Okay. Good talk. Thanks for engaging.
News Bewitched reboot in the works at ABC
- Thread starter Enterprise is Great
- Start date
That doesn't make it perfect. It makes it redundant and culturally anachronistic.
Meh, another reboot, retread, rehash.... Still waiting for the Super Force Reboot.. 
And since we're living in an entertainment dystopia, that means it will probably last 10 years.
I like the idea of it. Agree to disagree.
No interest at all. I'm tired of reboots that are just excuses to have politically correct casting so a bunch of Hollywood liberals can get outraged when they get called out on their politically correct casting.
That's frightening.
Darrin (at least the Darrin portrayed by Dick York) was probably the most complicated and interesting character of them all. He finds himself married to a woman who can do almost anything--lunch in Paris....dinner in Rome...dancing in a Tokyo nightclub...who can wear anything she wants...Tiffany jewels...mink coats...diamonds....emeralds...sapphires...rubies...Gucci shoes...Halston and other designer outfits...the only thing limiting her is her imagination--and yet she chooses to be with him--a lowly ad executive hoping one day for a partnership working for a boss who's easy with the complements, but lousy with the rewards. What can he possibly hope to give her that she couldn't get just by twinkling her nose? How does he compete with a mother-in-law who takes her granddaughter to the Louvre....a grandfather who takes Tabitha to see Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Globe Theater on its opening night!
Added to all that, Samantha's relatives pour all sorts of abuse on him (as often as not without him even provoking them--other than standing up for his rights as a human being). He's humiliated in front of his wife and family...degraded...mocked...and on a couple of occasions nearly killed just for the amusement of Endora, Maurice, Serena, Uncle Arthur etc. The only one of Samantha's family who treats him with anything deserving of respect is Clara--and while he gets frustrated with her--he's never actually rude to her--with maybe one or two exceptions for which he is immediately apologetic.
The only thing keeping him in that marriage and keeping him sane is his love for Samantha and his children--and on a couple of occasions, even that almost wasn't enough.
Far from being a stereotypical 'male chauvinist', Darrin was a complex, nuanced character--at least the way he was portrayed by Dick York was. Dick Sargeant's portrayal is a whole different kettle of fish.
I must have seen the re-runs of Bewitched so many times that I could recite some of the dialogue. It's on 7flix today for Aussie viewers. My favourite of all shows. Hubby had a diamond heart necklace like Sam's made for me. 
Regards the show. During the re-watches I have and do view it through a different 'lens'. Some of the preachy/liberal overkill rhetoric irks a tad now but it never used to. I also feel sorry for Larry or Gladys sometimes when they're made to feel drunk or neurotic because what they saw, was what they actually saw. It's like watching MASH and finding you feel badly for Frank and that sometimes Hawkeye was a prick. Sometimes Darrin yelled too much but he was man of his times so it's hard to shove him in context of now. If there were a remake I suspect Sam would be a smart arse and Darrin would be even more overbearing. I don't know it's not always wise to re-invent the wheel.
I don't care about the ethnicity of the cast but it would be impossible not to change the dynamic and fit it into current times. That literally would change the magic. However the potential for character is so cool. Aunt Clara is so lovely and you could tell the rest of the cast from the original cared about her. Endora is fabulous! Just thinking about it the cast is rich to incorporate such a spectrum of ages. Larry Tate is everything Doctor Bellows couldn't quite pull off. His mad men manoeuvring so needs needs the right actor to save the character from being obnoxious. Good ole Lar/Cotton Top. And whoever is cast to play Samantha really has to ultimately be likeable. So much of what made it work was that Sam although using her powers in every episode, tried not to and felt that she was respecting her marriage by being like a mortal wife, a mortal wife in a marriage of the Sixties and Seventies.
Regards the show. During the re-watches I have and do view it through a different 'lens'. Some of the preachy/liberal overkill rhetoric irks a tad now but it never used to. I also feel sorry for Larry or Gladys sometimes when they're made to feel drunk or neurotic because what they saw, was what they actually saw. It's like watching MASH and finding you feel badly for Frank and that sometimes Hawkeye was a prick. Sometimes Darrin yelled too much but he was man of his times so it's hard to shove him in context of now. If there were a remake I suspect Sam would be a smart arse and Darrin would be even more overbearing. I don't know it's not always wise to re-invent the wheel.
I don't care about the ethnicity of the cast but it would be impossible not to change the dynamic and fit it into current times. That literally would change the magic. However the potential for character is so cool. Aunt Clara is so lovely and you could tell the rest of the cast from the original cared about her. Endora is fabulous! Just thinking about it the cast is rich to incorporate such a spectrum of ages. Larry Tate is everything Doctor Bellows couldn't quite pull off. His mad men manoeuvring so needs needs the right actor to save the character from being obnoxious. Good ole Lar/Cotton Top. And whoever is cast to play Samantha really has to ultimately be likeable. So much of what made it work was that Sam although using her powers in every episode, tried not to and felt that she was respecting her marriage by being like a mortal wife, a mortal wife in a marriage of the Sixties and Seventies.
This re-boot sounds dreadful. The original show was empowering to young girls of the '60s. This new show sounds like it intends to have the opposite effect on both females and POC.
In other words, he's completely useless from day one. Perfect male role-model for 2018.
You're missing the entire point. He's a proud man and a hard worker who loves and cares for his wife and family and who probably often asks himself what did he do to deserve her? He walked away from a marriage to a very attractive woman who's father was the senior partner at the ad firm. He walks away from that beautiful woman and a guaranteed fast track to a partnership and wealth and connections all because he falls in love at first sight with a woman he meets in a bar. He puts up with the abuse and mockery--stands up for his rights as best he can and often pays a very high price for that. The easy way would have been for him to have bailed. To have told Samantha "I can't take this anymore--I'm outta here!" But he doesn't--although on a couple of occasions he does come close. He sticks it out for one reason and one reason only--because he loves Samantha and his children.
Useless? We need more men like him who won't bail when the going gets tough.
I wonder if they'll include Uncle Arthur. He was me, and my brother and sister's favorite character. Originally played by the great comedic character actor, Paul Lynde, he always seemed to be having kind of a private joke between him and the audience. Uncle Arthur was sarcastic, dismissive, disrespectful, and did I mention sarcastic? This was unusual for sitcoms in the '60's. The character was totally subversive.
In one episode he pretends to give Darrin magical powers which he tells Darrin, are initiated by chanting "yagazuzie yagazuzie yagazuzie zim". When Darrin starts chanting this in front of Endora in preparation to cast a spell on her, we see Uncle Authur, out of sight, doubled over laughing his ass off, just like what we were doing at home.
It might not actually be so hard to recreate this character since in the years since Bewitched debuted, this type of character has become quite common in sitcoms. That is how far ahead of his time Paul Lynde was.
In one episode he pretends to give Darrin magical powers which he tells Darrin, are initiated by chanting "yagazuzie yagazuzie yagazuzie zim". When Darrin starts chanting this in front of Endora in preparation to cast a spell on her, we see Uncle Authur, out of sight, doubled over laughing his ass off, just like what we were doing at home.
It might not actually be so hard to recreate this character since in the years since Bewitched debuted, this type of character has become quite common in sitcoms. That is how far ahead of his time Paul Lynde was.
^^this
From what I recall, the last time I had a binge marathon, Darrin could be chauvinist. Or maybe NuDarrin could be and Sam socks it to him with the magic.
That and who they get to replace Paul Lynde as Uncle Arthur... and will audiences take to an attempt to revisit 60s madcap high concept humor?
Until then, I always look to parody for comfort. Like this attempt at a reboot from the 90s:
(and, yep, that's the same Debra Wilson who was in a great episode of DS9. Really great episode and how they handled the sci-fi aspect, and phenomenal voice acting from her. "The Sound of Her Voice" is the episode title. A must-see!
Last edited:
Same network, but presumably not the same people running it.
Wonder who they'll cast as Endora?
Roseanne would have been a blast... Ditto for Marina Sirtis. Or Cloris Leachman, if she wanted to...
Since they're casting an African-American Samantha, presumably they'd do the same for Endora.
But it does have some great supporting performances by Ernie Kovacs and Jack Lemmon, and Elsa Lanchester. And I;m a sucker for pretty much any movie with Jimmy Stewart (I never pass up Mister Smith Goes to Washington when it shows up on the tube (and am totally in love with Jean Arthur as a result)).
Last edited: