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.

 

[Turtletrekker]

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[JD]

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).

.

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



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.



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.

While in general I think Darrin was a horrible person, who treated Samantha and her family horribly, I do have to at least give him a few points in his favor since Samantha didn't tell him she was a witch until after they were married. That's one hell of a bombshell to drop on someone so deep into the relationship, but Darrin did still react in a pretty bad way. Personally, if I found out the woman I was dating or married was a witch I would think it was the coolest thing ever, and would have fully embraced her witchyness and everything that came with it.
But then again I grew up on things like Buffy, Charmed, and Harry Potter, so that kind of stuff has always kind of already been a big part of my life, even if it isn't real.

 

[Skipper]

Well, Darrin seemed like the embodiment of the perfect 1960s American middle-class guy who couldn't wait to build a house in the suburbs and have 2.4 kids. And up until then, there hadn't been many positive portrayals of witches in popular culture. I also think Darrin is a horrible person, but in the context of the series, his reaction is completely understandable.

By the way, I don't remember the first episode very well, but didn't Darrin find it strange that no relatives or friends of Samantha's were at the wedding? And what exactly was her plan, considering that being a witch wasn't something you could keep hidden for long?

 

[Christopher]

Well, Darrin seemed like the embodiment of the perfect 1960s American middle-class guy who couldn't wait to build a house in the suburbs and have 2.4 kids. And up until then, there hadn't been many positive portrayals of witches in popular culture. I also think Darrin is a horrible person, but in the context of the series, his reaction is completely understandable.

Also a generational thing. Darrin would've come of age after WWII, and postwar American culture became very socially conservative, especially in the '50s and early '60s. They'd built what they saw as a happy, stable society in the wake of a devastating war, and they saw anything that challenged that status quo as a threat. Anyone from a nonconforming group had to assimilate, or be excluded altogether if their difference couldn't be hidden. Naturally, this insistence on conformity was what sparked the counterculture movement in the late '60s, as the next generation pushed back against the limits they'd been raised under. Bewitched was something of an allegory for those societal tensions, or at least for "mixed marriages" between different faiths or subcultures -- at least in its first season before it got dumbed down to be just about magical hijinks.

Darrin seems to us like a particularly intolerant person, but he was typical for his time, the embodiment of a "normal" working man and husband trying to maintain a normal, stable existence of the sort the culture expected and demanded. He probably believed Sam would be happier and better off if she overcame her weird alternative culture's traditions and assimilated in everyday American society.

It's also reasonable to suspect that Darrin believed Sam would be safer if she stopped using witchcraft, because he knew what his society would do to a witch if they discovered who she was. So perhaps, as he saw it, he was protecting her by insisting that she assimilate.

 

[Danja]

It's also reasonable to suspect that Darrin believed Sam would be safer if she stopped using witchcraft, because he knew what his society would do to a witch if they discovered who she was. So perhaps, as he saw it, he was protecting her by insisting that she assimilate.

During one episode, Darrin and Samantha went to Salem, Massachusetts on vacation (!).

(For people outside of the USA, Salem was the home of the witch trials in 1692. Nineteen women and one man were executed on suspicion of being witches.)

As you might well have expected, Endora thought Samantha was out of her mind for doing so.

 

[Christopher]

During one episode, Darrin and Samantha went to Salem, Massachusetts on vacation (!).

(For people outside of the USA, Salem was the home of the witch trials in 1690. Nineteen women and one man were executed on suspicion of being witches.)

As you might well have expected, Endora thought Samantha was out of her mind for doing so.

I could see Sam wanting to go there to honor the memory of the victims -- "Never forget" -- but of course the show went for silly sitcom hijinks. Although that was pretty typical of the era's media depictions of Salem, outside of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

 

[Dee1891]

Barbara Eden seems like a lovely (interior and exterior) woman, but at the end of the day, I think the theory she is putting forward is simply her interpretation, not that of the writers or producers of the old show. After all, they got married on the TV show (later season(s)), after Tony proposed, so the idea he didn't think of her as "real" or as an "entity" was contradicted by the original series canon.

Or the numerous times they had kissed on the show . . . long before the marriage.

 

[FreezeC77]

Up until this thread I hadn't thought about the 80s tv movies and forgotten that didn't it end with their marriage never happening and every mortal's memory of Jeannie disappearing?

Damn. So Brand New Day actually ripped off I Dream of Jeannie tv movie.

 

[Danja]

Up until this thread I hadn't thought about the 80s tv movies and forgotten that didn't it end with their marriage never happening and every mortal's memory of Jeannie disappearing?

Damn. So Brand New Day actually ripped off I Dream of Jeannie tv movie.

Brand New Day is a Sony/Columbia/Screen Gems production (the same studio that produced I Dream of Jeannie: Fifteen Years Later).

My God, talk about reaching into your back catalog! (FYL came out in 1985).

---

They did TWO tv movies.

They also did I Still Dream of Jeannie (my favorite) in 1991. ISDoJ retconned FYL out of existence (Jeannie and Colonel Nelson are back together like nothing ever happened).

I Still Dream of Jeannie (Link to Internet Archive)


Jeannie

Artist: Joe Jusko

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

While in general I think Darrin was a horrible person, who treated Samantha and her family horribly,

Darrin was horrible at times, but Samantha's family were relentless in their torturous mistreatment of him (including the threat of death through some spell), attempts to break up the marriage, and cause mayhem with Darrin's parents and job. Samantha's relatives were thoroughly nightmarish and obviously intrusive with the exception of Aunt Clara and a couple of witches outside of the family such as Esmerelda and Doctor Bombay.

Well, Darrin seemed like the embodiment of the perfect 1960s American middle-class guy who couldn't wait to build a house in the suburbs and have 2.4 kids. And up until then, there hadn't been many positive portrayals of witches in popular culture. I also think Darrin is a horrible person, but in the context of the series, his reaction is completely understandable.

His reactions to Samantha's family were understandable. Where Samantha's witchcraft is concerned--and Darrin not wanting the world to be aware of the power--the series explored the potential consequences of such a revelation--which was a frustrated Darrin's idea--in the episode "I Confess" (S4/E28 - 4/4/68), where Samantha makes Darrin dream of the consequences of revealing her true nature. After the initial wave of public interest / exploitation, Samantha and Tabitha are taken into government custody where Samantha is to use her powers for warfare. Once Darrin wakes up, he comes to his senses, maintaining that the mortal world should never learn Samantha is a witch.

Historical note: "I Confess" was pre-empted when news broke about the assassination of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

During one episode, Darrin and Samantha went to Salem, Massachusetts on vacation (!).

(For people outside of the USA, Salem was the home of the witch trials in 1692. Nineteen women and one man were executed on suspicion of being witches.)

As you might well have expected, Endora thought Samantha was out of her mind for doing so.

In universe, Endora and Samantha did not have an issue with going to Salem; in the 7th season 4-part opener ("To Go or Not to Go, That Is the Question", "Salem, Here We Come", "The Salem Saga" & Samantha's Hot Bedwarmer" - 9/24/70 - 9/15/70), the Witches' Council convention was held in Salem.

 

[Nerys Myk]

In universe, Endora and Samantha did not have an issue with going to Salem; in the 7th season 4-part opener ("To Go or Not to Go, That Is the Question", "Salem, Here We Come", "The Salem Saga" & Samantha's Hot Bedwarmer" - 9/24/70 - 9/15/70), the Witches' Council convention was held in Salem.

The perfect place. Who would look there?

 

[Takeru]

After the initial wave of public interest / exploitation, Samantha and Tabitha are taken into government custody where Samantha is to use her powers for warfare.

Which completely ignores the fact that witches in the show can teleport, so Sam could have gotten herself and her family out of there at any point. The military would be a little inconvenience at best. Their lifes being invaded by everyone would be a major problem but not revealing wothches to the world really isn't a lesson anyone needed to learn, not even the witches themselves wanted this. Darrin having an outburst in a moment of frustration didn't#t really necessitate this.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Which completely ignores the fact that witches in the show can teleport, so Sam could have gotten herself and her family out of there at any point. The military would be a little inconvenience at best.

A couple of things: in "I Confess", Darrin's witchcraft-induced dream presented a Samantha willing to go into government custody in order for her powers to be used, and she was fine with it, but Darrin realized they were prisoners never to have freedom again, so a negative was already put in place to hit the breaks on Samantha ever going public. The next thing--to address your quote--is the episode was written during the height of the Cold War, and considering the habits of American investigative, defense and intelligence agencies of that period, one cannot doubt that the involved parties would anticipate Samantha attempting to escape, so they would likely keep Darrin in custody, and to add pressure on Darrin to convince her to cooperate (and not spirit him away), either arrest or threaten his parents. Its all a slippery slope that witchcraft would not solve. For the mortal side of things, their lives would be over, under surveillance or in custody for the rest of their lives, and the domestic life they once shared would be impossible to restore in Anyplace, America.