Updated: September 18, 2024

In the ABC situation comedy Bewitched, Montgomery played the central role of lovable witch Samantha Stephens, with Dick York ( and later with Dick Sargent ) as her husband. Starting in the second season of the series, she also played the role of Samantha's mischievous cousin, Serena, under the pseudonym Pandora Spocks ( a pun on Pandora's Box ).

Bewitched became a ratings success ( it was, at the time, the highest-rated series ever for the network ). The series aired for eight seasons, from 1964 to 1972, and Montgomery received five Emmy and four Golden Globe nominations for her role on Bewitched. Despite low ratings late in the series run, it was renewed for a ninth season to run from fall of 1972. However, Montgomery's marriage to Bewitched director William Asher was failing and the couple had separated by the end of the eighth season.

This situation caused severe friction in their professional relationship and it also ended any possibility of another season. As a consolation to ABC, Montgomery and Asher ( under their company name Ashmont, which produced Bewitched ) offered a half-hour sitcom, The Paul Lynde Show, to the network for the 1972â€"1973 season. Lynde's series only lasted one year.

In a parody of her Samantha Stephens role, she made a cameo appearance as a witch at the end of the beach party film How to Stuff a Wild Bikini ( 1965 ). The film was directed by Asher, her husband at the time. That same year she also provided the voice of Samantha for an episode of the animated series The Flintstones.