The Bewitched Continuum: An Interview with Author Adam-Michael James

There are episode guides to popular television series--and then there's The Bewitched Continuum. Adam-Michael James' new book contains plot summaries and entertaining trivia about each of the 254 episodes of Bewitched--but James doesn't stop there. He explores the "world" of Bewitched, uncovering intriguing connections and inconsistencies among the episodes. For example, in episode #190, Super Arthur, "Samantha suggests that Uncle Arthur brush up on his driving in case he’s grounded – but forgets that he was already made earthbound on her behalf in Samantha’s Power Failure (#165)." Author James also acts, wrote the book for the musical The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery, and pens a column on The Bold and the Beautiful for soapcentral.com. Amazingly, he still found time to stop by the Cafe to discuss The Bewitched Continuum: The Ultimate Linear Guide to the Classic TV Series.

Café:  You've been a Bewitched fan since age 8. What drew you to the show as a youngster and what continues to attract you as an adult?

Author Adam-Michael James.

Adam-Michael James:  Well, it’s funny--it was 1977; I can remember sitting in the den that afternoon, what it looked like, and what episode I saw [it was “I Confess” (#135)], but not why I was in front of the TV in the first place. All I remember is seeing this lady making a bucket of water appear over a man’s head and dumping it on him. From there, I was hooked. I’m sure as a child it was the people popping in and out and the spells and the sound effects that captured my imagination. I’ve only recently been able to articulate it as an adult: it’s still the magic, but not the fictional kind. I guess I saw extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, and it made me feel like I had a magic of my own, which the show clued me in to. I don’t mean witchcraft magic, but an “I can do anything” kind of magic. I guess it spoke to me and still speaks to me, living in this very rational, practical world of ours that imposes limits on us. Of course, the appeal of the show today is also a certain nostalgia, remembering deep down how the show made me feel as a kid. But that “magic within” message is still there--and, since the show was written for adults, I pick up on many more things from that perspective than I did as a child watching people disappear.

Café:  Watching, documenting, and comparing 254 episodes must have been a massive undertaking. How long did it take you to write The Bewitched Continuum? What were some of your biggest challenges?

Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha.

AMJ:  I tend not to do creative projects unless they’re massive undertakings. (laughs) At least with Bewitched, I already had an intimate knowledge of the show from childhood, so it’s not like I had to discover every episode from scratch. I mean, my Dad showed me how to record the show on cassette by the time I was 10--and how to fix tapes, since I was always coming to him to fix them. So I had that heightened familiarity going in. I would watch an episode, write down anything I observed, and then go back and watch a second time to write the synopsis. Then I split the continuity and story issues into four categories: “Good!”, “Well?”, “Oh, My Stars!” and “Son of a Gun!” which are all pretty self-explanatory and of course catchphrases from the show. Deciding what to include and what to cut had its challenges. I’d say it took me about eight months to do the first draft. Then I did a two-month round of proofreading and editing before taking on Herbie J. Pilato as my editor. Herbie, as you know, started it all in terms of books about the show with The Bewitched Book. The guidance he gave me was more about changing the tone of some of my observations, because in my soap columns I’m free to be snarky, but that wasn’t something that was necessary with this project. And from there, I spent another month or so changing and cutting and moving quotation marks and making sure commas were where they were supposed to be. I would call that the most challenging. The creative process is often glorious, but editing and proofreading can get very laborious and tedious before it becomes liberating.

Café:  You've come up with some fabulous lists, such as all 31 relatives of Tabitha that appear on Bewitched (to include cousins once removed such as Miranda). Which of your lists were the most fun to compile?

AMJ:  I wasn’t even going to do lists at first, but as I was going along there was such a treasure trove of biographical information and trivia, I had to include them. “Square Green Spots and Sick Headaches,” where I chronicle both mortal and witch diseases, was fun because it was fairly simple. But I think “By the Numbers” was fulfilling in addition to being fun. I really was curious to count up how many episodes Samantha *didn’t* use her powers, how many times Larry fired Darrin, how many times Endora called Darrin “Durwood,” and all that. I knew I was going to tackle that list early on, so I wrote its info in the corners of my episode notes to make the counting easier. I double- and triple-counted everything, so it’s accurate to the best of my mortal knowledge. (laughs) I found the character bios, which you mentioned, particularly fascinating as well. They were all taken from random information revealed during the show. I compile bios for characters on soapcentral.com, too, so that’s where I got the idea.

Café:  “Sisters at Heart” (#213) tops your list of the best Bewitched episodes. But what is your personal favorite and why?

A scene from "Sisters at Heart"

AMJ:  My best and worst lists are a pretty accurate reflection of my personal favorites. Of course, that’s not to say my pick for number one worst is a horrible episode; I just felt it didn’t fit the overall tone of the show. Conversely, “Sisters At Heart” (#213) does--it tackles racism and tolerance and acceptance, which was really the central message of Bewitched. Any time a show or a movie or a song can entertain, then educate without hitting me over the head, I’m all for it. Plus, I just can’t resist a Tabitha episode. Another really good episode is “Samantha’s Good News” (#168), which I suspect was intended to be that season’s finale because Samantha reveals she’s pregnant. What’s really cool about that episode is that there’s not a single mortal to be found in it! It’s the first and only time that happened. It was just a neat look into the witch world--which I think, in a lot of ways, is what intrigues fans most about the show.

Café:  Who was the better Darrin:  Dick York or Dick Sargent? You gotta pick one!

Dick York and Dick Sargent.

AMJ:  Ooh, I always get asked this! (laughs) It’s kind of a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t question because no matter which one I pick, the other fan base will be annoyed. To be honest, it’s not a particularly fair question, because Dick Sargent gets such a bum rap for replacing Dick York, when he was just doing his job as an actor, and Dick York had no choice but to give up the role because of his back injury (which he sustained making the 1959 film, They Came to Cordura). I guess given my own personal history, if I really have to pick one, I will say Dick Sargent, but only by a hair. Perhaps I sensed a kindred spirit in him at a young age, and he took over in 1969, which was the year I was born, so his Darrin’s world is more familiar to me. But that’s not to take anything away from Dick York. In fact, doing The Bewitched Continuum made me appreciate what he brought to the role even more. So maybe in the Battle of the Darrins, it would be Dick Sargent, 50.1%, Dick York, 49.9%.

Café:  You mention that many TV series today have "bibles" that serve as a reference document used for information on a series' characters, settings, and plot points. Do you have a tendency now to notice more continuity errors despite the writers' efforts to prevent them?

AMJ:  I think television dramas with continuing storylines always had those bibles; it’s just that they weren’t really necessary for sitcoms when Bewitched was on the air. It’s pretty obvious that today’s sitcoms use them: look at Big Bang Theory and Modern Family. Their episodes are self-contained, but they constantly refer to other episodes and bring back recurring characters and other elements. There’s definitely a forward motion and a sense of things being tied together. Actually, I started noticing continuity errors long before now. My book was largely inspired by Phil Farrand’s The Nitpicker’s Guide for Next Generation Trekkers, which started me on continuity in the first place. And then doing script coverage for Hollywood studios heightened my awareness of continuity, as has dissecting The Bold and the Beautiful in my columns. I’m terrible to go to the movies or watch TV with! I’m always like, “Wait a minute…” (laughs) Though I do realize shows and films have deadlines and scenes get cut, so inevitably things are going to slip through the cracks.

Café:  What do you think about NBC's announcement to produce a Bewitched pilot about Samantha's granddaughter Daphne?

AMJ:  I’d heard about potential reboots for years, where a new Samantha and Darrin would be cast, and I just cringed, because reboots tend to be awful as a general rule. With Bewitched, I always thought a continuation would be better, so I find it encouraging that that’s the direction this pilot is going. The big thing is, they have to bring Bewitched into the 21st century while being true to its roots. That’s why the Tabitha spinoff failed in the ‘70s--that show just threw out the rules set by Bewitched and did its own thing. This continuation will have to find that balance. If they need someone who knows a thing or two about the original series’ continuity, I’m available. (laughs)

Café:  Do you have any plans for future TV- or film-related books?

AMJ:  Well, I’m not thinking too far ahead at the moment, because now that The Bewitched Continuum is out, I have to focus on doing PR for it, which is pretty well a full-time job by itself. Some people say this book is only for hardcore fans, but I hope that new fans will use it as well, to get to know Bewitched better. I only know a few other shows as intimately anyway--Dynasty and V in particular--so writing about another one would be on-the-job training. Besides, I do want to get The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery back on the stage, and there’s more acting and music and videos I want to do. But you never know. I never planned to write The Bewitched Continuum until about two years ago. I think projects pick us, not the other way around. If a similar project picks me, I will be ready for it!

The Bewitched Continuum is available from Amazon and other booksellers.

Twitch Upon a Star: A New Elizabeth Montgomery Biography

There are two kinds of movie star biographies: those featuring startling revelations and those that affectionately portray the lives of their subjects. Herbie J. Pilato's entertaining Elizabeth Montgomery biography Twitch Upon a Star falls into the latter category. Pilato, who has written two previous books about the classic TV sitcom Bewitched, knows he has a highly likable subject in the spunky Montgomery. In addition to creating a beloved, nose-twitching, contemporary witch, she also earned acclaim in some of the highest-rated television movies of the 1970s. It also doesn't hurt that her father was a popular star of Hollywood's Golden Age and her mother a respected Broadway actress.

Pilato describes Elizabeth's relationship with her father, Robert Montgomery, in great detail (he was a staunch Republican, she became a Democrat). Her father supported her acting career, which included attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and appearing frequently in the anthology TV series Robert Montgomery Presents. In contrast, Pilato provides little insight into Elizabeth's relationship with her mother, Elizabeth Bryan Allen, despite the fact that she and Robert Montgomery were married for 22 years.

When Elizabeth Montgomery turned 20, she married Fred Cammann, a Harvard graduate with aspirations of working in the entertainment industry. The union lasted a little over a year, with Pilato asserting that Cammann wanted "an old world wife and Lizzie wanted to be a newfangled actress." A six-year marriage to Gig Young followed, but it was doomed by Young's alcoholism and jealousy--he once accused Elizabeth of sleeping with Elvis while Young and Presley were making Kid Galahad! Prior to and between marriages, Elizabeth Montgomery had other alleged lovers, too, to include Gary Cooper (her film debut was in Cooper's The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell) and Dean Martin (her co-star in Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?).

Montgomery in The Untouchables.

By the early 1960s, Montgomery had developed a reputation as a promising actress, earning kudos for her performance in The Twilight Zone episode "Two" (with Charles Bronson) and receiving an Emmy nomination for playing a prostitute in The Untouchables ("The Rusty Heller Story" episode). She also starred in the 1963 gangster drama Johnny Cool, where she met director William Asher--who became her third husband.

Shortly after their wedding, Asher and Montgomery approached 20th Century-Fox producer William Dozier (Batman) with an idea for a series called Couple. However, Dozier steered them toward a new series already in development about a witch who marries a mortal. Thus, Bewitched was born.

With co-star and friend Dick Sargent.

Pilato's work on his previous Bewitched books shows in his entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the classic sitcom. Among the highlights for Bewitched fans:  Dick Sargent and Richard Crenna were considered for the role of Darrin before Dick York was cast; York was "smitten" with Montgomery; Agnes Moorehead and Montgomery overcame personal friction between each other to forge a professional relationship; Paul Lynde adored Montgomery, but displayed a "different attitude" when she portrayed Samantha's mischievous lookalike cousin Serena; and, though Montgomery had praise for both of her leading men, she became good friends with Dick Sargent. After Sargent revealed he was gay in 1991, Montgomery served as co-Grand Marshal with him for the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade.

After eight seasons of Bewitched, Elizabeth Montgomery decided to end the series although ABC tried to convince her otherwise. Pilato quotes television executive Peter Ackerman, who noted that "with it (the cancellation of Bewitched), more to the point, because of it, Bill and Liz ended their marriage." The couple had three children by then.

Playing accused murderer Lizzie Borden.

Elizabeth Montgomery's post-Bewitched acting career included Emmy nominations for two made-for TV movies: the potent drama A Case of Rape (1974) and the fact-based The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975). On another television movie, Mrs. Sundance, Montgomery met actor Robert Foxworth, who became her partner and eventual husband until her death in 1995 from colon cancer. (Pilato also relates the story of Montgomery and Emma, the Labrador Retriever, who starred together in my favorite of her made-for-TV movies, Second Sight: A Love Story.)

Author Herbie J. Pilato's sources include new interviews with Montgomery's friends (e.g., Cliff Robertson, Sally Kemp), magazine articles, TV interview transcripts,  interviews conducted with his subject, and unused materials from his Bewitched books. He lists Montgomery's complete professional credits and includes an index and a nice selection of photographs.

Pilato's claims may occasionally be exaggerated (it's a stretch to call I Married a Witch "one of the best English-language motion pictures of its time"). On one page, he labels Montogomery's Twilight Zone performance as her best pre-Bewitched work. Elsewhere, he bestows that honor on her guest stint in The Untouchables. He also italicizes the proper names of all fictional characters, a small editing quirk perhaps, but one that becomes annoying.

Still, Twitch Upon a Star is an engrossing look at a strong-willed actress whose career spanned five decades. It will satisfy Elizabeth Montgomery's fans, as well as Bewitched buffs interested in learning more about that series' leading lady--and even how the famous twitch was "invented."

The Classic Film & TV Cafe received a review copy of this book.