Bewitched is an American television comedy fantasy series, originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964 to March 25, 1972. This was made by Sol Saks under the director of Harry Ackerman , and starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York (1964-1969), Agnes Moorehead, David White and Erin Murphy. Dick Sargent replaced the sick York for the last three seasons (1969-1972). The show is about a magician who marries an ordinary man, and vows to live the life of a typical suburban housewife. Bewitched enjoyed great popularity, ending as America's number two show during the debut season, and became the longest-running supernatural sitcom from the 1960s-1970s. Events continue to be seen around the world in syndicated and recorded media.
In 2002, Bewitched ranked # 50 on the "50 Greatest TV TV All Time" 50 TV Guide. In 1997, the same magazine ranked second episode of "Divided He Falls" # 48 on the list of "100 Most Epic All Time".
Video Bewitched
Plot
The beautiful wizard named Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) met and married a man named Darrin Stephens (originally Dick York, then Dick Sargent). While Samantha obeys Darrin's wish to become a normal suburban housewife, her wizarding family does not approve of mixed marriages and often interferes in the couple's life. The episode often begins with Darrin being a victim of spells, an effect that causes chaos with humans like his boss, client, parent, and neighbor. By epilogue, however, Darrin and Samantha most often embrace, having overcome the cunning elements that fail to separate them. The magicians and their male counterpart, the witch, are very long-lived; while Samantha appears to be a young woman, many episodes show that she is actually hundreds of years old. To keep their society secret, the magicians avoid showing their power in front of mortal beings other than Darrin. Nevertheless, the effects of their mantra - and Samantha's efforts to hide their supernatural origin from humans - propel the plot of most episodes. Magicians and magicians usually use physical movements along with their mantras. To perform the magic, Samantha often moves her nose to create spells. Special visual effects accompanied by music to highlight such actions.
Maps Bewitched
Settings
The main setting for most episodes is Stephens' home in 1164 Morning Glory Circle, in a middle-class suburban neighborhood, either in Westport, Connecticut or Patterson, New York as demonstrated by the conflicting information presented throughout the series. Episode 3 "Soap Box Derby" featured Mills Garage at Patterson as a sponsor of a neighbor's car, and the station wagon Stephens was spotted with a New York plate. Also, in season 7 episodes of "Laugh, Clown, Laugh" Darrin's car is seen with a New York plate on it. Elizabeth Montgomery has a second home in Patterson. Many scenes also take place in the fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency "McMann and Tate", where Darrin works.
Character
During his journey, the series has a number of major player changes, often due to the illness or death of the actors. In particular, players who play Darrin replaced after the fifth season, where he missed several episodes..
Precursors
According to Harpie's Bizarre, a website based on "witch magazine" often described in the series), the inspiration for the creator of Sol Saks for this series where many similarities can be seen is the movie I Married a Witch (1942 ) evolved from the unfinished Thorne Smith novel The Passionate Witch, and John Van Druten Broadway played Bell, Book and Candle, which was adapted into the 1958 film.
In Married a Witch, Wallace Wooley (Fredric March) is the descendant of those executed by magicians in Salem's witch court. In retaliation, a magician (Veronica Lake) prepares a love potion for her. He ends up eating his own potion and falls off because of his enemy. His father opposed this union. In the movie Bell, Book and Candle, modern wizard Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) uses a love spell on Shep Henderson (James Stewart) to have a simple romantic relationship with her but is totally in love with the man.
The two films are Columbia Pictures property, which is also owned by Screen Gems, a company that produces Bewitched .
Production and broadcasting
Sol Saks, who received the credits as the creator of the show, wrote the Bewitched pilot even though he was not involved with the show after the pilot. Creator Saks, executive producer Harry Ackerman, and director William Asher started training for the pilot on November 22, 1963; coinciding with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Asher felt personally affected by the event when he knew Kennedy; he has produced a television birthday party that aired in 1962, where Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President". But the show must keep going. The pilot is concerned about "destabilizing the occult of conformist life from an upwardly moving advertising man". Producer and first season head writer Danny Arnold set the style and start of the series, and also helped develop supporting characters such as Larry Tate and Kravitzes. Arnold, writing at McHale's Navy and other events, thinks of Bewitched basically as a romantic comedy about mixed marriage; the episodes make the magic element a minimum. One or two magical actions encourage the plot, but Samantha often solves problems without magic. Many first season episodes are allegorical, using a supernatural situation as a metaphor for the problems facing each young couple. Arnold states that the two main themes of this series are the conflict between a strong woman and a husband who can not handle that power, and the anger of a bride's mother when she sees her daughter marrying beneath her. Although the show was a hit right from the start, completing the first year as the number 2 event in the United States, ABC wanted more magic and a more humorous plot, causing a battle between Arnold and the network.
His first season, Bewitched was the number one event of the American Broadcasting Company and best ranked sitcom among the three networks. It ranks second only to Bonanza . Magic was aired at 9pm Thursday night. It was preceded in the air by another sitcom, My Three Sons , and was followed by the soap opera Peyton Place . My Three Sons is ranked 13th and Peyton Place ninth. The block formed by the three shows is the strongest ranking thief in ABC's schedule. Arnold left the show after the first season, leaving productive assignments to his friend Jerry Davis, who has produced several episodes of his first season (though Arnold is still watching the writing). The second season was produced by Davis and with Bernard Slade as head writer, with misunderstandings and jokes being a more common element but still including a number of low key episodes where the magic element is not in front and center. With a third season and color change, Davis left the show, and was replaced as producer by William Froug. Slade also went after the second season. According to William Froug's autobiography, William Asher (who has directed many episodes) wanted to take over as a producer when Jerry Davis left, but the production company was not ready to approve the idea. Froug, former producer of Gilligan's Island and the last season of The Twilight Zone, was brought in as a compromise. With his own admission, Froug is not too familiar with Bewitched and finds himself in an unfavorable position as an official producer although Asher makes the most of his creative decisions. After a year, Froug left the show, and Asher took over as full-time producer of this series for the rest of his journey. The first two seasons were aired Thursday at 9:00, and the time was moved to 8:30 shortly after the third year (1966-1967) began. However, the ratings for Bewitched remain high and are placed among the top fifteen shows during the 1968-69 season. This is the seventh highest-ranked event on the US schedule of '65 -'66 and '66 -'67. Similarly, it is number 11 the next two years.
By then, the show had won three Emmy Awards. William Asher won the Emmy Primetime Prize for Direct Position for Comedy Series in 1966. Alice Pearce posthumously won the Emmy Primetime Award for Outstanding Actress in the Comedy Series for his role as Gladys Kravitz and Marion Lorne won the same posthumous award in 1968 for his role as Aunt Clara. The producers are faced with how to deal with the deaths of these two actresses. When Pearce died in the spring of 1966, only a few episodes of the second season were left to be filmed. Mary Grace Canfield was hired to portray Gladys's brother-in-law, Harriet Kravitz in four episodes. Comedian Alice Ghostley is approached to take over Gladys role next season, but rejects it. Instead, Sandra Gould was hired. Marion Lorne is not replaced, and Aunt Clara's character is not seen after the fourth season. Instead, beginning in the sixth year of the event, Ghostley eventually used to play the character of Esmeralda, a good but shy and incompetent magician. In another notable casting change, Louise Tate, played by Irene Vernon for the first two seasons, was played by Kasey Rogers afterwards. During the fifth season (1968-1969), Serena (identical cousin Samantha, also played by Montgomery) was used more often. Filming scenes involving Samantha and Serena were performed using Melody McCord, Montgomery stand-in. In this same season, in many player change events, Dick York can not continue his role as Darrin because of the severe back condition, the result of an accident during filming They Came To Cordura (1959). Beginning with the third season, York's flaws have led to continuous script shootings and script rewriting causing frequent episodes without Darrin. After fainting while filming the episode "Daddy Does His Thing" and was rushed to hospital in January 1969, York left the show permanently. That same month, Dick Sargent plays a role to play Darrin starting in the sixth season. The rest of the fifth season was filmed without York and featured many episodes where Darrin was away on business. At about the same time, Montgomery and Asher announced that they were expecting more babies and it was decided that Samantha and Darrin would also have more children in the fall of that year. On the screen, Samantha told Darrin by phone news about her second pregnancy.
Beginning with the opening of the sixth season credits (1969-1970), in addition to York being replaced with Sargent, Elizabeth Montgomery is billed on top of the title, and David White now receives the bill as well, after Agnes Moorehead. During the year, the event was significantly downgraded, falling from eleventh to 24th position. In mid-1970, Stephens' home set was being rebuilt because of a fire. In June, the cast and crew travel to Salem, Magnolia, and Gloucester, Massachusetts to film the eight-part story of the bow where Samantha, Darrin, and Endora traveled to Salem for the 20th-century Witch Convocation. This shooting location marks the film's only time of the studio and its Hollywood backlot. Season seven aired with eight episodes of 'Salem Saga'. On June 15, 2005, TV Land launched the Samantha statue in Salem to mark the 40th anniversary of the event. In the hand there are three surviving actors from the show, Bernard Fox, Erin Murphy, and Kasey Rogers, and producer/director William Asher.
Episodes at this location helped a sagging ranking of the event, but after the Salem episode, the viewership diminished. Scripts from old episodes are often recycled. The year rank for Bewitched has dropped and the show is not even included in the list of the top thirty programs. ABC moved Bewitched airtime from Thursday at 8:30 pm to Wednesday at 8:00 pm at the beginning of the eighth season. The schedule change did not help the ratings because the show was now pitted against the popular CBS The Carol Burnett Show . Fewer repetitive characters are used this season, with Kravitz, Darrin's parents, and Uncle Arthur not showing up at all. The filming ended in December 1971, and in January 1972 the event was finally moved to Saturday night at 8:00 pm, opposite the number one television show, All in the Family , where it fared more bad again, with Bewitched finished in 72nd position for this year.
The storyline is repeated from I Love Lucy
In the episode "The Failure of the Power of Samantha", the power of Serena and Uncle Arthur is issued by the Wizarding Council. The impotent duo get a job at the confectionery factory, with both throwing and hiding banana strikes from a conveyor belt dipped in chocolate and nuts, then packed. This episode mimics the episode of the famous chocolate line assembly I Love Lucy ("Work Shift"), directed by producer/director William Asher. Bewitched . Serena and Arthur's jokes and physical behavior are taken from Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ethel (Vivian Vance) handbooks. In the episode "Samantha's Supermaid" Samantha interviews a maid, and the scene is almost identical to the one in Lucy . Season 8 featured a European holiday, but was filmed in Hollywood using stock recordings, like the "European" episode of Lucy . Similar to Endora's refusal to pronounce Darrin's name correctly, Lucy's mother always refers to Ricky's son-in-law by the wrong name, including "Mickey", and in a one-time letter, "who-her name".
Set and location
The 1959 film Columbia Pictures Gidget was filmed on site at a real house in Santa Monica (on 267 18th Street). The design of this home blueprint is then reversed and replicated as a home facade attached to the garage that is in the backlot of the Columbia Ranch. This is a house that looks at Bewitched . The terrace and living room seen at Columbia Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) was soon adapted for the permanent set of Bewitched for 1964. Stephens' home interior can be seen, substantially unchanged, in the movie Jerry Lewis Hook, Line & amp; Sinker (1969). The set is also used several times in the television series Gidget and I Dream of Jeannie, as well as the film made for Brian's Song television (1971). It is also used, as a setting for the tag opening sequence, for the last episode of the first season of other Screen Gems properties, The Monkeys and in an episode The Fantastic Journey . Production and filmmaking for Bewitched is based in Los Angeles and, although the setting is assumed to be New York, some episodes feature a wide-angle exterior view of the Stephensian neighborhood that shows the California landscape with mountains at a distance. Another example of the questionable continuity of location can be seen in Season 6, Episode 6: Darrin's parents come home after visiting a new baby, passing through some of the large palm trees lining the road.
Cultural context
Feminist Betty Friedan wrote the essay "Television and the Feminine Mystery" (February, 1964) where she criticized the way women are portrayed on television. He summarized their portrayal as a stupid, uninteresting, and insecure home push. Their time is divided between dreaming of love and planning revenge on their husbands. Samantha is not depicted like this and Endora uses words like Friedan to criticize the boring boring domestic life. Others have seen the way the series plays [and] subverts the rich content of cultural stereotypes and allusions about witches, gender roles, advertising and consumerism.
In the episode "Eat at Mario's" (May 27, 1965), Samantha and Endora work together in using their magic to defend and promote quality Italian restaurants. They enjoy an active, aggressive role in the public sphere, opening a new ground in the portrayal of women on television.
Reception
Walter Metz links the success of this series with his sharp writing, the charm of Elizabeth Montgomery, and the talents of his great supporters. The show also utilizes a respected film technique for its particular effects. The soundtrack is unique, especially where it cares for the sound of a jerked nose.
The first episode featured a voice-over-the-scenes narrator performing a sociological comic analysis of the role of a wizard in a middle-class suburbia. This style is reminiscent of Hollywood movies like Will Success Destroy Stone Hunters? (1957). In a 1991 audio interview with movie historian Ronald Haver, Elizabeth Montgomery revealed that her father Robert Montgomery was originally approached to tell the episodes but she refused. Instead, the narrative was performed by Academy Award-winning actor Jose Ferrer, who did not receive credit.
Impact
The series inspired the event of his rival I Dream of Jeannie (1965-1970), a program that, when first run, never reached the top rank.
Spin-off, crossover, and remake
The Flintstones
The 1965 episode of The Flintstones is titled "Samantha" (1965), featuring Dick York and Elizabeth Montgomery as Darrin and Samantha Stephens, who recently moved into the neighborhood. This crossover is facilitated by both series that aired on ABC.
Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family
An animated cartoon created in 1972 by Hanna-Barbera Productions for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie , featuring teenage versions of Tabitha and Adam visiting their aunts and their traveling family with the circus.
Tabitha
In 1977, a brief spinoff titled Tabitha was aired on ABC. Lisa Hartman plays Tabitha, now an adult working with her brother Adam on KXLA television station. There are some differences in continuity with the original series. Adam and Tabitha have both much older ones than the five-year intervention between the two allowed series. Adam had also become older Tabitha's older brother, rather than his younger warlock brother, like he was at Bewitched. Aunt Minerva's supporting character (Karen Morrow) says she has been close to Tabitha since childhood, though she has never been mentioned in the original series. Tabitha's parents mentioned but never appeared. But Bernard Fox, Sandra Gould, George Tobias, and Dick Wilson took on their role as Dr. Bombay, Gladys Kravitz, Abner Kravitz, and "various drunks."
Theatrical movie
Bewitched inspired a 2005 film starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. The film, which departs from the tone of a family event, is not a remake but re-imagines the sitcom, with action focused on the arrogant, unsuccessful Hollywood actor Jack Wyatt (Ferrell) who was offered a comeback career playing Darrin in a remake of Bewitched . This role depends on her finding the perfect woman to play Samantha. He chose the unknown named Isabel Bigelow (Kidman), who is the real magician. The film is written, directed, and produced by Nora Ephron, and is poorly received by most critics and is a financial disappointment. This generates $ 22 million less than domestic production costs. However, he earned an additional $ 68 million internationally. The New York Times called the film "an unmitigated disaster."
Comic adaptation
Dell Comics adapted this series into a comic book series in 1964. The artwork was provided by Henry Scarpelli.
In 1966, the series was adapted as a strip in Lady Penelope, from the 12th edition and lasted until comic death in 1969.
Television remake
Argentina: A remake named Hechizada , produced by Telefà ©  ©, premiered in early 2007. The film stars Florencia PeÃÆ'Âa as Samantha, Gustavo GarzÃÆ'³n as her husband, Eduardo, and Georgina Barbarrosa as Endora. This event customizes original scripts with an Argentine context, with local humor and contemporary settings. The show was canceled due to low ratings after a few weeks.Reboots suggested
In August 2011 it was reported that CBS ordered a script written by Marc Lawrence for the reboot series Bewitched .
On October 22, 2014, Sony Pictures Television announced that it had sold its pilot from Bewitched to NBC as a possible entry for the 2015-2016 US TV season. However, this version will focus on Tabitha's daughter, Daphne, a single woman who, despite her supernatural powers as her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, is determined not to use it to find a mate. The new version of the proposed series, which is being written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, has been on the radar of several major networks, including ABC, after Sony began shopping for projects to interested parties.
Episode
Episode Availability
History Syndication
After completing the original show, ABC Daytime and ABC Saturday Morning continued to feature the series until 1973. Bewitched has been syndicated on many local US broadcast stations from 1973-82 and then since 1993, including Columbia TriStar Television as part of the package syndication of Screen Gems Network from 1999-2001, which was featured on the 1999 bonus cover content during episode broadcast.
From 1973 to 1982, the whole series was syndicated by Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures. In the late 70s, many local stations missed black and white episodes or only ran in the summer because of the perception that black-and-white shows usually had a lower appeal than the performances that were filmed in color. From 1981 to 1991, only color episodes were syndicated in the syndicated barter by the DFS Exchange Program. The first two seasons, which are in black and white are not included and Columbia retains the right to it. Starting in 1989, Nick at Nite began airing only black-and-white episodes, which were not originally edited at the time. The edited continued in syndicated barter until 1992. Columbia syndicated the entire series starting in 1991. Six remaining color seasons were added to Nick in the Nite lineup in March 1998 in Dueling Darrins Marathon for a week. Seasons 1-2 was then colored and made available for syndication and finally DVD sales. The WTBS cable television channel brought the 3-8 season during the 1980s and 1990s from DFS bartering like most local stations performing.
The Hallmark Channel aired shows from 2001 to 2003; TV Land then aired the show from 2003 to 2006, and returned in March 2010, but left the schedule in 2012. In October 2008, the show began broadcasting on WGN America, and in October 2012 on Logo, limited to the mid-season only. In Australia, this series airs on Nine Network GO's digital channel! then moved to 7TWO Seven Network digital channels then 7flix, Russia-based channel Domashny aired shows from 2008 to 2010. MeTV aired the show with I Dream of Jeannie from December 31st, 2012 to September 1st 2013. The show is now airing on TV Antenna.
The event has been distributed by Columbia Pictures Television (1974-1982, 1988 (black and white only until 1990) -1996), DFS/Exchange Program (1980-1991, 2010-2014), Columbia TriStar Television (1996-2002), and Sony Pictures Television (2002-present).
Internet
Selected episodes can be viewed on iTunes, YouTube, Internet Movies Database, Upstream, Interest Networks, Crackle, and Amazon.com.
DVD release
Starting in 2005, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released all eight seasons of Bewitched . In regions 1 and 4, seasons 1 and 2 are each released in two versions - one as originally broadcast in black and white, and one colored. The full series set contains only 1-2 colored Season versions. Only color editions are released in regions 2 and 4.
On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment has acquired rights to various television series from Sony Pictures library including Bewitched . They then re-released the first six seasons, with season 1 & amp; 2 only available in their black and white version.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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