Sheila Sommers (Nancy Kovack) appears in three episodes of the TV series “Bewitched. She first appears in the 1964 pilot episode “I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha” (Season 1 Episode 1). She then appears secondly in the 1968 episode “Snob in the Grass” (Season 4 Episode 19). Lastly, Sheila appears in the 1968 episode “If They Never Met” (Season 4 Episode 20).
I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha
Sheila Sommers appears as the ex-girlfriend of Darrin Stephens in the 1964 pilot episode "I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha". The episode starts out with the premise of the show being laid out. We meet the characters and see the courtship of Darrin (Dick York) and Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery). Darrin finds out that his new bride is a witch.
Sheila invites the newlyweds to a "casual" dinner party at her place that turns out to be a formal affair. The under-dressed Samantha endures insults and put-downs from the snobby Sheila until she can't take any more. Breaking her promise to give up witchcraft from her husband, she unleashes her magical fury on poor Sheila with hilarious results.
First Sheila's perfect hair mysteriously falls out of place several times as she frantically attempts to make it perfect again. Next Samantha causes her to have a green piece of lettuce stuck on one of her perfect teeth. Darrin alerts her to it and she uses a napkin to wipe it off. Next, Samantha causes a bowl of soup to move so that when Sheila puts her elbow down on the table it goes right into her soup.
Sheila continues to talk about all the wonderful times she and Darrin had in their past. Samantha then makes Sheila have a twitch to her nose that brings on a horrendous sneeze which causes the back of her dress to come undone. The maid then drops a tray full of food onto her lap.
Sheila gets up to excuse herself and Darrin the gentlemen that he is gets up to see that she is alright and return her bracelet which was dropped. As Darrin attempts to zip up the back of her dress, Samantha causes Darrin to get a kick in his pants.
While Darrin turns around to the table to act like he did nothing wrong, Samantha blows out the candle at the table which causes the front door to open and a hurricane-force wind to blow through the house and take Sheila's wig right off.
Sheila is humiliated and embarrassed and runs up the stairs leaving her dinner guests stunned. Samantha calmly finishes her soup acting like everything is peachy.
After returning home, Darrin tells Samantha she wasn't entirely wrong, and Sheila had it coming.
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Snob in the Grass
Sheila Sommers makes her second appearance as the ex-girlfriend of Darrin Stephens (Dick York) in the 1968 episode "Snob in the Grass" in the TV series "Bewitched".
Sheila's father William Sommers has a huge account that Darrin's boss Larry Tate (David White) wants him to use his personal influence with Sheila to obtain.
Darrin makes contact with Sheila and she invites Darrin and Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) to a back yard social dinner. Sheila is her typical snobbish and aggressive self, and begins to get on Samantha's nerves as she makes backhanded comments and insults. Samantha can not contain herself, and it is round two of the Samantha vs Sheila battle.
First Samantha causes a bee to land on Sheila's nose. It is kind of comical how Sheila looks cross eyed to see what it is that has landed on her. The bee continues to hover around her and finally lands on her head. The butler attempts to swat the bee while it is on her head, and Samantha causes him to lift the wig off. Sheila is completely humiliated.
When things settle down the insults and comments continue and Samantha starts the water hose in the yard and has Sheila's dog get wet. Then the dog jumps up on her with his muddy paws soiling her shirt and gives her a slobbery lick in the face. Samantha gets up to help Sheila but in the process takes a small thread of her top and ties it to the dog's collar who then takes off. Sheila begins spinning out of control and her top quickly begins to unravel from the bottom up, leaving her to be humiliated with her bra showing.
Sheila is now in tears and Samantha then causes her pearls to fall off. When Sheila bends down to pick them up, her tight capri pants split in the back. The zipper on her pants unzip revealing her underwear. Sheila attempts to cover herself saying: "Help me! somebody help me, please!" Sheila runs into her father's arms crying.
The next morning, Samantha apologizes for what happened. Darrin answers that Sheila deserved it, even if it meant losing the Sommers Account.
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If They Never Met
Sheila Sommers makes third and final appearance as the ex-girlfriend of Darrin Stephens (Dick York) in the 1968 episode "If They Never Met" in the TV series "Bewitched". In this episode, Darrin and Samantha have a fight, and Darrin says he sometimes wishes he never met her. Endora makes this come true, and takes Samantha to an alternate universe to see what life would have been like if they truly never met.
In the alternate universe, Endora and Samantha find Darrin at his office and Sheila shows up. When the two embrace and begin kissing each other, Samantha gets extremely jealous. Sheila makes the comment that she doesn’t think she can wait 10 more days until she is Mrs. Darrin Stevens. To this, Samantha is happy that they are not married yet, only engaged. Darrin reminds Sheila that they could always elope, to which she reminds him that her father already spent a fortune on the wedding ceremony. They begin talking about their honeymoon in Lisbon and Sheila reminds him not to be late to her father’s cocktail party later that night. Samantha makes the comment to Endora, that she “wonders what she would look like with that putter wrapped around her neck”.
Darrin tells Larry that he is lucky to have Sheila, which gives Samantha hope that he is not happy with this alternate reality. As a result, Samantha and Endora end up at the party to investigate it more.
Sheila is dressed in a long shimmering strapless pink gown with white opera gloves. Larry mentions the 28.5 million dollars that her father possesses as being in his dreams. Sheila tells Larry that she knows that Darrin is not marrying her for her money, in the fact that she had to propose to him. The jealous Samantha calls Sheila dreadful, and asks Endora how Darrin could even stand her.
Mr. Sommers makes a toast to the new couple and explains to the guests that in addition to paying for the wedding and honeymoon, he is also giving them 2 oil wells in Texas, a corner lot in downtown Phoenix, and a complete set of lightweight airplane luggage. As the room laughs, an unimpressed Samantha wonders what the losers get.
Still not convinced that Darrin is happier without her, she follows him to his favorite bar. While he is talking to his friend Dave about his situation, he tells him that he is not sure that he loves her. Samantha makes herself visible, walks into the bar and they bump into each other. Darrin is surprised, but buys her a martini. After they talk, he decides to break off his engagement with Sheila and cancel the wedding. He begs Samantha not to leave, and she realizes he is miserable without her and returns home.
After Endora brings Darrin back home, he admits to Samantha he is unhappy without her. Sheila does not appear the rest of the episode, and this is the last we see of her.
Trivia[]
- Nancy Kovack appeared as the evil nurse Miss Flostone in the 1965 episode "The Brain-Killer Affair" for the TV series "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."
- Nancy Kovack appears as Rita Mitchell, a rich snobby actress in the 1965 episode "The Moving Finger" for the TV series "I Dream of Jeannie".
- Nancy Kovack appears as Barbara, a villainess in the 1966 Matt Helm spy spoof film, "The Silencers". In the movie she attempts to seduce Matt Helm (Dean Martin) and then tries to kill him by sticking him with a knife. This attempt is thwarted when Tina (Daliah Lavi) shoots her in the back 2 times.
- Nancy Kovack appeared as Queenie, the Joker's henchwoman in the 1966 episodes "The Joker is Wild" and "Batman is Riled" for the TV series "Batman".
- Nancy Kovack appeared as Bronwyn in the 1967 episode "Apollo" for the TV series "I Spy".
- Nancy Kovack appeared as Sonja, the KAOS agent in the 1969 episode "The Night They Raided Knights" in the TV series Get Smart.
- Nancy Kovack appeared as Clio Vanita in the 1969 two-part episode "Cousin Serena Strikes Again" for the TV series "Bewitched".
- Nancy Kovack appeared as Nona in the 1969 episode ‘A Private Little War’ for the tv series ‘Star Trek’.
- It seems that Nancy mostly played evil blondes (perhaps being a perfect cast for this trope https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Blondes_Are_Evil) with "Sheila Sommers" (brunette) being an exception to this "rule".
- Samantha Stephens defeated a number of her rivals with magic. Usually, when it came to Samantha and beautiful women, there was some sort of jealosy going on. Some similar ways this was accomplished in Bewitched are:
- Chris Noel appeared as Susan, an ex-girlfriend of Darrin's friend Kermit, in the 1964 episode "Love is Blind". Susan was not who Samantha wanted to set Kermit up with, so she defeated Susan by making the straps of her dress fall down and her pinned up hair to be released.
- Lisa Seagram appeared as an evil witch Janine Fleur/Sarah Baker, in the 1964 episode, It Takes One to Know One".
- Virginia Martin appeared as Roxie Ames, the attention hungry Magician's Assistant in the 1965 episode, "It's Magic". Amanita has Roxie's hand stuck in a fishbowl, and later apps her gone as part of the magic act.
- Julie Gregg appeared as Miss Kabaker, who was a snobby girl in the 1966 episode, "Double Split". Samantha causes a small hors d'oeuvre to fly into her face for being so nasty.
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