Barbara Eden on Why Jeannie and Tony Were Never Intimate: "She was an entity"

[TREK_GOD_1]

It always surprised me that other witches liked Darrin because he really did look down o them and their culture, they were the embarrassing in-laws to him and he couldn't wait for them to go away.
He married Samantha and expected her to fit into his mortal world but he never made even the slightest attempt to fit into her world. I'm not saying he should have moved to a witch town but did he ever celebrate a witch holiday with Sam or attend any of her family functions?

Darrin--as seen throughout the series--had to begrudgingly tolerate Samantha's family popping in, since he had no means of preventing their visits. Sure, he would yell, threaten to leave or demand Samantha to ban her relatives from the home, but his desires were largely ignored.

About his participating in family functions...well, when Samantha was named queen of the witches, he did swallow his controlling nature a bit as she handled the affairs of her people...in the Stephens house. Darrin also travelled with Samantha and Endora to Salem for the Witches' Convention, but I cannot recall if he actually participated in any of the functions.

 

[Takeru]

Darrin--as seen throughout the series--had to begrudgingly tolerate Samantha's family popping in, since he had no means of preventing their visits. Sure, he would yell, threaten to leave or demand Samantha to ban her relatives from the home, but his desires were largely ignored.

Of course they were ignored. Asking them to call in advance or at least use the front door and knock would have been reasonable. Demanding to ban them from the home and doing it while yelling and threatening to leave is problematic.

About his participating in family functions...well, when Samantha was named queen of the witches, he did swallow his controlling nature a bit as she handled the affairs of her people...in the Stephens house. Darrin also travelled with Samantha and Endora to Salem for the Witches' Convention, but I cannot recall if he actually participated in any of the functions.

That the best you can come up with is him swallowing his controlling nature a bit is actually pretty damning especially because it took Samantha becoming queen for a year for him to do it and even then Sam still appeased him by setting a schedule that wouldn't interfere with his life.

I really don't like him, he was insecure, controlling and disrespectful towards Samantha by disregarding her culture and traditions so much.
I'm okay with him asking her not to do magic others can see and that would draw attention to them but why expect her to cook a meal herself instead of wiggling her nose in the kitchen 5 minutes before the guests arrived for the biweekly home cooked meals for Larry and a random client for example? There's no logical reason for that, Darrin just wants to dictate how his life lives her life.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Of course they were ignored. Asking them to call in advance or at least use the front door and knock would have been reasonable. Demanding to ban them from the home and doing it while yelling and threatening to leave is problematic.


That the best you can come up with is him swallowing his controlling nature a bit is actually pretty damning especially because it took Samantha becoming queen for a year for him to do it and even then Sam still appeased him by setting a schedule that wouldn't interfere with his life.

I really don't like him, he was insecure, controlling and disrespectful towards Samantha by disregarding her culture and traditions so much.
I'm okay with him asking her not to do magic others can see and that would draw attention to them but why expect her to cook a meal herself instead of wiggling her nose in the kitchen 5 minutes before the guests arrived for the biweekly home cooked meals for Larry and a random client for example? There's no logical reason for that, Darrin just wants to dictate how his life lives her life.

As is his right as a dick.

Sam can either let him be a dick, poison dinner, have an affair, or leave in the middle of the night with his kids.

This is after all the real history of the 7th decade of the American century.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Of course they were ignored. Asking them to call in advance or at least use the front door and knock would have been reasonable

On a few occasions, he did ask Endora if she could knock or give a heads-up, only for Endora to mock him in some way (like using magic to make a knocking sound after his statement).

.

Demanding to ban them from the home and doing it while yelling and threatening to leave is problematic.

Obviously, but that was the character structure of the series--part of the joke / neverending conflict.

I really don't like him, he was insecure, controlling and disrespectful towards Samantha by disregarding her culture and traditions so much.

It must be remembered that Samantha's relatives constantly disrespected and demeaned mortals--and not just Darrin. Over the course of the series, witches, warlocks, fairies and other beings relentlessly interfered in the Stephens' home (against Samantha's own will, not parroting Darrin), causing chaos, trying to drive Darrin's mother crazy, and getting him fired from his job a few times. Worst of all, Endora attempted to either send other men (warlocks) to pursue her own daughter to break up her marriage with adulterous hook-ups (or tried arguing that position to Samantha),or tried it with witches against Darrin.

It does not end there, as in the episode "Darrin, Gone and Forgotten" (S5 / E144 / 10/17/68), a witch named Carlotta arrived to claim Samantha as a wife for her son based on a promise Endora made long ago. Endora essentially sold her daughter off in an arranged marriage, completely disrespecting the autonomy of her daughter. Oh, and to top it off, unless Samantha agreed to the arranged marriage, Darrin would be trapped for all eternity in a TV, running from some roaring creature (a lion, if I recall).

That was Endora committing inexcusable behavior utterly trashing the life and wishes of her daughter, so in the grand scheme of things, both sides were far from innocent, only the abuses were of a more damaging nature on the side of those with the supernatural ability to do anything to anyone.

I'm okay with him asking her not to do magic others can see and that would draw attention to them but why expect her to cook a meal herself instead of wiggling her nose in the kitchen 5 minutes before the guests arrived for the biweekly home cooked meals for Larry and a random client for example? There's no logical reason for that,

In the early episodes, Samantha stated it was her desire to live as a mortal. That was her choice, not Darrin's. One can argue that was the choice of series creators Sol Saks, Bill Asher and Harry Ackerman, but if one removed that "choice" plot device, the format would not be in place to support the series' style of humor and conflicts.