William Asher - Career

Career

Asher returned to California in 1948 to direct Leather Gloves, a low budget film. He eventually gravitated to television (then a new medium), and got a job writing short story "fillers" for various programs, which evolved into a series called Little Theatre. This resulted is his receiving a contract with Columbia Pictures to work on a musical film for Harry Cohn.

Asher received an offer from CBS Studios to direct Our Miss Brooks starring Eve Arden, a television version of the popular radio show. In 1952, Desi Arnaz asked Asher to direct an episode of his series I Love Lucy. By the show's end in 1957, Asher had directed 110 of the show's 179 episodes, Asher later commented that even though the creators knew the show was good, they did not believe it would become an American icon. "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."

Asher was considered an "early wunderkind of TV-land, blazing a path in the new medium" of television. Writer and producer William Froug described Asher as a "hyphenate of a different stripe, a director-producer," commenting that he was one of many "restless Hollywood professionals who, like nomads, drifted from job to job, always delivering competent, if not inspired work."

In addition to I Love Lucy, Asher was also directed episodes of The Colgate Comedy Hour, Make Room for Daddy, The Twilight Zone, The Patty Duke Show, Gidget, The Dukes of Hazzard and Alice. Asher had also befriended President John F. Kennedy, and together with Frank Sinatra, planned Kennedy's 1961 Inaugural.

Asher's best known work was Bewitched, which he produced for its entire eight-year run. At that time, he was married to the show's star Elizabeth Montgomery. They soon divorced after the series' cancellation in 1972.

Asher also directed several movies several films, including Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach and Beach Blanket Bingo. Television historian Wheeler Dixon later suggested 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."

Asher later recalled his directorial years:

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. The whole thing was a dream, of course. But it was a nice dream.