| William Asher | |
|---|---|
with Elizabeth Montgomery |
|
| Born | August 8, 1921 New York City, New York |
| Occupation | director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1948–1990 |
| Spouse | Dani Sue Nolan (1951–1961) Elizabeth Montgomery (1963–1973) Joyce Bulifant (1976–1993) Meredith (1998–present) |
William Asher (born August 8, 1921) is an American television and film producer, film director, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prolific early directors in the budding television industry, producing or directing over two dozen of the leading television series.
With television in its infancy, he introduced the early sitcom Our Miss Brooks, adapted from the radio show, and then became the leading director of I Love Lucy, in 1952, directing most of the episodes over the next 5 years. In 1964 he produced and directed Bewitched, which became one of the leading shows on television, and starred his wife, Elizabeth Montgomery. As a result of his early success, he was thought of as an "early wunderkind of TV-land," and is today considered "the man who invented the sitcom."[1]
He was nominated four times for an Emmy, winning once for directing Bewitched in 1964. He was also nominated for the DGA award in 1951 for I Love Lucy.
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Born in New York City, his mother was actress Lillian Bonner and his father was Jewish American producer Ephraim M. Asher, whose film credits include Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931), which he co-produced with Carl Laemmle. His sister, four years his senior, was Betty Asher, a publicist for Judy Garland at MGM.[2] Asher's family moved to Los Angeles when he was 10, and he would often spend his free time visiting his father at the studio.[3]
When Asher was 11, his parents divorced, and he moved back to New York to live with his mother. His sister remained in Los Angeles and lived at a friend's home. He remembers his early years as being "a terrible period" in his and his sister's life, however:
My mother was an unfortunate woman. She was an alcoholic. My sister and I were abused terribly by her. I don't talk about that very often, but it's a fact I had to live with, and it was horrible. There was no reason for it; she would just go into a rage. . . . And my father, who was otherwise a gentle, sweet, wonderful man, looked the other way. It was very sad. They were divorced when I was about eleven or twelve, I think. She beat us all the time.[3]
As a result of having to live in New York with his mother under those conditions, he dropped out of school.
I felt hopeless. I sort of hung out with guys on the street, and I kind of forgot about the picture business. When I was about fifteen, I was able to get into the army. That way I could get away from my mother. I lied about my age, and they accepted me.[3]
He served in the Army Signal Corps.[1] His father, then living in Los Angeles, died in 1937 at the age of 49, when Asher was 16. While in the Signal Corp, Asher notes that he was "not a very good worker:"[3]
I got into fights, and I was not happy there. I wasn't happy anywhere because of my mother. So they sent me to the infantry, and I went to a basic training program, and I wouldn't take any orders. I wouldn't take orders from anyone. I was bad; it was that simple. I was just kind of a rough kid. And they finally gave up on me, but I started writing. I had no education, but I started writing anyway.[3]
When the war ended, Asher had by then managed to get a number of his short stories published in leading magazines. He says that "by working at it, I became a pretty good short story writer, which almost nobody knows."[3] He moved back to Southern California with the goal of entering a career in the film industry. In 1948, at the age of 27, he co-wrote, co-produced and co-directed a low budget film, Leather Gloves. However, he was soon drawn away from films by the new medium of television.[4] Asher got a job writing short story "fillers" for various TV shows, and his stories evolved into a series called Little Theatre."This was my debut as a director," he states. The series led to him receiving a contract with Columbia pictures to work on a musical film with producer Harry Cohn.[3]
Subsequently, Asher received an offer from CBS Studios, which was looking for new directors for television shows. His first TV pilot turned into a long-running series, Our Miss Brooks, which was a TV version of the popular radio show of the same title, starring Eve Arden. In 1952, Desi Arnaz asked him to also direct a few episodes of the recently started series, I Love Lucy, and the show survived its first season. By the time the show was discontinued in 1957, Asher had directed 110 out of the show's 179 episodes,[1] along with a large portion of Our Miss Brooks, which stayed on the air until 1956. Looking back at the first year of I Love Lucy, Asher says they knew the show was good, but they didn't know it would last:
When we did the show, we thought, "That's it, we're done with it." We never dreamed it would last this long. Lucille Ball, obviously, was one of TV's true pioneers.[5]
During his career, with a history of delivering quality television sitcoms, he was considered an "early wunderkind of TV-land, blazing a path in the new medium" of television.[1] Writer and producer William Froug describes Asher as a "hyphenate of a different stripe, a director-producer." After seeing Asher direct so many different and successful sitcoms, he notes that Asher was one of many "restless Hollywood professionals who, like nomads, drifted from job to job, always delivering competent, if not inspired work." He considers them to have been the "backbone" of the early television industry.[6]
His most famous works include directing episodes of The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950), I Love Lucy (1951), Our Miss Brooks (1952), General Electric Theater (1953), Make Room for Daddy (aka The Danny Thomas Show) (1953), December Bride (1954), The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1956), Sally (1957), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Patty Duke Show (1963), Bewitched (1964), Gidget (1965), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Private Benjamin (1981) and Alice (1976–85). He produced all 254 episodes of Bewitched (1964 to 1972), as well as directing many episodes. Both series still run in syndication in dozens of languages today.[7]
During his career he collaborated with many television writers, directors and actors, including Sidney Sheldon, Dick Van Dyke, Jim Backus, Telly Savalas, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Blake Edwards and Judy Garland. He also befriended President John F. Kennedy, and together with Frank Sinatra, planned Kennedy's 1961 Inaugural.[1] However, he considers his "glory days" in television to have been the time he spent producing and directing his "creation," Bewitched, starring his wife Elizabeth Montgomery.[1] Montgomery played the part of Samantha, and Bewitched became "the hottest new show of 1964," staying in the top 10 for 5 straight years.[8]
He also directed several movies, and wrote and directed the popular beach movies starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon - Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965). Television historian Wheeler Dixon suggests that the Beach Party films were not only "visions of paradise" for the audience, but also for Asher, who used them "to create a fantasy world to replace his own troubled childhood."[3]
Asher recalls the highlights of his years as a director:
When I look back at my own work, Bewitched stays with me the most, and Lucy, and the Beach Party pictures. The scripts of the Beach Party films were sheer nonsense, but they were fun and positive. . . . When kids see the films now, they can get some idea of what the '60s were like like. The whole thing was a dream, of course. But it was a nice dream.[3]
Asher received a star in Palm Springs' Walk of Stars - located at 100 North Palm Canyon Drive, and dedicated in November 2003.
In 1963 Asher married actress Elizabeth Montgomery, and the following year began producing and directing the new TV series, Bewitched, with Montgomery starring. The show was considered a blockbuster and continued until 1972. They had three children and divorced in 1973.
Asher resides in California, with his fourth wife, Meredith.[1]
His family continues on in show business. Asher's daughter (with Montgomery) Rebecca Asher is a script supervisor.
John Asher, his adopted son (from his marriage to actress Joyce Bulifant), starred in the TV series Weird Science (as Gary) and then directed Hilary Swank in Kounterfeit. He continued his directorial endeavors with Diamonds, starring Kirk Douglas, Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Bacall and Jenny McCarthy (John Asher's former wife).
| Year series began | TV Series |
|---|---|
| As director | |
| 1950 | The Colgate Comedy Hour |
| 1951 | Racket Squad |
| 1951 | I Love Lucy |
| 1951 | The Dinah Shore Show |
| 1952 | Our Miss Brooks |
| 1953 | Make Room For Daddy |
| 1953 | The Ray Bolger Show |
| 1954 | Willy |
| 1954 | The Lineup |
| 1957 | The Thin Man |
| 1958 | The Donna Reed Show |
| 1959 | Fibber McGee and Molly |
| 1959 | The Twilight Zone |
| 1963 | The Patty Duke Show |
| 1964 | Bewitched |
| 1965 | Gidget |
| 1972 | Temperatures Rising |
| 1976 | Alice |
| 1977 | Tabitha |
| 1979 | The Dukes of Hazzard |
| 1979 | Flatbush |
| 1979 | The Bad News Bears |
| 1984 | Crazy Like a Fox |
| 1986 | Kay O'Brien |
| As producer | |
| 1960 | The Land of Oz |
| 1963 | The Patty Duke Show |
| 1964 | Bewitched |
| 1972 | The Paul Lynde Show |
| 1980 | Here's Boomer |
| 1986 | Kay O'Brien |
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