Bewitched’s Erin Murphy Reflects on Magical Memories: ‘Playing Tabitha Has Only Led to Good Things’

Last summer, Erin Murphy played a few episodes of Bewitched for her grandchildren. “I was the same age as my granddaughter, Stella Erin, when I did the show,” she exclusively tells Closer. “They loved it.”

In 1964, America fell in love with Bewitched, a sitcom about a beautiful witch who marries a mortal advertising man and tries to live a normal life in Westport, Connecticut, Erin and her twin sister, Diane, initially shared the role of Tabitha, Samantha and Darrin’s daughter, who joined the family in 1966. “The whole thing was fun,” recalls Erin. “I liked the episodes most where there were other kids and animals.”

Erin, 60, eventually took over the role of Tabitha full-time. She enjoyed a warm relationship with the show’s adult cast. “Elizabeth Montgomery was very maternal,” says Erin, who remains friends with the late actress’ real-life children. “She would even scold me like a parent. If I was being silly, she’d call me ‘Erin Margaret,’ just like my mom would.”

Erin loved sharing time in hair and makeup with Elizabeth and Agnes Moorehead, who played witchy Endora. “It showed me the power of makeup,” she recalls. “Elizabeth was a beautiful woman, but so much more beautiful to a child when she had the makeup on. And Agnes — with blue eyeshadow and all the bright colors — I just thought she was the most beautiful woman.”

There have been some claims that Agnes, a four-time Oscar nominee who appeared in the landmark Citizen Kane, wasn’t happy on the show. “That’s a lie,” Erin says. The acclaimed actress “was like a grandmother” to her and loved the show’s star so much that “she left Elizabeth her jewelry in her will.”

Dick York, who played Darrin until he was forced to leave the show in 1969 for health reasons, was also a parental figure. “He would read stories to me,” says Erin, who also worked well with his replacement, Dick Sargent. “There was definitely a different dynamic. His Darrin seemed angrier — but I have only positive things to say about both of them.”

‘Bewitched’ Became TV Magic

Viewers found the show’s hocus pocus charming, but Erin confides that even as a very young child, she understood that the magic wasn’t real. Without the benefit of today’s computer animation, Bewitched employed more low-tech tricks, like magical flying toys held aloft by strings. “There were people up in the rafters with fishing poles and wires,” she says. “They’d spray the wire with something to make it disappear on screen.”

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When an actor would magically pop into or out of a scene, the entire cast would freeze their positions. “You’d have to stand perfectly still while that person would walk in or walk out,” Erin recalls. “It was a long process. I remember thinking about it like a game.”

Erin still receives offers to act occasionally, but it’s not a high priority. “My life is great. I have a wonderful family,” says Erin, who looks back on her childhood with affection. “People seem to still universally love the show. Playing Tabitha has only led to good things.”