“I Love Lucy” director William Asher dies at 90

Two of the sitcoms I watched faithfully as a kid – okay, and as an adult – were I Love Lucy and Bewitched.

William Asher, who died today at the age of 90, was a key creative force behind both shows as a director and producer.

He directed 100 of I Love Lucy’s 181 half-hour episodes between 1951 and 1957 (the show did 13 one-hour episodes 1957-60).

Following his run on Lucy, Asher brought Sally Field to TV screens in Gidget, directed and produced The Patty Duke Show then moved on to another television classic: Bewitched which starred his then-wife Elizabeth Montgomery with whom he had three children.

He was also director of the the popular Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello movies Beach Blanket Bingo, Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach.

“When I look back at my own work, Bewitched stays with me the most, and Lucy, and the Beach Party pictures,” he once said. “The scripts of the Beach Party films were sheer nonsense, but they were fun and positive. . . . When kids see the films now, they can get some idea of what the ’60s were like like. The whole thing was a dream, of course. But it was a nice dream.

His wife, Meredith, says he died Monday at a facility in Palm Desert, Calif., of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.