Season One
Elizabeth Montgomery gives birth to her first child, William Asher Jr., on July 24, 1964. Production of the first post-pilot episodes of
Bewitched begins later that Summer. Working on a limited time-frame several of the first episodes are still filming two weeks prior to their air dates.
Danny Arnold, who produced the pilot remains as a producer alternating with Jerry Davis; Arnold is also head writer. Harry Ackerman is executive producer. Arnold and Davis - especially Arnold - view
Bewitched as primarily a romantic comedy. Arnold also felt the show dealt with mixed marriages and bigotry: "It is a direct parallel to some of our social problems of today. But through fantasy, we can get a more vivid portrayal. Humor can then come out of touchy subjects." William Asher had wanted to be a producer on
Bewitched but Screen Gems was reluctant because his prior experience had been as a director. Asher is credited as a production consultant for the first two seasons; he directs 24 of the first season's 36 episodes. Ida Lupino is among those who directed the other 12 episodes.
As recurring characters are cast, Danny Arnold suggests his friend Irene Vernon for the role of Louise Tate. Gene Blakely (as Darrin's friend "Dave") and Paul Barselow (as the bartender) return from the pilot and will continue to make appearances through season four. Despite previous plans Nancy Kovack does not return as Sheila this season; she will not return again until season four. Paul Lynde guest stars as a high-strung driving instructor and makes a very favorable impression on Elizabeth Montgomery. Billy Mumy ("Will Robinson" from
Lost In Space) and Bill Daily (Roger Healey from you know where) guest star in the Christmas episode.
Vi Alford and Byron Munson are the costumers, I have not been able to find out if either or both of them designed the flying suits worn by Samantha and Endora. The wardrobe budget is small; Elizabeth Montgomery often wears her own clothes on the show. With the exception of her flying suit almost everything Endora wears comes from Agnes Moorehead's own wardrobe. Though colorized versions of black & white episodes show Endora's flying suit in the lavender and green color scheme we are used to seeing it was actually all in lavender, a new flying suit would be made when the show changes to color in season three. Samantha is often seen wearing a white gold heart-shaped pendant covered in pave diamonds, the pendant was a gift to Elizabeth Montgomery from William Asher.
I've not been able to find if ABC initially ordered an entire season of
Bewitched or only thirteen episodes. It was customary at the time for networks to order 13 episodes of new series (enough to run from the start of the season in September through the end of the calendar year) and make their decision whether or not to order the "back half" (enough episodes to run until the end of the season) after ratings had come in for the first few episodes. Networks didn't cancel series as quickly then; they would often let a low-rated show run for 13 episodes and replace it with something else in January when they would make changes to the lineup. There are exceptions: in 1966 ABC cancelled
The Tammy Grimes Show (in which Dick Sargent co-starred as Grimes' brother) after airing only four episodes.
Prior to pitching the series to ABC, Screen Gems had already signed on with Quaker Oats and Chevrolet as sponsors (with few exceptions, the cars seen on-screen during the first two seasons are all Chevrolets). The two sponsors would alternate each week with a "sponsor tag" appearing in the opening credits, these tags were removed when the episodes were shown in syndication and mastered for DVD. The closing credits would also feature a sponsor logo in the bottom left corner, the logos were replaced with a drawing of Samantha in the syndicated/DVD versions. Sorry for the poor picture quality but here is what you would have seen if you tuned in to watch
Bewitched during its first season on ABC:
I've heard/read that conservative religious groups protested against
Bewitched and attempted to get Quaker Oats to withdraw as a sponsor. It's also said that either ABC or Screen Gems issued a press release comparing Samantha to Glinda from
The Wizard of Oz. I've not been able to find any contemporaneous accounts to verify this.
Bewitched airs at 9:00 p.m. Thursday nights after
My Three Sons, it is followed by
Peyton Place in the highest rated block of programming on ABC that season.
Bewitched ends the 1964 - 1965 season as the highest rated show on ABC and the second highest rated show in all of prime-time behind
Gunsmoke in the #1 position. The show is renewed by ABC and Screen Gems quickly moves to capitalize on the show's success via licensing agreements: Ideal Toys produces a Barbie-sized Samantha doll, Milton Bradley produces "Stymie" a
Bewitched card game, Game Gems produces "Bewitched: the Samantha & Endora Game" (a board game, the object of which is to make your way around the board via "witchcraft" and take Darrin to "vacation land"). There are paper dolls, coloring books and a paperback novelization of the series.
Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York lend their voices to animated versions of Samantha and Darrin for an episode of
The Flintstones that will air the following season (on ABC)
. William Asher directs another of his beach movies during Summer hiatus:
How To Stuff A Wild Bikini which features Elizabeth Montgomery in a non-speaking, uncredited cameo as the daughter of a witch-doctor played by Buster Keaton:
