Bewitched Season 3 (1 Viewer)

[JohnMor]

Me too. I loved that the opening theme version changed each year through Season 4 (and matched the closing theme versions). And since they were syndicated with them, you'd think that they would remain that way. Not sure why Sony replaced them all with the Season 4 version (even the black and white ones, which had much more detailed animation). Not sure why Sony does a lot of what they do, but overall having the episodes (mostly) uncut and looking super and at a reasonable price is great. My quibbles are small, but I hope that they don't get any bigger on future seasons. The multi-part Salem episodes (bad as they are) better not have the teasers lopped off!

 

[PopBodhi]

#80: "Endora Moves In For A Spell" Why does this episode display Spanish subtitles during the last few minutes of the show? Uncle Arthur and Endora are speaking and "poof" subtitles appear!

 

[David*P]

I watched that episode and didn't have that happen....

 

[PopBodhi]

Episode six on the first disc, right? Maybe my Denon is pulling a Linda Blair.

 

[Steve Phillips]

All throughout the 1970's and well into the 80's, this was not the case on the several stations (local, WTBS, etc) I watched BW and IDOJ on. The teasers were shown, followed by the title sequence, and then a commercial break.

It was about 1985 or so that I noticed that both series were suddenly being shown in butchered versions that placed the titles first. It seemed a new company was handling the syndication? These versions were cut to ribbons and I hated them.

In the early 90's, I noticed TBS was airing BW with the teasers in the correct place again.....

 

[Larry.P]

Regarding the Spanish subtitles: I have seen them pop on randomly during Bewitched, but even worse on the Flying Nun. It's really bad during the pilot. Although it should not do this, I figured out how to get rid of them. If I press the "Subtitle" button on my remote, it shows that "Spanish" is selected to "off". If I toggle it from "Spanish" to "---", the subtitles turn off. I guess even though it is set to "off", the Spanish pops through sometimes. When it's set to no language, nothing can pop through. I was really angry about the random subtitles at first but this seems to take care of it... hope this helps.

 

[JohnMor]

Anyone else noticing that these episodes might be slightly sped up? I notice it more in the music cues, which seem just a trifle off-key, and in one particular end credit sequence, where the theme is noticeably faster than normal. (Can't think of which ep that is right now, but I think it's on disc three. Will try to find it.)

 

[PopBodhi]

Larry.P,

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it tonight.

 

[David*P]

Randall, did you get the problem fixed? I know one of my friends had that same problem of suddenly appearing Spanish subtitles on one of the earlier seasons and I was going to tell her about this fixer Larry P suggested.

 

[PopBodhi]

Darn it! My partner insisted we watch Roswell last night and so I completely forgot to check Larry's solution. I'll do it this weekend and post results Monday.

 

[PopBodhi]

Well, I checked Larry's solution and it worked. Yeah!

 

[David*P]

Glad to hear you lifted the hex off your DVD player

So in watching this Third Season DVD I also noticed that in this season of firsts that this is also the first time the witches of Samantha's family use an antique automobile to fly around in and arrive at her home, in the living room at that.

And after his appearance in "Witches and Warlocks Are My Favorite Things" Maurice doesn't pop in again until the end of the FIFTH SEASON! Up to this point he had been appearing once every season.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

I'd forgotten how much of a drop-off in writing quality there was when the show switched to colour. It seems that with the departure of the writers from the B&W years (Danny Arnold, Jerry Davis and Bernard Slade), the show went much more for standardized fantasy plots with comedy, whereas the first two seasons were more romantic/domestic comedy with magical elements. Also this is the season where Darrin really started to become a jerk who's always, always yelling at Sam. Finally, I didn't realize that as early as this season they'd started remaking earlier episodes (the soapbox derby episode is a remake of the baseball episode from season 1).

The best episode of the third season is the "Charlie Harper, Winner" episode, which is a total throwback to the style of the first season (by a guy who wrote two great scripts for the first season). There are some other funny episodes, but the B&W seasons are the "essential" Bewitched for me.

 

[Steve Phillips]

A bit off topic, but for those keeping track of the Japanese R2/NTSC season sets, the last two have just been released, so the entire series is available from Sony there.

This gives me hope that seasons 4-8 are on the way in R1 too.

For the record, the Japanese 8th season set contains a bonus disc with all the "missing" episodes that were inexplicably left off the earlier season 1-3 sets.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Steve, thanks for the R2 info. Looks like a good bet for the entire R1 release.

David*P: Any clue as to why "Maurice" didn't appear more than he did in the series? My Mom loved that character in the series. Also, (I couldn't locate this in a "thread search"...sorry for a repeat question): When did "Dr Bombay" first appear in the series? I'm still in S1 on the DVD's.

Ever since these DVD's have come out, I can't get rid of the "Calling Dr. Bombay...Calling Dr. Bombay...Emergency, Emergency, Come right away" phrase :rolleyes

 

[David*P]

Yes, Dr. Bombay's first appearance is at the end of the third season in "There's Gold in Them Thar Pills".

I'm not sure why Maurice Evans didn't appear again until the Fifth Season.

 

[DanMel]

In 1967 Maurice Evans would have been busy on location at the Planet of the Apes set most of the year.

 

[JohnMor]

As well as filming Rosemary's Baby right afterward.

 

[MatthewA]

In the 1980s Columbia Pictures Television farmed out the syndication rights to this and other of their shows (I Dream of Jeannie also, and I think there may have been others) to Program Exchange. They had the rights for about 10 years or so.

 

[David*P]

A funny tie-in to BW with that movie, besides the obvious of having Maurice Evans in it, Uncle Arthur and Endora protest that movie in the Fifth Season episode "The Battle of Burning Oak"