Stupid Bewitched Question of the Day: Popping versus Flying

The car was because those three OLD BATS were pretentious so they wanted to make a showy entrance

Similarly, sometimes Sam would do an incantation, other times she would wiggle her nose, sometimes she would direct something gently with one finger as it flew through the air, and still other times she would just go "shazam!" with both hands. Witches have got a lot of alternatives available to them, it appears.

We should remind ourselves that Harry Potter could also both fly and "pop", if floo dust counts as popping.

My head canon is that witches use their magic simply through force of will and concentration. The hand gestures and nose twitches act as a tool to help them focus their thoughts. When a powerful, long-lasting spell is needed, an incantation serves the same purpose for the bigger job.

The popping vs flying thing has bugged me all my life, OP. Sometimes they pop into a room, but make some comment about bad weather over Denmark or somewhere. In the past I tried to explain it away as actual flight except they popped the "last mile" once they arrived over their destination to avoid landing in the front yard and making a scene. But when they pop back and forth between Europe and Connecticut, for example, the trip is instantaneous, so no travel time could possibly be involved.

The world may never know.

It's not the real world. It doesn't have to be consistent or obey laws.

Yeah, it's a multiverse, EverythingAllInTheTitleAtOnce fans.

I always worried for the actors' health when an explosive flash powder entrance/exit clouded the set.

Popping in and out best described what Sam and other witches did; but in terms of actual travel they flew via the "atmospheric continuum". Older witches and warlocks do didn't want to stain themselves "flew" in a motor vehicle driven by some unseen ghoul or whatever. As Sam once remarked to Darrin; " no one flies by broom anymore, it's obsolete".

Mind you "flying" could be from one part of room or house to another, or from Connecticut to Paris, France, but things still were pretty much same.

Sam (at least) also had ability to "fly" members of her family directly do her; as she often did with Aunt Clara who otherwise had problems traveling under her own power.

Only time flying seemed to call for spells or incantations is when sending witches themselves were going back or forward in time and or sending someone else.

It's the only way to fly...

Historically (if one believes in such things) levitation was one of the talents possesses by witches, warlocks and some other supernatural beings.

Sam and other witches can cause themselves and other objects to defy laws of gravity which is also how they are able to fly.

"Why would a witch need a magical car with a chauffeur?"

Same reason why Endora needed an invisible servant (Oscar)

It isn't clear whose powers are causing those cars to fly, appear, disappear, etc... but it must have been easier (and perhaps more comfortable) for those warlocks and witches than flying themselves.

It costs more money to film people flying than it does having them "pop" in. Mystery solved.

Something else I've always wondered about is witch aging on Bewitched. Samantha was born in the 1600s and looked in her 20s in the 1960s. So how old could Clara have been - who looked visibly old.

"Something else I've always wondered about is witch aging on Bewitched"

Don't go there.....

There never was any rhyme nor reason to how old Sam or any of her family truly were.

Episode you're likely referring to was "Eye of the Beholder" where Endora arranges for Darrin to find an old portrait picture from 1682 called "A Salem Maid" where the woman in question looks like Samantha. If true that would make Sam over three hundred years old. We find out later in episode woman in portrait was supposedly Sam's aunt IIRC.

In another episode Sam is sent back in time to old Salem. Endora or Serena tell Darrin that Sam won't remember who she is because she wasn't born yet. Yet Sam in other episodes claims she's 500 years old. Go figure....

In one of final episodes before series ended Sam is sent back to court of Henry VIII by another witch for "meddling". Endora sends Darrin then herself back in time to rescue Sam. Again Sam has no memory of who or what she is (see explanation above), but Endora claims she also wasn't born then either. She only has enough power to get herself back in time then return to present.

Esmerelda was around (supposedly) in 1372 when leaning Tower of Pisa was built because it was one of her bungling spells that cause it to tilt (she as dating the builder and got his sandwich order mixed up).

It was a television show so just roll with things. Depending upon week of the month Endora was either 1,000 (that's what Serena tells Mrs. Stephens) or 4000, 3000, etc.....

When I was a child, watching this in syndication in the 70s, I always wanted to be Endora. Especially the way she talked.

When I got a little older, I realized that I'm really more of a combination of Endora and Uncle Arthur (Paul Lynde).

Aunt Clara then must be ancient. But by how many years older than either Maurice or Endora. If those two were around during ancient Rome B.C. when was Clara born?

One thing is clear older witches and warlocks lose their powers. Both Aunt Clara and her boyfriend Ocky along with an old flame "Mr. Partridge"

Edith Head designed Endora's costumes!!

You guys figure it out, the dealer passes.

Elizabeth Montgomery as Serena was far more attractive as a brunette. Since that was Ms. Montgomery's natural hair color it isn't surprising.

Towards end of Bewitched EM and certainly afterwards EM seems to have gone with darker shades of blonde.

Always found it odd when watching Bewitched as a kid (reruns shown during afternoons), that only relatives Sam seemed to have frequent close contact with growing up besides her mother was Uncle Arthur and maybe Aunt Clara. Serena and many of the other witches act as if they hadn't seen Sam in a very long time. Even Maurice apparently hadn't seen his daughter for ages either.

All I know is that Dick York had a phatty and I would’ve gladly tapped it.

The real mystery on this show is how a beautiful witch would not only find Darren attractive but would be willing to suppress her whole magical persona for that goony control freak. Even as a child I couldn’t understand it. And he was such an arrogant moron, always antagonizing Endora.

But while I’m at it, it has always bugged me how Samantha would move things by pointing and moving her arm along with the floating object it would be so much faster to teleport it instantaneously— or even to just pick it up.

Bewitched. I always loved that show because of Uncle Arthur and Endora, Aunt Clara and Mrs Kravitz,, Dr Bombay and Maurice. There was a show that came out years ago called Halloween Town. Debbie Reynolds played a grandmother who was a witch and Judith Hoag played her daughter who was also a witch, but trying to live in the normal world. They traveled by bus to get between worlds. It reminded me of Bewitched.

Shall we have a thread on Bewitched inconsistencies?

I love Bewitched threads.

Oh Sammmmmmmmmmy!!!

[quote]Oh Sammmmmmmmmmy!!!

Do you like my new caftan?

Have you met my neighbor's son Joel?

"Shall we have a thread on Bewitched inconsistencies?"

There are just too many and would thus take tons of posts.

Right from start there were things about Bewitched that didn't add up, but things just kept going.

Darrin asks Endora what her last name was; why didn't he notice what Sam's was on the marriage license? That and all the time they dated Darrin just started calling Samantha by her given name?

Samantha dated and married Darrin all within space of several weeks (maybe months) and Endora never checked up on her daughter? Meanwhile after she married Endora wouldn't leave Sam alone.

Other inconsistencies?

Sam constantly tells Darrin witches cannot break other witches spells, yet Sam and Endora do so frequently.

Didn't they grab any old bat who was walking around the lot to be Enchantra or Hagatha on any given week?

[quote] Something else I've always wondered about is witch aging on Bewitched. Samantha was born in the 1600s and looked in her 20s in the 1960s. So how old could Clara have been - who looked visibly old.

Often agreed to be the greatest dialogue ever written for "Bewitched."

MOTHER STEPHENS: "Tell me, don't you think Endora is a little bit too old to wear so much make-up?"

SERENA: (laughing) "She'll only admit to 300!"

MOTHER STEPHENS: (after a pause) "I guess I deserved that..."

One of the things that never made sense to me was, the witches all seemed to despise mortals, but they were constantly in and out of mortal lives - especially the notable ones.

Then there was the mystery about how was Serena related to Samantha and how about Aunt Clara. We knew that Uncle Arthur was Endora's brother.

Serena is Samantha's cousin on Maurice's side.

Samantha and Endora were hacks!

I could fly by broom (and pop as well) but my ride was much classier.

Great post, R30. I never realized until recently that the Kravitzes did not appear in the final season (season 8). I wonder what that was about?

I think "Tabitha" might've had a chance at success had the producers not screwed it up with all of their stupid changes (e.g., making Adam a mortal, switching him to be the older sibling instead of Tabitha, etc.).

Wasn't season 8 just a money grab for Elizabeth Montgomery?

^ more for Bill Asher.

Liz was done with the series and pretty much done with her marriage to Bill after he made the agreements with ABC to continue the show without her consent.

Even though the ratings had pretty much cratered by that point, I was surprised to read that ABC still wanted a season 9 but EM said no way and that was that.

Weren't they pretty much reusing scripts by season 7?

I actually pondered this as a child OP, especially when compared to Jeanie, who only used the crossed arms and blink and nod method of granting her master’s wishes. (Although I do think she pulled off many wardrobe changes with just a blink and a nod.) Confusing.

I wonder if Samantha ever twitched her nose to...um...make Darrin's "endowment" bigger?

Why should she give Darrin a huge unit that he could run out and dickmatize all the secretaries at McMahon and Tate with?

No, she simply made her vagina smaller.

R38, great question!

R39, I’m sure she only made it bigger when they were about to have sex, then changed it back to normal so no other woman (or man) could benefit.

^ Samantha was a very smart witch!

By final season of Bewitched things were a hot mess.

Ratings had taken a beating. Both EM and her husband were having or had affairs. EM was doing "Samantha" in most passive aggressive way possible IMHO, this included often not even bothering to wear a bra (so much for proper Conneticut society matron, wife and mother), and on it went.

Agnes Moorehead wanted to do other things so by second to last if not before season Endora was scaled down. Heavy reuse of previous scripts without even serious attempts to hide it... and on it went.

Despite tanking in ratings, yes Bewitched was renewed for a 9th and 10th season, but EM said enough and that time she meant it, period, end of story. Previously when EM wanted to walk she was offered so much money and other compensation the actress changed her mind, but not this time.

One major reason EM wanted out was her desire to do other work besides playing Mrs. Darrin Stephens. Bewitched ran from 1964 to 1972 which was a pretty good run for a sitcom. But many actors then and since often walk away from a hit sitcom out of desire to not being forever associated with role (too late for EM), but wishing to do other things.

There were other cast issues as well. Besides replacing Dick York with Dick Sargent the children (Tabitha and Adam) were getting older, that never bodes well for a sitcom as they either had to be given more story lines or regulated to background. When infants that was easy, but Tabitha had already started school by end of Bewitched.

We know now what no one could then that Agnes Moorehead would die in 1974. Original Louise Tate was shoved out in a power play and of course original Gladys Kravitz had long since died.

Even Bewitched had squeaked out another season or two it's highly likely show would have ended on that note. The "rural purge" of early 1970's television was already shaking things up. Besides rural or military themed shows all the kooky sci-fi/supernatural shows were going as well. In their place came urban dramas (often revolving around LE or some private detective), various variety shows such as Flip Wilson, Carol Burnett, and of course sitcoms such as All In the Family and its spin offs (Maude, the Jeffersons).

It wouldn't be until several decades later that primetime television got another successful show based around a witch, "Sabrina the Teenaged Witch" of Archie comics fame. But Sabrina and her aunts weren't Sam and her family.

STTW did quite well in ratings and lasted several seasons. Whereas any attempt reboot or restart Bewitched has failed. That film with Nicole Kidman was a disaster.

I would have cast Heather Graham as Sam, instead of Nicole. She can do comedy and has that weird air of innocence about her.

^ The producers wanted Kidman's sort of overly-botoxed, ratty Korean wig energy

Elizabeth Montgomery carried and gave birth to her 3 children during the run of "Bewitched".

In some of the later episodes, you can see that she wasn't allowed to color or treat her hair while she was pregnant - and it's looks pretty damaged in the back.

[quote]The real mystery on this show is how a beautiful witch would not only find Darren attractive but would be willing to suppress her whole magical persona for that goony control freak. Even as a child I couldn’t understand it. And he was such an arrogant moron, always antagonizing Endora.

I truly believe that the original season was quite satiric of the conventional married relationship of the mid-60s and has a grip on the feminine power that is to be unleashed a few years later in society. Endora doesn't dislike Darren primarily because he's mortal -- her first question when they meet is a stern, "Why won't you let my daughter be herself?" Samantha appears to be buying the idea that a woman can be truly happy when she is subserviant to the man she loves, but she finds that in practise she can never repress her temptation towards magic to fix things, help people and, in some cases, spite obnoxious people, even though Darren has forbidden it. Endora doesn't buy Darren's BS for a New York minute. I think it's significant that Endora is always popping in from Europe: comparing the uptight, highly conventional American suburban sensibility with the more sophisticated European one is a good metaphor for her being entirely outside of social norms by virtue of her long life and of course being a witch.

The show also gets that advertising is its own kind of "magic", and that's what hypocrite Darren works with all day. As the show goes along, Darren becomes less "No wife of mine will..." and more accepting of the benefits of her powers, but once that happens it can only turn into a conventional sitcom, and it does.

What did Samantha do before Darrin?

Was she a member of High Society, flying around to glamorous parties, and Endora seemed to be?

And how in Samantha's 400 or 500 years had she never slept with a man...I mean, I assume that if she'd had ANY other sexual experiences, she never could have settled for sex with just Darrin.