Twitch Upon a Star (42 page)

Doug is the son of the very successful writer George Tibbles, who penned the pilot for
My Three Sons
(which starred Fred MacMurray) and that sitcom's subsequent first season. He also wrote episodes of fantasy shows such as
The Munsters
; both to which Doug would also contribute scripts. Doug also wrote episodes for
Happy Days
and, just as with
Bewitched
, he was offered the story editor position on that show. This time, however, he accepted the job. For five hours. Then, as he recalls, “I said to myself, “That's it! I'm never doing it [writing a TV sitcom] again!”

“It was my father's business,” he explains, “and I just jumped into it because I needed the dough. My dad was a piano player who always wanted to be a writer, and I was a drummer who never wanted to be a writer. But I didn't like writing, even though I was successful at it.”

Because of his father's musical and subsequent writing success, from the time he was a child and on into his twenties, Doug found himself hobnobbing the Hollywood party circuit. His father played the piano in the 1940s and toured with the likes of the legendary Eddie Cantor. Doug accompanied him to the crossroads of the Los Angeles Union Station, where he would meet Cantor, as well as Charlie Chaplin, Ed Gwynn, and Lou Costello, all with whom George Tibbles had been associated. “And I was only seven years old!” Doug exclaims. “It was an amazing time. I mean, we used to go to places like [director] Walter Lang's house, just to play cards. I even remember playing cards with a twenty-year-old R. J. (Robert) Wagner, and Fred and June MacMurray before my Dad even really knew them or did
My Three Sons
.”

Others on the Tibbles party circuit included the iconic Elizabeth Taylor and Alan Ladd. It was Ladd who starred in the classic 1953 feature film,
Shane
, which as Bill Asher explained in
The Bewitched Book
, was the basis of the “
Shane
Theory”:

Shane
was a gunslinger who only used his weapons as a last resort; first he would address the issues at hand with his wit, his intelligence, even his humor. When all else failed, then he would bring out the big guns and save the day. That's how Bill explained the power of the twitch to Lizzie who was initially impatient with
Samantha
holding back her witchcraft. She should not overuse the twitch, Asher cautioned. “You're
Shane
!” he told her. “You don't twitch until the audience wants you to.”

Doug Tibbles, meanwhile, was not holding anything back, and his perspective as a child and teenager growing up in Hollywood was always clear. Except occasionally … as when he'd confuse Lizzie's father Robert Montgomery with George Montgomery, both of whom frequently visited the home of early film idol Van Johnson, where Doug and his family attended parties.

Doug recalls one party in particular at the home and pool of Dean Martin, Lizzie's co-star from
Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed
? Standing by the pool at Martin's home, Tibbles was approached by none other than actress Janet Leigh. “Doug,” she began to ask, “would you like a drink?”

“Want a drink?” he reiterates today. “I don't even know how she knew my
name
?!”

However, everyone at the party certainly knew Leigh's identity. She was a respected actress, who became best known for two creations, both of which are connected to Lizzie: Leigh's
shower-stealing
performance as
Marion Crane
in Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1960 film,
Psycho
, which starred Anthony Perkins, who was good friends with
Bewitched's
Dick York; and Jamie Lee Curtis, Leigh's daughter with actor Tony Curtis, who also fathered David and Greg Lawrence (though not with Leigh), the twins who played
Darrin
and
Samantha's
son
Adam
in the last three seasons of
Bewitched
.

Also, too, of course, Martin was a member of the Rat Pack, which included Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Frank Sinatra, all of whom knew Lizzie…. and Doug Tibbles. He remembers visiting Sinatra's home:

At one point, Doug had also befriended Jim Mitchum, younger brother to classic screen idol Robert Mitchum. As he recalls:

On yet another occasion, Doug had made contact with another legendary actor. He explains:

Flash-forward a decade or so to
Bewitched
: From Tibbles' perspective, he had known and grown up with A-list movie stars. So when he arrived on the
Samantha
series, he explains, he still felt the glitter and glamour of the big screen, and television was a step down for him. But he was still impressed with the small screen charisma of the stars of
Bewitched
, namely, Lizzie and Dick York.

“Dick was a nice guy,” he says, “… a gentleman,” while he remembers Lizzie as “not the least bit arrogant.” In fact, Doug continues, “she was one of the kindest people in the entire business, along with Andy Griffith and Dean Martin” (both with whom he had collaborated on various projects). “She was always lady-like, always polite and down to earth. And she was always very nice to me.”

So nice, in fact, it used to rile Bill Asher, especially one day, when Lizzie approached Doug and said, “We think you're marvelous!” She was referring to herself and Asher, who was standing beside her. But according to Doug, “Bill didn't seem to take that too well. He just seemed like a jealous husband. It was seemingly a rough time in their marriage … he was very on edge.”

Shortly after Lizzie complimented Doug, he met with Asher and Michaels to discuss one of his scripts. Bill asked Doug to rewrite a few pages of dialogue. Doug agreed, but apparently, not to Bill's immediate or complete satisfaction. “Okay, Bill,” he said, “but I'm not going to fake it and pretend that I can come up with a few lines now; let me go home and think it over.”

Asher went ballistic, and screamed, “You're a professional, Doug! And you should be able to come up with something on the spot!”

Taken aback by Asher's response, Doug thought, “What is
wrong
with him?” Upon hearing Asher's tantrum, Doug didn't know what to think and he had a knee-jerk reaction. But in time, he saw the big picture. He explains:

When asked why Asher didn't fire Michaels if he knew about the affair with Lizzie at this stage of the game, Doug replied:

In further retrospect, Doug finds it ironic that it was Michaels who chased him down on the Columbia studio lot to reconcile with Asher after their confrontation. He explains further:

Today, Tibbles is living his musical dream. With songwriter wife Barbara Keith and stepson John Tibbles, they headline the respected trio,
The Stone Coyotes
, based in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Barbara is on the electric guitar and vocals, John plays bass, and Doug plays drums.

In Tibbles'
Bewitched
episode “To Twitch Or Not To Twitch,” which aired in the show's fourth season,
Samantha
and her ad-man husband
Darrin
bicker over the use of witchcraft. It's an especially dicey disagreement this time, because her not doing so ultimately causes him embarrassment at a client's dinner party.

Whether or not certain impediments had developed behind the scenes in previous seasons, by the show's eight and final year, 1971–1972, all hell broke loose. Lizzie was growing if not tired of
Bewitched
, at least slightly weary of the notoriety that came along with the “nose job.” She was also hurt. Her marriage to Bill Asher was in trouble. As Asher told A&E's
Biography
in 1999, “The show itself was not as strong as it had been. And that bothered her, and so she said, ‘I don't want to do it anymore.'”

Sixteen

“We enjoy each other. Our interests are the same; I think our temperaments go together.”

—Elizabeth, describing her relationship with Bill Asher, two years before they separated,
Modern Screen Magazine
, July 1970

According to
The Schenectady Gazette
, in the fall of 1971, Bill Asher had noticed an attractive professional ice skater–turned–New York actress in a toothpaste commercial. She was the perfect fit for the role of a female expert skater he was seeking to cast for the
Bewitched
episode “
Samantha
on Thin Ice.” Upon his invitation, Nancy Fox flew to the West Coast, on her dime, for an interview. Charming and talented, Fox could act and skate at the same time, and she won the role, Asher's heart, and a regular spot on a new series he was developing.

But he was on thin ice with Lizzie. Their days were numbered and by the summer of 1972, they separated. Hollywood columnist Marilyn Beck confirmed the news, August 4, 1972:

And this from
The Los Angeles Times
, August 30, 1972: