‘Bewitched’ Incorporated 2 of Elizabeth Montgomery’s Real-Life Pregnancies
Bewitched is a beloved TV sitcom that premiered on ABC in 1964 and ran until March 1972 when the show was canceled. Elizabeth Montgomery played Samantha, a witch who married a mortal man, Darrin (played first by Dick York, then by Dick Sargent). The couple has to face the normal ups and downs of marriage while also dealing with Samantha’s special powers and her eccentric parents.
Even the production had to face some of the real-life issues of marriage, such as Montgomery and her husband William Asher having three children during the show’s run. For the first, the show decided to hide the pregnancy, but Montgomery’s other two pregnancies were incorporated into Samantha and Darrin’s story.
Two of Montgomery’s real-life pregnancies were incorporated into the show
Montgomery was pregnant with all three of her children while working on Bewitched, but only two of her pregnancies were written into the show. According to Mental Floss, the first pregnancy was hidden from the television audience. Montgomery was dressed in loose-fitting clothing to hide her expanding belly.
When it came to Montgomery’s second pregnancy, the producers of the show decided it was time for Samantha and Darrin to have a child, which became Tabitha. In 1969, when Montgomery was pregnant for a third time with her daughter, Samantha and Darrin had a son, Adam.
Montgomery’s children also worked in Hollywood
Montgomery and Asher are not the only ones in the family who have had roles in Hollywood. All three of their children have also worked in Hollywood, mostly in behind-the-scenes roles. William Asher, Jr. is the oldest of the three children and had a career working as a production manager, writer, and behind-the-scenes crew throughout the 1980s.
Robert Asher works as a screenwriter and producer. Some of the projects he has worked on include Room Crashers, Kitchen Crashers, and BattleBots. Rebecca, the youngest of Montgomery’s three children, is a director and script supervisor who is known for work on Knocked Up, Donnie Darko, and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Other television series that hid or incorporated an actor’s pregnancy
Television producers only have two choices when it comes to a series regular becoming pregnant in real life—they can write it into the show and have their character pregnant as well, or they can do their best to try and hide the pregnancy. There are plenty of examples of both choices.
When it comes to hiding a pregnancy on television, producers use all kinds of tricks to hide a growing belly. Baggy clothes are essential, but shows have also used things for actors to carry, such as briefcases and baskets. According to ScreenRant, there were quite a few public and private pregnancy moments on television.
In New Girl, the producers got inventive with the story when Zooey Deschanel was pregnant. First, Jess was in bed with multiple broken bones from a fall. After that, the story moved to her having to be sequestered for jury duty which let the character have an excuse to go missing for multiple episodes.
Another pregnancy coverup came on the show Mad Men when January Jones was pregnant. Instead of giving Betty a new baby with her new husband, they instead had the character gain a ton of weight, making Jones wear a fat suit to hide her baby bump.
With pregnancies that aren’t hidden, shows have to adapt the story to fit the character. On Friends, for instance, instead of having Phoebe pregnant when Lisa Kudrow was pregnant with her son, they had Phoebe serve as a surrogate for her brother’s triplets. And on Bones, Emily Deschanel’s pregnancies were written into the show as Bones and Booth’s romance blossomed and their family expanded.
