Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie are sometimes seen on super station WGN
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A fascinating aspect of this series as it continued into the 1970s was its duality. Not only did two actors (Dick York and Dick Sargent) consecutively play Darrin; two actresses played nosy next-door neighbor Gladys Kravitz (the second one had previously starred as Miss Duffy on network radio's Duffy's Tavern, the direct ancestor of the tv series Cheers), and two actresses played Louise Tate, the wife of Darrin's boss, Larry. To this day, it is still quite rare for a sitcom to have this many substitutions in its main cast of characters without changing the characters' names.
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Jennifer Love Hewitt is a long-time fan of the late Elizabeth Montgomery, the original TV-series and the recent movie. As star, executive producer and director of the 9/25/09 season 5 opening episode of "Ghost Whisperer," she plans to inject as much of Bewitched into the show as possible. It will be set 5 years after last year's final episode. She's had a baby, delivered in a scene with "intense ghost activity." And they worry that, like little Tabitha, the baby (now a 5-yer-old boy) will have her abilities. She says it will turn out that he doesn't have her specific gift, but "People should pay attention to him, because he is a very special kid in every shape and form." She also plans for the boy to have an "unusual nanny." She is hoping to get Shirley MacLaine (75), who played Endora in the 1975 movie. Shirley's familiar with "The Ghost Whisperer" and her agent says she is awaiting a script, "It's definitely possible." I wonder if Michael Caine is too busy for a guest shot?
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"Bewitched" first aired on Nick at Nite on September 4, 1989.
Visit the "Extras" link on TV Land's Bewitched website for downloadable goodies (if this link doesn't work anymore, check the Stevens Trunk link at www.Bewitched.net), as well as sights and sounds of Bewitched and other Nick / TV Land series and the recent movie. And don't forget to watch "Bewitched".
Here is a classic episode: #138 "The No-Harm Charm" Darrin’s brochure for the multi-million dollar Omega Bank mistakenly lists the bank’s assets as $100. Larry suggests he take some time off. Darrin thinks he has Uncle Arthur’s magic charm for protection and he sets out to salvage the Omega account (the lucky charm turns out to be a decorative bolt Uncle Arthur unscrewed from the top of a lampshade).
There was a 2-part ep. inspired by "It's A Wonderful Life." It starts with #126 - When one of Darrin's old girlfriends returns to steal him away from Sam, Endora sends him back in time to before he had met Samantha, to see if he could be happy without her.
Syndicated reruns of Bewitched began running again on individual tv stations nationwide on 9-20-99. They are not following original broadcast order. They don't list ep titles / descriptions on the syndicator's website, but they do have general info and the show's original 1960s biographies (so none of actors are refered to in past-tense), and it starts with the sights / sounds of the opening color credits at Sony's Bewitched website.
Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie are sometimes seen on super station WGN
Bewitched or Elizabeth Montgomery movies in previous year: Bewitched (2005, Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLain, Michael Caine) Sat Apr 21 08:20A & 7:10P on Starz Thu Jun 21 12:40A & 11:30P on Starz Kids and Family Sun July 1 08:00P & 2:50A on Starz Comedy Tue Jul 10 10:35A & 7:10P on Encore Love Stories Tue Jul 24 10:40A & 9:30P on Encore On the Set: Bewitched (25 min, 2005) Tue May 29 04:45A on Wam! Sun Jul 22 09:35A on Encore Love Stories Bewitched (1945) about a woman (Phyllis Thaxter) with multiple personalities on death row (not currently scheduled) Curious George (voices of Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, Dick Van Dyke, Eugene Levy) Sat Jun 16 06:30A on Cinemax Fri Sep 7 06:00A on HBO Plus Fri Sep 7 02:50P on HBO Family Sat Sep 8 11:00A on HBO Comedy Dead Calm (Kidman 1989, psychotic terrorizes a couple aboard their sailboat in the Pacific) Sat Jul 21 01:00A on American Movie Classics Elf (2003, Will Ferrell as a man raised by Santa's elves) Oct 25, 2006 05:20P & 2:00A on Starz Edge Dec 2, 2006 11:00A & 6pm on USA Network I Married a Witch (1942, Veronica Lake as the witch in our modern world) Sat Jun 16, 2007 on Turner Classic Movies The Interpreter (Kidman 2005, UN worker believes she's overheard an assassination plot) Thu Aug 2 02:40P on Cinemax Sat Sep 8 11:30P on More Max Mon Sep 10 03:45P on Thrillermax Making of "The Interpreter" (15 minutes) Thu Jun 28 08:00A on HBO Signature A Killing Affair (1977 Montgomery, oolice detectives fall in love while working together) Mon Apr 16 05:00A on Mystery Night at the Roxbury (1998, Will Ferrell comedy based on Sat. Night Live skits) Sun May 27 08:20A & 4:35P on Flix Movie Channel Thu Aug 9 05:05P on Showtime Fri Sep 7 09:00A & 7:30P on Showtime #2 Sun Sep 9 12:30P & 8:00P on Showtime Showcase Sat Sep 15 06:15A & 5:00P on Showtime Showcase The Peacemaker (1997 Kidman, George Clooney) Sun Jun 24 03:30A on TNT Practical Magic (1998, witches become the focus of an investigation after their magic misfires) Thu Aug 2 06:15P on HBO The Producers (Mel Brooks 2005 remake, with Ferrell, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick) Fri Sep 21 10:00A on Cinemax Mrs. Sundance (1974 Elizabeth Montgomery, a 1976 remake is showing on Encore Western channel) Wed June 27 09:00P on Movie Plex Thu Sep 13 1pm/4pm EST on Fox Movie Channel Sins of the Mother (1991, Elizabeth Montgomery) Fri June 1 05:45A on Lifetime Movie Network The Stepford Wives (2004, Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler) Sun Jul 1 01:00P on FX Network With Murder in Mind (1992, as a scarred crime victim seeks man she's sure tried to kill her) Feb 12, 2007 on Lifetime Real Women Biography: Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995) Wed Sep 12 09:00A, 3:00P & 4:00A on Biography ChannelThe recent Bewitched movie was directed by Nora Ephron and starred: Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, with Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Jason Schwartzman, Kristin Chenoweth, Heather Burns, Jim Turner, Stephen Colbert, David Alan Grier.
The Dr. Bombay episode on NBC series "Passions" starring Bernard Fox aired 9-17-99. A character in the non-comedy daytime serial named Timothy - sidekick to the evil 300 year old witch Tabitha (played by Juliet Mills of Nanny & The Professor, despite the name this character is no relation to Tabatha of Bewitched) calls for Bombay in the traditional Bewitched way and poof, there he is in safari outfit for a 2 minute cameo. Then the mean-spirited soap opera went on with it's regular plot. 7-7-01 & 7-14-01 TV Guide issues had a cover story/fictional diary from Passions. The actor who played Timothy has since passed away. Georgia Engel (Ted Baxter's girlfriend in Mary Tyler Moore Show) will join the cast of Passions on June 28, 2007, for 6 episodes as a good witch who is just as powerful as bad witch Tabitha. Inspired by the Wizard of Oz parody play "Wicked," she will be an old classmate of Tabitha's and "Now she is the most powerful of the good witches. In fact, she out-Glinda's Glinda." Also joining the cast, on June 21, is dwarf actor Danny Woodburn (last seen on the TV series Seifeld), as a new character called Demon Elf. I'm guessing he's no Glinda. The series Passions ended its 9-year run in 2008.
By the way, TVG has reported that the ad firm Princeton Video Image shows how good it is at product placement using existing video by placing a box of modern SnackWell cookies box in the kitchen of Abner & Gladys Kravitz from an episode of Bewitched. "But," asks TV Guide, "can they replace Dick Sargent with Dick York? Until then, we'll take our classic reruns without modern-day voodoo."
Here's a bit of witch trivia you probably don't know:
Remember when Darren & Samantha visited Salem for several episodes? The studio set for Bewitched had burned down so these episodes were filmed on location (a first for the series, and popular in the ratings). In 1890, an American silversmith designed a small souvenir spoon with a picture of a witch on it for the bicentennial of the Salem Witch Trials. The memento became very popular and soon inexpensive silver-plated souvenir spoons were being made nation-wide for the tourist trade. Small souvenir spoons had been made for tourists in European cities before 1890, but they were solid silver and therefore much more expensive. Some early souvenir spoons decorated with fragile enamel have sold for as much as $1200 at auction, according to Martha Stewart.com
Fun Fact:
The house that appears in the Jerry Lewis movie "Hook Line & Sinker" (1969) was reportedly the same one used in the Bewitched TV series
Barbara Eden's real name was Barbara Jean Moorhead. She took her stepfather's name of Huffman, then Eden at the suggestion of her first agent. She is not related to Agnes Moorehead (real name), who played Endora on Bewitched at the same time as Eden starred in I Dream Of Jeannie as an astronaut's genie/wife. Agnes Moorehead attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, the same college as astronaut John Glenn. Screen Gems was acquired some time back by Sony, and big-screen versions of Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie were announced, but so far only Bewitched has appeared. By the way, Sony colorized the b/w episodes for release on DVD and they outsold the b/w version DVD so the original non-colorized version was dropped from production and is hard to find now. See colorized 1st-season still from DVD at right. The video above (if it still works) is also from the colorized DVD, courtesy ifilm.com. Sony has licensed Bewitched to India (Meri Biwi Wonderful, 2002), Japan (Oku-sama wa majo: My wife is a witch, 2004) and Chile & Argentina (La Hechizada, 2007) using local actors. It was so popular in Japan, the tv-series there is credited with the "magic-girl" genre of anime (Japanese animation). Columbia Pictures had announced an I Dream Of Jeannie movie for 2008, but writer/director Gurinder Chadha appeared to have no knowledge of the original TV-series and was fired according to insiders after turning in a "dark" story treatment completely unlike the sitcom. There has been no replacement or script announced yet.
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