For our Spring 2026 issue of Pretty, we revisited the timeless charm of Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens in our “Retro Inspo” column. More than sixty years after Bewitched premiered, Samantha’s style—polished but approachable—still feels fresh.
To learn more about Elizabeth Montgomery’s life, style, and the legacy of Bewitched, we spoke with the world’s foremost expert on Bewitched and Elizabeth Montgomery: Herbie J Pilato.
Pilato is the author of The Bewitched Book, Bewitched Forever, and two books about Elizabeth Montgomery: Twitch Upon a Star: The Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomery, and The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery: A Guide to Her Magical Performances.
Additionally, Pilato was one of the producers, writers, directors, and onscreen commentators for the 60th Anniversary Bewitched Blu-ray package, which includes an all-new half-hour documentary.
Pilato served, too, in that same capacity on the Reel Channel’s acclaimed documentary, producing Elizabeth Montgomery: A Bewitched Life in partnership with AMS Studios. Additionally, he worked as a consultant and on-screen commentator for the initial Bewitched documentaries: Bewitched: The E! True Hollywood Story—which remains the seventh highest-rated True Hollywood Story in E!’s history—and A&E’s Biography of Elizabeth Montgomery.
Author and television historian Herbie J Pilato and his book Twitch Upon a Star: The Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomery.
Photo: Dan Holm Photography.
During his research on his first book, Pilato and Montgomery became close, longtime friends. “When I first met Elizabeth, and she welcomed me into her home,” Pilato recalls, “I went to reach out my hand to shake hers, and I tripped over her coffee table in her living room. At that moment, we both laughed and became friends.”
When we asked if he had a photograph of himself with Montgomery that we could use for this article, he replied, “As fate would have it, I have none of myself and Elizabeth. At the time, 1989, I didn’t want to be ‘that guy.’ I never asked her to twitch her nose, I never asked her for a signed photo, and I never asked her if I could take a picture with her. Those non-requests, I think, contributed to her respect for me.”
Picture or no picture, we were delighted to have a lively conversation with Pilato about Bewitched—from wardrobe secrets to behind-the-scenes stories to the actress who brought Samantha to life.
Below are excerpts from our conversation, lightly edited for clarity and length.
Herbie J Pilato on Elizabeth Montgomery and Bewitched
Pretty: Tell us about how you developed a friendship with Elizabeth Montgomery.
Pilato: I’d written a reunion movie for Bewitched in the late 1980s, but Elizabeth didn’t want to do it, so it never came to fruition. However, I had done so much research in order to write the script that I thought I should do something with all the things I’d learned. I asked Bill Asher if he thought she would work with me if I did a book, and he said he’d ask her. She called me afterwards and left a message saying, “This is Lizzie Montgomery.” I later learned that while she’d often gone by Liz, she really had embraced the nickname Lizzie after playing Lizzie Borden in the TV movie.
“She was walking me to my car and said, ‘Would you like a zucchini?’ She leapt into her garden and picked me two of them.”
Anyway, we played phone tag for a while, and at one point, I was doing my laundry when I missed her call, so I called her back as soon as I heard her message. I told her, “I’m sorry I missed your call; I was doing my laundry.” And her reply was, “As you should,” which made me laugh. Then, the first time I went to her house, she was walking me to my car and said, “Would you like a zucchini?” She leapt into her garden and picked me two of them. I was like, Is this real? Did I just meet Elizabeth Montgomery? And did she just give me not one but two zucchinis from her own garden?
She told me, “Bill recommended that I talk to you, and he never recommends that I talk to anyone.” I explained to her why I wanted to write the book I had in mind, and how I thought Bewitched had really delivered a message against prejudice and how thematically, it was about people loving one another despite their differences. At that time, she did not grant in-depth interviews about Bewitched because she had moved on and was trying not to do the same kind of character all the time. But she told me that hearing my take on the show was therapeutic for her and helped her see why people still loved the show so much. I think, had she lived longer, she would have embraced the nostalgia people have for Bewitched and would have been making appearances in her Samantha witch gown—which, by the way, she had personally designed.
“I never asked her to twitch her nose, I never asked her for a signed photo, and I never asked her if I could take a picture with her.”
Pretty: So she and Asher must have remained friendly after their divorce?
Pilato: They never lost sight of the fact that they had three children together, and they’d always made it very clear to their children that the divorce in no way changed their love for them. And, by the way, their kids are three of the sweetest and most down-to-earth people to this day.
Photo: Dan Holm Photography
Samantha’s Style and the Evolution of the Wardrobe
Pretty: Our article in the Spring 2026 issue focuses mostly on Samantha’s fashion. We’ve read that in the early episodes of Bewitched, the actors sometimes wore their own clothes on set. Once the show became a hit, did that change? Did designers begin wanting to dress Elizabeth Montgomery or provide wardrobe for Samantha?
Pilato: In the beginning, the show was in black & white, and the focus was on Darrin and Samantha’s relationship. But when the third season began and they went to color episodes, ABC wanted to really up the ante with more special effects and witchery, and along with that came more colorful clothing, and I think there may have been some of that—designers wanting to get her in their clothes. In real life, Lizzie’s clothes were very regular; she wasn’t a flashy dresser herself.
When they did the third season, her personal wardrobe no longer worked for what they wanted, so they did outsource wardrobe more. And, of course, the wardrobe changed with the times. Serena especially represented the different eras: when the hippie look was big in 1968, we see Serena with the long blonde hair, but later on, she got even kookier, with a more highly pitched voice and the dark hair and beauty marks and such.
Pretty: One thing viewers might notice is that Samantha rarely wore high heels on the show. Was that a deliberate wardrobe choice for the character, or something Elizabeth Montgomery preferred?
Pilato: Lizzie did not do anything that she did not want to do, so if she was wearing flats, it was because she wanted to. Heels might have helped her look taller next to Dick Sargent, but she just was not a flashy person. She loved being normal. For example, she loved ordering pizza with the crew because that’s not something she had ever done in her family. [Her parents were both actors who met on a Broadway production; her father, Robert Montgomery, was particularly successful in television and film.]
Not only was she not arrogant for a TV star, but even for just a person in general. What you saw in Samantha is who she was. And had she not been so humble, the character of Samantha, and thus the show, would never have worked. Think about it: Samantha came from this world of witches who thought they were superior to mortals. Agnes played Endora that way, certainly. But the character Samantha didn’t see herself as superior.
“What you saw in Samantha is who she was. And had she not been so humble, the character of Samantha—and thus the show—would never have worked.”
Herbie J Pilato
One of Lizzie’s favorite episodes was when Samantha tells off the snobs at the country club. I don’t think we would have gotten the same Samantha that Lizzie brought to the role if it had gone to actress Tammie Grimes. [Grimes was offered the role originally but turned it down.]
I talked with Liz about how she stayed so down to earth, and she said, “My father. If I had acted arrogant in any way, he would not have been pleased.”
Pretty: I’ve read that was a complicated relationship.
Pilato: They had a real love-not-like relationship. He didn’t want her to become an actress at first, but when he realized he couldn’t stop her, he embraced it and gave her her first role on his show. But he was not happy with some of her choices, such as playing Lizzie Borden. I think that’s why she really embraced the nickname “Lizzie.” She had been called Liz before that a lot, but she mostly went by Lizzie after that movie. She kept the hatchet from that film and once when I was interviewing her, she picked it up and I was like, “Um, could you put that down?” [laughs] She loved freaking me out! But her father didn’t like that she played that character because that character kills her father and stepmother, and Lizzie [Montgomery] had never forgiven her father for divorcing her mother and marrying another woman. So when she told him she’d taken the role, he said, “Oh, you would!”
She wanted her father to narrate the first episode of Bewitched, but he wouldn’t, and then he also refused to play her father on the show, so the role went to Maurice Evans. She called her real father “Daddy,” which Samantha also called her father on the show. And whenever I hear her call Maurice Evans “Daddy” in an episode, I can tell that she must have been thinking of her real father.
Pretty: After all your research on Bewitched, do you have a favorite Samantha outfit or look from the show?
Pilato: I liked her lighter blonde hair in season two. Lizzie always tried to make sure that Samantha had a different hairstyle for each new season. But I think the sixth season, which was the first season with Dick Sargent as Darrin, she looked perfect in every episode. Not a hair out of place. Probably because it was a new start with the new Darrin. By that time, she didn’t want to do the show anymore, and Dick York was gone, but ABC offered her everything but the kitchen sink to continue, so she went full throttle that season with a fresh start. [York suffered from severe pain due to an injury in a previous film. His condition worsened during his time on Bewitched, and he developed an addiction to pain pills. He was forced to leave the show’s fifth season in April 1969.]
The Change from Dick York to Dick Sargent
Pretty: Was she upset about York’s departure?
Pilato: I think it was hard on everyone, but it was really Agnes Moorehead [who played Samantha’s mother, Endora] who was most upset. She was very hard on Dick Sargent. At the first table reading of Sargent’s first script, Agnes stood up and announced, “I don’t like change,” and that put a hush over the whole room. David White [who played Darrin’s boss, Larry Tate] told me that Agnes had made Sargent cry on the flight home after they’d filmed on location in Salem. At some point, Lizzie took Agnes aside and asked her to please be nice to him. It took a while, but she eventually let up on Sargent.
The thing a lot of people don’t know is that Sargent and York were actually dear friends, and Sargent called York after he was offered the part and said, “Are you okay with this?” And York, being the beautiful person he was, gave him his blessing. York told me many years later that he believed if producers had given him the summer of 1969 to rest up, he could have continued with the show. So it was tough. Chris York, Dick York’s son, has spoken about his father’s addiction to the pain killers as a result of the accident. It had just become an overwhelming situation because he missed fourteen episodes, which came to be called “The Non-Darrin Episodes,” and they put those in reruns in the summer of 1969 so that it would be less of a shock to viewers when the new Darrin [Sargent] showed up in the next season.
Pretty: Do you think they could have ever imagined being able to binge watch episodes like we do now? They used to repurpose plots for the new Darrin that they’d used with York because they figured no one would remember.
Pilato: I mentioned that to Bill [Asher] when I first talked to him. He said, “Oh, you noticed that, huh?” Not only did they remake York episodes with Sargent, they also remade black & white episodes with York into color episodes with York! I never understood why they didn’t just hire some new writers to add a little freshness, but back then, nobody ever could have guessed how we’d watch series now. Now, for example, you can watch several episodes in a row and see that Lizzie often repeated the same outfit.
What Happened to Samantha’s Wardrobe?
Pretty: Yes, like that gorgeous pink-belted dress with the large roses! We love that one! Do you happen to know where any of Samantha’s wardrobe pieces are today?
Pilato: When Lizzie died, I think Robert Foxworth [Montgomery’s husband] gave many of her things to Rebecca [Montgomery and Asher’s daughter] or Lizzie’s brother, Robert Montgomery, Jr. I know her brother called me one day out of the blue after she’d died, and he had a crystal unicorn I’d given Lizzie when I first met her. Both Lizzie and Samantha loved unicorns, and when I gave it to her, I really couldn’t afford it at the time, but she loved it. She said, “Oh! You know, don’t you? You know!”
Anyway, her brother was just the sweetest guy, and he asked if I wanted the unicorn back, and I said I could never take it back. So I think Foxworth must have given all her things to Rebecca and to him, and they have probably been passed down to her children, but I can’t say for sure.
You know, Rebecca, like her father, became a director. She’s directed many wonderful television shows, in particular, over the years, including The Middle.
Marion Lorne and the Magic of Aunt Clara
Pretty: Wow! Following in her parents’ footsteps! Any idea what became of Aunt Clara’s doorknobs? [The actress Marion Lorne, who played Aunt Clara, collected doorknobs in real life and had her character in the show do the same.]
Pilato: I doubt Lizzie had those! [laughs] Have you heard the story Lizzie told me about Marion Lorne at the Beverly Hills Hotel?
Pretty: I don’t think so, but we’d love to.
Pilato: So Marion Lorne used to stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel when she was filming episodes of Bewitched, and one day she calls Lizzie and says, “You must hurry to my hotel!” And Lizzie asks, “Why? What’s wrong?” And Marion says, “Just get here, please!”
Lizzie gets there and she says, “What’s the problem?” And Marion says, “Watch!” And she waves her arm, and the TV in her room goes on. Then she waves her arm again, and it goes off. Then she does it again and again: on, off, on, off. And Marion says to Lizzie, in complete earnestness, “I have the power! I have the power!”
Come to find out, the metal bracelets Marion was wearing were affecting the frequency of the TV remote. But she really thought she was magic! Keep in mind that Marion was a very sophisticated actress. Kasey Rogers [who played Louise Tate] famously said that Marion and Aunt Clara were one in the same, but I think Marion knew exactly what she was doing when she played that part. She was a serious actress who came from the stage. Every stutter, every syllable was simply excellent acting.
Bewitched Memorabilia and Lost Treasures
Pretty: After all your years researching Bewitched, have you collected any memorabilia from the show yourself? Do you own anything connected to Elizabeth Montgomery or the series?
Pilato: I did, but I no longer own it. Dick Albain, who was the special effects wizard for the first two years of the show before going to work on I Dream of Jeannie, gave me something when I interviewed him. On the second day I met him, he showed me these squares that he had planned to put on the floor of his patio. He had had each of the cast members sign a square and he was going to use soldering iron to burn their names into wood and then put the squares into his patio floor, but he never did it, so he gave them to me.
It had all the autographs—Lizzie, Maurice Evans, Marion, Dick York, Agnes, everybody. And like a fool, I sold them in the 1990s. It was for a hefty sum, but I wish I had kept them. I sold a lot of things because, like I said before, I didn’t want to be “that guy”—and also because I was moving. I don’t actually know who owns it now because it sold at auction at Christie’s, but it must’ve gone to someone big for what it brought at auction.
Samantha’s Hair and Signature Brows
Pretty: One of the things we talk about in the magazine article is Samantha’s hair. The stylist we interviewed mentioned that Elizabeth Montgomery’s hair color on the show may actually have been close to her natural shade. Do you know whether her hair was dyed for Bewitched, or if that was essentially her natural color?
Pilato: I don’t actually know. When she did the episode of The Twilight Zone called “Two” [season three, episode one], she had black hair. I’m thinking she was not a natural blonde, only because I did see her several times with black hair, but she switched back and forth over the years. When she wore her hair black, even twenty years after Bewitched ended, people would see her and yell, “Serena!”
Pretty: What about those distinctive eyebrows, with that gorgeous arch? Was that her natural brow shape or something the makeup department styled for the show?
Pilato: Oh, that was all hers. Her father had the same arch.
Pretty: There’s a long-standing story among Bewitched fans that Elizabeth Montgomery gave Samantha’s famous heart necklace to a prop master’s wife. Do you know whether that story is actually true?
Pilato: I’m not sure what happened to that necklace.
The I Dream of Jeannie Comparisons
Pretty: Bewitched was such a success that NBC soon launched I Dream of Jeannie, which had a somewhat similar premise. Do you know how Elizabeth Montgomery felt about those comparisons, and whether she ever interacted with [I Dream of Jeannie’s lead actress] Barbara Eden?
Pilato: Well, they were in the makeup room [on the Columbia Pictures lot] together every day. Liz told me she never had any issues with Eden or Larry Hagman [Eden’s costar]; she respected both of them. But she did tell me about the day Sidney Sheldon [creator of I Dream of Jeannie], who was Bill Asher’s friend, invited him to lunch and Lizzie went along. Sidney and Bill had worked together on The Patty Duke Show. At this lunch, Sidney says to Bill, “Do you mind if I do a genie to your witch?”
Lizzie told me she was so stunned her mouth dropped open, but she didn’t say anything. Bill told Sidney he didn’t care, and Lizzie told me they had a very quiet ride home after that! But she never had anything against Eden or Hagman. But when I Dream of Jeannie lasted only five years and Bewitched went on two more years after Jeannie went off the air, Lizzie told me she did say, “Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Of course, Bill Asher later directed the TV movie I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later, and when he and I met, I told him I was disappointed that he’d done that. He told me, “You were disappointed? You should’ve heard Liz!” She did not like that, but for him, it was just a job.
What’s Next for Herbie J Pilato
Pretty: Will you be writing any more books about Elizabeth Montgomery, or Bewitched, or any other classic TV shows?
Pilato: I have a new book that will soon be released, Car Poetry in Motion: Comedic Verse for the Auto-Active Reader, which is different from anything I have done in the past. It’s the first book that combines cars, poetry, and humor. But other than that, I don’t plan on doing any more books. I did one a year for five years, and it was exhausting. I’m focusing now on a return to acting and producing, writing, and directing movies.
“Every good thing that has ever happened in my career is due to the release of my original Bewitched book and the inspiration I received from Elizabeth Montgomery.”
Herbie J Pilato
Either way, every good thing that has ever happened in my career is due to the release of my original Bewitched book in 1992 and the inspiration I received from Elizabeth Montgomery. Both she and Bill Asher, and her entire family, have always been so kind and generous to me.
Read more: Our Spring 2026 issue of Pretty also features Elizabeth Montgomery in our “Retro Inspo” column, exploring Samantha Stephens’s timeless style.
Readers interested in Pilato’s work can explore his books on Elizabeth Montgomery and Bewitched here.
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