Thirty years before Will & Grace opened up the floodgates for sitcoms centered around gay characters and a decade before Billy Crystal’s groundbreaking supporting work as a gay man on Soap, LGBT viewers eager for representation looked for coded versions of themselves on television. Few series offered more than the sparkly supernatural comedy Bewitched, which ran from 1964-1972 and starred Elizabeth Montgomery as a gorgeous witch married to mortal Darren (Dick York, later Dick Sargent) and mother of Tabitha and Adam, who subjugates her magic powers to pass as mortal. It wasn’t much of a challenge for queer viewers during the turbulent civil rights era to interpret the hit series as a metaphor for living in the closet. Another reason for the show’s popularity was surely its colorful cast of supporting characters such as Samantha’s flamboyant mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead), outrageous Uncle Arthur (gay actor Paul Lynde) and mischievous cousin Serena (Montgomery in a black wig). Author Adam-Michael James spent eight months watching all 254 episodes back to back and making copious notes for his recently-published The Bewitched Continuum: The Ultimate Linear Guide to the Classic TV Series. At nearly 700 pages, it’s an indispensable, entertaining read for both longtime fans and newcomers to the series. James chatted with Queerty about the book, how the series was ahead of its time and Elizabeth Montgomery’s commitment to equality.
Queerty: It’s easy to see Bewitched as a metaphor for repressed people not allowed to be who they really are. Is there also a deeper hidden gay subtext in the series?
Adam-Michael James: This was a show that was dealing with a mixed marriage between a witch and a mortal and different cultures. The main witch had to repress and conceal her powers from the world so there was definitely some of that in there. Elizabeth Montgomery was certainly pro-gay and we’re talking about a show that was out at the height of the original civil rights movement and on through the hippie counter-culture and free love era of the early ‘70s. I think there was definitely a message in there, not only for gay people but for everyone.
It’s a series that still feels smart and sophisticated to modern viewers. What’s responsible for the continued appeal?
Part of it is the magic. People like to see that. Also the show was so intelligently written and sophisticated. It spoke to not only things that were going on at the time but also universal messages about tolerance and acceptance. Samantha, for being a witch, is so human in that she conveys human emotions. I think that’s why people connect to her. She’s the flashpoint for the whole thing.
Which is your favorite or the most representative episode?
My favorite is “Sisters at Heart” during season seven. Tabitha had an African-American friend Lisa and they wanted to be sisters so much that Tabatha accidentally turned them polka dots in an effort to unite them. Samantha was very clear that all men are brothers even if they’re girls. There was another plot within that episode in which Darren had a bigoted client who thought Darren was married to a black woman so he pulled his account. Samantha fixes it so that when the client looks in the mirror he see himself as black. This was in 1971 so it was pretty renegade. It was also so well-written. I think the overall message of the series was tolerance and acceptance, but it was so clearly defiant in that episode that it makes the top of my list.
That was a clever way to introduce civil rights to young kids.
Exactly. You watch it as a child and pick up on some things, but as an adult you get a whole other layer. You certainly get a good example that everyone should be free to live as they want as long as they’re not hurting anybody.
And for some it was likely their first exposure to such a character as Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur, who must have read very gay even then.
He had so much fun doing it. It’s amazing that Uncle Arthur was only in about 10 episodes but he made such an impression that when someone says, “Bewitched,” Uncle Arthur is one of the first characters you think of. There were certainly episodes with Uncle Arthur when he wasn’t hiding anything. Things got a little campy toward the end.
Dick Sergeant who famously replaced Dick York as Darren was gay and eventually came out in 1991. It’s interesting that even though he was closeted publicly for much of his career, casting him as a straight leading man in a hit series back then didn’t concern the producers.
As I understand it, Elizabeth Montgomery and her husband William Asher (the producer) knew and they didn’t care. I don’t know why they would. it was their own acceptance in their personal life that led to the message on the show. Obviously it was a different era where you didn’t make these things public but I certainly don’t think it was a problem.
Elizabeth Montgomery was a longtime friend to the LGBT community and even served with Dick Sargent as pride marshals during the parade in West Hollywood in 1992. Why do you think this was something she was passionate about?
She just accepted everybody. As I understand it she grew up in a rather politically conservative family. Her father was the actor Robert Montgomery who was a staunch Republican, but I guess she decided she had her own ideas about life and went in the other direction. She was for everybody — the gay and lesbian community, African-Americans, animals… Her heart was open to everybody and I think that’s what made her such a relatable actress.
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onthemark
Sounds like an interesting book. Now that I think of it, almost every place I’ve lived as a gay adult I’ve had a super-nosy neighbor like Mrs. Kravitz – plus sometimes a pompous unimaginative boss like Larry Tate – and it can be a lot of fun to shock them!
“Bewitched” has more than a dab of patriarchy in it, since Darren has decreed that Samantha’s powers must remain “closeted” and that he will never take advantage of them. But that’s very 1964 I guess and evolved over time (+ from Darren #1 to Darren #2). Personally I always wondered why Darren didn’t just go with the flow, since he was always being turned into a horse or a cat or something anyway.
onthemark
… no it was Mrs. Kravitz who was turned into a cat, before someone calls me on that! – haven’t seen the show in a long time.
Stache99
Gay guys identify with these kind of shows with strong women and having to keep the better part of themselves hidden. I know that I did way before I knew of my sexuality.
Yeah, my favorite character was Uncle Arthur. Gay as a pink flamingo even then.
Stache99
@onthemark: Me and my brother used to say the same thing. Darren was a complete dumbass for getting all upset and not taking advantage of her magic. Of coarse that’s where the comedy comes in.
I still use the Mrs. Kravitz line to describe nosy people. Sometimes I just get a blank stare. It is a bit dated but it’s the best comparison description.
Matt
I’ve seen almost all of the episodes. Great show! TV today is lacking so much creativity that was going on in the 60’s.
AxelDC
Bewitched was my favorite show growing up. Before I could tell time, I knew when Bewitched was on in syndication by the hands on the clock. As an adult, the plots are silly and contrived, and Darrin and his family are bigots, but who could not love Samantha and her family?
Marvellis1
I loved Aunt Clara who was played by Marion Lorne. Her babbling forgetulness was delightful. She botched every spell and got all the laughs. She was awarded an emmy for best supporting actress in 1968. She was a hoot!
Professor Fate
Sorry Adam-Michael, but this is old news. It was discussed in a fantastic book called Growing Up Gay, back in 1995.
dvlaries
Absolutely the show was a disguised argument for gay acceptance.
Samantha was a character who had to hide her real self to navigate a life and relationship that she wanted. She also had to deal with repugnant preconceptions and stereotypes about witches that she shattered in each and every episode. How could any budding young gay person resist it?
While Endora may have a pill of a mother-in-law even as a mortal, the show also proved that not all witches were the same. They get elderly and infirm like darling Aunt Clara, and young ones like Tabitha have be to cautioned about displaying their witchcraft because “we’re living in a world that doesn’t understand our kind.”
The gay subtext was always strongly there, luckily in a superbly rendered sitcom that still rewards to this day.
dvlaries
@Marvellis1:
Not only that, but Clara was the one witch relative who truly loved Darren and was always on his side as well as her niece’s. I think it must have irked Dick York when he was asked to play even mild impatience with Clara, because she was so beloved a character.
While her spells typically backfired, Clara is the only relative of Samantha’s whose magic is never used to hurt or humiliate her niece’s husband. Marion Lorne died mid-way through the fourth season, and even though the show found it could replace a Gladys Kravitz, a Louise Tate and even a Darren, it seemed to sadly realize the shoes of Lorne were too distinct for anyone else to step in.
Wilberforce
I’m not interested in all this deeper meaning jazz.
Bewitched was fantastic, with a ton of great characters. Montgomery’s beauty, Endora’s class and bitchiness, Uncle Arthur, Maurice, Sabrina, and especially Clara. They’re all classic.
Heretik
I loved, love and will always love this show. I wanted a Grandmama like Endora and a crazy fun Uncle Arthur. I wouldn’t trade my actual grandmother for anything, but would have taken Endora in addition.
jantheman4903
would have been wonderful to see the roles she did had she lived. she was both accepting of her as “bewitched” and starting to move past it. TOTALLY fucked me up as a preteen to see her as lizzie borden haha.
ChgoReason
Was Bewitched The Most Progressive Gay Series Of Its Time? Of its time? Probably. I mean, what was their competition like for the title? In terms of overall advancement of the gay movement’s acceptance as actual people to regular folk. I believe “Roseanne” helped the cause more than anyone gives it credit for.
jason smeds
I loved this show, and still do. I have DVD’s. It’s hard to believe the first season was made 50 years ago. Elizabeth Montgomery was a gorgeous, open-hearted woman who is missed dearly. She was one of the genuine supporters of the gay community, and not a fake like so many of today.
The first Gladys Kravitz was hilarious. She was played by Alice Pearce. She played it more subtly than the second Gladys Kravitz as played by Sandra Gould. Both were such fun characters.
Such a well-written show that has stood the test of time.
vive
The show was camp, but that doesn’t mean it had anything to do with being gay, except in some viewers’ minds. But almost anything can be taken as a metaphor for almost anything else in a viewer’s mind; that’s the kind if hocus-pocus humanities departments across the country run on.
Desert Boy
Endora was a hot drag queen. Her gowns and her attitude toward Durwood, I mean Darren was a scream. Uncle Arthur was a mess. So funny. ‘Bewitched’ was one of the funniest of the 60’s TV comedies.
Desert Boy
@jason smeds: Alice Pearce was brilliant.
onthemark
@vive: That’s quite a dismissive comment, considering you are a college teacher (!!!). May I ask what subject you teach, or is it better that we not know? 🙂
Stache99
It’s amazing that all the characters on Bewitched are all long since dead. Yeah, I know it’s been a long time but the writing and characters were so good that they would fit into today’s programming. I think shows like American Horror Story are very similar and that’s why they’re so popular.
I get the same feeling watching shows like the Golden Girls too. It still makes me laugh and amazing to think most of them are gone too. Betty White is still hanging in there at least. May they all RIP in Shady Pines in the sky.
Stache99
@Pete:I want to add the Munsters to the Addams Family too. The normally beautiful daughter was considered to be ugly one in her family. Plus, how they dealt being outsiders in their community. I think there was something to be said about that too.
Alan down in Florida
I think that if we claim Bewitched as a gay show we have to fully share Bewitched with each and other minority group.
When I watched it as a child who didn’t have a clue that something called homosexuality existed much less what that entailed, I loved Bewitched because it was a wish fulfillment fantasy. How I longed to be able to wriggle my nose like Samantha and change things I didn’t like, or get the things I wanted and go off on wonderful adventures. To this day at 61 I wish I had that power.
Stache99
@Alan down in Florida: Speaking of super powers mine was wonder women played by linda carter. How many time did I do the whirl whirl spin for my friends pretending I was her. Damn. Anyone with a clue knew I was a little fag in training.
Pete
The most ground-breaking (and arguably ‘gay’) show of the 60s was The Addams Family. Actually, I take that back: “Green Acres”! Seriously, how many budding drag Queens drew their first inspiration from Eva Gabor’s negligees? “Oleeever!”
The most subversive was by far “The Beverly Hillbillies”, the Clampetts being crypto-blacks.
Desert Boy
Funny about ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’. Elle May Clampett still dresses like she’s ready to film a scene with Granny. The poor thing doesn’t understand it was 45 years ago.
TomMc
To this day, one of my favourite expressions is, still, “Oh My Stars!”
Cam
If you watch the old reruns one thing you notice in the series, was that he could be as mean and nasty to her mother as he wanted, but she was expected to be very nice and understanding of his.
The whole show seems geared to point out inequalities from every area possible. She was smart with hundreds of years of knowledge but was expected to stay home and not participate, he could mistreat her relatives she had to cowtow to his, she had to hide her talents while pretending that his were so outstanding. Anything relating to her family had to be hidden in their children.
The weird message seemed to be from the husbands side “Sure I love you honey, I just hate everything about you.”
Pistolo
Well, empowered women and gay men are often relegated to living with a level of restraint imposed on them by society. If you’re perceived as at all classically feminine then you are, by stigmatization of society, only meant to be seen as meek or tormented or dispensable. That is the plight of gay men and empowered women, even if you can alter reality you still have to present as being non-threatening and everything everyone expects you to be. But Samantha sucked at being insincere like that which made her a lovable character.
greyhound1954
I watched this show as a kid every week during its run on ABC. Bewitched was a good comedy, but I’d stop short of calling it well-written and sophisticated. The shtick that delighted me as a child seems tacky to me now. There’s no denying the talent of Agnes Moorehead and Paul Lynde, though, and Elizabeth Montgomery was a handsome witch.
Adam-Michael James
Hello, everyone! I’m so thrilled that my “little” book about the continuity of “Bewitched” (OK, at 630 pages, it’s the freakin’ “Bewitched” phone book) has sparked off this magical discussion! Especially since the book’s focus is the fictional aspect of the show. I don’t address the LGBT connection in it per se, but I’m glad we’re doing it here, and no examination of “Bewitched” would be complete without mentioning the show’s overall messages of acceptance and tolerance. That’s just how Elizabeth Montgomery and Bill Asher rolled. 🙂
@onthemark: Actually, it was Darrin’s mother who was turned into a cat! There’s a whole section at the end of the book that goes into who got turned into what, who contracted which witch disease, how many times Endora called Darrin “Durwood,” etc.
@Professor Fate: True, other books addressed the show’s LGBT angle long ago. And there are so many wonderful behind-the-scenes books already out there. That’s why I tackled the show’s fictional aspects – which have always been my favourite part anyway. 😀
@jantheman4903: When I saw “Lizzie Borden”, I was 14, and it freaked me out , too!
@greyhound1954: I guess it’s all relative – goodness knows “Bewitched” got campier as it went along, but I still find it intelligent compared to some of the other beloved ’60s/’70s shows out there. (“Gilligan’s Island”, anyone? 😀 )
Thank you to Queerty and to all of you for supporting my magical efforts. Most of all, I think “Bewitched” speaks to the magic in all of us, no matter who you are. <3
(And the book is available through Amazon at amzn.to/1yVVQcN, or CreateSpace at createspace.com/4964268. We now return you to your regularly scheduled comments, on most of these ABC stations!)
Thad1527
Adam-Michael, welcome to our little corner of web madness! Thanks for posting.
Now I have to read your book, since I loved Herbie J. Pilato’s “Twitch Upon A Star.” Elizabeth Montgomery was someone special, for sure.
TuSaisQui
You should check out the song “Sam and Me” from “When Pigs Fly”, where the similarities between gay life in the suburbs and Bewitched are shown.
Adam-Michael James
Hello again, Queerties! I thought you guys might like to see the commercial that just came out for THE BEWITCHED CONTINUUM. It’s part Darrin, part Samantha, and all fun! Thanks for the support and hope everyone’s having a magical 2015 so far! http://youtu.be/mmUMHXJAYMc!
abnerb
@TomMc: & another expression Samantha used was well! Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery (1933-1995) also did 1 Flintstone cartoon titled Samantha where she voices Samantha Stephens. There are 3 Bewitched episodes where Samantha flies on a broom and they are again the 3 Christmas episodes of Sugar Plums Vision (both) and Humbug not Spoken. In 1 of the Bewitched episodes, they explain that the broom is obsolete for flying. I like comparing Bewitched to I dream of Jeannie episodes. Here are some.
1. Napoleon guest starred in 1 Bewitched episode & in 1 I dream of Jeannie episode.
2. In 1 Bewitched episode, Darrin is turned small by Endora and has to worry about a dog. In 1 I dream of Jeannie episode, Major Nelson is turned small & has to worry about cat-my incredible shrinking master.
3. In a Bewitched episode called I confess, Darrin wants to confess that Samantha is a witch & Samantha gives Darrin a dream of what can happen. In an I dream of Jeannie episode titled Hurricane Jeannie, Dr. Bellows finding out about Jeannie being a genie.
4. In Bewitched episode house that Uncle Arthur built deals with an invisible house. There are 2 I dream of Jeannie episodes with invisible house.
5. In a Bewitched episode, Darrin knocks out a boxer with Samantha’s help. In an I dream of Jeannie episode, Major Nelson takes part in boxing match with Jeannie’s help.
There are many other eg. such as people being turned to chimpanzees, elephant in house, etc. which can be found in both Bewitched and I dream of Jeannie episodes.