Happy birthday to DL icon Elizabeth Montgomery

Lizzie Borden took an axe…gave Bill Asher 40 whacks!

Not sure about her other husbands but Robert Foxworth was delicious.....

It’s not a 91st birthday if you are dead.

Does anyone know the history between her and writer Dominck Dunne ? They were friendly until she hit it big with BEWITCHED, then he didn't seem to have anything good to say about his former friend.

Supposedly, her two very good friends in Hollywood were Carol Burnett (who turns 91 next week) and actress Liz Sheldon.

Sheridan! Jerry’s mother….

[quote]Supposedly, her two very good friends in Hollywood were Carol Burnett...

r4...

shout out

I've posted this before, but I volunteered at an AIDS benefit at the height of the disease. Before the general audience was let into the auditorium, they wheeled out maybe a dozen guys who were in their last stages and put them in the front row.

Elizabeth and Robert Foxworth came out and chatted with them, held their hands, hugged them, etc. No cameras around. Just genuine, caring people at a time when many wouldn't even touch an AIDS patient.

She was let go from Bewitched when it was discovered she was having an affair with one of the directors. She was married to William Asher the head director of Bewitched. She wanted her husband replaced with her boyfriend and the show was abruptly cancelled

I love Elizabeth Montgomery, but this was a cunt move on her part

She quit. Duh

Six years younger than OP

r9 Not factually accurate

R11 You cunt!

Happy Birthday, Lizzy.

[quote]Does anyone know the history between her and writer Dominck Dunne ?

In Dunne's book "The Way We Lived Then," there is a four-photo montage of Elizabeth Montgomery trying to make her husband, Gig Young, jealous by dancing with George Hamilton. The two last photos show Montgomery casting a positively wicked look over her shoulder, then George Hamilton dissolving into tears. Would imagine it didn't take a smart woman like Liz long to realize what a shallow creep Dunne was. He was dropped by everyone.

Classy lady. Great taste in clothes. Just about everything she wore on TV back in the 60s could be worn today.

Bill Asher looks like Uncle Fester.

I have nostalgia for Bewitched because it was repeated here in the UK in the 90s. My mum always put it on and my siblings and I would watch it after school.

Even back then as children we realised it was silly, but in a harmless way. Takes me right back there. Elizabeth Montgomery presumably became typecast but I doubt she minded too much.

R9 Not accurate AT ALL.

ABC was pushing for a ninth season, as they had the option for 10 seasons. Montgomery (who was openly having the affair with one of the directors, and was already separated from Asher) was on the fence about doing another season, despite the hefty raise they were offering her. When season 8 started filming in the summer of 1971, costar Agnes Moorehead told ABC she was not coming back for another season - this was her last. Moorhead had been battling cancer and it had taken a toll on her physically (she only committed to half the episodes of season 8). Knowing they could never replace Moorehead, or continue a whole season without her, ABC decided to cancel the show (at the same time, Montgomery had made up her mind she didn't want to continue). Moorehead had enough money to retire to her 'farmhouse' she bought in the midwest, but only lived another two years after the series went off the air.

Starred opposite OJ

Eight seasons is a long time for a sitcom, especially with 30 plus episode seasons. They were running out of ideas and recycling plots.

Well, you queens, r12, and r19, seem to know everything, were you there?

"Memoirist Peter Ackerman says the TV classic, “Bewitched,” came to an early end after a major demand from star Elizabeth Montgomery.

In a new book, Ackerman recalls how being the son of executive producer Harry Ackerman gave him an unparalleled look into life behind-the-scenes.

“Bewitched” premiered in 1964, following young witch Samantha Stephens as she tries to keep her magical powers a secret from her mortal husband.

The show had eight solid seasons before wrapping, and according to Ackerman, it could have gone on longer if not for an ultimatum from Montgomery.

While talking to Fox News Digital about “Mom, Dad, Me, and Classic TV - Growing Up with Classic Television’s Harry Ackerman and Elinor Donahue,” the author relayed a conversation he overheard between his parents after a phone call between his father and the “Bewitched” star.

**Ackerman told Fox his dad said, “The network wanted to continue with the series” but Montgomery “would only do it if my dad would agree to basically fire her soon-to-be ex-husband,” aka director Bill Asher.**

“They had broken up at that point and hired this other fella who was directing that episode to be the new director,” Ackerman explained.

That idea was a non-starter for Ackerman’s father.

“My dad said, ‘Liz, Bill Asher is my partner,’” his son said. “‘I’m not going to do that to him.’ And she said, ’Well then, ‘Bewitched’ is done.’ That’s what my dad told my mom.”

Montgomery kept her word, and by 1972 the series was no more.

One year later, Montgomery and Asher were officially divorced."

R18 you Brits have strange ideas: Elizabeth Montgomery presumably became typecast but I doubt she minded too much.

…wrong…her career moved on to exactly the opposite of Bewitched.

Sheridan died on Montgomery's birthday in 2022.

She did Lizzie Borden well.

Wrong R23 - She tried to get roles that were the opposite of Bewitched but they were few and far between. She was a good enough actress to pull them off but they were not huge successes. No one really wanted to see her as a rape victim or an axe murderer.

^ She was surprisingly good in Lizzy Borden... Samantha kills Endora and Maurice 😉

Montgomery's bestie, Liz Sheridan aka Seinfield's mom, was James Dean's girlfriend in the 50s but turned him down when he asked her to marry him.

R26 is the resident viilage idiot…

To correct just one error, she was Emmy-nominated for A Case of Rape. It was NBC's highest rated TV-movie in history up to that time.

We can go on…there’s more.

Oh please do go on R29. The floor is yours.

A rape victim 1974; Axe murderer 1975; Pioneer woman facing hardship 1978; A vicious nurse who abuses her wards 1985;

I loved EM and I understand wanting to break away from Bewitched, but a little variety might have been helpful, not to mention entertaining.

Thanks for proving the point that she successfully went in the opposite direction! ☮️

[quote] Wrong [R23] - She tried to get roles that were the opposite of Bewitched but they were few and far between. She was a good enough actress to pull them off but they were not huge successes. No one really wanted to see her as a rape victim or an axe murderer.

Huge successes was exactly what they were. "A Case of Rape" was NBC's highest rated TV-movie in history, with a Nielsen rating of 33.1 and an audience share of 49%. "

The Legend of Lizzie Borden" and "When the Circus Came to Town" were also big ratings hits. And Montgomery got Emmy nominations for both "A Case of Rape" and "Legend of Lizzie Borden."

Also, they were "few and far between" only by Montgomery's own choice because she wanted to work less frequently. After "Bewitched," she only wanted to do one TV-movie a year, and she was such a huge consistent draw for NBC that they accommodated her.

Happy birthday Liz!!

r22 Dimwit, your original post stated "She was let go from Bewitched when it was discovered she was having an affair" - this is not accurate. You tried in r22 to somehow prove that what you said was accurate when, in fact, you shared a story that did not match your original claim. It's ok, sweetie - you recalled the story incorrectly. Thank you for clarifying the speculation at r22, though.

After “Bewitched” Montgomery became an even bigger TV star than she had been before with a highly successful series of TV movie dramas which got enormous ratings and netted her Emmy nominations almost every year for a while. She was considered the queen of TV movies and had her pick of them.

Her second husband Bill Asher is sitting next to her in the Carol Burnett Show clip at R7. Though not handsome, he was very masculine-looking with a big jaw and I’m guessing the three kids they had signal a healthy sexual attraction for quite a while. Asher later married Joyce Bulifant.

The reason "A Case of Rape" was highly viewed was because of her popularity on Bewitched. People loved her and wanted to see what she could do, and she pulled it off. She received five Emmy award (and four Golden Globe) nominations for her role in Bewitched, but the winged statue eluded her even after she sought out more dramatic roles in TV movies.

[quote]After “Bewitched” Montgomery became an even bigger TV star than she had been before

Honey you need to get off the glue and go to bed.

@r35, Read the book, you stupid fuckwit, Peter Ackerman goes into more detail about the affair she was having with the director. I'm so tired of wiping the asses of you lazy queens who think you know it all and just keep running your ignorant mouth about everything you don't know

Go fuck yourself

^ Nevermind, r35, I haven't blocked an asshole like you in a long time, but today is the day 🙂

@r34, No wonder she went into television, that looks awful

According to her family, this would have been her 86th birthday.

I remember her as Ruth Coe, the domineering mother of a serial rapist in Spokane.

r39 Seriously - seek help

A poor mans Mamie Van Doren.

[quote]Asher later married Joyce Bulifant.

Who didn't?

Girls! Girls!

You're BOTH cunts!

^ that default reply needs to hit the dust ^

In 1980, when Aaron Spelling was creating DYNASTY (aka 'Oil') for ABC, Liz Montgomery was reportedly offered the role of Krystle Carrington. ABC wanted her back at the network in a series, knowing what a great dramatic actress she became, and a ratings winner. It's been said Montgomery turned down the offer - she didn't want to return to a weekly series at the time.

In late 1986, Montgomery was working with CBS on joining the cast of 'Falcon Crest' which starred her partner Robert Foxworth. Her character was written as a 'mysterious woman' who begins an affair with the younger Lorenzo Lamas, which intrigued her. She was to make guest appearances at the end of the 1986-87 season and join as a regular beginning in the 1987-88 season. At the same time she was feeling ill, and she was diagnosed (for the first time) with colon cancer. She dropped out of the project, and Foxworth also asked to be released from the show so he could take care of the ailing Montgomery (he was written out at the end of the 1986-87 season). She rebounded a few years later, and returned to television movies. Her colon cancer returned in March, 1995.

R39 made me laugh out loud. All that over a Bewitched thread! Imagine when he’s slightly inconvenienced! I LOVE you, R39. You have legit made my day.

R39 MAAAAAAAAAAAARY!

Like Patty Duke, I always knew that a TV movie with them starring in it would be quality viewing. Honorable mention to Lindsay Wagner and Jane Seymour.

How many people from Bewitched’s cast died of cancer?

Poor Alice Pearce, the first Gladys. At least she became immortalized on TV before she died.

R52 Please research that and let us know

R22 needs to read 'The Bewitched Book' by Herbie Pilato, released in 1992. Pilato did years of research on the book, interviewing to the cast, directors, and writers - including Montgomery, York and Sargent. He should also read "My Travels with Agnes Moorehead - The Lavender Lady" the biography of Agnes Moorehead by Quint Benedetti. His 2010 book is based on interviews with Moorehead, journals and diaries she left behind, and journals he kept while traveling with her as her assistant.

No need to read Ackerman's 2024 book based on his childhood memories.

WEST VIRGINIA HILLBILLY!