Love Aunt Clara!
One of my favorite recurring characters.
shareYeah I remember finding her bumbling ways very funny and sweet. If I'm not mistaken she was the first and one of the only characters who approved of her marriage to a mortal.
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MovieChat Forums > Bewitched (1964) Discussion > Love Aunt Clara!
As a kid, I really thought she went down the chimney.
share I think she did, but not on purpose. LOL
She was such a sweet character. So confused, but she meant well. She was the only relative of Samantha who got Darrin's name right.
It was some years later when I saw All in the Family that I thought Edith Bunker was like Aunt Clara. Both were a bit daffy and illogical but both had good hearts and were totally without prejudice. They accepted people on their own merits and didn't judge.
It's a shame that Aunt Clara couldn't have had a proper send off when Marion Lorne passed away. But it was a lighthearted comedy and a serious subject like a funeral for a witch would not have fit in with the show. Maybe if the show were done today they would have had a memorial for Aunt Clara.
They did the right thing, cold though it seems. For starters, witches were supposed to be immortal. Secondly,
to mention Aunt Clara (but not show her) would only remind the audience what the show was now missing
(unlike, say, Gladys and - later - Darrin, who HAD to be replaced plot-wise). Simply moving on with other
characters was the only solution.
But this brings me to something else. So many times on these boards, fans act as if only what we SEE is
what happens all the time. For example, one fan said it was a "blooper" when Phyllis spoke of meeting Uncle
Arthur in "Mrs. Stephens, Where Are You?" HOW is that a "blooper???" Just because it wasn't contained to
an episode, doesn't mean Phyllis never met him! I mean, we never see Darrin URINATING, but we know he
did!
My point is, I always assumed Aunt Clara DID continue to visit. It's just that us poor unfortunate viewers
never got to SEE it.
My favorite episode with Clara is, ironically, a non-Darrin episode, but a charming one, nonetheless: "A Gazebo
Never Forgets." Madcap, crazy, and hilarious.
As for her "bits", I LOVE when she's trying to remember the words to make Jonathan ONE again in
"Accidental Twins": "Pinch a Tag...No, no...Tag a PINCH!...No, that's not it; "Finch a BOOT???" Lol!
"
Yes, Aunt Clara said some things that were so funny. I think it was in the episode with the twins that she had one of my favorite lines.
"I know I'm vague at times. But when I'm wrong, I'm definite". lol I think that's how it went.
The gazebo episode is great. Steve Franken, a favorite character actor of mine, is in it and I feel sorry for his character seeing pink elephants. He was in a few other episodes. Remember he was Juke? His mother Carlotta insisted that Sam get rid of Darrin and marry him.
As for Aunt Clara, yes I guess we can assume she still visited Samantha. I just missed her. Marion Lorne was irreplaceable. I'm glad they didn't recast the role. They tried it to some degree with the bumbling Esmeralda. But it never made much sense to me that Darrin would put up with a housekeeper whose powers were always on the fritz and seemed to cause trouble every time she arrived. With Aunt Clara it was different. She was family and Sam's favorite aunt. But who would put up with an employee who was a total screw up? lol
I know how fans think if don't "see" something in an episode, they conclude it never happened. Don't know if you're a Trek fan but in The Wrath of Khan some fans had a fit when Khan saw Mr. Chekov and said, "I never forget a face."
It was a supposed "blooper" since the character was not introduced until the next season. I maintained "So what?" It was a ship of over 400 crewmen. The audience never saw ALL 400 of them! It was just that Chekov didn't get his promotion to the bridge until the next year. Khan could have seen him on the Enterprise.
Interesting that you're a "Trekkie." But, no, I never got into that show, although I used to love when
Shatner was in scenes that featured him shirtless!
As for Franken, yes, he is wonderful as "Hawkins." I love how proud he is when he sees the elephant in
the den, then sort of "dances and struts" back out to the living room: "...And you'll NEVER guess where
I found him...the last place you'd expect - the DEN!" Lol.
Franken wasn't conventionally handsome, but I found him oddly sexy, at least in that episode. I like his
suit and short hair - it really suited him.
In the episode where he's supposed to marry Sam (season five), I could never tell if everyone was
calling him "Juke" or "Duke!" I finally realized it was the former when I read the cast list for the
episode on imdb.
Big Trek fan and while I didn't catch it at the time, I realized it at some point with the help of the comments the fans made.
Been rewatching BW throuhh and realized that this may have been the first non Darrin episode. That elephant has always left an impression with me. That explanation by Samantha at the end was hilarious.
I think you may be right about it being the first non- Darrin episode.
I always wondered how they got that elephant to stand still while they painted it pink! lol What did they use on it, do you know?
The Wizard of Oz was a favorite childhood movie and I remember reading that on the "Horse of a Different Color" they used jello powder to color the horses. They said that they had to work fast with the horses because the powder was sweet and the horses kept licking it off.
Steve Franken was also in the non-Darrin episode when he plays Samantha'a cousin. When he played Juke, Darrin was only in the epiosde briefly. Carlotta showed Samantha the image of Darrin on their TV screen running from an imaginary monster. Darrin didn't know it wasn't real. But if Sam didn't agree to marry Juke, Carlotta was going to make it real.
Seems like Steve Franken was a 'go to' guy when Dick York was unavailable.
Wonder what they used on that baby elephant, a vegetable dye with pink food coloring?
Yes, "A Gazebo Never Forgets" is the first non-Darrin episode. According to York, he was out
two weeks when his father died. Production ceased during his first week, then they shot
this while he was out the following week.
Several months later, he missed "Aunt Clara's Victoria Victory", and the script was rewritten
with David White taking all of the dialogue.
Both are favorite episodes of mine, despite the absence of York. But I love all of season three.
In season four, York was out with back problems for an entire MONTH. Here, they shot "A
Prince of a Guy", "Tabitha's Cranky Spell", "Playmates" and "A Majority of Two." At the time,
the press got hold of York's being away from the set all time, and suggested he was pulling
a Suzanne Somers - holding out for more money. Liz was quoted as saying at the time, "You
know as much as we do" (meaning she and Asher). Doubt that this was the issue, as everyone
was in their fourth year of a five year contract. And we know now that York's health was
seriously declining (he became rail thin by the last third of season four).