William Milton Asher (August 8, 1921 – July 16, 2012) was an American television and film producer, film director, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prolific early television directors, producing or directing over two dozen series.

With television in its infancy, Asher introduced the sitcom Our Miss Brooks, which was adapted from a radio show. He began directing I Love Lucy by 1952. As a result of his early success, Asher was considered an "early wunderkind of TV-land," and was hyperbolically credited in one magazine article with "inventing" the sitcom. In 1964, he began to direct episodes of Bewitched, which starred his wife Elizabeth Montgomery. He produced the series from the fourth season.

Asher was also crucial to the success of AIP's Beach Party series.

Asher was nominated for an Emmy Award four times, winning once for directing Bewitched in 1966. He was also nominated for the DGA Award in 1951 for I Love Lucy.

Early life

Asher was born in New York City to stage actress Lillian Bonner and producer Ephraim M. Asher (1887–1937), whose movie credits were mostly as an associate producer. His sister, Betty Asher, was an MGM publicist for Judy Garland. His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic.

Career

Asher returned to California to direct Leather Gloves (1948), a low-budget film. He eventually gravitated to television (then a new medium), and gained a job writing short story "fillers" for various programs, which evolved into a series which was titled Little Theatre. From this work, he gained a contract with Columbia Pictures to work on a film musical for Harry Cohn.

Asher was considered an "early wunderkind of TV-land, blazing a path in the new medium" of television.

In addition to Our Miss Brooks and I Love Lucy, Asher directed episodes of The Colgate Comedy Hour, Make Room for Daddy, The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series), The Patty Duke Show, Gidget, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Alice. Asher and Montgomery befriended President John F. Kennedy, and, together with Frank Sinatra, planned Kennedy's 1961 inaugural ceremony. In 1986, he attempted to return to television, this time, with Fred Whitehead, Orion Television executive to set up Asher/Whitehead Productions, but the only television project they produced was Kay O'Brien, which was canceled after only one season.

Asher directed and co-wrote a number of Beach party films, including the original Beach Party, and several others in the series: Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Beach Blanket Bingo, and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. Critic Wheeler Winston Dixon later suggested that the Beach Party films were not only "visions of paradise" for the audience, but also for Asher, who used them "to create a fantasy world to replace his own troubled childhood".

Asher counted Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr. as his friends, and sometimes, he caroused with them in Las Vegas, flying there from Hollywood in Sinatra's plane, and then flying back in order to be at work at the studio at 5 AM.

Television filmography

{| class=wikitable

|-

! Debut Year

! Title

|-

! colspan=2| As director

|-

| 1950||The Colgate Comedy Hour

|-

| 1951||Racket Squad

|-

| 1951||I Love Lucy

|-

| 1951||The Dinah Shore Show

|-

| 1952||Our Miss Brooks

|-

| 1953||Make Room for Daddy

|-

| 1953||The Ray Bolger Show

|- 1954||December Bride

|-

| 1954||Willy

|-

| 1954||The Lineup

|-

| 1955||The Jane Wyman Show

|-

| 1957||The Thin Man

|-

| 1958||The Donna Reed Show

|-

| 1959||Fibber McGee and Molly

|-

| 1959||The Twilight Zone

|-

| 1963||The Patty Duke Show

|-

| 1964||Bewitched

|-

| 1965||Gidget

|-

| 1972|| Temperatures Rising

|-

| 1972|| The Paul Lynde Show

|-

| 1976||Alice

|-

| 1977||Tabitha

|-

| 1979||The Dukes of Hazzard

|-

| 1979||Flatbush

|-

| 1979||The Bad News Bears

|-

| 1984||Crazy Like a Fox

|-

| 1986||Kay O'Brien

|-

! colspan=2|As producer

|-

| 1955||The Jane Wyman Show

|-

| 1960||The Land of Oz

|-

| 1963||The Patty Duke Show

|-

| 1967||Bewitched

|-

| 1972||Temperatures Rising

|-

| 1972||The Paul Lynde Show

|-

| 1980||Here's Boomer

|-

| 1986||Kay O'Brien

|-

! colspan=2|As writer

|-

| 1973||The Young and the Restless (1988)

|}

Cinema filmography

{| class=wikitable

|-

! Year

! Title

! Position

|-

| 1948||Leather Gloves||Director

|-

| 1957||The Shadow on the Window||Director

|-

| 1957||The 27th Day||Director

|-

| 1963||Beach Party||Director and co-writer

|-

| 1963||Johnny Cool||Producer and director

|-

| 1964||Bikini Beach||Director and co-writer

|-

| 1964||Muscle Beach Party||Director and co-writer

|-

| 1965||Beach Blanket Bingo||Director and co-writer

|-

| 1965||How to Stuff a Wild Bikini||Director and co-writer

|-

| 1966||Fireball 500||Director and co-writer

|-

| 1982||Night Warning||Director

|-

| 1985||Movers & Shakers||Co-producer and director

|}

  • <small>Source:</small>

References

  • (March–April 2000)