Elizabeth Montgomery: A Bewitched Life

Among the most enduring TV sitcoms of all time, Bewitched remains treasured nearly 60 years after its debut. The star of the series, Elizabeth Montgomery, was a complex and strong-willed woman whose life and career became an ongoing quest for love and recognition that she never received from her movie star father. Bewitched was one of the biggest hits on TV during the turbulent 1960s as the playful magic on the series served as an escape from the era's unrest that included the JFK assassination and the Vietnam War. But despite being a comedy that brought laughter to millions, it was the drama on set that began to curse the show as infidelities entangled series director Bill Asher who, at the time, was married to Elizabeth Montgomery. The slight led Montgomery herself to have an affair with another Bewitched director. Piling onto the "off screen drama" was a wider shift within the TV landscape as audiences were leaving fantasy high-jinks behind in favor of the edgier storytelling seen in All in the Family. Following Bewitched, Montgomery unexpectedly received another wave of fame becoming the small screen's first "Queen of the TV movies" with groundbreaking movies including A Case of Rape and The Legend of Lizzie Borden. She eventually marries a fourth and final time to actor Robert Foxworth and dies at just 62 years old from colon cancer. But, like Lucille Ball before her, Montgomery becomes an influential Hollywood female powerhouse and trailblazer who continues to bewitch millions of TV viewers around the world.