Like a lot of young gay boys of the '60s I adored Bewitched. But I really must've been instilled with a pop culture sensibility. I always felt whatever was new was "better". Maybe all those "new and improved" products they always advertised back then?
This applied to Bewitched as well. ABC ran reruns of the show Monday through Friday mornings at 11:30 and although I liked them, I remember thinking they weren't as good as the new episodes on Thursday nights. Then the following year, those would be on in the morning and they too didn't seem as good as the Thursday night ones. I know this is dumb, but this is the way my brain worked.
I also thought new actors in old roles were better. I loved new Darren much more than old Darren. First of all, he seemed more age appropriate for Samantha. First Darren was a cranky, bossy old man. In my young brain, I grouped him with scowling characters who yelled a lot like Moe of The Three Stooges, Granny Clampett, and Lucy van Pelt.
Dick Sargent was a younger and softer man. I thought he was just fine and one time when he appeared toweling himself off after a shower while wearing a robe, and we got to see a dark thatch of chest hair, I developed one of my earliest crushes on a TV character.
I always liked him a lot and remember when he came out, wondering if I had somehow sensed something about him. I also remember how GREAT Elizabeth Montgomery was, I feel like some entertainment show asked her for a comment about Sargent and she said something like, "I'll tell you, he sure was a great kisser!". This was such a rad thing to say at the time, not too far from the Enquirer era wondering if Rock Hudson had given Linda Evans AIDS when he kissed her on Dynasty.
Then Sargent was the Grand Marshal of LA Pride and Elizabeth rode in the car with him and you know, I'm sorry, I just can't get on the bandwagon that he sucked that bad.
He was fine. Bewitched was not a particularly respected show. It's not like it was ever seen as "important" TV, and I even seem to recall ABC throwing it up against All in the Family in Bewitched's final season.
There was a moment in the '80s when those of us around my age realized we all had a love and devotion to Bewitched in common. I remember seeing Jaffe Cohen of Funny Gay Males do a Bewitched bit and I remember guys in the audience laughing so hard because it had been such a great thing for us growing up in the '60s.
Oh, and what the fuck is WRONG with the queen or two in this thread who didn't LOVE the Serena episodes. (Except for the one where she and Uncle Arthur got jobs and they totally ripped off Lucy and Ethel at the candy factory.)
