Tuesday, August 19, 2008

~BILL ASHER & ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY'S BEWITCHING JOURNEY~





In the fall of 1962, while Liz was working on the the feature film Johnny Cool, she met director Bill Asher, who had achieved fame for his work on the I Love Lucy show. In January 1963, Liz went to Mexico City and filed for a divorce. While filming Johnny Cool, Liz and Bill started to date and they fell in love with each other.


In the summer of 1963, Liz made another feature film called Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed with Dean Martin. On October 26th of that year, Liz and Asher married in a small private ceremony. The newlyweds had decided that working on a project together, instead of Liz staying home to raise a family, would be their route. In that same Fall, Liz and Asher were offered the Bewitched TV series when they went to ABC to discuss a project they were developing called The Fun Couple in which an obscenely wealthy girl is married to a gas station attendant. The concept of using witchcraft instead of richcraft appealed to them, and they signed on with Screen Gems.


*She became a beautiful witch with a twitch, in which she would undoubtably become the most famous and loved witch in the world.


In November 1963, the pilot episode of Bewitched was filmed shortly after Liz found out she was pregnant. The Bewitched crew worked around her and had to hide her pregnancy since she was just getting married in the first episode of the show. On July 24, 1964, the Ashers welcomed a 7 lb. 6oz. boy, whom they named William Allen Asher, Jr.


Three weeks after Billy's birth, Liz returned to work against doctor's orders. The schedule was behind and Liz had to go in to get the episodes completed before air date. Everyone working on the Bewitched project during this time had high praise for Liz's ability to juggle motherhood while carrying a weekly show. It was obvious to all that Liz was in her glory. She had never looked better and her performances were consistently brilliant.


On October 5, 1965, Liz gave birth to her second child, a 7lb. 2oz. boy named Robert Deverell Asher, which translated onscreen to the birth of Tabatha (later spelled Tabitha). During the 5th season of Bewitched, Liz became pregnant again. On June 17, 1969, Liz gave birth to her youngest child, a beautiful 7lb. 13oz. girl, whom they named Rebecca Elizabeth Asher. Rebecca's birth coincided with the birth of Adam on the show.


Liz became quite the force in the entertainment industry headlining such an
immediately successful prime time show "BEWITCHED". The Ashers had married in the summer of 1963 during the movie "Who's been sleeping in my bed" starring Dean Martin, and the beloved sitcom Bewitched was born. They divorced in July 1973, and the glorious Bewitched situation-comedy came to it's 8 year end.

3 comments:

dino martin peters said...

Hey pallie Terri, likes very nice little Liz history here...but likes so Dinodelighted that you founds a way to share the magic of our Dino as well...when "Bed" finally gets released on DVD...you will certainly be in Dinoheaven....

ATOMIC GEM said...

THANKS SO MUCH PALLIE...I KNEW YOU WOULD LIKE THIS. I ACTUALLY HAVE MADE MENTION OF DINO ALREADY 3 TIMES ON THIS ONE PARTICULAR SITE BEWITCHED. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN THERE IS A PICTURE OF ELIZABETH WHICH ALSO STATES THAT IT WAS A PICTURE TAKEN DURING THE TIME OF "WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED". OH & YOU AND PALLIE KEITH MAY HAVE TO COME AND RESCUE ME FROM OVERDOSING ON DEAN AND ELIZABETH WHEN THIS MOVIE HITS THE STORE IN DVD FORM! HEE!

Keith said...

Hey pallie Terri. Thanks for sharing this with us. I never knew these details about Liz. She definitely shows that a woman can do it all. She can have a successful career and be a mother.