In 1970-71, Actress Alice Ghostley Was Pulling TV Double Duty on 'Bewitched' and 'Mayberry R.F.D'

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Actress/comedian Alice Ghostley, who died in 2007 (from colon cancer and after a series of strokes), found fame with several movie and television appearances. Those include sitcom roles on Bewitched (ABC, 1964-1972), Mayberry R.F.D. (CBS, 1968-1971), and Designing Woman (CBS, 1986-1993). In the first two shows, she replaced actresses who either died or decided to leave the given series. Additionally, both programs were filmed at the same time, and on two different networks. So, the pressure was on for Ghostley to deliver the goods. Here's the story.

A Closer Look

On Bewitched, Marion Lorne had played Elizabeth Montgomery's bumbling on-screen witch Aunt Clara. After Lorne died in 1968, Alice Ghostley was approached to play Esmeralda, a daffy witch-maid; someone to mess up the magic like Aunt Clara had done before.

Before that request, Ghostley was invited to replace Alice Pearce as the mortal wigged-out neighbor Mrs. Kravitz. She rejected that role because the first Mrs. Kravitz was played by Alice Pearce, who was a dear friend.

Although Ghostley was also close friends with Lorne, she agreed to play Esmeralda because, though similar to Aunt Clara, it was a completely different character. Meanwhile, too, Esmeralda was similar to a mortal maid she had played on Bewitched a few years before.

Subsequently, Ghostley made semi-regular appearances on Bewitched from 1969 to 1972.

Then Came Mayberry

While working on Bewitched, Alice Ghostley was approached by the producers of Mayberry R.F.D., the spin-off series from The Andy Griffith Show. In the new Mayberry series, Griffith's leading Sheriff Andy Taylor was replaced by Ken Berry's Sam Jones, of the City Council.

Beloved actress Frances Bavier had played Taylor's Aunt Bee for the full run of The Andy Griffith Show, but only for the first two seasons of Mayberry R.F.D. She opted not to continue in what would become that show's third and final season of 1970-71.

To help fill the gap left by Bavier's Bee, Ghostley was cast as the nurturing Cousin Alice Cooper to Berry's Sam Jones.

In the process, that meant that for at least one year Ghostley was playing Alice Cooper (no relation to the real-life future snake-on-stage performing rock star) at the very same time she was portraying Esmeralda on Bewitched.

Things Were Different But the Same in the Big '80s

In the mid-1980s, Alice Ghostley was cast on Designing Women as the wacky Bernice Clifton a wacky friend to the sophisticated southern ladies of that landmark sitcom.

Ghostley's portrayal of Bernice earned her an Emmy nomination for a role that seemed to be the culmination of her characters on Bewitched and Mayberry R.F.D.