Bewitched
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
I Married A Witch
In the 1960’s, women on television belonged to an exotic breed, a definite contrast to the rather restrictive female characters of the Eisenhower Era. Columbia’s television division, Screen Gems, carved out a niche for itself by centering shows around women with extraordinary capabilities.
I Dream of Jeannie featured a beautiful, buxom, blonde genie waiting at home to grant every wish, command, and solution for Captain (later Major) Anthony Nelson, a NASA astronaut. Nelson explored heavenly bodies in his job and kept a heavenly body at home, usually in her bottle.
Barbara Eden played Jeannie, rivaling the Catwoman portrayals by Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt on Batman for most awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, tongue-wagging costume on 1960’s television.
The Flying Nun illustrated the adventures of...well, the title explains it. Sally Field elevated to new heights as Sister Bertrille in her adventures at a Puerto Rican convent. Whether she actually had the gift of flight or an invisible helping hand is a provocative question.
Tere Rios’ book The Fifteenth Pelican (1966) provided the basis for The Flying Nun series.
Bewitched revolved a standard sitcom format of a young, married couple in suburbia around a twist. The wife was a witch. Literally.
Executive Producer Harry Ackerman talked about the show’s back story in a 1987 Museum of Broadcasting (now Paley Center For Media) retrospective entitled Columbia Pictures Television: The Studio and the Creative Process.
Bewitched was born in a breakfast meeting one day when Bill Dozier (Batman, The Green Hornet) asked me, What would you think of trying to develop a show where a mortal is married to a witch? I immediately went to my typewriter and wrote about six pages on something called The Witch of Westport, in which I created a guy named Darrin in advertising who commuted daily to New York [City] and was married to a witch. I even had the mother-in-law raised to the tenth degree. We went to a variety of writers to find someone to write the pilot but we couldn’t get our first couple of choices so we ended up with Sol Saks, with whom I worked in radio.
Bewitched debuted on ABC on September 17, 1964 and ran for eight seasons. Its first episode informs the audience about the marriage of Darrin and Samantha Stephens.
I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha shows several chance meeting between the episode’s title characters. The first meeting takes place at the entrance to the Clark Building. Eventually, a romance blossoms, matures, and results in wedlock. One problem, though. Samantha neglects to tell darrin she’s a witch. Eventually, she reveals the truth. She can change things with a simple twitch of her nose. And so begins a matrimonial adventure unlike any other.
Even though his wife has immense power at her disposal, Darrin wants her to refrain from using it...as much as is superhumanly possible.
Witch’s Crew
Elizabeth Montgomery played Samantha with the right combination of innocence, guile, mischievousness, and sex appeal. Bewitched was a family affair for Montgomery. William Asher, Montgomery’s then husband, was the show’s producer. Asher won the Emmy for Best Director (Comedy) for the 1965-66 season.
Two actors played breadwinning advertising executive Darrin Stephens -- Dick York (1964-69) and Dick Sargent (1969-72).
Before Bewitched ended, the Stephenses had two children -- Tabitha (born 1965) and Adam (born (1970). Three sets of twins played Tabitha -- Heidi and Laura Gentry, Tamar and Julie Young, Diane and Erin Murphy. Twins David and Greg Lawrence played Adam.
Tabitha inherited Samantha’s bewitching ways, while Adam got Darrin’s mortality.
Darrin Stephens worked for the advertising firm McMahon & Tate. David White played Larry Tate, Darrin’s easily exasperated boss and a frequent visitor to the Stephens home. ABC’s thirtysomething (1987-91) referred to McMahon & Tate in an early episode, a logical reference as two of the show’s main characters worked in advertising.
Other visitors to the Stephens home at 1164 Morning Glory Circle in Westport, Connecticut included historical figures like Julius Caesar and George Washington. Relatives also dropped in, like Uncle Arthur, Aunt Clara, and Samantha’s seemingly omnipresent mother Endora. Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, and Agnes Moorehead played the characters respectively.
Gladys Kravits was a Stephens neighbor. She always thought there was something strange about the Stephenses, so she spied on them from her living room window. Sandra Gould and Alice Pearce played Mrs. Kravitz.
Musicomedy
Montgomery also played Samantha’s lookalike cousin Serena, a character who appeared in about ten percent of the show’s 252 episodes. However, the fictional actress Pandora Spocks was credited in the show’s credits.
Serena Stops the Show revolves around rock stars, a common plot device of the time, Gilligan’s Island and The Munsters parodied the Beatles with the Mosquitos and the Standells respectively. Also, Chad & Jeremy guest starred as themselves on Batman and as the fictional Redcoats on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Serena Stops the Show first aired on February 19, 1970. The episode features Darrin getting the popular singing/songwriting duo Boyce & Hart to do commercials for the Breeze Shampoo account.
As usual, Serena presents a conflict with selfish motives. She wants Boyce & Hart to perform her song I’ll Blow You A Kiss in the Wind at the Cosmos Club annual cotillion. As Serena, Montgomery gives a bravura performance of the song for cousins Samantha and Darrin. She refers to Darrin as tall, dark, and mortal.
Serena casts a spell erasing Boyce & Hart’s popularity, then reverses it after their performance at the Cosmos Club. The duo also performs I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight. Boyce & Hart wrote both songs.
A Great Episode and an Animated Samantha
Bewitched earned a place in the quality television annals. TV Guide named the episode Divided He Falls as #48 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time in its June 28 - July 4, 1997 issue. The episode first aired on May 5, 1966.
Divided He Falls shows Darrin overloaded with work commitments, specifically, the Stern Chemical account. With deadline fast approaching, our hero may be forced to prioritize. Consequently, vacation plans with Samantha are in jeopardy. Endora steps in and creates a second Darrin, thereby allowing one for work and one for play. TV Guide explains the results and a bit of Bewitched trivia.
In an athletic double performance by York, Darrin’s hedonistic half becomes a Watusiing mass of irresponsibility, while his workaholic half is so all-business he nearly runs client Sanford Stern (Frank Maxwell) and boss Larry Tate (David White) into the ground. Divided He Falls was so delicious that when Dick Sargent replaced York on the show in 1969, the first episode he filmed was a remake of this one.
Screen Gems crossed over Samantha and Darrin to its hit cartoon show The Flintstones (ABC, 1960-66). In the episode Samantha, the Stephenses become neighbors of the Flintstones and Rubbles. The episode first aired on October 22, 1965.
Bewitched: The Next Generation
Five years after Bewitched left the airwaves in 1972, ABC tried to further the franchise with a spinoff. Tabitha aired for one season on ABC (1977-78). Lisa Hartman played the title role with David Ankrum as brother Adam. Tabitha worked for KLXA, a California television station. Primarily, she worked as a production assistant and tended to The Paul Thurston Show. Paul Thurston was an obnoxious, conceited, minimally talented television personality. Robert Urich played Thurston.
In 2005, Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman starred in the movie Bewitched. In the story, Will Ferrell plays Jack Wyatt, an actor about to star in a remake of Bewitched. He discovers Isabel (Kidman), a real-life witch who can twitch her nose just like Samantha. She never heard of the show but becomes easily fascinated by it.
Jack and Isabel have a romance just like Darrin and Samantha. The story ends with a nod to the show and a wink to the audience. They enter their new home with a number address of 1164 and a nosy neighbor like Mrs. Kravitz spying from her living room window.