With the huge success of Bewitched & the fact that the series ended without cancellation, it was inevitable that there would be a remake (or remakes). The first attempt was a pilot, Tabatha (with an A not an I), broadcast on ABC on April 24, 1976. The pilot starred Liberty Williams as a brown eyed, brunette Tabatha who worked for Trend Magazine in San Francisco. It was awful & wasn't picked up. The network completely reworked the concept & came up with Tabitha. The pilot aired on May 7, 1977 and the series debuted on September 10, 1977. in both series attempts, the concept was that my character was a grownup & alas, I was just 11 & 12. Lisa Hartman played the grownup me in the Tabitha series & the network made a great effort to cast someone that they thought looked like I would as an adult.
The network execs had me bring in bunches of photos, so the opening montage could have a mixture of my childhood photos & Lisa Hartman's. Adult Lisa looked like me, kid Lisa looked nothing like me. The opening voice over said something like, "Tabitha grew up like most kids, with braces & freckles..". I didn't have either, so they painted some on one of my photos as an option.
The Tabatha series wasn't great. It's been included in several lists of the worst series of all time! It did a nice job of launching Lisa Hartman's career. At the time, I was disappointed that they didn't wait a little & do the series with me, about Tabitha's adventures in high school. I did watch it at the time, but haven't seen it since.
Here's my acting composite from that time:
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Something special came out of my visit to the Marilyn Monroe Event at the Hollywood Museum! Part of the permanent exhibit at the museum is a free-standing wall of photographs of celebrities receiving their Stars on the Walk of Fame. Most of those ceremonies were presided over by the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant. Elizabeth Montgomery's posthumous award was the very last ceremony that Johnny attended. He sadly passed away just five days later. I had the pleasure of spending quite a bit of time talking with him & posted a blog about him back in 2008:
'It is with great sadness that I discuss the death of the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant. I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Mr. Grant many times over the years & I'm delighted that I was able to have a long conversation with him last Friday as he unveiled his last star on Hollywood Blvd: Elizabeth Montgomery's. I'd like to share a story he told me about his first trip to Hollywood. Johnny came to California from North Carolina in the 1940's to serve in the Army in World War II. He was in Santa Monica & asked one of the guys how he could get to Hollywood. They told him to walk outside & stick out his thumb. The first car that drove by picked him up & the driver asked "Where you going Sarge?". He said "Take me to Hollywood!". The car dropped him off at Schwab's Drugstore, where he was greeted by Charlie Chaplin. He told me that the number one thing that got him through the war, was the thought of getting back to the place where he wanted to spend the rest of his life: Hollywood. He was a class act, who was sharp as a tack to the very end. He will be fondly remembered & greatly missed.'
At the Hollywood Museum, I bumped into Johnny Grant's long time photographer, Robert Freeman. A couple days after the event, I received two photographs & this note from him:
'Hi Erin,
I am so glad I could get these to you. I feel I have done something good here in Johnny's memory. You are the last celebrity I took photos of with him and I was his photographer for 20 years.
My very best to you and yours,
Bob'.
Thank you, Bob! I'll treasure them. I'll always remember my time spent with Johnny & the twinkle in his eyes!
Here is a video of the arrivals at the Star Ceremony:
Here is Johnny's last star dedication:
Videos from Mark Simpson, The Bewitched Collector.
