Twitch Upon a Star (65 page)

Former TV actor and present day Episcopalian priest Peter Ackerman is a happy anomaly with a unique perspective on Lizzie's persona, spiritual and otherwise. As the son of Screen Gems head and
Bewitched
executive producer Harry Ackerman and
Father Knows Best
actress, Elinor Donahue, Peter started acting on shows like
The New Gidget
, the 1980s syndicated reboot of his father's 1960s ABC/Sally Field sitcom (a few episodes of which were directed by Bill Asher). After a time, however, he became disinterested with acting on-screen (as did Lizzie, at least for a while), mostly because he found it more challenging to create and sustain a character on the stage. So after Peter married in the late 1980s, he began working in production for TV commercials, music videos, and in various other such capacities. This new career path culminated with him serving as a producer's assistant on the second and third seasons of TV's mega-hit,
Friends
(NBC, 1994–2004).

With
Friends
, Peter was happy at home (with his wife and now two children), but his vocational life was lacking. He subsequently embarked on a spiritual journey that lead him back to the Episcopal Church he grew up in, “where priests can be married and women.” After an especially difficult day on the set of
Friends
, he made a dramatic and desperate plea to God: “I know I will like whatever You have in store. I am ready to do it. Just show me what YOU want. I am tired of trying to figure it out on my own.”

So, today, he's not only an Episcopalian priest, but a married Episcopalian priest with a family; while in the 1960s, for him:

Quite young at the time, Peter did not have a sense of Lizzie's eminent heritage, but he was always impressed by her unaffected disposition. It was a trait he says she shared with her brother Skip, with whom one day, Peter, his father, Lizzie and others had shared a limo, “probably all going to a Rams game,” he says. As Peter recalls, Skip “was a relatively quiet, thoughtful, and serious man, but not aloof or anything. To me, a kid, he was just a guy.”

Peter has a theory as to how the Montgomery siblings absorbed the same approachable demeanor:

Former child star and
Bewitched
guest actor Eric Scott has a contrasting take on Lizzie's affability. Best known as
Ben Walton
on
The Waltons
(CBS's long-running and critically acclaimed family series; 1972–1981), Eric appeared on the
Samantha
episode, “Out of the Mouths of Babes,” which aired in 1971. This was right around the same time he was cast in the CBS TV-movie
The Homecoming,
which ultimately was the backdoor
Waltons
pilot that led to his weekly stint as
Ben
. In “Babe,” on
Bewitched
, he played
Herbie
, a basketball-loving neighborhood boy who befriends a shrunken and pre-teen
Darrin
who is made so by one of
Endora's
manipulative spells. Eric had several scenes with Lizzie in this episode, and remembers her fine balance of humility and sophistication on the set:

Like Lizzie, Eric retained a strong sense of normalcy amidst the glitter of Hollywood. After
The Waltons
ended its original CBS run in 1979 (only to return as various CBS and NBC TV reunion movies until 1997), acting roles were few and far between. Forced to explore alternative sources of income, he began work for Chase Messenger Service in Los Angeles. Today, some forty years after his first scenes as
Ben Walton
and
Herbie
on
Bewitched
, he is now the proprietor of Chase, and acts periodically. He found TV stardom as a child and business success as an adult, while remaining cordial and unassuming in every decade—a demeanor he credits to his parents, who raised him within a solid moral structure. His family was not wealthy like the Montgomerys, and his mother (who served as his manager) and father (a hairstylist) struggled to make ends meet. But ultimately, the Scott brood triumphed, most assuredly because they worked as a team. He knows why he survived Hollywood unscathed, but is amazed as to how Lizzie managed so well to retain her firm grip on priorities.

Jeremy also plays baseball and basketball, just like Eric's character
Herbie
did on
Bewitched
. “It's funny,” Eric goes on to say, “Jeremy has been in baseball for the last two years, and our family became close friends with the coach's family. And I had recently attended a
Waltons
reunion in Virginia, so my wife Cindy explained to the coach's wife that we'd be out of town for a while for the reunion. And they were like, ‘Why?'”

“Because,” Mrs. Scott replied, “Eric was on the show,” a fact about which the coach's wife had not a clue. Since that time, and upon learning of Eric's childhood fame, other parents of kids on the team have approached him in awe and said, “I just heard.”

“I live in a small town and the word got out,” he says with a laugh. “And the recognition is actually very sweet, but I would never want my kids to live in that shadow. So, I don't know how Elizabeth's parents did it … how she grew up so well … without being in
that
shadow … or even if that shadow was attainable.”

Twenty-three

“I remember telling everybody that I was her best friend. But then I realized that everybody in the theatre, and there were hundreds of people there, could probably say the same thing. She made you feel important.”

—Liz Sheridan, reflecting on Elizabeth's memorial service, MSNBC's
Headliners & Legends
(2001)

From the moment she graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, at only twenty-one, Lizzie was working, non-stop, so much so she lost her diploma at an NBC rehearsal hall the day after she received it. Such a loss, however, did not diminish her ambition or her career. As detailed elsewhere within these pages, Elizabeth went on to make over 200 guest-appearances on various TV shows of the era, and then came
Samantha
.

Beyond
Bewitched
, Lizzie never again played a regular character in a weekly series. She had
been there, done that
with the twitch-witch for eight years, which she viewed as a college extension course in entertainment and adult education. She was tired of the grind, plain and simple. She wanted to have a life, to live the scripts of life, rather than star in one every week.

After she stayed the course as
Sam
, she wanted to spend more time with her children, and still be able work periodically, which she did with her various TV-movies. Today, actors can star on weekly shows, make TV-movies, feature films, even appear in live stage plays. In Lizzie's day, there were contract confinements and it wasn't as easy to cross over and/or in between different media. Today, with the blur of television, features, DVD, movies on demand, streaming videos, YouTube, new online networks, it's a different world.

Upon completing
Bewitched
, Lizzie was many times approached about starring in a new weekly series. But she kept rejecting them, along with a few TV-movies she felt were not the right fit.

In 1976, George Schaefer directed the television film,
Amelia Earhart
, about the famed female pilot. Lizzie was offered the lead, but turned it down, and the part went to Susan Clark.

In 1979, CBS wanted to transform Lizzie's hit TV-movie,
Jennifer: A Woman's Story
, about a wealthy widow who takes over her husband's company, into a series. But she declined the offer.

In 1981, ABC approached her about playing
Krystle Carrington
on
Dynasty
. She said no, and the role went to Linda Evans, whose career was rejuvenated because she said yes. Evans had not been seen on TV in any regular capacity since her
Big Valley
days (1965–1969) on ABC. Before that, she appeared in
Beach Blanket Bingo
, directed by William Asher. Two decades later, she ended up playing
Krystle
until 1989. That could have been Lizzie, but for her, a nighttime soap was unappealing.

And as previously mentioned, in 1986, Elizabeth even deflected a chance to work alongside Bob Foxworth in CBS'
Falcon Crest
. Instead, the part went to Kim Novak (who years before had also played a witch, in
Bell, Book and Candle
, the 1958 feature that was said to have inspired
Bewitched
).

In 1987, Lizzie was asked to portray
Poker Alice
in the CBS TV-movie of the same name.
Alice
had an incurable penchant for gambling, and Lizzie loved to gamble. But maybe that plot hit too close to home, or maybe she declined because this movie was a back-door pilot for a weekly series. Either way, it was no dice. The part went to another Elizabeth … Elizabeth Taylor, who at one point called Lizzie and asked, “Are you
sure
you don't want to do this role?” For whatever reason, Lizzie was sure.

Then, in 1994, she agreed to star in the CBS TV-movie
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face
, based on the career of murder mystery investigative journalist Edna Buchanan. Lizzie loved doing the movie. According to what Liz Sheridan told MSNBC's
Headliners & Legends
in 2001, she was fascinated with Edna's courage, and subsequently wanted to appear in an entire series of Buchanan films. When the
Familiar
ratings proved substantial, CBS complied with Lizzie's wishes.

The following year, she starred in a sequel:
Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan
, for which
Variety's
Adam Sandler gave a scathing review, May 8, 1995: