We have reached the final blog in our theme of “Behind the Scenes” for October. We have learned about costumers, makeup artists, and set decorators. Today we delve into the art of producing and directing. We are taking a look at William Asher to see what that type of career looks like.
Asher was born in New York City in 1921; his mother was a stage actress, and his father was a producer. His sister became a publicist for Judy Garland. The Ashers moved to Los Angeles when William was about three, and he often went to work with his dad, so he learned about his life’s work from a very young age.
When he was eleven, he returned to New York with his mother. I have read that his parents divorced at that time and that his father died in that year. According to findagrave.com, Ephraim M. Asher, his father, passed away in 1937, which would have made William 16. Either way, William found himself all the way across the country living with a mother who was an abusive alcoholic. Asher eventually dropped out of school and returned to Los Angeles where he took a job in the mailroom of Universal Studios. In 1941 he joined the Army, serving in the Signal Corps for four years in Queens, New York as a photographer.
The year 1948 found him back in Hollywood working as a director. His first film was Leather Gloves. He was later given a contract with Columbia Pictures. In 1952, Asher was given an opportunity to direct a television series, Invitation Playhouse. That same year, Desi Arnaz asked William to direct an episode of his series I Love Lucy. Asher would end up directing 110 episodes, along with episodes of many other shows during the fifties.
During his Television Academy interview, Asher said he was given $500 an episode to direct for I Love Lucy. “In those days if you were making $200 a month, you were doing well. I was in my mid-twenties, unmarried, working on Our Miss Brooks and I Love Lucy, making $1,000 a week from both shows combined. I lived like a drunken sailor. You can believe I spent the money.”
He also related that “the scenes that made audiences howl with Lucy were taken from life. The writers, myself, and Lucy and Desi worked to create the most honest moment for the character America would love.”
He continued his role of director in the early sixties with several shows including The Patty Duke Show and Gidget. He was listed as both Creator and Writer for The Patty Duke Show as well. He had more than 20 credits as Producer during his career.
In 1964, he was married to Elizabeth Montgomery. She had recently been signed for a show he helped create called Bewitched. He became a producer and director on Bewitched. He was nominated for four Emmys for the sitcom, winning for director in 1966.
Asher was described as a “early wunderkind of TV land, blazing a path in the new medium.” William Froug, a writer and producer, described Asher as a “hyphenate of a different stripe, a director-producer.”
During the years Bewitched was on the air, Asher also directed many of the “beach” films of the sixties including Beach Party, Beach Blanket Bingo, and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. Asher described these movies he created as “carefree fantasies, what I wished my own youth had been like, instead of what it was—a grim existence with an alcoholic and abusive mother after my parents’ divorce.”
Asher continued to work producing and directing in television, amassing more than 65 credits as a director. These shows included Marcus Welby MD, Operation Petticoat, Alice, The Bad News Bears, and Harper Valley PTA.
His last project was Return to Green Acres in 1990. It is far from a great made-for-tv movie, but I loved it because it allowed us to spend a bit more time with the quirky folks from Hooterville.
Before marrying Montgomery, Asher was married to Danni Nolan for a decade. He and Montgomery’s marriage lasted a decade as well. From 1976-1993, he was wed to actress Joyce Bulifant which also ended in divorce. He did try marriage once more, and he remained with Meredith Coffin until he passed away in 2012 from Alzheimer’s disease.
Asher came along at a time in the Golden Age of Television that everyone was learning on the spot, and he was a quick learner. Becoming a producer-director, he was interested in creating shows and even writing them when necessary. He said that when he looked “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.”
The one mystery I could not unravel was Asher’s work on Our Miss Brooks. I read in one source that he did the pilot for the show and many articles quoting him talk about his work as a director for the show. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are listed as the producers for the series, but William Asher is not mentioned at all. If anyone knows the answer to this riddle, I’d love to hear it.
