Twitch Upon a Star (47 page)

In 1989, Lizzie remarked just how much she enjoyed her frequent
Password
game play-on-words with Burnett: “Oh, we were terrific, weren't we? In print I know that sounds terrible, but we were! Carol is just a super wonderful lady, and I really appreciated the fact that we did become friends.”

However, post-
Password
, their bond somewhat loosened. Lizzie explained:

Despite her close friendship with Carol, and extensive comedy experience, Lizzie continuously rejected invitations to guest-star on
The Carol Burnett Show
(CBS, 1967–1978). As she went on to say:

While promoting her singing performance as
Serena
in the
Bewitched
episode, “
Serena
Stops the Show,” Lizzie addressed her TV variety show conundrum with
The Los Angeles Herald Examiner
for the article, “Liz Montgomery Makes Night Club Debut, but on TV,” published February 9, 1970. “I've always thought of some big Miami Beach or Vegas hotel for my singing engagement,” she mused. “I'd have settled for Joe's Bistro in Toluca Lake.”

At the time, she had been asked to create a nightclub act and was offered a TV special of her own in which she was to sing and dance, but ultimately nothing came of the idea. “To me,” she said, “a nightclub appearance or a special would involve more rehearsal time than I can afford. And I wouldn't want to go out and fall flat on my face because I hadn't prepared sufficiently.”

Instead, she decided to utilize her harmonic vocal chords in a more controlled atmosphere … on the set of
Bewitched
, in character as
Serena
, singing “Blow You a Kiss in the Wind,” by 1960s pop stars Boyce and Hart (who were under contract to Columbia and made a guest appearance in the episode). Her performance was a one-shot segment in a half-hour sitcom as opposed to the hour-long continuous song-and-dance routine that would be required in a variety show format.

“Who could resist that? It was like having your cake, et cetera, et cetera,” she joked about the
Serena
segment that ultimately became a choreographed production number with psychedelic lighting which transformed
Samantha
and
Darrin's
living room into a nightclub.

It all proved so puzzling, if consistent with her unpredictable spirit. She'd sing as
Serena
on short
Bewitched
segments, but was reticent about appearing on the
Burnett
show; and come March 19, 1966, things became more confusing.

That's when she hosted
The Hollywood Palace
, which featured frequent
Bewitched
guest-star Paul Lynde with whom she got along famously. She enjoyed Carol's company, too, but Lynde's presence on
Palace
may have proved more comfortable because: 1) He was hand-picked from Lizzie's
Bewitched
stable, and 2)
Palace
aired on ABC,
Samantha's
home network, whereas
Burnett
aired on rival CBS. Also, her
Palace
spotlight as host allowed for more creative control as opposed to only being a guest on
Burnett
.

After her early appearances with Carol on
Password
, Lizzie became less enthusiastic about the game after it changed formats. The original show debuted on CBS with host Allen Ludden in 1961 and ran until 1967. ABC brought it back with Ludden from 1971 to 1975, during which it briefly became the celebrity-drenched
Password All-Stars
. NBC did an update in 1979 with a new edition called
Password Plus
, which also ran with Ludden though only until 1981 when failing health (stomach cancer) forced him to relinquish his hosting duties. NBC tried once more in 1984 with
Super Password
, now hosted by Bert Convy, and this new format ran until 1989.

Lizzie's final
Password
appearance was with actor Wesley Eure (
Land of the Lost
, NBC/CBS, 1974–1977) within the
Plus
format, hosted by Ludden, airing August 3, 1979. But throughout each of the editions, as bonus rounds were added along with elaborate sets, the once simple and popular word game became overly puzzling or, as she said in 1989, “It all just got kind of convoluted. It was so pure the other way, when it was what it was.”

During one of those pure
Password
games, specifically, the week of November 19–23, 1973, she appeared with Robert Foxworth, whom she met and fell in love with on the set of the ABC TV-movie
Mrs. Sundance
(which aired in 1974 but filmed in September 1973). Although they later played
Password
within the 1979
Plus
format, it was their 1973 session that proved most advantageous. “When Bob and I did the show that year,” she recalled in 1989, “we raised $11,000 for the L.A. Free Clinic, and no one would play with us anymore because we just got so good at it. I guess when you're together a lot you kind of think on the same level.”

She and Foxworth were together a great deal. He contributed to her comfort zone when they appeared at charity events or on talk shows like John Tesh's
One on One
. It was to Tesh she explained her attraction to Foxworth (who most recently provided the voice of
Ratchet
in the
Transformer
feature films): “He's got one of the most wonderfully inquisitive minds … of anybody I've ever met. And he's compassionate. He cares about things. He also cares a great deal about his career. He's got a wonderful sense of humor.”

Before and after his best known role as
Chase Gioberti
on
Falcon Crest
(CBS, 1981–1990), Robert Foxworth had numerous screen and stage performances, including his television debut in the 1969
CBS Playhouse
drama,
Sad-bird
. After starring in
The Storefront Lawyers
(aka
Men at Law
), a 1970–1971 series for CBS, he appeared opposite Faye Dunaway in “Hogan's Goat” (NET Playhouse, 1971).

Besides his appearances with Lizzie, his TV films included but were not limited to:
The Devil's Daughter
(ABC, 1973);
The FBI versus Alvin Karpis
(CBS, 1974);
Act of Love
(CBS, 1980);
Peter and Paul
(CBS, 1981);
The Memory of Eva Ryker
(CBS, 1980); and
The Questor Tapes
(NBC, 1974). The latter project, also known as just
Questor
, was written by
Star Trek
legend and Lizzie-favorite Gene Roddenberry.

Intended as NBC's answer to ABC's super popular superhero series
The Six Million Dollar Man
(1974–1979),
Questor
was a slightly more imaginative tale than Lee Major's earthbound bionic cyborg
Col. Steve Austin
. Fox-worth's
Questor
was an all-robotic philosophical character in search of his alien creator. He was
The Fugitive
meets
Kung Fu
on the way to Brent Spiner's
Data
from Roddenbery's
Star Trek: The Next Generation
(syndicated, 1987–1994). As it turned out, Bob later appeared in more shows from the Roddenberry/
Trek
sector, including
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
in 1996 and
Star Trek: Enterprise
in 2004. In fact, Foxworth, like Lizzie, has become a legend in the sci-fi/fantasy world with additional guest-star spots on shows like:
The Sixth Sense
(ABC, 1972); “Frankenstein” (ABC's
Wide World Mystery
, 1973);
Tales of the Unexpected
(1977);
The Outer Limits
(syndicated, 1996);
Stargate: SG-1
(syndicated, 2003); and feature films such as
Beyond the Stars
(1989).

Besides lending his voice to
Ratchet
in all three
Transformer
movies (2007, 2009, 2011), he provided various vocal talents to animated TV shows like
Justice League
, as
Professor Neil Hamilton
(Cartoon Network, 2004–2005) and
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
, playing
Race Bannon
(Cartoon Network, 1996–1997). His countless live guest-star appearances date back to small screen classics like
Kung Fu
(ABC, 1974),
The Mod Squad
(ABC, 1971),
Mannix
(CBS, 1971),
Law & Order: SVU
(NBC, 2000–2005), and
The West Wing
(NBC, 2005), the latter in which he portrayed
Senator George Montgomery
(which was a nod to Lizzie's family name, as well as to the actor the public periodically misidentified as her father, George Montgomery, who was once married to Dinah Shore). Other of his theatrical film credits include
Airport ‘77
(1977),
Damien: Omen II
(1978),
Prophecy
(1979), and
The Black Marble
(1980), and more.

His stage performances include the role of
John Proctor
in
The Crucible
at Lincoln Center, for which he won a Theatre World Award; Off-Broadway productions of
Terra Nova, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
, and
Mary Stuart
in Los Angeles, and
Long Day's Journey into Night
at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre. In three seasons at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., he appeared in twenty productions ranging from
The Skin of Our Teeth
to
Room Service
. He made his name in
Henry V
following work at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut.

Unlike the older Gig Young and Bill Asher, and her first husband Fred Cammann (who was only four years her senior), Foxworth was the only younger man she married. Her penchant for all things
Trek
and sci-fi/fantasy may have contributed to her initial attraction to Foxworth, but the actor's diverse talents and varied charms assuredly contributed to his appeal.

In 1992, he expressed his attraction to Lizzie on
One on One with John Tesh
, and noted her ability to see the funny side of life as one of her most appealing traits (as did she of him on the same show): “I would describe her as perhaps the most intelligent woman I've ever met. And one of the things that makes that bearable is that she has a fabulous sense of humor, besides the fact that she's beautiful and sexy.”

Lizzie and Bob Foxworth performed together live on stage in a short-lived production of
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
at the Bell Theatre, Los Angeles, 1978. In the fall of 1989, they were together again on stage, in the play
Love Letters
at the Edison Theatre in Broadway. Only a few months before,
Bewitched
actor David White visited with Lizzie at her home in Beverly Hills, and suggested that she and Foxworth return to the stage.

“Why don't you and Bob do a play? You've done stage work before. Don't you like it?”

“Yeah.”

“Here I am messing in her business.”

“Oh, you could mess in my business. I don't mind.”