Dick York called the on-set health episode that forced him to leave Bewitched the “worst day of my life”

Dick York played Darrin Stevens from 1964 to 1969 before Dick Sargent took over the role.

Landing the role of Darrin Stevens Bewitched was a life-changing moment for Dick York. This is the reason why it was so difficult to leave it behind.

IN Bewitched The 60th Anniversary Special, a new independent documentary from Daniel Henares, chronicles how the actor ultimately turned down the role he loved so much.

Viewers were captivated by York’s portrayal of the bumbling, reactive but kind-hearted Darrin. (As did his on-screen daughter Erin Murphy.) However, in the show’s fifth season, the actor began to have trouble with the physical comedy that was part of the role.

In an interview in the special, Sandra Gould, who played the Stevenses’ neighbor Gladys Kravitz, recalled York’s addiction to painkillers after an injury he suffered in the previous set.

“He took all kinds of painkillers and eventually he got so sick that he just couldn’t work anymore. It was devastating,” she recalls. “It was just terrible.”

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York struggled with his lines when he was on medication, but when he wasn’t on it, he struggled physically. This prompted the writers, in an attempt to help him, to write Darrin’s appearances at the beginning and end of the episodes.

Things came to a head when he was filming an episode in February 1969. York was being lifted onto the platform when he lost consciousness due to pain. While he was unconscious, York suffered an epileptic seizure, which forced him to be rushed to hospital.

In April 1969, York had no choice but to leave the series for good, a devastating blow to him beyond his physical ailments, he said at the time.

Connected: Bewitched Child Star Erin Murphy Reveals Who Was the Best TV Dad: Dick York or Dick Sargent (Exclusive)

“It was the worst day of my life because I thought I had let everyone down,” Yorke recalled in an interview featured in the special. “It was the only thing I started but didn’t finish. “I didn’t finish the show, so I felt guilty, embarrassed and felt like I let everyone down.”

Then the writers faced the question of how to react to the departure of the star. Knowing that fans would not accept the idea of ​​Samantha and Darrin divorcing or Darrin dying, the team behind it. Bewitched decided to take a risk and remake the role.

For the recast, they revisited the original actors considered for the role and settled on Dick Sargent. Sargent remained in this role until the series ended in 1972.

Speaking to PEOPLE at an event in Los Angeles on Oct. 19, Erin Murphy, who plays the couple’s daughter Tabitha, praised both actors as “wonderful guys.”

“Dick York was a father, he had a lot of kids, and he was just more paternal. So he was more like his father,” said the 60-year-old man. “Dick Sargent was a great guy and we stayed in touch until he passed away.”

York died in 1992 at the age of 63, and Sargent died in 1994 at the age of 64.

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