Monday, October 8, 2012
Bewitched
Bewitched was a US sitcom that originally aired from September 1964 to March 1972. Starring Elizabeth Montgomery as a witch with supernatural powers that marries a mortal who wants her to also live as a mortal and not use her powers. Hmm..makes you kind of wonder, doesn't it? The show enjoyed success for the first 5 of its 8 seasons ranking as the #1 US sitcom and #2 overall during it's first season of 1964-1965. It was one of many escapist shows popular during that period. Mr. Ed, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll, The Munsters, The Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, My Mother The Car, I Dream Of Jeannie are just some of the escapist comedy shows from the mid-60's. It dropped to 5th most popular comedy (tied with The Beverly Hillbillies) it's second season falling behind Gomer Pyle, The Lucy Show, Batman and Andy Griffith.
For Season 3 it remained tied with the Beverly Hillbillies and behind Andy Griffith, The Lucy Show and Green Acres.
Season 4 saw it drop to #6 comedy behind Andy Griffith, The Lucy Show, Gomer Pyle, Family Affair and the Beverly Hillbillies.
During these years, long before the age of home recording, it had a great advantage in that it had little competition in its time slot. During its first season it aired opposite the game show Password and the second half of Dr. Kildare. Its second season it aired opposite the CBS Thursday Night Movie and the second half of Laredo. For its third season CBS still ran the movie with the second half of NBC's Star Trek replacing Laredo. Keep in mind, Star Trek became a much more popular show in its afterlife than it ever was originally.
For its 4th season ABC ran a Thursday night lineup of Batman - The Flying Nun - Bewitched - That Girl - Peyton Place and Bewitched ran opposite the last 3rd of the 90 min. Cimmaron Strip and NBC had a new show in the slot - Ironside.
Anyway, after the 5th season Dick York left the show for health reasons, he was replaced by Dick Sargent, and the show carried on another 3 seasons but fell off the radar in terms of popularity.
In the late 60's the US was going through rapid change and that effected TV as well.
The first two seasons (Discs 1 - 5 minus 1 ep) were shot in black and white. The episodes on these discs are colorized, but if you're a purist and want the original black and white, that is not a problem.
Bewitched
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