Bewitched Season 5? (1 Viewer)

[David*P]

According to http://www.cmongethappy.com/blog/ Bewitched Season 5 is rumoured to be released in March 2007! So it seems that Sony has decided to stick with a regular schedule for the BW releases as Season 2 was released in October 2005, S.3 in March 2006 and S.4 in October 2006. With Season 5 in March next year that will place Season 6 in October 2007 and the series will finish up in March and October of 2008!

 

[Mark Talmadge]

It's nice to hear that Sony has placed the Bewitched series on a semi-regular release date. Now, if only they would do that for "All in the Family."

 

[Jeff Willis]

Sounds like a logical plan to me I just started viewing S2 last week.

David*P, I was curious which BW opening theme is your favorite? I have all of them in WAV files and wondered which was your favorite. I think mine was the 1st season's theme, then the '68 season theme.

 

[David*P]

I think my favorite was from Season Two with the added bells and all...I do have to admit that I liked Season 6's with the subdued tinkling of the bells at first and then breaking into the main theme.

 

[David*P]

I thought it would be appropriate that we discuss the aspects of Season Five and the episodes.

By this time in the series, Elizabeth Montgomery and Bill Asher, her husband and the main director of the series, were ready to call it quits on the series. ABC, on the other hand, was not and offered them a substantial amount of money to return for four more seasons. Of course it ended up being only three more seasons but the fact that ABC wanted more seasons really says something to the popularity of the show and how much faith ABC had in the actors and, really, everyone involved with the series.



This season also is one marked with sadness as it is the last season that Dick York would portray Durwood. In fact, he would miss on filming 8 episodes and would film small scenes for other episodes. The reason he missed filming is due to an injury incurred in 1959 during the filming of the Gary Cooper film “They Came to Cordura” where DY was filming a scene which involved lifting a small rail car and he wrenched his spine. He was on tons of painkillers and often would come to work having difficulty standing up or remembering his lines. The last episode he filmed was “Daddy Does His Thing” where he is seen at the beginning and the end of the episode. It is visibly apparent that he is not well as he is quite thin and drawn. In fact, during the filming of this episode he and Maurice Evans, who played Samantha’s father Maurice, were on scaffolding to make them look like they were floating. DY said that all the lights were making him dizzy and he blacked out. The next thing he knew he was on the ground and David White (Larry) was over him. He was taken to the hospital and treated. While he was in the hospital William Asher came to visit and asked him if he wanted to quit. DY said he did and that was that.

This season was also the first without Aunt Clara and unfortunately the storylines which involved messed up magic fell on the shoulders of Uncle Arthur.

Now, it may seem like the Fifth Season was just depressing but it really wasn’t. There were many fun episodes in this Season involving cousin Serena who appeared a lot and finally became the Serena we remember with the short raven hair and the kooky personality.

The show also received three Emmy nominations that year: Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Continuing Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role-Comedy Series:
ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY, Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role-Comedy Series: AGNES MOOREHEAD.

The Living Room got new wallpaper which hadn’t happened since the beginning of Season Three.

This also marks the change of spelling in Tabitha’s name in the credits. Up to this point it was spelled T-A-B-A-T-H-A but EM couldn’t stand that spelling and so she had it changed as of “Samantha on the Keyboard”.

This Season was the first to be out of the top 10 but only by a little bit. It ranked #12 overall.

Here is a rundown of the episodes:

#141: “Samantha’s Wedding Present” 9/26/68 – Endora decides that it’s time to acknowledge her daughter’s five year old marriage by giving her a present. She also wants to be nice to Durwood who gets mad by her use of witchcraft. She tells him he’s a small man and casts a spell which makes it so: he begins to slowly shrink smaller and smaller. When Gladys Kravitz’s dog comes in to the kitchen and Samantha sees him she assumes that he may have eaten her tiny husband! Durwood has really run outside and hidden in a pop bottle which is then carted off to the dumps. By luck, a drunk foraging through the garbage, finds the bottle and Durwood tells him that he is a leprechaun and if he takes him home he will get three wishes granted. The drunk complies and Samantha grants his menial wishes. Afterward Endora returns and removes her spell.


#142: “Samantha Goes South for a Spell” 10/3/68 – Samantha is mistaken for her cousin Serena who has been messing around with a married warlock. The warlock’s wife, Brunhilde, sends Samantha back 100 years to New Orleans where she has no recollection of who she is or where she is from. Serena tells Durwood that the spell used is “your average Beauty and the Beast curse” and can be broken by a kiss. She sends him back to find her. Meanwhile, Samantha has been taken in by Rance Butler, a wealthy plantation owner and when he discovers Durwood is looking for her, he challenges him to a duel.

This episode pays homage to “Gone with the Wind” which was re-released in theaters that year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film.

Isabel Sanford guest stars as Jenny, Rance’s maid. And Rance himself is played by Jack Cassidy.

#143: “Samantha on the Keyboard” 10/10/68 – Endora gives Tabitha a piano conjured by witchcraft which, of course, infuriates Durwood. He also states that witches always take the easy way out. Samantha tells him that’s not true and she says she’ll take piano lessons with Tabitha to prove him wrong. When the piano teacher arrives he is astounded by Tabitha’s prowess at the piano. Endora hasn’t taken her spell off. The piano teacher suggests that the world famous concert pianist Maestro Ferranini come listen to her and possibly go on tour with him. Sam and Durwood will have none of this and decide they will find a real piano prodigy for the Maestro.

Jonathan Harris (“Lost in Space”) plays the piano teacher and Fritz Feld plays the Maestro. Gerald Edwards plays the Piano Prodigy. He would later be the voice of Weird Harold in the Fat Albert cartoons.

#144: “Darrin Gone and Forgotten” 10/17/68 – Durwood suddenly disappears and Endora claims she has nothing to do with it. As Samantha is about to question her other family members the malicious witch Carlotta pops in and claims she has done it. It turns out that at the turn of the century, “vanity prevents me from naming which one”, Endora had promised the hand of her first daughter to Carlotta’s first born son and she’s come to collect on the promise. Samantha protests that she’s all ready married but Carlotta says mortal marriages don’t count. She also shows Samantha that Durwood will be in limbo running from bodiless beasts forever…and possibly from embodied beasts, if Samantha doesn’t change her mind. Carlotta’s son, Juke, is a spineless wimp who has always been told that he is in love with Samantha but he really isn’t. He just says so to please his mother. Samantha decides that they will trick Carlotta into thinking they are going to get married but on Samantha’s terms which includes not letting his mother dress him and dictate his life. Carlotta doesn’t like this and agrees that she would rather that Juke not marry Samantha and she returns Durwood to his normals state of affairs having no memory of where he had been.

Mercedes McCambridge plays Carlotta. She was the voice of the devil in the original “The Exorcist”.

#145: “It’s So Nice to Have a Spouse Around the House” 10/24/68 – When Samantha is forced to appear in front of the Witches’ Council, Durwood is furious as he’d rather have his wife at home and not involved with witchy things. Knowing the council will not take “no” for an answer she and Endora decide that Serena could take her place at home as Samantha while the real Samantha does her witchly duties. The plan goes well until Durwood decides, at Larry’s suggestion, to take Samantha on a second honeymoon to make up for being such a jerk earlier. With Samantha still gone, Serena has no choice but to accept. They go to Moonthatch Inn where they spent their honeymoon and Durwood is in an amorous mood indeed, something Serena/Samantha does not reciprocate. They end up going home and Durwood is furious thinking Samantha hasn’t forgiven him. In speaking to Tabitha he finds that Serena had been there earlier and it dawns on him what has been going on.

#146: “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall” 11/7/68 – After Samantha tells Endora that Durwood doesn’t have a vain bone in his body Endora makes it so that Durwood is nothing BUT vanity and at a time when McMann and Tate are trying to get the business of a very conservative client. Dick York should’ve won an Emmy on this episode alone! He’s so funny in it!

#147: “Samantha’s French Pastry” 11/14/68 – When Uncle Arthur ruins the angel food cake that Samantha had been cooking for dessert (“it’s so cafeteria”) he tries to zap up a better dessert in the way of a Napoleon…but instead gets the little general himself! Larry meets Napoleon and thinks that he would be great for commercial until they see that Napoleon has horrible acting skills. Uncle Arthur has trouble remembering how to send him back and in a moment of despair Samantha flippantly states words that return Napoleon to his proper time.

Henry Gibson (“Laugh-In”) plays Napoleon and would later return as an angry leprechaun. This is an example of the writers trying to find a replacement for Aunt Clara’s errant magic as Arthur is a powerful warlock on par with Endora…it seems ridiculous that he wouldn’t be able to conjure a dessert.

#148: “Is It Magic or Imagination?” 11/21/68 – Durwood’s mother, Phyllis, thinks that it’s about time that Samantha and Durwood go on a trip and she feels the best way they could do that would be for Samantha to try and win one by coming up with the winning slogan for Tinkerbell Diapers. As luck would have it, Samantha’s slogan does win. Both Durwood and Samantha are excited until Durwood finds out that the new client happens to own Tinkerbell Diapers and Larry is furious that Samantha is seemingly taking work away from them. Durwood also thinks that Samantha used witchcraft to come up with the winning slogan and he and Samantha have an argument. The heat rises further when Larry offers Samantha a position at McMann and Tate. When Durwood comes home drunk out of his gourd Samantha takes his idea’s to the client who loves them. He also says that Samantha’s ideas were rejected by a computer analyzer which then proves to Durwood that his wife was telling the truth about not using witchcraft.



#149: “Samantha Fights City Hall” 11/28/68 – When Samantha finds that a neighborhood park is about to be razed to make way for a new shopping center she heads up a protest of the neighborhood mothers at Durwood’s suggestion. He later rescinds his suggestion when finds that his new client is the owner of the park who gave his OK for the shopping center. Samantha won’t give up the fight and Larry threatens to fire Durwood if he doesn’t make her back down. Proud of his wife for taking part in civic affairs, he decides he’d rather back his wife in the fight. Vic Tayback plays the surveyor.

Trivia: Samantha flippantly states that she won’t be able to see the mayor until April 15, 1997 which happens to be Elizabeth Montgomery’s birthday. Unfortunately she passed away two years earlier.

#150: “Samantha Loses Her Voice” 12/5/68 – Uncle Arthur arrives with a gift of a puppy for Tabitha. At the same time Louise Tate shows up and announces that she is leaving Larry and she goes up to the guest room to cry. Uncle Arthur, seeing that he should leave, asks Samantha whether or not Tabitha can keep the puppy but Samantha tells him that she’ll have to ask Durwood, that she can’t speak for him. As a joke Arthur switches her voice with his and says that, in fact, she can speak for him. When he tries to switch them back he finds he is unable to.

Again, this is another example of the writers trying to find someone to mess up the magic like Aunt Clara did.

#151: “I Don’t Want to Be a Toad, I Want to be a Butterfly” 12/12/68 – Mother Stephens insists that Tabitha should be attending a nursery school and announces that she’s all ready paid the tuition for it. She will not accept any excuses from Durwood and Samantha who finally concede to allowing their daughter to attend school. Ever worried about Tabitha using magic when not appropriate, Samantha makes Tabitha promise not to use any magic while at school. During a game at school Tabitha’s schoolmate Amy is upset at not being assigned the part of the butterfly. She keeps saying how much she wants to be a butterfly so Tabitha grants her wish and turns her into a butterfly.

#152: “Weep No More My Willow” 12/19/68 – Mrs. Kravitz demands that the willow tree that stands on the front lawn of 1164 Morning Glory Circle be removed as it is dying. Samantha will not have this as it is a Mother’s Day present given to her by Durwood the day Tabitha was born. She decides to call Dr. Bombay to see if he might cure the tree. He does but the side effect to the cure is that every time a breeze blows through the tree Samantha weeps. Mrs. Kravitz sees this and thinks that the Stephens are having marital troubles and she calls Durwood at work demanding he come home.

Elizabeth Montgomery said that this was one of her favorite episodes as it was a challenge for her to move from crying to laughing just like that.

#153: “Instant Courtesy” 12/26/68 – Endora casts a spell over Durwood making him overtly courteous to the point that it drives everyone crazy!

#154: “Samantha’s Super Maid” 1/2/69 – Mother Stephens strikes again when she insists that Samantha hire a maid so that she’ll have time to mingle with the ladies of the community who could possibly help Durwood in his career. Samantha ends up hiring Amelia, an amiable lady who doesn’t let anything get to her. When Samantha and Durwood realize that it may not be a good idea to have a mortal in the house with all the witchery that goes on, Samantha decides (with Endora’s help) to zap up the biggest mess in the hopes that it will convince Amelia to quit. But Amelia is made of much stronger stuff and she cleans up the messes. When Mrs. Stephens invites over one of her high society friends Samantha twitches up a mess and has Amelia clean it up with a high speed assist. The high society friend, Mrs. Otis, offers Amelia a job with her at double the salary that the Stephenses are paying her, an offer she can’t refuse as she’s putting her son through college.

#155: “Serena Strikes Again” (Part One) 1/9/69 – When cousin Serena barges in on her brand new motor cycle, Samantha and Durwood tell her that her unannounced drop-ins are not welcome, especially later in the evening when Italian client Clio Vanita is coming for dinner. During the dinner Serena pops in invisible and sees that Clio has her eye set on Durwood, especially when they happen to be out on the patio by themselves. Feeling that Clio is out to make a monkey of Samantha, Serena decides to really make a monkey out of Clio! Samantha, not wanting to worry Durwood, tells him that Clio left with a bad headache and that the monkey must be a neighbor pet. When the monkey still shows a lot of affection for Durwood and even follows them to their bedroom Samantha insists that she will not let the monkey sleep in the room and reveals that it’s because the monkey is Clio. When Durwood hollers for Serena she pops in and explains herself and in his anger he tells her he would not like her to ever visit them again! She obliges and pops off…but Clio is still a monkey and Serena is the only one who can change her back!

Clio is played by Nancy Kovak who earlier in the series played Durwood’s girlfriend Sheila.

#156: “Serena Strikes Again” (Part Two) 1/16/69 – Durwood is frantic to get Serena back as Clio is due for a meeting that morning. She pops in at Samantha’s request ready to change Clio back..but Clio is gone! She slipped her rope that was tying her to the table on the patio. Samantha and Durwood go searching throughout the city for Clio and Samantha finally finds her with an organ grinder. Just as she’s about to take Clio back, Clio escapes again before Samantha pops out and in front of her to catch her. By this time the police are on the heels of Clio and Samantha, who has slipped into the bathroom of an office building. When the police try to go into the bathroom Serena comes out followed by Samantha and a confused humanized Clio Vanita.

#157: “One Touch of Midas” 1/23/69 – Endora feels that Samantha and Tabitha are being deprived of the good life and she decides to enlist the help of a warlock named Professor McAllister who presents Durwood with a fuzzy little doll, named the Fuzz. The doll makes everyone who comes around it feel good and Durwood decides to market it and split the profits. When it becomes a success Durwood goes hogwild buying all the things he feels that Samantha and Tabitha need or want. Samantha explains to him that she loved her life the way it was, that she wasn’t expecting all that from Durwood. Endora finally confesses to putting the Professor up to it and she gets him to remove the spell from the doll so that things return to normal.

#158: “Samantha the Bard” 1/30/69 – Samantha wakes up rhyming everything she says. Endora thinks she has Venetian Verbal Virus but she tries to find Dr. Bombay for a professional opinion. That night Durwood and Samantha attend a dinner with the new client, Mr. Durfee, who is trying to get away from using jingles, yet Samantha keeps rhyming. Dr. Bombay finally shows up and gives Samantha a soundwave injection and says that she had Primary Vocabularyitis.

#159: “Samantha the Sculptress” 2/6/69 – Durwood discovers that Tabitha has been using witchcraft to mold her new clay by making copies of her toys. He is furious over this (of course!) which irritates Endora who causes him to eat daisies as punishment. After Samantha gets her to remove the spell, Samantha tells Durwood that she’ll teach Tabitha how to use the clay the mortal way by taking lessons herself. She creates an impressionist bust of Durwood, which Endora doesn’t like, and she zaps it into a living, talking bust of Durwood. That night Larry, Durwood and the new alcoholic client come over to 1164 and when Larry sees the bust requests that Samantha make one of him. Endora obliges by zapping up one of Larry that also talks. Larry, Durwood and the client think they’ve all had too much to drink when they hear and see the busts speaking to each other.

This is about the only episode that really lampoons the constant drinking on the series. And those heads are pretty scary!

#160: “Mrs. Stephens, Where Are You?” 2/13/69 – When Serena is babysitting while Samantha is out running errands, Mrs. Stephens drops by and immediately starts making disparaging remarks about Samantha’s family. This irritates Serena so much she turns Mrs. Stephens into a cat (because she was making catty remarks). When Samantha returns she goes on the lookout for Mrs. Stephens and finds that next door neighbor Mrs. Parsons took in a stray to add to her collection of multiple cats. Thinking she’ll never be able to tell which one is Mrs. Stephens, Samantha changes all the cats into dogs, except the cat that is Mrs. Stephens, whom she takes home and has Serena change back.

This is the first episode of the season that is entirely Durwood free. And, the series suffers for it though this is an enjoyable episode.

#161: “Marriage, Witches’ Style” 2/20/69 – Serena decides she’s tired of dating warlocks, that she wants to find a “regular, dreary type human being” like Samantha did. Samantha gives her a couple suggestions of where to find a single human man and her last suggestion, the Human Equation – a computer dating service – peaks Serena’s interest. Samantha accompanies her where Serena fills out a questionnaire. Her answers are then matched against the male respondents and the one’s who most closely match hers are set up on a date with her. It turns out that only one person matches Serena and that is a man named Franklyn Blodgett. It turns out the reason that Franklyn is so unique is that he is a warlock looking to date a mortal girl. Both Serena and Franklyn act like complete fools, like they think mortals act. Finally both decide they are going to reveal their true identity and are quite nervous about it. Serena goes first and shows him that she’s a witch by waving arms about and about to pop out. Franklyn pops out by the mere snap of his fingers. They both laugh and carry on about how ironic it was until Franklyn criticizes Serena’s magic style. She lets him have it and she then tries to find another mortal mate only to be matched up with another warlock.

This is another non-Durwood episode and it’s probably my favorite out of the non-Durwood’s.

#162: “Going Ape” 2/27/69 – After a chimp follows Samantha and Tabitha home from the park, Samantha changes him into human form to ask him where he lives at so she can return him. Harry, the name of the chimp, insists that he’d rather be a man, that he doesn’t want to go back to the home where he was from. At the same time, Evelyn Tucker, the new client selling Braun cologne, is looking for a new manly symbol for her company. Durwood is supposed to be handling the account but is late in coming back from Canada and Evelyn insists on waiting for him at his home so they can get going on the campaign. When she arrives there she meets Harry and feels he is the perfect symbol until he starts acting like his true chimp self. At that point Harry decides he wants to go back to being a chimp and Samantha changes him back.

Another Durwood-less episode.

#163: “Tabitha’s Weekend” 3/6/69 – Durwood’s mother, Mrs. Stephens, insists that ti’s about time Samantha allow Tabitha to come stay a weekend with her. Of course, Samantha is apprehensive about this but Mr. Stephens persuades her as he knows his wife won’t let up. Samantha finally agrees but insists she accompany Tabitha as it’ll be her first time away from home. At Grandma Stephens place, Tabitha is told that she can do what she likes there by Grandma Stephens. She takes this to mean that the rule about ‘no witchcraft’ is repealed so she makes Grandma’s Mynah bird carry on full conversations. Grandma Endora pops in upsetting Grandma Stephens and Samantha. During an argument they find that Tabitha suddenly seems to have disappeared. Endora is sure that Tabitha has changed herself into something small and she and Samantha find that Tabitha has become a raisin cookie. She changes herself back and they go home.

Yet another Durwood-less episode.

#164: “The Battle of Burning Oak” 3/13/69 – When Durwood is offered membership in the exclusive Burning Oak Country Club by Mr. Rockeford, the new client, Larry insists he accept. Durwood and Samantha don’t want to accept and Endora claims that if they were to accept that Durwood would become the snob of all time. Samantha disagrees so Endora makes him into a super snob and after that he joins. Samantha learns from the wives of the members of the club that they are more exclusive than what she believed at first. She also knows that all the members of the club must have “undesirable” ancestry somewhere in their line that would keep them from their own club so she has Aunt Hagatha do some investigating. Just when Durwood is becoming the most unbearable snob, Endora pops in with the finds of Hagatha’s investigations, removes the snob spell and from there Samantha reveals the shady history of each member. She and Durwood also tell them that they wouldn’t join because Samantha belongs to the greatest minority of all, that of being a full-blooded witch.

This episode was filmed early on in the season but kept in the can.

#165: “Samantha’s Power Failure” 3/20/69 – Endora arrives to tell Samantha that the Witches’ Council has had it with her mortal marriage and that she must give up Durwood or give up her witchhood. Samantha refuses to leave Durwood, so true to their word, the Witches’ Council strips her of her and Tabitha of their powers. Serena and Uncle Arthur pop in to give their support to Sammy and are immediately stripped of their powers. They decide if Samantha can function like a mortal, so can they, so they look for a job. They find one at an ice cream plant where they make chocolate covered frozen bananas. After making a mess of that, Samantha decides she wants to face the Council. She tells them that all though she doesn’t have her powers she’ll always be a witch and that they are being as prejudiced against Durwood as the judges in Salem were against those they accused as witches. Returning from the Council, Samantha is upset thinking that her words fell on deaf ears until Uncle Arthur sees Tabitha levitate a bottle of ketchup. They then find that all their powers have been restored.

This episode is also Durwood-less, though we do seem him briefly at the first sleeping in a clip that was reused from the Third Season!! Also, the scene at the ice cream factory is lifted directly from the “I Love Lucy” episode “Lucy and the Chocolate Factory” but it’s not really a case of copy catting – William Asher, the main director of BW and EM’s husband at the time, directed that episode of ILL…in fact, it was his first episode of ILL to direct.

#166: “Samantha Twitches for UNICEF” 3/27/69 – Samantha is roped into trying to get Mr. Haskell, a wealthy man, to make good on his $1,000.00 pledge to UNICEF. When she finds that his girlfriend is the one who talked him out of it and she won’t talk him back into it. Samantha decides to really bother Mr. Haskell until he relents by popping up everywhere, making him crazy. It still doesn’t work until Endora decides to put some truth sprinkles in the girlfriend’s soup where she reveals that she has another boyfriend and is just using Mr. Haskell for his money. He also decides to pay his pledge.

Yet another Durwood-less episode.

#167: “Daddy Does His Thing” 4/3/69 – As Durwood and Samantha are celebrating his birthday, Maurice shows up with a present for him as he feels it’s time to bury the hatchet since it’s obvious his daughter really loves this mortal. His present is a lighter that will allow Durwood to perform witchcraft. Of course, he’ll have none of that. Offended by Durwood’s effrontery to his gift, Maurice changes him into a jackass aka donkey, a move which he says did not take much changing. He then pops off in an angry huff. When Samantha leaves with Endora to go find Maurice, Gladys Kravitz reports the donkey to the animal control who come and take him away. Tabitha reports all this to Samantha who then pops over to the animal control and springs Durwood. Maurice tries to change him back but can’t recall the spell until he plays it back in the picture over the fireplace.



This episode has the unfortunate distinction of being the last episode that DY filmed. It is quite obvious by his looks that he was quite ill. And in fact, this episode had entirely different direction where Durwood does accept the lighter and actually we will see this story line in Season Six with Dick Sargent’s Durwood.

#168: “Samantha’s Good News” 4/10/69 – Maurice pops in and announces that he has hired a “personal secretary” in the sexy form of Ms. Abigail Beecham. Knowing that Endora would never approve of this association (even though Endora and Maurice have an open marriage) Samantha calls for Endora and is proven right: Endora does not approve. When she insists that Maurice give up Ms. Beacham he declines. Endora decides that maybe it’s time for an ectoplasmic interloctatory, the witch world’s version of divorce, and she pops off to the Witches Council to file for one. Endora later pops in, unbeknownst to Maurice and his new amanuenses, and tells Samantha that she wouldn’t give Maurice the satisfaction of having a permanent split from herself. Of course Samantha knows that Endora herself doesn’t want that. They come up with another plan to make Maurice so jealous that he wouldn’t think twice about dropping Ms. Beecham. Endora flies off to find John Van Millwood, an Aussie warlock who used to be friends with Maurice when they hung out with William Shakespeare. When they get into a recitation competition and John shows a yen for Ms. Beecham they leave together. Endora and Maurice are glad to be back together and Samantha announces that she is pregnant with her second child.

Another non-Durwood episode and it’s sad as it seems that the announcement of her second child would’ve demanded that Durwood be included.

#169: “Samantha’s Shopping Spree” 4/17/69 – Samantha’s prankster cousin Henry joins her, Tabitha and Endora when they go on a shopping spree. When he becomes irritated by an over eager salesman, he turns the salesman into a mannequin and pops out. Unable to turn the mannequin back, Endora goes searching for Henry. Meanwhile Samantha tries to distract the store owner, who happens to be the father of the salesman. When she goes back to where the mannequin was she finds he has been removed to the basement by workers. She pops home with him and Endora comes back from the moon where Henry is brooding. Tabitha then tells them that she saw the spell Henry used and Endora changes him back and Samantha takes him back to the store.

The last non-Durwood episode of the season, and in fact, the series.

It’s also quite obvious that this episode was written with Uncle Arthur in mind but apparently Paul Lynde was not available. It’s also interesting to note that Endora is seen on the moon two months before Neil Armstrong and his crew made their landing. AM was invited to witness the moon landing from NASA as Endora had been to the moon before any humans.

#170: “Samantha and Darrin in Mexico City” 4/24/69 – Durwood is slated to fly to Mexico City to meet with Senor Aragorn to discuss his handling the new product, Bueno. Larry decides that he’d rather have the trip down to Mexico City and goes himself. Not liking his decision, and knowing that her husband is the best man for the job, Samantha pops down to the meeting in Mexico and zaps Larry into saying that Durwood would be better suited for this. Of his own accord, he tells the client that Durwood is fluent in Spanish. Samantha tries to help him learn Spanish and when Endora pops in Durwood becomes annoyed, which in turn annoys Endora who casts a spell on him causing him to become invisible whenever he speaks Spanish. Samantha tries to get her mother to reverse the spell which she does but only too well. Now Durwood disappears when he speaks English. As he’s about to make a speech to a big group of people, which is supposed to be only in English, Samantha twitches her nose to make everyone in the audience hear Durwood in their own language, but Larry hear him only in Spanish (as he doesn’t understand it). The invisibility spell is finally lifted when Durwood apologizes to Endora.

And so ends Dick York’s five year run as Samantha’s husband. In my eyes he was her only husband…Dick Sargent really bugs me even though I do like many of the episodes that were done during his tenure. And I am glad he was able to come on board so that we could have three more years of BW, but I think they could’ve found somebody better, or at least had DY come back after a year or so.

Also, were Sony to really do their job properly they should include the following extras:

• Original Sponsor openings and end credits with the "Bewitched has been brought to you by..." interstitials as well as "Bewitched Back in a Moment" cartoon interstitial on every episode.
• Screen Gems and ABC tags.
• ”Bewitched, Next in Color" opening card
• ABC Commercial with EM promoting a new season of BW where she introduces the characters.
• ABC Commercial "Ahh..here we have the typical American breadwinner..."
• Kodak commercial with EM and AM
• EM’s “Stay tuned for BW next in color” interstitial.

 

[bewitchedfan1]

YES! That sounds great, I figured it would come out in March/07. I bet it will be the third Tuesday (I think the 20th is the third Tuesday?). Can't wait for the announcement in approx 6 weeks
Roger

 

[JohnMor]

JOHN VAN MILLWOOD: Are you a thespian?
ABILGAIL: (indignant) I beg your pardon?!?
MAURICE: An actress, dear.

 

[David*P]

:LOL: All of those are great lines, John! Makes me all the more excited to get the set!

I would have to say out of the Fifth Season, "Marriage, Witches Style" is my favorite! Especially Serena when she says to Franklyn about setting up a time for their date: "Shall we say eight o'clock?" And she says it almost channeling Marilyn Monroe.

Also anytime I think of Serena I think of her in that hot black dress with the feathered cuffs...I LOVE SERENA!

 

[JohnMor]

Yes, Liz looked WAY hot in that dress. And you can just see the joy she was feeling at playing Serena in that episode. Great dialogue, great performances.

FRANKLYN: None of this waving of ones arms about like a demented windmill.

 

[Firebee]

I certainly hope that rumor is right about a March release for Bewitched. Makes sense...so am praying for Gord to post a story on TVShowsonDVD.com any day now alerting us to this...was wondering there for a while since 2007 looked barren of any releases I was interested in, but happily the calendar is beginning to fill up with more season sets I feel compelled to buy!

 

[jim_falconer]

Great news, although it will be sad not seeing Dick York in so many episodes. I was just reading a book about the show, and DY was quoted as saying he could have finished the run of the series if he was allowed to recuperate for the summer, but William Asher didn't want to wait till the last minute to get another Darren, if Dick York wasn't ready to start season 6 on time.

 

[MatthewA]

They can't even put the correct opening theme song recording with the episodes. All to date have used the first season theme.

 

[Brandy681]

Has anyone else heard some news on the release date of Bewitched Season 5? You would have thought if this set was going to be released by March that it would be on pre order by now, or would at least advertise a date online. "I Love Lucy" Season 7-9 is allready on pre order at Amazon and several websites and it will be released March,13. I wonder what the hold up is!? I mean if "I Love Lucy" and "I Dream Of Jeannie" Season 3 is allready on pre order months ahead of time, why isn't "Bewtiched"? I have allready placed a pre order on "IDOJ" and I Love Lucy" a while back and I don't undestand why there is no news on "Bewitched. March or April does sound about right for the release date, but I can't find out any information so I am thinking it might be delayed a while.

 

[David*P]

If Sony is going to follow the same release schedule they have previously with BW, than tomorrow (January 8) should be when they announce a March release for S.5....last year on January 9 they announced the release of S.3.

I so hope this is true! I'm so antsy in anticipation of the last of the DY episodes!

 

[Ollie]

Now that Sony's TV-DVD releases for March (Maude S1, Newsradio S5) have been made "official" I guess we can stop hoping to see Bewitched S-5 in March. Last year's releases were March and October. That's clearly NOT going to be the case this go round. I just hope it's sooner rather than later!

 

[David*P]

DAMMIT! I was at work on a 12 hour shift (not a normal occurence) just imagining reading about the Fifth Season release only to come home and see it isn't so....like you, Ollie, I hope it's sooner than later!

 

[jim_falconer]

I didn't realize that DY wasn't in a number of season four episodes as well. Just finished watching the DVDs, and was disappointed to see that. The show just wasn't as good, when they had to write around his character...

 

[JohnMor]

Now my inside scoop is that Season 5 is delayed a few months. Look for it on or about July 10th, barring any further changes.

 

[David*P]

Thanks for the update...but JULY???!!! DAMMIT!! It'll be years before the whole series is out then....I'm hoping it's delayed because they've finally pulled their heads out their arses and are fixin' to do some good extras (ie sponsor openings, cast commercials, etc...)

 

[Ollie]

Given Sony's track record with extras I wouldn't hold my breath that this is the reason for the delay. It would be nice if that were the case, but I won't count on it.

If the July rumor turns out to be true, it makes me wonder if there will be only one release for 2007, the way they've gone to the "one a year" schedule with All In The Family and The Jeffersons.

I'd hate to have to wait four more years to collect the final four seasons!