Bewitched and Beyond: The Fan Who Came to Dinner (7 page)

…but then again, there was this one time… I could’ve shot him!

It’s a scene in the Tate’s bedroom. This was actually just Samantha and Darrin’s own bedroom, redressed. Anyway, I’m at the dressing table getting ready to go out [from the episode “Art For Sam’s Sake”], and Larry is in the bathroom coming out from the shower rubbing his hair with a towel.

Well, David [White] had had a bit too much to drink the night before, and this was the first shot of the day. He was still ‘flying’ and got rather
promiscuous
with me. He kept picking me up and throwing me down on the bed over and over. It was awful! And no one, not even Bill, came to my rescue! David just thought it was all so funny. But it wasn’t funny to me. Finally things calmed down, we got the shot and I got out of there!

But things did eventually settle down and the show became more fun,” she added.

Kasey was the center of attention in one particular episode that many fans remember called “Mona Sammy.” In this episode, Larry and Louise are over for dinner and notice a ‘Mona Lisa’ style portrait of Samantha hanging over the fireplace. This had been a gift from Endora, and was originally signed by Leonardo da Vinci. Noticing Louise being quite taken with it, the ever-mischievous Endora casts a spell and changes the signature on the portrait to “Darrin Stephens.” This causes Louise to insist that Darrin paint her. Not taking no for an answer, Samantha and Darrin finally agree by deciding that Samantha will put a spell on Darrin, so he can paint a lovely portrait of Louise. Endora gets wind of what is going on, and changes Darrin’s exquisite portrait of Louise into one that is quite HIDEOUS.

This episode would require two oil paintings of Louise Tate (“the pretty one and the goofy one” as Kasey and I always called them.) Many people ask if Kasey had to do a sitting for the artist. The answer is no. They took Polaroid shots of Kasey in different poses and then both portraits were painted from them by someone in the Screen Gems art department.

Kasey loved that episode and said, “I remember asking Bill if I could have the paintings after the shoot. He said ‘Yes,’ and I still have them.”

I was lucky enough to be given these same portraits by Kasey, and I will treasure them always.

The “pretty one” always hung over the piano in the living room of the condo we shared. But every Halloween, we’d have a party and switch the “pretty one” for the “ugly one.” God, what fun!

I once asked Kasey what she thought Louise Tate would be doing today. “Well, Larry’s gone unfortunately, so Louise took over the company. She probably runs McMann and Tate, or has the lackey’s do it. She’s cruising Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive in her Rolls you know, doing a little shopping… That’s where Louise is today.”

Well, almost! When I first got out to California Kasey was driving a navy blue Jag. What a kick! She hated driving so guess who got to drive us around in that?!

Kasey often related tales from her days in show biz and one of those stories included TV’s undisputable Queen of Comedy, Lucille Ball.

Kasey had done
The Lucy Show
on a few occasions, remember the episode where she is to be the flight instructor for Lucy and Carol Burnett (when they decide to become stewardesses)? In another she played the wife of Phil Harris. Her part was
huge.
Kasey was thrilled! But Lucy wasn’t.

At the table reading the first day, she recalled watching Lucy turn redder and redder, and I’m not talking her hair.

Finally, Lucy slammed the script down and stated emphatically, “We
don’t
have a show” and left.

The next day when Kasey reported to the set, she could only laugh when she saw that her part had dwindled to a few simple lines. Her reaction? “Oh well, it isn’t my show!” Forever the good sport!

Kasey also recalled a time when she and Lucy were walking out of the studio together on their way to get something to eat. Lucy suddenly stopped and asked Kasey if she thought herself to be a good mother. Kasey replied, “I sure hope so.” Rather bluntly, Lucy stated “I’m an awful one”! The conversation didn’t really go much past that but Kasey always felt Lucy thought she had failed greatly in that department.

SOME FUN TRIVIA:
Peyton Place
and
Bewitched
both premiered on ABC back in 1964. At the time,
Peyton Place
was considered very “racey,” but let’s answer the age-old question, “Who was the first TV couple to share the same bed?” It’s usually considered a toss-up between Herman and Lily Munster and Darrin and Samantha Stephens. Many have tried to lay claim to that “position,” but truth be told, the first to actually spend the night next to each other in televised holy matrimony was none other than Fred and Wilma Flintstone!

Larry gives his new wife the “once-over”!

Kasey doffs the black wig after filming scenes in episode #106, “Nobody But A Frog Knows How to Live.”

The Kravitz’s: Alice Pearce + Mary Grace Canfield = Sandra Gould!

Kasey and Sandy Gould at a mixed drink competition in the late 1960s.

Kasey poses in June of 2003 with the two portraits of her used in
Bewitched.
Die-hard fans may also recognize the dress she is wearing. Kasey wore this as Louise in Season 3’s first episode: “I Remember You Sometimes.” 34 years later she could proudly still get into it!

Kasey in
Bewitched,
34 years earlier!

Chapter 7

Motocross Mama

Some of you may not know that Kasey Rogers was one of the founding pioneers of Women’s Motocross Racing!

Can’t picture it?! Neither could I at first…. (Imagine Louise Tate wearing leather and slinging gravel…) But it became one of her greatest passions in life, and one of her proudest accomplishments.

How did Mrs. Larry Tate segue into leather? In the early seventies, her son, Mike, came home one day and announced that he wanted to get a motorcycle. Kasey’s initial reaction was, “You want a
WHAT
?!” But he was determined to have one, and with a bit of convincing, Kasey relented and Mike got his motor-bike.

Since Mike’s father seemed to have no interest in any of it, Kasey would take him up to Encino Hills where he could learn how to ride. Mike, was a fast learner and getting better with each passing day, so it wasn’t long before he told his mom that he wanted to start racing.

“You want to
WHAT?!”

Mike was a natural, and Kasey was impressed with his abilities so before long they traded Encino Hills for Indian Dunes, a 600 acre motorcycle park where he could practice dune racing on the weekends. It was there that he won the first race he ever competed in. Eventually, Mike would become a member of the upper echelon of cycle racing; one of the top five mini-cycle racers in the United States!

What did Kasey think of the sport? “I didn’t like it at first,” she told me. “It was muddy, and dirty, and LOUD. But after a while, I got tired of sitting there knitting and watching everything, so I went out and got a bike of my own!”

Kasey’s first bike was a Honda 500-4; one that she first had trouble turning around in her own cul-de-sac. She started learning how to ride on a regular motocross track alongside a bunch of teenage boys, and in no time at all, was learning the “lingo”… phrases like “dump your clutch”; which, in layman’s terms means “put it in gear.” “Grab a handful” was when you’d “grab the handle and twist the accelerator,” and as Kasey would add, “You’d haul ass!”

By Christmas, she treated herself to a 125cc dirt bike, and in 1972 began doing some serious racing of her own.