William Asher

Directing

William Asher

Born 1921-08-08 · New York City, New York, USA

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, he 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. He 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. In 1951, he married actress Danny Sue Nolan, with whom he had two children; the couple divorced in 1961. He then married actress Elizabeth Montgomery in 1963, just before Bewitched began its run. They had three children and divorced in 1973. His third marriage was to actress Joyce Bulifant and it lasted from 1976 to 1993. He adopted her son, actor and director John Mallory Asher. This marriage also ended in divorce. In 1998, he married Meredith Coffin Asher, his fourth and final wife. Description above from the Wikipedia article  William Asher, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Johnny Cool poster
5.3

A deported gangster trains an Italian convict to take over his operations in the U.S.

Johnny Cool

1963

Johnny Cool poster
5.3

A deported gangster trains an Italian convict to take over his operations in the U.S.

Johnny Cool

1963

Muscle Beach Party poster
5.7

Local beach-goers find that their beach has been taken over by a businessman training a stable of body builders.

Muscle Beach Party

1964

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker poster
6.5

Rejected by her lover, the only man left in Cheryl's life is the orphaned nephew she has raised as her own son. She'll stop at nothing to keep Billy with her. When her plans misfire, she is swept up into an insane frenzy that means death to anyone who comes between her and her obsession. But the investigating detective is convinced that Billy is the real killer - and determined to prove it. Madness and fanaticism work together to drag all concerned into a terrifying vortex of blood-letting that adds a nightmarish twist to the classic Oedipus story.

Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker

1981

Beach Party poster
6.0

Anthropology Professor Robert Orwell Sutwell and his secretary Marianne are studying the sex habits of teenagers. The surfing teens led by Frankie and Dee Dee don't have much sex but they sing, battle the motorcycle rats and mice led by Eric Von Zipper and dance to Dick Dale and the Del Tones.

Beach Party

1963

The 27th Day poster
6.2

Five individuals from five nations, including the USA, USSR, and China, suddenly find themselves on an alien saucer, where an alien gives each a container holding three capsules. The alien explains that no power on earth can open a given container except a mental command from the person to whom it is given, then anyone may take a capsule and, by speaking a latitude and longitude at it, cause instant death to all within a given radius: thus each of the five has been provided with the power of life and death. Then, they are given 27 days to decide whether to use the capsules, and returned to the places from which each one came...

The 27th Day

1957

Beach Blanket Bingo poster
6.0

In the fourth of the highly successful Frankie and Annette beach party movies, a motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper kidnaps singing star Sugar Kane managed by Bullets, who hires sky-diving surfers Steve and Bonnie from Big Drop for a publicity stunt. With the usual gang of kids and a mermaid named Lorelei.

Beach Blanket Bingo

1965

Beach Blanket Bingo poster
6.0

In the fourth of the highly successful Frankie and Annette beach party movies, a motorcycle gang led by Eric Von Zipper kidnaps singing star Sugar Kane managed by Bullets, who hires sky-diving surfers Steve and Bonnie from Big Drop for a publicity stunt. With the usual gang of kids and a mermaid named Lorelei.

Beach Blanket Bingo

1965

Bikini Beach poster
5.6

A millionaire sets out to prove his theory that his pet chimpanzee is as intelligent as the teenagers who hang out on the local beach, where he is intending to build a retirement home.

Bikini Beach

1964

Bikini Beach poster
5.6

A millionaire sets out to prove his theory that his pet chimpanzee is as intelligent as the teenagers who hang out on the local beach, where he is intending to build a retirement home.

Bikini Beach

1964

Movers & Shakers poster
3.9

Studio head Joe Mulholland promises his dying producer and mentor, Saul Gritz, to adapt a popular sex manual into a film, despite his better judgment. Unable to figure out how to turn the nonfiction book into a narrative movie, Mulholland enlists the services of Herb Dorman, a screenwriter of popular romantic films with a bad marriage, and volatile director Sid Spokane to help him create a movie.

Movers & Shakers

1985

Movers & Shakers poster
3.9

Studio head Joe Mulholland promises his dying producer and mentor, Saul Gritz, to adapt a popular sex manual into a film, despite his better judgment. Unable to figure out how to turn the nonfiction book into a narrative movie, Mulholland enlists the services of Herb Dorman, a screenwriter of popular romantic films with a bad marriage, and volatile director Sid Spokane to help him create a movie.

Movers & Shakers

1985

Pippi Longstocking poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Pippi Longstocking

1961

Charley's Aunt poster
NR

Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. The story centres on Lord Fancourt Babberley, an undergraduate whose friends Jack and Charley persuade him to impersonate the latter's aunt.

Charley's Aunt

1983

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini poster
5.3

When he's stationed in Tahiti, a sailor hires a witch doctor to keep an eye on his girlfriend.

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini

1965

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini poster
5.3

When he's stationed in Tahiti, a sailor hires a witch doctor to keep an eye on his girlfriend.

How to Stuff a Wild Bikini

1965

A Bewitched Christmas poster
NR

Spend Christmas with everyone's favorite witch in this hilarious yuletide double feature.

A Bewitched Christmas

1994

Fireball 500 poster
5.1

Stock car racer Dave Owens plays into the hands of whiskey runners by agreeing to drive in a cross-country road race.

Fireball 500

1966

Fireball 500 poster
5.1

Stock car racer Dave Owens plays into the hands of whiskey runners by agreeing to drive in a cross-country road race.

Fireball 500

1966

I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later poster
5.7

Jeannie has been a happily married housewife for 15 years to her astronaut husband Tony Nelson and has a teenage son, T.J. When Tony is promoted to Colonel and is about to retire from the NASA space program, Jeannie decides to give him a celebration party in their backyard. However, egged on by his colleagues to retire with a dramatic flair, Tony breaks his promise to Jeannie for one more space flight (aboard the shuttle), this time with a female astronaut, Captain Nelly Hunt.

I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later

1985

Return to Green Acres poster
3.5

Tv movie that reunites most the show's cast members. The Douglases move back to New York. But when Haney tries to get everyone's property so that a developer can build on them, the residents go to New York to get Douglas to help them. But he's a little hesitant.

Return to Green Acres

1990

Leather Gloves poster
9.0

A fallen prizefighter must choose between two women from vastly different walks of life.

Leather Gloves

1948

The Shadow on the Window poster
5.9

Three delinquents murder a prosperous farmer at an isolated farm house. One witness to the crime - the dead man's secretary - is then taken hostage. The other witness - her young son - is thrown into state of shock. Can he recover soon enough to help the police - and his father - rescue his mother before it's too late?

The Shadow on the Window

1957

A Christmas for Boomer poster
10.0

A sacked maid and butler kidnap a pampered dog and want $20,000 ransom from the rich owner, Lila Manchester. A shaggy dog named Boomer helps save it and becomes a member of the family who originally found him.

A Christmas for Boomer

1979