Bewitched Season 8?

Yeah, I don't think Agnes looks bad in S8 at all.  Maybe a smidge less energy, but not too much.  Certainly not like Alice Pearce in S2, where you can really see her go down hill and fast.

I certainly would have loved to have seen a 9th season, but I think its probably best it ended when it did.

As far as the movies on DVD, the ones you mentioned are not available (legally).

I would love to watch those movies on DVD, hopefully after they make this movie with Liz Montgomery...not sure which channel is doing it, but my guess is ABC lol, maybe they will release some of her older films on DVD... And I hope they do the movie justice... Christina Applegate also fought cancer too and I think she will portray Liz very well! 

Actually Bewitched was shot over 3 to 3 1/2 days in the previous 7 seasons as well.
In Season 8 they shaved it to 3 days as they were simply more efficient.

The Lighting i have seen is no different then in prior seasons & looks fine to me as are the concepts in shooting angles & over all camera work.

Liz in all seasons used facial expression comedy & did no more or less in the final season, i would hardly call this mugging, but rather it was comedic acting the same way Lucy did in
I Love Lucy.

Bewitched was no different then it had been in seasons prior or any other show was in redressing & reusing sets on the lot outside, as they looked completely different i don't see what the problem is, they had always done this.

I don't think there is anything cheap about the last season in terms of presentation or performance, quite the opposite as more was spent per episode on Bewitched in season 8 then in the previous seasons.

Larry Tate :)

With all the effects, how did the manage to shoot an episode in 3-3 1/2 days?!!

According to William Asher, for the vast majority of the run the show took 4 days of filming.  That was separate from rehearsal and pre-production.  Dick Sargent said that by Season 8 they had gotten the entire rehearsal, pre-production and filming down to 3 1/2 days.  That is a huge difference on a weekly series.  He said he really enjoyed the short weeks and long weekends that gave him.

As far as the lighting, there is nothing "wrong" with it, it just broad and flat so that they can save time.  Compare how flat the lighting is in Henry VIII versus a similar ep from Season 3: A Most Unusual Wood Nymph.  The time and care they took for mood and atmosphere with the lighting in the S3 is no where near as prevalent in the S8.  That's one way they shaved the time off the production schedule.

The coverage (set-ups) were also shaved off.  Much fewer closeups this year, especially on guest stars, which would have taken much more time.  For example, in The Eight Year Witch, Julie Newmar is in her THIRD scene (getting coffeee after the modelling job) before she gets a close-up.  That would never have happened in previous seasons, especially with a major guest star/character.  In Samantha's Witchcraft Blows a Fuse they actually do not feature a close-up of Dr. Bombay reacting to his jokes that no one laughs at just before he pops out.  Much more activity this season is related in 2-shots and 3-shots, basically using the master and few additional setups.

RE: reusing the Convent San Tanco and museum sets, they didn't look "completely different."  They look almost identical.  And it was 3 back-to-back weeks, not even separated so as to give the audience time to forget the previous week's set.  I can't recall any other time in 8 years BW did that.  Not one.  Sorry, but it's cost and time cutting and it IS cheap.  Not all budget dollars end up onscreen.

I'll capture and upload some shots of the mugging Liz did this season to illustrate.  I doubt anyone can point out many other examples of this being "typical" of Liz's performances during previous years.  I'd never heard of Samantha Stephens being compared to Lucy Ricardo before, and I certainly never found that to be an element in Liz's performance of the character.   

Edited by JohnMor - 7/26/2009 at 06:42 am GMT

I finally picked up the last season and I'm so ecstatic that the entire series of Bewitched has been released to DVD. 

Yes, me too.  I just received my box set from Amazon.ca last Friday.  So far, I've only got to see the first five episodes.  They look and sound terrific. Just as I expected.   

So, this is almost the end, since this was the last season to come out on DVD.  I'm little bit sorry that we will all be eveporated into other topics, from now on.  Maybe our little group will reunite some day when Sony announces that Bewitched will be available in a big box containing the 8 seasons, or better yet, when Sony put those seasons to blu-ray discs! 

Here's a few captures of what I call Liz's mugging this season.  (Only had time to go through Disc One...)

How Not To Lose Your Head To King Henry VIII



Samantha and The Loch Ness Monster



Bewitched, Bothered and Baldoni


 

She's still a doll, even when going for the cheap laugh.

One other example of their time/cost cutting measures this season: notice in Samantha's Witchcraft Blows a Fuse that when the cops drive by and see the DoDo bird on the roof that they are in the police cruiser on the soundstage in front of a very fake backdrop.  In any other season, that would have been filmed out at the ranch in front of the house.  In fact that scene WAS filmed at the ranch each time it appeared in various episodes in prior seasons, but this season they opted to not take the time and spend the money to go the location for this scene.

Finally, each season from 1 - 5 filmed into at least mid-March.  With fewer episodes each, Seasons 6 & 7 filmed into mid-February.  But Season 8 completed filming on December 15th, with only 2 episodes fewer than the prior season.  THAT's a lot of saved production time.  It certainly wouldn't have taken two months to do those 2 episodes.  They had it down to a science, but the shortcuts are visible.

Edited by JohnMor - 7/26/2009 at 10:32 pm GMT

Maybe they were trying to save money this season because of Ashmont... where liz and bill had significant pay raises??? just a theory

If I could have wrote a season 9 I would have gave Samantha a job...I loved watching her come more independent... in the first few seasons it was like she was obeying Darrin then as their marriage evolved things changed... I think that's why Liz loved playing Serena... it was fun to be naughty... I think she got tired of playing the goodie... just another theory

What is everybody's favourite season on here?  Mine are Seasons 4, 7 and 8 and season 5 and 6 come in close... I also loved the 14 episodes Darrin was absent...

That's not unheard of in this industry.


Like I said above, I think Liz's performances as Serena in S8 are her best.  She really hit them out of the ballpark.

As far as favorite seasons, I love them all, but I really like 1, 2, 3, most of 5 and 8.  6 & 7 are my least favorites, with 7 having the most bad episodes in my opinion.

I enjoy all the seasons a great deal, but i would say
Seasons 1,2,4,3,5,7,8,6 would be the way i rank them.
I think the first season was especially magical as many aspects of
Darrin & Samantha's world were still being introduced & explored.

Myself i feel the first 4 seasons were basically on par & one can call anyone of them the
best season, although all of them are first rate.
I loved the Darrin-less episodes, especially the season 5 ones as it gave us a chance
to see what Samantha's life was like at home when it did not involve Darrin & his job
or clients, as well as seeing her interact with Larry Tate & others in new & more indepth ways
then we saw when it was Darrin who she was primarily interacting with.

By the way the Ashmont effect is moot re Budgets as Ashmont was actually created
in the early years of Bewitched, i saw a contract in 1964 for a pre Bewitched guest star appearance by Liz once that referenced Ashmont
as the Production company that Liz was represented by.

I think as soon as Liz married Bill Asher Ashmont basically came into being.

Larry Tate :)

 All the money for the higher budget must've been funneled in Liz and Bill's direction because it would seem that none of it went to the sets, props, or costumes as evidenced by "Samantha and the Loch Ness Monster" and more specifically "Samantha's Not-So-Leaning Tower of Pisa".

It's interesting how all our tastes vary because my ranking in order from my most favorite to my not-so-favorite (with the understanding that I just adore the entire series) would be 1, 4, 3, 7, 5, 2, 6, and 8. Having now seen all the episodes in all their entirety I've realized how much I really love Season 7, most of it having to do with the Salem episodes. I love that they actually filmed on location, I think the writing is great, and I think the energy is great. Plus many of my favorite episodes come from that season. If I think on the seasons in terms of which episodes I go for when just wanting to view a random episode, I realize I hardly ever go for a Season 2, 6 or 8, though there are a handful of episodes from each episode that are truly great (ie "Alias Darrin Stephens", "A Very Special Delivery", "The Joker is a Card", "And Then There Were Three", "Disappearing Samantha" from Season 2 alone).

Like Larry Tate, I love the Durwood-less episodes, specifically from Season 5 for the same reasons he said, plus it took a lot of the "edge" off the episode not having Durwood there to be mad about something.

Now it's not to say I despise Season 8 because all though I mentioned "Samantha and the Loch Ness Monster" as one of the "cheap" episodes above, I LOVE that episode for all it's camp and for the fact that we get to see so much of Serena! Plus I love that we get a mermaid for once on BW, one of my favorite mythological creatures. I also love "The Warlock in the Gray Flannel Suit", "Adam, Warlock or Washout", "Serena's Youth Pill" and the Henry VIII episodes.

I liked the early seasons the best, 1,2,3,4 .  I liked the York seasons better than the Sargent ones but I think that Sargent was as good a replacement for York as they could have picked for the show.

My favorite season is the first season for many of the reasons others have stated, seeing Samantha and Darrin meet, looking for a house, Darrin meeting Endora and Maurice, the introduction of Aunt Clara, Alice Pearce's Gladys Kravitz...  It's just an especially magical season.  I love the first two seasons because for me the show feels more like a romantic comedy from the 40s, which I think also has a lot to do with the fact that they were filmed in black and white.  It just seems to add a different feeling to everything.  I LOVE seasons 3 and 4 with season 4 actually nudging season 3 as far as favorite episodes.  Here I have to say that I think the loss of Marion Lorne was a big one for the show.  Aunt Clara is one of my favorite TV characters and I think she added so much to the show!  I feel that season 5 suffers from all of the episodes without Dick York even though I do enjoy many of the episodes without him.  I just feel that without Darrin, it's pretty much a completely different show since the heart of the series is the marriage between Samantha and Darrin.  I also feel that Dick York is one of the best and most underrated TV actors of the 60s and such an important part of Bewitched so season 5 is a little sad now since I know it's his last.  As for the final 3 seasons, they do have some of my favorite episodes like Serena Stops The Show, Samantha's Secret Is Discovered, The Salem episodes, the Christmas episodes, and I love all of the episodes where Tabitha takes center stage in the last 3 seasons.  I like Dick Sargent but feel that Dick York left a huge shadow as Darrin that almost any actor would have had a hard time overcoming, and they are both very different actors.  

So after stating that I love the entire series as a whole, I would rank my favorites as seasons 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 7, 6, and 8! 

One of the things I hated about Bewitched and about Darrin's character is that the writer's always portrayed him as an abuser. Just about in every episode, he was either yelling at Samantha or some member of her family. If he really loved his wife, he would have been more accepting of Samantha's talents and her family. 

While that true to an extant, if you are going to take such a "serious" take on the situation, you could make the completely opposite argument: if her family loved her, they would have respected her choice and accepted Darrin.  Darrin may have had a big mouth, but he never crossed the line into violating anyone, which cannot be said for Samantha's family.  They totally violated him right and left and turned him into animals and inanimate objects and put spells on him forcing him to do things against his will. (Which could be viewed as a non-sexual form of rape: denyng him his right of free choice.)  It seems to me they abused their power over him not unlike someone with bigger muscles or a weapon would do.  Who were the biggest abusers? 


Edited by JohnMor - 7/27/2009 at 07:18 pm GMT
Edited by JohnMor - 7/27/2009 at 09:12 pm GMT

It isn't Samantha's family that should be accepting of Darrin. While Endora and Maurice may have subjected Darrin to some witchly behavior, Darrin, on the majority of occassions, often was rude and condescending to Samantha's family.

Back in the 60's, women were seen as second class citizens, no equal rights, belongs in the home, and all of that. Darrin's behavior shows that and his abusive approach toward Samantha.

Darrin didn't have any power  over Samantha's family but his mouth more than ran that gamut and he often took out his aggression on Samantha. Abuse doesn't mean just physical abuse. His verbal abuse of Samantha shows the disparity between husband and wife in that time period.

The reason that there's conflict between Darrin and Samantha's family is that it creates alot more stories to tell. And most importantly, it's just a comedy rather than a serious look at dysfunctional witch/human marriages.

Does anyone have the Herbie J Pilato book "Bewitched Forever"?  I noticed in season 4 he mentions that Darrins only relative other than his parents is his cousin Helen on the show... but I noticed in Season 8 we got introduced to his cousin Robbie in the Loch Ness Monster episode... also I have a theory... lol maybe they made the creature so cheap because they were afraid if they made it too realistic it may have scared the kids??  Just a theory... because I know how the kids loved BW and I Dream of Jeannie during that time...  By the way... why was IDOJ canceled after season 5? I thought it had high ratings? I know this is the BW Forum, but just wondering...

I think Herbie probably forgot about Robbie when he wrote that in the book.

And I think where Nessie is concerned, there is only so much they could do on a television schedule and budget in those days, so they opted for campy & cute, which I think works well if you accept that it's just a comedy.  I love the way Liz plays off him.  She gets it.  (And it's kinda the way they did the Macedonian DoDo bird in S4 and S8 as well.)

As far as IDOJ, I remember Bill Daily saying that they never got more than a 13 episode renewal from NBC at a time.  It was never a big ratings winner when it aired on the network.  That happened in syndication, where it proved to be a monster hit, one of the biggest of the 1970's.

In fact, for most of it's original network airing, NBC didn't even schedule it in Prime Time.  And they kept changing the day each season:

Season 1: Saturday 8:00pm EST
Season 2: Monday 8:00pm EST
Season 3: Tuesday 7:30pm EST
Season 4: Monday 7:30pm EST
Saeson 5: Tuesday 7:30pm EST
Edited by JohnMor - 7/27/2009 at 10:07 pm GMT
Edited by JohnMor - 7/27/2009 at 10:08 pm GMT

It seems like NBC still does that to this day... Wonder why?

Hey guys do you think in the episode "Samantha on Thin Ice" that was really her ice skating? She wore the witch face, and I am betting that was a stunt double?  I think in the syndicated version it didn't show her twirling around... I found a lot of snipets I hadn't seen because of the syndicated versions... I just love this season...

Another question I have is did Liz introduce BW in all the seasons or was it just season 8?

Mike, yes that was a stunt double under the witch make-up.  You can see in the brief shot of Liz starting to twirl that she wasn't quite enough of an ice skater to pull off that routine.  Erin was also doubled.

Liz began introducing the eps in Season 5.  They had one version of her doing it for Seasons Five and Six, and then they revamped it for Season Seven, and again for Season Eight.  (Prior to Season Five, they had a title card that introduced the show.) 

You can see the various versions on some of the BW fan sites on the web.

It's too bad they didn't put them all on the respective seasons episodes.

Even with the reduction in some of the production values in this season I thought the invisible effects work on A Good Turn Never Goes Unpunished was pretty good. I don't remember ever seeing the scene with invisible Sam in bed in syndication until I stumbled on some shows being shown uncut on a local channel a few years ago. I thought the bed effect was great and I liked the blue screen effect when she is using the iron.

Yes there were 4 Liz introductions in all with a Bewitched next in color card as well
(there were two versions of this with one having the Bewitched theme music playing)  there were two in season 7, the generic one & another devoted to Salem & those episodes.

Larry Tate :)

Are you sure about the IDOJ seasons not being in prime-time as that can't be right.
It was barely a top 30 rated show so it was only moderately successful.

With the Nessie Prop, you have to remember it was Serena that turned Bruce into Nessie & with her sense of humor it would look exactly as it does in the show & could not be expected to look like a realistic Nessie, plus the episode had many moments of high camp comedy such as this one so i can not see the Nessie prop as being any other way then it was, & it would have not been as effective if it had been a sophisticated & realistic one.

So i don't see it as being cheap but rather an effective way to intentionally show what silly Brucie would have had done to him by a way out witch like Serena, it is not meant to be taken seriously.

Larry Tate ;)

Bottom line the conflict that existed was between Darrin's insistence that his family live in mortal world context magic free & Endora & the Witch World's insistence that they & particularly Samantha & the children live a magical life in the Witch world.

Now this had to be to create the dramatic tension & conflict that the story-lines were created around.

Without it there would have been no show Bewitched as we know it.
There would have been only a half a season with that premise of magical gratification before the show got stale with everyone getting what they wanted through magic.

To stay true to the premise & to maintain the credibility and integrity of Darrin's character he had to remain consistent in his insistence that their life be magic free.

This is demonstrated in the episode "The Girl with the golden nose" & others in the line of
"A is for Aardvark".

The conflict was never a personal one between Darrin & Endora & company or even that he was mortal, it was all based on his insistence of no magic & whenever he even for a moment changed his tune on that such as when he said he was wrong in a situation of magicalness then Endora's attitude went 180 degrees in respect to Darrin & no longer was a hostile one.

Although Darrin received no assurance from Samantha's family of no witchcraft, he was simply being consistent in his opposition to witchcraft by whomever, especially if it impacted on the life of him & his family.

I don't think Darrin was ever abusive towards Samantha, rather he was reacting to the extreme to some impossible situation he was placed in by magic be a member of Samantha's family.

If he had been accepting of the use of Witchcraft by Samantha & her family then he would have been a hypocrite  and a traitor to his values & all that he stood for, the hard working all American executive devoted to free enterprise & the American way.

He took it out on her at times as she was his contact to her witchly world inhabited by her family that were causing all the problems in his life.

Larry Tate :)

Actually, you're right. The info is taken right from the networks' published schedules, but I just looked up and found out that prior to the 1971-72 season, Prime Time was 3 & 1/2 hours.  I didn't know that. So while it aired at 7:30pm EST, it WAS in Prime Time.  My bad.