I read that by the time Sargent was brought on board, the show was actually so out of ideas that it was remaking old episodes with Sargent instead of York, so it sounded like the show in general was out of gas by that point anyway.
They did, and if I’m not mistaken they actually remade a few episodes TWICE! That’s nuts.
In the 7th season (1970-71), one episode was “written” by two dozen Black students at a local L.A. high school English class. It netted a special Emmy Award.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_at_Heart
It did have shades of the Francis Ford Coppola film from two years prior, “Finian’s Rainbow”, with the racist antagonist. Elizabeth Montgomery cited it as her favorite episode.