Maurice evans gay
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- You'll feel like you're watching Bewitched with a friend while thumbing through this extraordinary episode companion. Afterall, Endora is perhaps the most ardently transgressive and queer character on Bewitched.
In many episodes, Samantha fights for the rights of witches, who were occasionally represented as a minority group, and those activist messages continued off-set in Montgomery’s real life.
Tobias never married and retired from acting in 1977 after reprising his role as Abner Kravitz in a guest appearance on the Bewitched sequel Tabitha.
In 1954, actress Lynn Baggett was involved in a collision in Los Angeles while driving a car borrowed from Tobias, and a 9-year-old boy was killed. They were just treated like perverts, psychological oddities, or criminals.
And these are the circumstances under which viewers—specifically out or closeted viewers—were introduced to Uncle Arthur.
Uncle Arthur is gay, even if Bewitched couldn’t come out and say it in 1965. He’s also—and this is huge—an uncle. Many sources cite Esmerelda as a replacement for Aunt Clara, an equally bumbling witch played by Marion Lorne, and Ghostley had been previously considered to replace her friend, Alice Pearce, as Gladys Kravitz.
Ghostley's long screen career began in the 1950s and included a diverse array of films, from "To Kill a Mockingbird" to "Grease." But television was her most consistent showcase, and included appearances on "Hogan's Heroes," "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," and "Evening Shade." Ghostley also received an Emmy nomination for her recurring role as an offbeat neighbor on "Designing Women." After suffering a series of strokes and a cancer diagnosis, Ghostley died at her home in Studio City, California on September 21, 2007,
Samantha's father came from the Planet of the Apes
Samantha's father, Maurice, made his first appearance on "Bewitched" in the Season 1 episode "Just One Happy Family," and to Darrin's dismay, he proved to be as difficult as his estranged wife, Endora, and their extended family.
Lynde guest-starred in the second episode of Patty Duke, and Asher brought him in to play a panicky driving instructor named Harold Harold on… Bewitched?
Yeah—Lynde actually played a different character entirely at the end of Bewitched’s first season. Even though his direct collaborations with Lynde kept getting passed over, Asher kept casting the comedian in guest roles on the shows he was actually selling.
“Aside from the flamboyant dresses and severe makeup of Agnes Moorehead's Endora -- an inspiration to drag queens everywhere -- and the memorable performances of gay icon Paul Lynde (Uncle Arthur) in just 10 episodes -- there is a more serious connection to the gay community that this beloved comedy series holds,” Pierce said.
That combination helped make "Bewitched" a huge ratings hit for its first five seasons and an evergreen favorite in syndication.
And Lynde was far from the first gay man to get a recurring role on a TV show. He was so successful in that role that people kept wanting to see him repeat it. Endora is, of course, in their number, as is Aunt Hagatha, who runs the school for witches. “In or out of the closet, I love him. Tobias portrayed Penrose in eight episodes of the ABC program Adventures in Paradise (1959–1961).[1] From 1964 to 1971, he played Abner Kravitz, the long-suffering neighbor on the ABC sitcom Bewitched.[3] Tobias often appeared in an uncredited role as a courtroom spectator on the CBS program Perry Mason, and he played Sidney Falconer in the episode titled "The Case of the Antic Angel" (1964).
However, actress Reta Shaw, who played Hagatha in two episodes, also played Bertha, a similarly intrusive figure whose connection to Samantha remained unspecified, in two other episodes.
Shaw, who appeared in numerous Broadway and screen musicals like "Mary Poppins," worked steadily on television from the early 1950s to her final TV appearance on "The ABC Afternoon Playbreak" in 1974.
He even tries to get married to a woman in his final episode, a plot that falls apart because he knows his bride-to-be can’t handle all his… pranks. Both typical, wicked, storybook witches. Abner's usual response was to roll his eyes and return to his paper (or flute).
Veteran actor George Tobias played Abner in 54 episodes of "Bewitched," beginning with "Be It Ever So Mortgaged," Episode 2 of the series' debut season in 1964.
I discovered it while looking for contemporary photos of the Bewitched house, and this tour of Morning Glory Circle is still one of my favorite pieces on the site. Bringing him back wasn’t impossible back in 1965—thank god!
Enter: Uncle Arthur, the character that made his grand debut in “The Joker Is a Card” on October 14, 1965.
Seriously—Lynde even sings “Kids” in his 1976 Halloween special because, uh, kids go trick-or-treating? Uncle Arthur was, quite possibly, the first time that gay kids of the ’60s (or ’70s, ’80s, or ’90s thanks to reruns) saw a character that showed them that being gay was not only a brave and bold decision, but also a helluva lotta fun.
That’s why, in addition to celebrating all that goes bump in the night, we should all take the time this Halloween season to celebrate this one warlock in particular and the man who played him.
Richard Deacon did five years on The Dick Van Dyke Show and Hayden Rorke was a series regular on Bewitched’s “competitor” I Dream of Jeannie.