Daddy Does His Thing

"Daddy Does His Thing" is the 167th episode of the American television sitcom Bewitched. This was the 27th episode of the fifth season and originally aired on ABC on April 3, 1969. It is notable for being the last episode Dick York filmed.
Plot
Samantha and Darrin are celebrating his birthday. Just when they are about to open some champagne so that she can reveal a special surprise "for both of us," Samantha's father, Maurice, show up. He comments on how radiant and glowing Samantha is, and decides to give Darrin a birthday gift. However, the affable Maurice ends up turning Darrin into a mule when he refuses a birthday gift of a lighter that would allow him to perform magic, then disappears. Samantha flies to Paris to meet with the her father, and returns home, she finds that Gladys Kravitz has had Darrin taken to an animal shelter. Samantha finds Darrin among the other animals, and brings him home and Maurice changes him back.
Production
During the fifth season of Bewitched, Dick York, who had been suffering from a back injury he sustained during filming of the 1959 film They Came to Cordura, was unable to film many episodes, starting about midway though the season. Because of York's failing health, the producers of the show held back a few episodes from the beginning of the season and aired them during York's absence. After missing six episodes in a row, he returned to the set in late February 1969 to film "Daddy Does His Thing", but during filming of the opening scene in which Maurice gives Darrin the magical lighter, Dick York had a seizure and collapsed on the set. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he resigned from the show.
The plot of the episode had to be re-written to allow for York's absence. The opening scene was re-used at the end of the episode in which Maurice replays the scene (on a picture frame over the fireplace) to restore Darrin. The mule gag was to have been the opening of the episode, but became the plot for the entire show. The "special surprise" Samantha was going to reveal to Darrin at the beginning of the episode was not revealed, but presumably was the announcement that she was going to have another baby, which became the subject of the next episode, "Samantha's Good News".

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