Bewitched (television program)

Bewitched was an American fantasy television series that aired from 1964 to 1972, featuring a witch married to a mortal and living in suburbia. The witch’s magical abilities created havoc for her husband and friends. The series experienced a number of cast changes during its eight-year run. It also created some controversy with a racially themed episode in 1970. However, Bewitched left a lasting legacy. It is often referenced in pop culture, and efforts have been made to revive the show’s concept through remakes. Bewitched is also recognized for the contribution it made to subtly tackle the concept of interracial marriage during the turbulent Civil Rights era.

Background

Bewitched was created by American screenwriter and television executive Sol Saks, who was inspired by the movies I Married a Witch (1942) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958). The cast began rehearsals for its pilot on November 22, 1963, and Bewitched aired for the first time on September 17, 1964. A total of 254 episodes were made over eight seasons, with thirty-six in the first season, thirty-eight in the second, and a decreasing number in the following seasons until it finished with twenty-six episodes in season eight.

The show opened with a short, animated sequence produced by Hanna-Barbera. The sequences showed cartoon versions of the principal characters and names of the actors portraying them while playing the show’s theme song. It originally aired at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday nights on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). It became the network’s best-rated show and a top sitcom amongst all three major networks. However, the show’s ratings dropped somewhat as its run continued. This was generally attributed to some forced casting changes and the show’s tendency to reuse scripts in different seasons. The network offered to produce two additional seasons, but star Elizabeth Montgomery was growing tired of the show and also experiencing marital problems with her husband William Asher, who directed the show. As a result, Bewitched ended after the eighth season.

Overview

In Bewitched, a beautiful witch named Samantha married Darrin Stephens, a mortal, and moved to a suburban East Coast neighborhood. Samantha’s family objected to the marriage, while Darrin strongly disapproved of Samantha using magic in any but the most extreme situations. Many episodes featured Samantha’s attempts to use magic that backfired in some way to create havoc for Darrin, his boss, or his coworkers, providing the show’s comedy. The family dynamic and the magical problems became more complicated when Samantha and Darrin had two children, Tabitha and Adam, both born with their mother’s magical powers.

Casting was sometimes problematic for the long-running show. Elizabeth Montgomery played the role of Samantha throughout the entire run, but her advertising executive husband was played by two different actors. Dick York was Darrin for the first four seasons. However, he had suffered a serious, inoperable back injury on the final day of filming for the movie They Came to Cordura in 1959. The injury caused him frequent pain and resulted in his character being out of town on business in a number of episodes. During the fifth season, York visited a doctor one day instead of having lunch and received an injection. When he returned to the set, he suffered a seizure. He was hospitalized and never played Darrin again.

After several more episodes where Darrin was out of town, York was replaced by Dick Sargent, who played the role of Darrin for the remainder of the series, but his name did not appear in the credits until the sixth season. No explanation was offered at the time, making the sudden but obvious change somewhat legendary in television history.

Other principal actors in the show included Agnes Moorehead as Samantha’s mother Endora, David White as Darrin’s boss Larry Tate, Erin Murphy as daughter Tabitha, Paul Lynde as Samantha’s Uncle Arthur, and Bernard Fox as Dr. Bombay, who was often summoned to help fix magical mishaps. Another main character with a casting change was nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz. She was initially played by Alice Pearce, who died in 1966 of ovarian cancer. Pearce was posthumously awarded a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She was replaced by Sandra Gould.

In addition to the confusion amongst fans created by the change in actors, Bewitched sparked controversy with its 1970 Christmas episode “Sisters at Heart.” In the episode, a racist client does not want to do business with Darrin because he sees him with Tabitha and Tabitha’s friend, who is a Black American. The client assumes that both children are his, and he is in an interracial marriage. In the course of the episode, Tabitha attempts to make herself and her friend more alike by giving herself black spots and her friend white spots. Several characters later appear in blackface, after which the racist client realizes the error of his ways.

The episode was inspired by a class of Black students from an English class at Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles. Their teacher, Marcella Saunders, had written to the show and several others seeking an opportunity to help her students engage in their schoolwork by connecting it to television. The class was invited to the set. They suggested the storyline, which was turned into an episode script by a staff writer with the students being acknowledged by name in the credits. Though the episode caused some controversy and would be considered problematic in the twenty-first century, it was well-received at the time and won the Emmy’s Governors Award.

Bewitched had a lasting impact on television and popular culture. It was amongst the first shows to depict a strong, independent female lead character. Television historians also note that by having Samantha be someone who had to pretend she was something other than what she was, the show provided quiet commentary on how society views people who are outside the norm.

The show is also credited with giving a friendlier face to witches, which changed how the town of Salem, Massachusetts, saw and marketed itself. The impact the show had on the city and its tourism is commemorated in a statue of Montgomery as Samantha featured in the town. In addition, the show led to the concept of a witch living amongst mortals being featured in a number of Bewitched remakes and spin-offs, as well as other shows with similar plot lines.

Throughout the 2000s, and across the globe, remakes of Bewitched have been proposed and aired. In late 2023, an animated version was previewed by industry insiders in the United States. Into the 2020s, Bewitched remained the fifth most popular television show of all time amongst members of Generation X, although it had fallen to a rank of eighty-fourth amongst Millennials. CBS News placed the show at number eleven on the most popular television shows of all time in 2021. Bewitched remains an important cultural touchpoint between American society and popular television.

Bibliography

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“Bewitched: Full Cast and Crew.” TV Guide, www.tvguide.com/tvshows/bewitched/cast/1000177705/. Accessed 2 August 2021.

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Kovalchik, Kara. 14 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Bewitched.” Mental Floss, 3 Nov. 2015, www.mentalfloss.com/article/59789/14-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-bewitched. Accessed 2 August 2021.

Lewis, Danny. How Bewitched Helped Salem Embrace Its Grim Past.” Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Oct. 2015, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bewitched-salem-massachusetts-witches-180957090/. Accessed 14 May 2024.

McKairnes, Jim. “Bewitched Broke Ground 45 Years Ago.” USA Today, 20 Dec. 2015, www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2015/12/20/bewitched-broke-ground-45-years-ago/77115192. Accessed 14 May 2024.

Ryan, Joal. “America's Most Popular TV Shows of all Time, Ranked.” CBS News, 18 Mar. 2021, www.cbsnews.com/pictures/most-popular-tv-shows-america-ranked/42. Accessed 14 May 2024.

Stampler, Laura. “5 Things Producers Didn’t Want You to Know About Bewitched.” Time, 17 Sept. 2014, time.com/3318876/bewitched-anniversary/. Accessed 2 August 2021.