsed on the set while filming what ended up being Ep. #167: "Daddy Does His Thing" which is an odd little episode. It begins with Samantha and Darrin celebrating his birthday and she tells him that she has a gift for both of them and then we never hear what it is because the rest of the episode Durwood spends as a mule courtesy of "Daddy" for refusing a magical lighter. But the way DY describes the episode it sounds like the script was supposed to follow what eventually became Episode #180: "Daddy Comes to Visit" and #181: "Darrin the Warlock" filmed with Dick Sargent. DY says that when he collapsed he was sitting on scaffolding with Maurice Evans. The scene was supposed to be Durwood and Maurice floating in the air. He says he hadn't been feeling good anyway and with all the light checks and stuff it got him really sick and he passed out. In the hospital, Bill Asher, the show's director and EM's husband at the time, came to vist and this is what Dick York wrote:

...Bill Asher comes to the hospital and he says, "What do you want to do, Dick? Do you want to quit?" I said, "If it's all right with you, Billy." He looked at me, and I guess he and Joey [Dick's wife]had talked, and I guess Bill knew when people had enough, and he said, "OK, kid, I'll tell 'em."

And Bill Asher and I hugged for the first time.

So I believe that he quit of his own free will, that he was man enough to realize that he was hindering the show by not being there all the time, though he did tell Herbie J Pilato (author of Bewitched Forever) that he had wanted the summer of '69 to rest up and he could've came back, but reading how his life went there was no way he could've been back at full speed over just one summer.

By the way, that book is available directly from Newpath Press, the publisher.


I also should mention that out of his 14 absences, two were for time off for when his father died.

 

[jim_falconer]

I was going to respond to you post with this same quote from "Bewitched Forever", but you've already mentioned it. I never read Dick York's autobiography, but it does sound like he had different versions of how things went down that day in the hospital room with Asher.

 

[Jdcrackers]

You know it's very obvious how sick Dick York was in his last episode "Daddy does his thing"... And you only see him briefly at the beginning of the episode... before he is turned into a mule... Larry was supposed to be in the episode, but the Kravitz's were called in to make an appearance...

David you are right that York didn't get fired, because I read the same thing...

However, I liked Sargent too, and can't wait to see his episodes...

I do have a question for your guys...If York wouldn't have left the show how long do you think Bewitched would have ran?

 

[David*P]

I think had DY stayed (iff'n he wasn't sick) I still think it would've ended at the same time, possibly even earlier and here's why: I think that the writers felt they could get away more with recycling scripts with DS because it would seem new considering it was a different actor. Plus you have to take into account EM and BA's crumbling marriage and EM's desire to break free from Samantha and also the fact that AM was quite ill, which is very apparent in Season 8's "School Days, School Daze" and that she passed away in 1974.

I'm very excited for the DS years, though he isn't my favorite Durwood in the least, at least we were able to have EM and AM around for three more years because of him.

 

[Jdcrackers]

David, have you heard anything about Season 6? I was thinking it may come out around the time Liz gets her star, but I guess I was wrong...I figure it will come out then the last season of I dream of Jeannie will follow

 

[Jdcrackers]

Oh I forgot to you guys, you can see some episodes of Season 7 like "Mary the Good Fairy" on youtube... I watched both parts the other night and it was great to see them...that was the first time I had seen them in ages

 

[Jdcrackers]

Can someone please help me? I just saw on Amazon.com that Bewitched Seasons 1-5 is available now in a box set...and was wondering if it had any extras? I read Erin Murphy did some interviews for a box set and was wondering if this was what she was doing it for? Also are the black and white still available in season 1 and 2? Thanks

 

[David*P]

The set that Amazon has looks like they've just bundled up all five seasons to send out at the same time, so I'm assuming there would be nothing new. Not to mention TVShowsonDVD.com hasn't posted any news about it and I'm sure they would.

So far the interviews that Erin Murphy was a part of seem to be included on the Complete Series release that Japan is getting next month. I wrote about it in this thread: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...postid=3243333

As far as the B&W go, it looks like they are still available for purchase on Amazon.

 

[Michael Rogers]

I was one of the people where Dick Sargent was actually my first Darrin and it was later that I found out that Dick York was Darrin #1.

And While I know that overall the quality of the shows were not at the level of the early years, I still enjoy them and have big nostalga for them.

Also I don't know about anyone else, but to me, Elisabeth Montgemery was getting "hotter" in the later years of Bewitched.

She was always pretty, but in later years I thought she was downright sexy.

To put it more bluntly, I was always attracted to early 70's Samantha more than 1960's Samantha (though I was attracted to both)

 

[Firebee]

Not having watched anything more than up to a few episodes of S3, I'm definitely attracted to 1960s Samantha...I'd always thought she was gorgeous. Period.

 

[Jdcrackers]

Thanks David for the info... Hopefully Bewitched Season 6 will be out early next year...

 

[Jdcrackers]

David, I forgot to ask you, if someone purchases the Japanese boxset, do they have to have a multi regional DVD player? That looks like a great box set... I just wish I could read Japanese...

 

[DeWilson]

I feel that "Bewitched" just started to go down hill following Marion Lorne death.

 

[jim_falconer]

To me, Sam never looked better, than in the pilot episode...especially when her and Darren went over to the snotty woman's home for dinner.

 

[David*P]

Yes, you do need a multi-regional player. And I hear you about the Japanese...I wish that they hadn't made most of the site graphics making it impossible to copy the writing and paste it into a translator.

 

[Jdcrackers]

Thanks David for the info.. Do you know how expensive they run? The multi regional DVD players that is?

I think Sam/Liz looked the best in all the seasons, but I also noticed how the styles of the mid to late 60s and in the early 70s changed as did Samantha's which is very good... you can notice a big difference in her dresses and other out fits... from season 1 as compared to season 8 I think she looks amazing!!

Didn't Liz actually want to them to update her outfits each season?