The Magical Memory of Bewitched Star Elizabeth Montgomery Lives On With Herbie J Pilato’s Twin Biographies and the Show’s New Blu-ray Release

Today I'm proud to welcome Herbie J Pilato to It's About TV. May was the anniversary of Elizabeth Montgomery's death, and Herbie graciously agreed to provide this week's guest essay on Elizabeth, her iconic portrayal of Samantha Stephens, and the role she played in Herbie's life and career, including his books and DVD release. His resume is so extensive, I've included it at the end so it won't delay your getting to his fine essay.  

by Herbie J Pilato

It’s been thirty years since the tragic demise of beloved Bewitched actress Elizabeth Montgomery. She died on May 18, 1995, from colorectal cancer, a short time after my father died of lung cancer on April 5, 1995.

Needless to say, 1995 was a tough year. Both Elizabeth and my father influenced my life and career.

With my mother Frances and the blessings of Heaven, my father gave me life, and did all he could for me with our humble life of raising me in the inner-city of Rochester, New York.

But he always believed in me. “That kid’s got talent!” he’d say time and again.

As to any one non-family member or individual that more directly influenced or inspired my career, that would involve the meeting of Elizabeth Montgomery.

I owe her my career, because every good thing that has happened in my career, happened because she granted me my first major celebrity interview. That led to my initial Bewitched Book, followed by the revised Bewitched Forever edition of that book, and my two biographies about Elizabeth, Twitch Upon a Star, and The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery. Every other good thing that happened because of those books.

Additionally, Elizabeth inspired me as a human being. Her father was famed film and TV actor Robert Montgomery and her mother was Broadway actress Elizabeth Bryan Allen.

They were a wealthy and prestigious family; so much so, that Elizabeth could have easily been raised in arrogance or to have some kind of superior attitude. But that was not the way it went in the least.

Elizabeth was a lovely, down-to-earth person who utilized her celebrity for several charitable causes, none the least of which was helping the disabled community, and various minority groups. She was also one of the first celebrities to advocate for those suffering from AIDS.

All of that fits with the core message of Bewitched, which is prejudice. As Elizabeth once told me, “Yeah. That’s what I want Bewitched to be all about. Prejudice.”

The show originally aired from 1964 to 1972, during a turbulent time of political assassinations, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, the rampancy of drugs, the early onset of Women’s Liberation, the Civil Rights movement, and more.

When speaking of prejudice and Bewitched, Elizabeth was referring to the “mixed marriage” of her famed character on the show: “twitch-witch” Samantha Stephens, who married the mortal advertising man Darrin Stephens (first played by Dick York, then Dick Sargent).

The love they shared was a sincere love, based not on their differences but rather on what made them the same: their mutual respect for one another.

What’s more, Samantha had no need for money and material things. She didn’t love Darrin for his money or any “power(s)” he may have had due to his social status. She loved him for who he was, and not for what he could do for her. Because whatever he could do for her, or buy her, she could twitch up something better.

Additionally, Elizabeth’s Samantha was one of the first real liberated women portrayed in television history. Her supernatural powers notwithstanding, Samantha was empowered in other, more significant ways. It was her choice to live the mortal life; to be a housewife; a home engineer. Darrin never forced her to love him, or again, “bought” her love with financial security. She didn’t care about any of that. She cared about him. And she could have left him any time she wanted to. But she never wanted to because she loved him and respected his strong work ethic as an individual.

In the big picture scheme of things, Elizabeth Montgomery and Bewitched were really the reasons I went on to form the Classic TV Preservation Society, my formal 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, which celebrates the positive social influence of classic TV shows, because Elizabeth dedicated her life to charitable work and loving-kindness. Her inspiration to me is unending, as is her legacy.

Herbie J Pilato is an award-winning writer, TV producer, actor, singer, and dancer. He is the author of several acclaimed books on pop culture, including twin biographies about Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery: Twitch Upon a Star: The Bewitched Life and Career of Elizabeth Montgomery, and The Essential Elizabeth Montgomery: A Guide To Her Magical Performances. Both books, along with all of his others, are available on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, and wherever books are sold. Personally signed copies of Pilato’s books are also available on his website: HerbieJPilato.com. Pilato also served as a co-producer and co-writer with director Justin Beahm and Reverend Entertainment for the new Bewitched Blu-ray that will be released by Mill Creek Entertainment in July.  TV  

Around the dial

On this Christmas Eve (that's not me in the picture, by the way, although I wish I could say it was), we'll start, appropriately enough, at Comfort TV where David tells us about one of the best Christmas episodes from any series: "A Vision of Sugar Plums," from the first season of Bewitched, and it's hard to argue with David's assessment.

You'll never in your life read a Chrismastime issue of TV Guide from the day that doesn't have at least one station showing Reginald Owen's magnificent version of A Christmas Carol, and at A Shroud of Thoughts, Terence gives us a more in-depth look at this timeless classic.

At the Broadcasting Archives, a link to Faded Signals and a very cool 1961 trade ad for NBC (probably from Broadcasting magazine, I'd bet) that boasts: "Whenever all three networks cover the same event at the same time, more people watch it on NBC." With Chet and David at the helm, even Uncle Walter had a hard time competing back then.

That Blog Where the Bloke With No Shirt (John, for the rest of us), introduces us to the popular British comedian of the time, Harry Worth (endorsed personally by Laurel and Hardy), and "Help," an episode from Worth's final TV series, How's Your Father?

It doesn't look as if we're going to have a white Christmas here in our new home, but all's not lost, as Silver Scenes takes a look at eight classic Westerns that take place in winter. Speaking of which, now that we're officially in winter, the days are getting longer again!

And while it's not directly related to TV, I'd like to end this pre-holiday edition at The Hits Just Keep on Comin', where JB has a touching reflection on what the world was like on Christmas Eve, 1971. Ah, yes.

I'll be back later today with a special Christmas Eve edition, and tomorrow we'll look at this year's Christmas TV Guide, from 1968. And for those of you (and I hope it's most of you!) who might be busy travelling, or with family, or having fun under the mistletoe and might not be back here until after Christmas, my wishes as always for a Blessed Christmas Eve and Day. TV  

Around the dial

Portrait of the Author as an Old Man

Xet's lead off this week with Cult TV Blog, where John tells us about "Who Plays the Dummy?" an episode of the 1969-70 series Department S. And why should we care about Department S? Well, I can't do any better than John's description of the series: "Department S is one of my all-time favourite shows, simply because the plots are insane and the characters wild. It is as if they looked at every other show, dropped a few LSD and started writing what they saw." This series has just gone on my wish list.

"Ask not what your country can do for you"—wait, let me try that again. Ask not "For Whom the Bugle Tolls," it tolls for thee. And for anyone else watching this 1966 episode of F Troop, as brought to you by the indefatigable Hal at The Horn Section.

David has a very interesting piece on how things get a different perspective as we get older. In this week's Comfort TV, he looks back at the words of Abner Kravitz, henpecked husband of Bewitched's nosy neighbor Gladys, and finds that the older you get, the more wisdom you discover in them.

I always enjoyed Dean Stockwell, always liked the work he did, whether in movies or television, and particularly when he was playing someone strange. The stranger, the better. Anyway, Dean Stockwell died this week, aged 85, and Terence has a fine appreciation of his career at A Shroud of Thoughts.

Does it seem as if there's been less to link to lately than there used to be? Possibly, but quality always makes up for quantity, doesn't it? TV  

With Samantha's Seventies, Adam-Michael James takes Bewitched into a new decade

One of the oldest friends of the blog—not in terms of age, I hasten to add—is Adam-Michael James. I've been fortunate to interview Adam-Michael a couple of times in conjunction with two books he's written: The Bewitched Continuum, a fabulous companion to the TV series of the same name; and I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin, Adam-Michael's imagining of what Bewitched's final episode might have been like if today's custom of providing sendoffs for popular shows had been in effect back in 1972, when the show left the air.

Now, Adam-Michael is back with a third Bewitched book, Samantha's Seventies, in which he takes the show and its beloved characters into the new decade. with some fun results. Naturally, this meant it was time for us to sit down and talk about it, which is something we do very well.

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It's About TV: It seems like it's been ages since we've talked—what have you been up to?

Adam-Michael James: Well, like everybody else, dealing with the current health crisis. I've been lucky in that I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada, which is a fairly small place, and we've only had a handful of COVID cases compared to most of the rest of the world. Although it wasn't intended, writing Samantha's Seventies ended up being my COVID project!

With Samantha's Seventies, you've taken Bewitched into a new decade. Obviously, Sam and Darrin are still together. It's nice to know some things haven't changed!

Can you imagine the hate mail I'd receive if Darrin and Samantha got divorced? [chuckles] Of course they're the show's main constant; any further story of Bewitched could only revolve around them.

Let's set that aside, then. [laughs] So what can we expect from the gang at 1164 Morning Glory Circle?

All the characters you know and love, a ton of Bewitched easter eggs—and I hope a lot of pleasant surprises! You're going to get not only one, but two Aunt Claras, the second being a younger version who gets into a Dynasty style catfight with someone you won't believe. The Stephenses navigate the possibility of another child joining their brood. Tabitha turns into a 25-year-old, which is a throwback to the Tabitha spinoff. We never had mortals and witches coming together for Christmas on the show, so they do here, with just the results you'd figure on and a few twists along the way. And finally, there was never a witch wedding, either, so two characters tie the supernatural knot in a ceremony I think is as poignant and moving as it is mysterious and magical. I really want for Bewitched fans to have as much fun reading this as I did writing it!

Your last book, I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin—which was a terrific book, by the way—was your imagining of what Bewitched's last episode would have been like if there had been one. What kind of reception you got from Bewitched fans. Did they enjoy the continuation of the story?

Pretty much everything I've heard has been very positive! The most consistent comment I got was that that book read like an episode of Bewitched, that the voices were true to the characters. And that's a compliment that pleases me no end, because I really did try to be as authentic as possible, and I've always maintained writing it was simply like taking dictation from these folks. I have to say the same was true writing Samantha's Seventies. So I hope readers will feel like they've been transported in some "lost episodes" here as well!

And so Samantha's Seventies picks up from there?

iSam, as I call it for short, ended with a great big wide open door—how the mortals in Samantha's life were going to handle the news they all had a witch in their lives. This was kind of the elephant in the room of the series, and it didn't seem like any finale would work without addressing it. But it really was a huge enough cliffhanger, it almost stopped me from going forward with the new book. In fact, I hadn't planned to. But then ideas started popping into my head and they didn't want to let go. It kind of all started with a "wouldn't that be funny?" thought about Tabitha waking up and going "Mother! I had the strangest dream that I worked at a TV station in LA and I drove this yellow car—it was so real!" [chuckles] gain, kind of acknowledging the Tabitha series. But it all circled back to, how are we going to deal with all these mortals knowing Samantha is a witch?

Because that really changes the dynamic of things, doesn't it?

Right. So I ultimately decided to split the book into stories told by year, with the first one specifically showing the ups and downs that Frank, Phyllis, Gladys, Larry, etc. experience adjusting to the magic. I didn't want to just have everybody accept it with no problems, nor did I want anyone to explicitly object and cut Samantha out of their life. So this runs the gamut of the grey areas, and I think folks will be pulled in to those varying levels, which range from absurdist comedy to straight-up drama.

There are a lot of people who, after a TV show wraps up, like to continue the story, to see what happens next. It's something I've done myself. But with Bewitched, your goal seems to be more than just writing new episodes of the sitcom—it's to allow the characters and the story to evolve naturally over time, rather than just remaining the same year after year. Am I right about that? And how does Bewitched lend itself to that kind of evolution?

Yeah, that was the thing: while the conceits of Endora casting spells on Darrin and slogans being dreamed up around whatever witchy predicament the Stephenses happened to be in at the time are part of the glue that held the show together, I think even toward the end of the run that well was getting a little dry. Simply having mortals know about witches was practically a 180-degree turn as it was, and that opened up even further chances for storyline evolution. Darrin already wasn't objecting to witchcraft as vehemently in the final seasons, and here we see him making further progress in that he allows Samantha to lead Tabitha and Adam through once-a-week witchcraft training. There's also evolution in the witch world, with some very important developments that take place during the Bicentennial. I wanted to constantly put our mortals and witches into new situations; the old standbys worked very well for the show, and I wouldn't dare try to do better with them than they did. I just wanted to take the main things we know about "Bewitched" and put fresh spins on them, to have characters interact that didn't get that chance on screen, while doing my best to stay tethered to the core elements that defined the series.

Bewitched went off the air in 1972, so we never really got to see the show inhabit the '70s. How has the world of the Stephens changed?

Well, culturally, technologically, societally—you saw how fast all that came along just during the run of the series. Certainly we came a long way in the '70s as well. That's what dividing the book into seven stories instead of limiting it to one allowed for—the chance to explore each year from 1973 to 1979, fleshing out the world the Stephenses were living in. I grew up in the '70s, so I wanted to make that world feel as real as possible. A lot of details were from memory, but I also did a good amount of research, which gave me an even wider palette from which to paint. You see the progression in Samantha's hairstyles, in the wardrobe. It extends to her world at large, as the energy crisis looms, and the music! Disco plays a prominent role, and given the climate we're in now, I went out of my way to choose songs almost exclusively by Black artists. It's not unlike watching the full run of the show, from black-and-white to the yellows and oranges of the hippie days where the show ended. I wanted the readers to experience the '70s metamorphosis right along with Samantha and Darrin.

Even though Bewitched was a fantasy-comedy, the show wasn't hesitant about tackling real-world social issues, kind of the same as Rod Serling did with Twilight Zone. What was it about Bewitched that enabled it to do this successfully, while it was also able to stay funny at the same time? Do you know what I mean? 

I most absolutely do. I think a big part of that was the fact that these characters exist in a magical world—which makes some of those real-world issues easier to digest. Because of what the show was, even when they came up against prejudice and racism, it was always going to be dealt with in the context of some kind of witchy situation. That's why I think it worked, plus they were never really preachy or heavy-handed about it. I know that infusing messages about equality and unity was very important to Elizabeth Montgomery, and that's one of the biggest reasons I've tried to continue that tradition in my Bewitched imaginings. 

And that's something you do very well, in both books.

The author, channeling the Seventies  

Thank you. My goal was to take things one step further on that score, and society's progression in the '70s created the perfect backdrop for it. There's a neat little arc where Tabitha and Adam deal with the repercussions of     being both half-witch and half-mortal, and that leads to a revelation that reaffirms we really are more alike than we are different, no matter how stark those differences might be. We truly need reminders of that today - maybe even more than when Bewitched was in first run—and I am more than happy to take up the torch that Elizabeth Montgomery lit. I hope she'd be happy I did.

As we've seen recently in WandaVision, there's something timeless about the sitcom, something that allows the format to continue from decade to decade while remaining relatively intact. Is that kind of consistency what enables you to continue the story of Bewitched beyond the timeframe of the series itself?

I have to sheepishly admit that I haven't yet seen WandaVision, though I've heard many great things about it. I agree that there's something timeless about Bewitched, not only because we're dealing with witches, but because the show is filled with beloved, memorable characters who seem to transcend the era they're limited to on-screen. For me, continuing their story feels very natural; it's been as if freeing them from the confines of television has opened the door to worlds of new possibilities for them.

How do you view the legacy that Bewitched leaves? We've had other shows dealing with the supernatural since then. How did Bewitched influence them?

Well, Bewitched does have the honor of being the first supernatural sitcom. So I would say that any magical show since—comedy or drama—has its roots in Bewitched. So that's hard not to be influenced by. Bewitched had the fun, but our witches also had their rituals and in later seasons they got into the mechanics of that world's witchcraft. Those are some very cool elements to be inspired by.

Is there a show out there that you'd consider its"successor"?

Honestly, I'd have to say no. As wonderful as other shows may be, as fascinating as their worlds might be, Bewitched was its own entity. The only thing I could ever see as a successor would be a proper continuation, but I think we're 20 or 30 years too late for that now. I guess that's why I came up with one on the page, even if it's not canonical and just my own imagining of how it might be.

Can we look forward to a continuation of the saga, maybe into the '80s?

Funny, I get a lot of people asking me that. [laughs] My first instinct is to say no, but that's probably because it hasn't been that long since I finished this latest saga. I didn't ultimately set out to write this book, either - except Samantha and everybody decided they had more that they wanted to say. Now how can you refuse a request like that? So you never know what they might still have to get off their chests.

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One of the things I love about running It's About TV! over the years is that it's allowed me to meet so many people I never would have run into otherwise, people I'm fortunate to call friends. Adam-Michael James is one of them, and it's always a pleasure when we get a chancd to talk about the Bewitched universe. I hope you'll make Samantha's Seventies part of your television library.

Adam-Michael is also someone who understands that classic television shows don't have to be stuck in the past. Whether bringing the stories into the modern era or simply realizing that these vintage shows have something to tell us, it's proof that the world of classic television is far from being a dead one. TV  

Around the dial

It's been a couple of weeks since we visited the classic TV blogosphere, what with my book review from last week, but we're back to normal today, with some great things for you to gander at.

The Hitchcock Project continues at bare-bones e-zine, with Jack giving us a rundown on the Francis and Marian Cockrell teleplay "The Gentleman From America," based on the short story by Michael Arlan. I keep pointing out these features because I really like what Jack does; not only does he give us a synopsis of the episode, he goes into detail on the original story, showing how the teleplay changes it in order to convert it to something appropriate for television, as well as giving us more fun facts. It's very well done, and quite different from what we generally read elsewhere.

I don't usually do sneak previews of upcoming stories, but tomorrow's TV Guide review names the top 40 TV stars of all time, and one of them appears in the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour episode "Lucy Wins a Racehorse," the subject of Aurora's review at Once Upon a Screen. 

The Avengers episode "The Positive-Negative Man" is one of John's favorites over at Cult TV Blog, and one of mine as well. (With some great comments from our own Mike Doran.) The Avengers rotated out of our Friday night spot a couple of years ago when we watched the final Steed-Tara episode, but reading these recaps makes me want to go back and start over again. Maybe in 2018...

I reviewed Adam-Michael James' "final episode" Bewitched novel last week; this week David at Comfort TV has a similar review. (The fact that we both liked it should settle the question for anyone thinking about purchasing it, don't you think?) And I really like the link back to David's first blog piece, “Does how a television show ends have any impact on its legacy?" That's something worth considering by itself.

At Christmas TV History, Joanna relates her experience in the 2017 Christmas Story Run- who knew? I'm no runner, but it sounds like a fun time - where else are you going to see all those pink rabbits running a distance race? And for good measure, check out this spot on Joanna's Christmas podcast appearances.

The Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland has an interesting bit on "the Hitchcock of the [radio] airwaves," William Spier - the longtime producer-director of the legendary radio series Suspense.

Speaking of radio, here's something from a couple months back that I just noticed, courtesy Faded Signals - a picture of Miami radio station WIOD, with the motto "Wonderful Isle of Dreams." That describes classic radio to a T, and what television is capable - though too frequently falling short - of doing.

Can you take one more radio story? You'd better, because The Chairman, Frank Sinatra himself, is in it. Martin Grams shares with us the time in 1949 when Sinatra appeared in the Christmas story "The Enchanted Ghost" on Inner Sanctum.

A moment of whimsy indeed (and who amongst us couldn't use a bit of it nowadays?) - Jodie at Garroway at Large gives us a clip of Dave with Kukla, Fran and Ollie. If you don't smile after watching that, you have no heart.

Did you know that, in the off-season, the legendary baseball star Jackie Robinson sold television sets? I didn't either, until I read it in Andrew's piece at The Lucky Strike Papers. That's right - in the olden days, athletes used to work in the off-season, oftentimes as car or insurance salesmen, in order to make ends meet. Now, instead of selling TVs, they can buy a television station.

TV Obscurities returns with another obscure sitcom, this one from the 1964-65 season. It's The Baileys of Balboa, starring Paul Ford, whom you ought to remember as Bilko's nemesis. I've certainly heard of the show, but didn't know all that much about it until this terrific article.

Hopefully, you'll now stay out of trouble until the next time we meet - tomorrow!  TV  

A "Bewitching" finale

I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin
by Adam-Michael James
Bright Horse Publishing, 210 pp, $9.99

You remember how on Christmas morning when you were little, when you opened the last present that Santa had left under the tree, you were convinced there had to be one more package somewhere under there? You'd sift through the discarded wrapping paper, look under other presents, even crawl under the branches and see if there was one hiding back there, somewhere you hadn't already looked. It wasn't that you were disappointed with what you had, it's just that you kept asking yourself, in Peggy Lee's words, if that was all there was.

Being a fan of a classic television show can be like that sometimes. As we've discussed in the past, the idea of a "final episode" is a relatively new development, at least in terms of the whole history of television. It wasn't that a final episode was denied, just that nobody really thought that way most of the time. Today's series all seem to be designed around some kind of arc, one that can digress for years at a time but will eventually force the writers to come full circle and tie up all the loose ends. And while many shows from the classic era simply ended, going their merry ways without so much as a "see you later," there have been the occasional series that begged for just a little bit more, that didn't leave us in limbo through countless cycles of reruns.

Bewitched is, I think, one of those series. Maybe not at first blush, since the show didn't end with any kind of cliffhanger dangling out there, leaving unanswered questions in its wake. But when you think about it, you are left wondering if the Stephens family was really going to have to keep that secret from Larry Tate, Darrin's boss-nemesis, and Mrs. Kravitz, the nosy neighbor, for the rest of time. I mean, isn't it bound to come out sooner or later, in a way that might be decidedly inconvenient? And, knowing the history of the program, aren't there bound to be unpleasant consequences should that come to pass? It's a scenario that really does beg for some type of closure.

Fortunately, Adam-Michael James has one. Author of the acclaimed The Bewitched Continuum, Adam-Michael has taken on the challenge of crafting the final episode that Bewitched never had, with his new novel I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin. If you read my interview with Adam-Michael on Wednesday (and if you haven't, why not?) you probably know a bit of the thinking that went into conjuring up the story. Now, however, it's time to take a look at the result. Does I, Samantha, serve as a proper send-off for the series?

I think it does. Although it's not written in script format, it takes as its premise a two-part episode that follows some days after the events of the final aired episode; thus, we're not dealing with some abstract future in which characters have developed out of our sight, but a clear continuation of the series. As the story opens, Darrin has, once again, been informed by Larry that he's finally about to be made a partner in McMann and Tate, the ad agency for which he's labored, often thanklessly, for these many years. He calls an overjoyed Samantha with the news, and the result is a giant party to celebrate Darrin's success - a party that, not coincidentally, reintroduces us to the familiar faces that populated the Bewitched universe for so many seasons. It's also where something happens that causes everyone - the Stephens', the guests, and even the Witches Council - to tackle the question at the heart of the show's premise, the one I mentioned at the beginning: how long can this keep going on?

Adam-Michael provides us with a look at the characters' lives before Bewitched - based, I'd say, on a keen understanding of their lives as portrayed in the series, combined with a flair for imagination - that adds an extra dimension to I, Samantha. At the same time, he makes sure we understand the story's place within the Bewitched' canon (not surprising for those who've read The Bewitched Continuum, probably the best TV series book of its kind), complete with footnotes referencing the episodes being referred to (a touch I really liked).

But does the story work, aside from a pleasant trip back to the past with likable characters? After all, I've mentioned before my distaste for phony cliffhangers, those "Perils of Pauline" moments that supposedly put series regulars in danger, only for them to scramble out of trouble before the episode ends - as if we're supposed to really believe that the star of the show might not make it through this one alive. It's often a cheap, lazy trick, and it's only really effective in two situations: if the star is in a contract dispute, or if it's a show's final episode. Fear not, then: the situation in which the Stephens family finds itself, the drama that carries the bulk of the book, is very real, an evolution of events that actually occurred in the series. In this "final episode," there are no guarantees, no promises that everyone will return next week. If a happy ending happens, it's been well-earned, just as an unhappy ending proceeds from a relentless logic. And for those who think this might be getting a little heavy, Adam-Michael has made sure that to keep the laughs present. They just don't overwhelm the story or cause us to take the situation less seriously. In other words, a lot like real life. And the lessons about justice and equality - themes that were present in the series as well - will strike many readers as being surprisingly relevant to today's world.

In short, I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin is a book that fans of the series will enjoy. Adam-Michael James has enabled us to return one more time to the suburbs of New York, the Madison Avenue ad agencies, the insufferable bosses and nosy neighbors and annoying in-laws, and simply enjoy. It's a story that takes both characters and reader and deposits them into a perfectly plausible scenario, struggling with the highest stakes. It allows us to understand our favorites just a little bit more, and see them react and evolve in ways that remain true to their television counterparts. It doesn't demand that you know every little bit of Bewitched trivia. It only asks you to come along for the ride, and it even provides the broomstick.  TV 

The "It's About TV" Interview: Adam-Michael James, author of I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin

 I t's been over a year since we last talked with our old friend Adam-Michael James, author of The Bewitched Continuum, one of my favorite books of 2015 (and I don’t mean just the books I reviewed, either), so when I got the news that Adam-Michael had a new Bewitched project in the works, it presented a perfect opportunity to catch up.

Adam-Michael's new novel, I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin - which hit Amazon this week! - brings a sense of closure to the Bewitched universe. Like most series of its time, Bewitched made no attempt to bring the series to any kind of conclusion when it ended its eight-season run in 1972. "Final episodes" of popular television shows were a rarity back then (the most famous one to that time was the end of The Fugitive, but there had been a few others). It wasn't as if the characters were left in any kind of limbo; neither, however, was there any opportunity for them to say a proper goodbye to a loyal viewing audience that had grown to know and love Samantha and Darrin Stephens and the various characters that orbited around their world.

With I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin, Adam-Michael sets out to provide a fitting end to one of the most popular sitcoms of the '60s and early '70s. And I can't think of anyone better qualified to do it - so why don't I shut up and let him tell you about it himself?

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It's About TV: It has been a while since we last talked about Bewitched - so what have you been up to since then? 

Adam-Michael James: Mostly promoting The Bewitched Continuum. [laughs] No, there have been other things, too – I’ve done some acting in theatre and some local video projects. Ended a 15-year relationship, moved back to L.A. but changed my mind and returned to Canada three months later...never a dull moment!

Bewitched, as we've said, came from a time when most TV series did not have "final episodes" that wrapped everything up, so tell me how the idea for the new book came about. What was it about the series that begged to you for such an episode - to clear up "final business," so to speak? 

It was already something I’d thought of for The Bewitched Continuum, and that’s where the initial synopsis of this two-part “episode” is. I don’t know what viewers felt about it in 1972, but when you watch the show in order now, it just feels incomplete by the time you get to Episode #254, especially since it’s not only a regular episode, but one of the more blatant remakes with dialogue copied word for word. And, as you say, it’s not like the series finale concept was commonplace back then, so even if the cast and crew of Bewitched knew they were going off the air (and I don’t think they did), they wouldn’t necessarily have wrapped things up. I was already analyzing eight seasons for The Bewitched Continuum, so I thought, “Why don’t I come up with a series finale myself?”

Where did the idea for the story come from? 

Well, as you know, Bewitched is not just about a cute little witch whose family causes problems for her mortal husband every week. It’s about prejudice – and overcoming it. The show itself constantly layered messages of equality and acceptance into its scripts, sometimes subtly, sometimes directly. And because this was in the middle of the civil rights movement, it was quite a bold thing to do. So it was only natural to think a final episode of Bewitched would double down on those messages, and do what any series finale would do: bring the show full circle, answer long-standing questions, and raise the stakes higher than they’d been in anything that came before it. Of course, in The Bewitched Continuum that was just two paragraphs; I had so much fun fleshing them out and finding ways to tie in key moments and have characters interact who had never shared a scene. I even ended up channeling backstories for Samantha and Darrin!

As an author myself, I'm always interested in how other writers approach the writing process - how long did it take you to flesh out the plot, and how long did it take to write?

I had the idea for Darrin’s backstory around this time last year – and then as things came to me I would make copious notes. Sometimes something would occur to me as I was trying to get to sleep and I’d have to get up and write something down or at least reach for the phone and record it. But the actual writing only took about four months – and that was including the three weeks I had to take off to go down to Florida and get my mother out of the path of Hurricane Irma. Fortunately her home survived and everything was fine, but it certainly shut down my creative engine for a while!

Tell us a little about the premise. What adventures do we find the Stephens engaged in this time?

Again, I wanted to bring things full circle. So how it starts off is, Darrin finally gets his promotion and becomes a partner at McMann, Tate, and Stephens, which is something that came up more than once over the course of the show. Samantha throws him a hip party filled with funk music – I referenced several songs, many of which I’d discovered for the first time and listened to on auto-repeat as I was writing. And long-missing mortals are in attendance. Most had only ever appeared in one episode, but I created a comprehensive list of endnotes so readers could tell what episode what character came from, or from what part of “The Bewitched Continuum” I built a story point around. Not to mention, I wanted to make it clear what was my idea and what was a creation of the show.

Anyway, all is going well until some witchcraft happens in front of this room full of mortals, and Samantha is unable to explain it away the way she was able to when it was one or two people witnessing magic. So she tells her guests she’s a witch – and before they can react, the Witches’ Council steps in, and Samantha has to fight for her way of life via a hearing that involves many witches and mortals. My other rule was, no new characters. Everyone who shows up was on screen at one point or another. It’s quite the reunion!

You suggest that there's a message in Bewitched that's applicable to today's world, aside from the sheer fantasy and sitcom humor of the show. Can you elaborate on that? 

With pleasure. As I mentioned, Bewitched was all about equality and acceptance. Elizabeth Montgomery really believed in that. At one point Samantha said “all men are brothers, even if they’re girls.” Another time she called for the “acceptance of all differences, and a recognition of our common humanity.” That was very necessary during the ‘60s and ‘70s – regrettably, here in 2017 there’s a movement to drag society backwards into intolerance, prejudice, and the idea that one group of people is superior to another. If Bewitched were on the air today first-run, I’m willing to bet Samantha would be taking the same kind of stand she did 45 years ago, if not a stronger one. I feel I have a responsibility as an artist to take the messages of Bewitched and amplify them, because we really, really need to hear them right now. It’s all done subtly, but I think it’s what Elizabeth would have done and I hope she would be proud of it.

Do you think there are other shows out there that, like Bewitched, have this serious side, and a
kind of moral foundation that supports the show even if it remains mostly unsaid?

If you mean classic TV shows, it’s hard for me to say. I only know Bewitched and a handful of others this intimately. I’m sure issues of social justice were tackled in dramas of that day, but I’m hard pressed to think of another comedy that did. I think shows of all genres of television are much more apt to advocate for equality now. Because for as much as there are those lately who want to undo the progress of the past several decades, that progress is still there. It’s nice to think that Bewitched was at least in the forefront of taking a stand in the context of its magic and comedy.

In creating the backstories and writing the main story, did you find the characters saying or doing anything that surprised you, or situations occurring that you hadn't really expected?

Oh, all the time. Initially I’d just planned to follow the series finale synopsis I had laid out in The Bewitched Continuum. But as I went along it seemed these folks had more they wanted to say. Of course, the base for all of it was the show itself. For example, it was said in the pilot that Darrin was from Missouri, so I built on that; I figured he must have already been into advertising as a kid. With Samantha, of course, I had freer rein because she’s a witch, plus it had finally been confirmed in Season 7 that she was 300 years old. But a lot of stuff just came organically. Bits of humor revealing themselves in unorthodox places, dramatic parallels happening in others. Do you remember that
episode where Samantha was writing a play about the Civil War and she zapped up characters that ended up telling her what to write?

Yes! [laughs]

Doing this book was not unlike that! [laughs]

One of the things I like about the book is how you mix comedy with drama, how you've created scenarios that create some very real danger for the Stephens family - after all, this is a last episode, anything can happen - and yet you maintain the natural humor of the characters that viewers will recognize. Difficult?

The show itself was already very adept at sprinkling drama into things – there were many moments, especially in the early seasons, that made you forget you were watching a sitcom. So I guess once I caught onto that wavelength, it wasn’t too difficult. I did worry a bit when I got to the showdown with the Witches’ Council that things might get overly serious, but sometimes you can find humor in the craziest situations, and that often helps you get through. A maxim I seem to have adhered by most of my own life!

So here's a scenario for you: the book has been optioned as a movie - tell me about your ideal cast, if there is one. 

Man, I hate to turn down that check. [laughs] It just couldn’t be done. The way I crafted this, it “airs” a week after the final episode that audiences actually saw. That means the cast as it existed in 1972 are the stars here. Relegating it to fictional status even more is the brief appearance of a character whose portrayer passed away during the run of the show, which would have already been impossible back then because the actor could simply not have been recast. So I, Samantha... (or as I’ve started to call it, “iSam” [laughs]) can only exist in our minds, unfortunately!

Any more stories in the works, or does this bring the Bewitched story to a conclusion?

Certainly the intention with this book is to bring the series as we knew it to a close. But let’s just say, if there was enough interest in it, following Samantha, Darrin, and the kids into the ‘80s, ‘90s, and even the 2000s wouldn’t require much arm-twisting.

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Ah, that was fun! My thanks as always to Adam-Michael for graciously answering my questions. You can find out more about Adam-Michael and his other work at his website, www. adammichaeljames.com  I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin, is available from Amazon, and I'll be back on Friday with a review. See you then, right? Right!  TV 

This week in TV Guide: July 17, 1965

It's that time of the year again, when we begin our irregular series of encore presentations - in other words, reruns of past TV Guide reviews. This usually happens when I don't have an issue for a particular week, but fear not, for at It's About TV, we do reruns with a twist: while the issues are duplicates, the content you read here is all new, filled with material that didn't appear the first time we looked the issue over.

In addition, these issues have all been selected from the years prior to the start of the Monday "What's on TV" feature, which means we've never taken a look at any of the daily listings. So if you think you've read this because you recognize the cover, think again - I promise everything you read here will be brand new content.

By the way, as you've seen in the last few weeks, I'm always happy to accept loans of your own issues if you have one you'd like me to write up. I can tell you that right now I have upcoming openings for July 30 and August 27. In the meantime, let's see what this week's all about. And if you'd like to see what I did with this issue last time, you can read it here.

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During the 60s, the Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace were the premiere variety shows on television. Whenever they appear in TV Guide together, we'll match them up and see who has the best lineup..

Sullivan: Ed welcomes musical-comedy star Sammy Davis Jr.; comedian Jackie Vernon; rock 'n' rollers Peter and Gordon; Alice and Ellen Kessler, singing and dancing twins; singer-comedienne Kaye Stevens; British comedian Charlie Drake; Trio Hoganas, high-wire artists; and Brizio and his clown act.

Palace: Host Maurice Chevalier introduces Jane Powell; Rowan and Martin; Tim Conway of McHale's Navy: the singing Collins Kids; the Andre Tahon Puppets; Dutch comedian Dave Parker, who does an imitation of Charles Chaplin; and the Stanecks' teeterboard act.

Yes, believe it or not, when we first looked at this issue, the "Sullivan vs. The Palace" feature was nowhere to be seen.* I have to think it started not long after this, though.

*As a matter of fact, although that initial post was good, there really wasn't much of anything to see - no pictures except for the cover, stories that flowed one into another instead of standing on their own, and a fairly short length. We ought to do better than that this time.

At any rate, each show this week is a repeat, and the guest list for each starts off strongly, with Sammy Davis Jr., Jackie "Frosty the Snowman" Vernon, Peter and Gordon, and Kaye Stevens on Ed, and Maurice Chevalier, Jane Powell, Rowan and Martin, and Tim Conway on Palace. Now it's true that Conway isn't nearly as funny when he doesn't have Harvey Korman around, and I'm not sure how Rowan and Martin sound when they aren't able to bet their sweet bippies, but despite the fact Sammy Davis Jr. is one of my favorite entertainers, I don't see him being able to tip the balance. I give a very slight edge to Palace, but your mileage (and judgment) may vary.

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By the way, last week I kind of mimicked this format when I compared Hullabaloo to Shindig! and that seemed to go over well, so we'll take a quick look at them again this week. 

Michael Landon is the host of Hullabaloo on NBC Tuesday night (in color!), and his guests are Ian and Sylvia, Linda Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Peter and Gordon, the Vibrations, Cannibal and the HEadhunters, the D Men and Deedee Warwick, while from London Brian Epstein introduces Joe Brown and his Bruvvers. Meanwhile, the following night on ABC, Shindig! (in glorious black-and-white) features host Jimmy O'Neill with Gary Lewis and the Playboys; the Sir Douglas Quintet; Gene Pitney; Sonny and Cher; the Righteous Brothers; Jody Miller; the Chiffons; Billy Preston; and Bruce Scott.

If that isn't enough, there's Where the Action Is, ABC's Monday-Friday afternoon music show (sample lineup from Tuesday: The Newbeats, Steve Alaimo, Paul Revere and the Raiders), and of course Saturdays wouldn't be the same without American Bandstand, which this week presents Duane Eddy and the vocal team of April Stevens and Nino Tempo.*

*Anyone named "Tempo" ought to be able to carry a beat, right?

◊ ◊ ◊

Last week we looked at the issue that was, in fact, from last week: July 10, 1965, so it's funny to see some of those same shows on elsewhere this week. For example, WDSM, Channel 6 in Duluth, Minnesota, is normally an NBC affiliate, but because the area lacks an ABC affiliate we occasionally see that network's programs pop up a week or so later. One instance is Tuesday night, when the same 12 O'Clock High episode that aired in the rest of the country last week makes its way to Channel 6. It features Earl Holliman as a flyer who doesn't care whether he lives or dies, and therefore he finds himself in quite a pickle when he falls in love after he's volunteered for a dangerous experiment. We also get last week's episode of Wide World of Sports, the one that featured the conclusion of the British Open and the Firecracker 400 NASCAR race. I thought those looked familiar. 

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We all know that documentaries are a hard sell on television; always have been, which is why the frustration over the education content of TV has existed almost from the beginning. As long as TV remains a medium that runs on ad revenue, which in turn is generated by ratings, thus shall be the case. 

SOURCE: HADLEY TV GUIDE COLLECTION

However, in the early '60s ABC tried to make a go of it, and during the 1964-65 season, ABC coupled the aforementioned 12 O'Clock High with the documentary series F.D.R. to create a 90 minute block of Friday night programming that was guaranteed to appeal to military veterans and others for whom both the war and its wartime leader were fresh memories. If ever a documentary series was going to succeed, it would probably be here.*

*As you can tell from the Close-Up at left, the Minneapolis ABC affiliate KMSP didn't carry the series, opting instead for Death Valley Days.

This Friday, F.D.R. closes out its 27 episodes with "Going Home," which appropriately covers the events surrounding Franklin Roosevelt's death and funeral, including the train carrying the dead president's body from Warm Springs, Georgia to Washington, D.C. and then to Hyde Park, New York for burial at the family home. It's a thoughtful, well-done series (to the surprise of those who think the format begins and ends with Ken Burns), with tonight's script written by radio legend Norman Corwin, narrated by actor Arthur Kennedy, and featuring the voice of Charlton Heston as FDR.*

*The producers of F.D.R. were also responsible for the previous year's ABC documentary Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years, narrated by Gary Merrill, music by Richard Rodgers, and Richard Burton as the voice of Churchill.

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Interesting quote of the week, coming from the jazz singer Nancy Wilson, who's coming off of performances on the Academy Awards show, The Hollywood Palace, Burke's Law, and a Bob Hope show where the host says of her, "She has broken more records than Jack Nicklaus, but I like the way she swings better." She's had success in Hollywood, in the record business (winning last year's Grammy for best R&B female vocal performance), and she's taken place in the march for civil rights in Birmingham. She says, "I'm not a professional Negro. I'm a human being first - an American second - and a Negro third, and I'm not the least bit unhappy about it." I wonder if that's a sentiment prevalent in the industry today?

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Agnes Moorhead is best known as the brittle Endora in Bewitched, but as Dwight Whitney's profile shows, there's a lot more to this Hollywood veteran than that. She started out as a child ballerina for the St. Louis Municipal Opera, became a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, acted in Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons and was blacklisted for a time by Hollywood for fear of retribution from William Randolph Hearst, received four Academy Award nominations during a long film career, and had great success on the stage, most recently with Sorry, Wrong Number. So how does she do it?

According to Dwight Whitney's story, the secret is to have "the strength of an Amazon, the guile of a general, and the hide of a crocodile." She is a woman of strong feelings: of the current Broadway hit Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, she says "It doesn't teach anything. It is neurotic, sordid." Tennessee Williams is a great talent, but "He nourishes it, then pours fertilizer over it." Today's actors are only interested in quick success; they don't want to learn anything or improve themselves, and "just don't love what they're doing anymore."

Abour her co-star Elizabeth Montgomery, her praise is qualified: "'She has a quality,' Agnes says unemotionally. 'Charm, warmth, intelligence. Of course, you know she plays herself. When I was an ingénue, we were always characterizing.'" Her relationship with Montgomery is "respectful," even if her opinion of TV isn't quite there. For instance, it wasn't her decision to go into television; "I did the pilot sort of while I wasn't looking," she says, and adds that "I was convinced it wouldn't sell."

Yet here she is, a popular character on a popular program, one that will run until 1972. "This is not," she says, "an era of convictions." Not like a feature movie, no time to relax, all talk about ratings and time slots and advertiser appeal. "What it is is TV."

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Now here's something I would pay cash money, as we say in Texas, to hear. According to "For the Record," the great Stan Freberg is composing singing radio commercials for , , , the United Presbyterian Church. A sample lyric:

Doesn't it get a little lonely sometimes,
out on that limb, without Him?

Why try it alone?
The blessings you lose may be your own.

The piece notes that Freberg is son of a Baptist minister, and is donating his services. "You have to tread very carefully in this area," Freberg says, "But the Presbyterians are willing to experiment. They're enthusiastic."

However, as it turns out, I don't have to pay a dime for them, aside from my monthly internet bill. Thanks to YouTube, we can hear them right now!


Freberg talks about bringing them to television, but I wasn't able to find out any record (no pun intended) of that happening. Nonetheless, one wonders whether or not something like this might be worth a try today? It certainly couldn't hurt the Presbyterians, whose numbers in the United States have dropped precipitously - from 4.25 million in 1965 to 1.67 million in 2014. Coincidentally, the last year in which in increase in membership was recorded was 1965 - the same year these commercials were made.

Or is it a coincidence? TV  

An interview with Adam-Michael James, author of The Bewitched Continuum

I recently had the extreme pleasure of talking with Adam-Michael James, author of The Bewitched Continuum, a companion to the much-loved television series of the '60s and '70s.  Now, there have been plenty of books written about specific televisions series, many of them quite good.  But whereas it's very easy to fall into the trap of writing a glorified episode guide that doesn't really tell a fan much that's new, The Bewitched Continuum takes a different approach, using the episodes to tell the continuous story of the marriage of Samantha and Darrin Stephens, their friends and co-workers, and how this story evolves from episode to episode.

You could almost look at it as a biography of the life and times of these characters, rather than a compendium of episodes from a TV series.  We learn that not everything fits perfectly (not surprising for a time when things like Writers' Bibles and story continuity were not emphasized the way they are today), but that there's a surprising and gratifying amount of consistency and development in the way characters and relationships evolved over the years.

It was an approach that I loved immediately, and I knew this was something we had to talk about.  Thankfully, Adam-Michael agreed!

It's About TV:  Why Bewitched? Why not, for instance, I Dream of Jeannie?

Adam-Michael James:  Do we ever pick our passions? (laughs) No, I think interests pick us, or at least that we naturally gravitate to certain things, but not others. I mean, I think Jeannie rocks, and I used to watch her all the time, too, but she didn't stick with me the way Bewitched did. Maybe it's because I discovered Bewitched first. It sounds silly to say it was a defining moment, but it was. I was eight; I can still remember the room and the TV and which scene it was. I think when we reach superfan status with something – whether that's a TV show or a rock star or whatever – it's not just because we think it's cool, but because it reinforces something in us that needs to be reinforced. Or it makes us aware of a part of ourselves we weren't aware of before. It probably goes without saying that Bewitched awakened a sense of magic in all of us. And a message that it was okay and special to be different. At least that's what I feel I got out of it.

You mentioned that you'd kind of filed the show away for a few years, and your interest was rekindled when it came out on disc. Did the way you saw the series change at all from how you'd remembered it? Were there parts of it that you viewed differently?

When you're a teenager, suddenly everything you liked as a kid ceases to be cool! I came back to Bewitched as a young adult when I finally had access to cable – this was in the mid-'90s – and even then the show was familiar but all new. There was a definite sophistication and a sense of humor that you can't get the full impact of until you're an adult. When you're a kid, it's pretty much just the magic that grabs you. Then of course when the DVDs came out and I could watch episodes in order, I started to see that some things tied together between episodes while others didn't. A large part of that is because I've worked with story continuity, both in writing script coverage for Hollywood studios and in the opinion columns I write for soapcentral.com. So I thought, with last year being the 50th anniversary of Bewitched, it would be fun to write all my observations about it down in a book. I do nit-pick quite a bit, but mostly I'm comforted by how well the show holds up.

In the research you did for the book, was there anything you came across that came as a real surprise to you? Something you weren't expecting? And was there anything you'd suspected that you were able to confirm?

Well, most of my “research” was just watching the episodes and taking notes. But I did do a lot of fact-checking. For example, when Napoleon gets zapped out of the past, he asks for Napoleon brandy, which wasn't what they called it in his time. On the other hand, when DaVinci visited, he said he invented “the pump, the power saw, and prefabricated houses” – and he was, indeed, responsible for those innovations. I had a lot of fun looking up those things. You know what surprised me? We always talk about the Stephenses living in Westport, Connecticut, but that locale didn't even come up until the end of sixth season! There are also a lot of iconic elements that don't occur as often as we remember. Uncle Arthur was only on 12 times. Maurice Evans, only ten! And I compiled a section called “Within the Continuum,” which has lists of clients, witch illnesses, how many times Endora called Darrin “Durwood,” and the like. Even the casual Bewitched fan remembers Phyllis Stephens and her sick headaches – did you know she only ever referenced them seven times? Remarkable!

OK, speaking of the "research" - how many times would you say you looked at each episode to be able to get the amount of information needed for the various aspects of the book – the episode write-up, the various accounts in the appendices, etc.? Was there ever an episode you grew tired of by having to watch it so many times? Conversely, was there one that really grew on you, that you became more impressed with through repeat viewings?

Generally, each episode got watched twice – once to jot down all my observations, and a second time focusing on the just episode synopsis. Of course, the DVDs got paused a lot. Often I would have to go back and refer to a scene if I made a note about it in a different episode, just to be sure I remembered something correctly or was making a proper connection. The appendices were both easier and harder. I knew I was going to do those up those early on, so I made notations in the margins of that episode's page – yes, I did all my notes by hand – to make things easier to count when the time came. Yet many times I had to go searching through episodes, especially for the Firsts and Lasts section, because I hadn't paid attention to the last time the word “twitch” was used, for example. There are some third and fourth season episodes that aren't exactly my favorites, so sometimes those required extra motivation to get through. I don't know if there's a particular episode that grew on me, but I would say that I gained a greater appreciation for the black-and-white episodes [of Seasons One and Two]. I tended to think of most of them as Bewitched Lite, if you will, because they're not as outlandish and absurdist as the color seasons. But there's a lot of gold there.

Darrin and Samantha with Sam's mother,
the infamous Endora (Agnes Moorehead)

I know that the book is primarily a companion to watching the show, but you do provide cultural context as well on things like how minorities were portrayed. In that sense, I've read that some Southern stations were quite uncomfortable with the series at first, not because of the witchcraft but because they thought the series was, or would be seen as, an allegory for interracial marriage. Know anything about that, and whether or not that was ever an intent of the creators?

Well, Bewitched started smack in the middle of the civil rights movement. And Elizabeth Montgomery was an advocate of tolerance, so it's not surprising these themes worked their way into the show. My editor, Herbie J Pilato, gets far more into that in his own books about Elizabeth and the behind-the-scenes aspects of Bewitched. My main focus is on the fiction, but even then, all you have to do is look at the episodes. Endora was debunking stereotypes about witches already in the pilot, which certainly was a statement against real-life prejudices, and the messages of tolerance and equality are there all the way through the series. So I'd say it was definitely intentional. Sometimes these allegories were disguised as comments about witches, but other times the show came right out and tackled racism directly. And you have to consider that, in the '60s especially, it was renegade to say that everyone – black or white, straight or gay – should be equal.

I'm impressed by some of the subtle lines in the show that indicate a depth unusual to a sitcom, such as Darrin's awareness of his fear of inferiority (I think it's from the one where Sam offered to do advertising slogans for him, and he says later on if he lets her do it once it can happen again, until there's nothing he does on his own). Do you think lines like that are unusually perceptive for a series of that era? Do you think it means the characters in Bewitched are more formed than in other series?

I'd like to say yes, but I have to be fair and add that my knowledge of other sitcoms of that era isn't as intimate as my knowledge of Bewitched.  Certainly, in retrospect, I find some of those other shows sillier or campier. It's not that Bewitched never got silly or campy; however, I do feel there's a consistent intelligence in the writing of the show. There are times I think they could have dug even deeper, but we're talking about a 1960s sitcom. That they dug at all suggests to me that they were a step ahead of their contemporaries.

And looking at the cast - wow! Elizabeth Montgomery is obviously a star in the making when the series begins, but there are also some very impressive occasional stars - Agnes Moorehead, who'd been nominated for four Academy Awards for example, and Maurice Evans, who I'mn always writing about from the classical plays on Hallmark Hall of Fame. And then, of course, there's Paul Lynde and Alice Ghostley. What was it about the show that made it possible to attract this kind of talent?

Again, I think it has to do with the quality. Naturally, actors want to work, and sometimes you just accept what your agent gets for you. But can you imagine for a minute that Agnes Moorehead would have agreed to appear in even one episode if the writing wasn't up to snuff? The woman was in Citizen Kane! I also think Bewitched had a certain reputation before it even hit the airwaves, given William Asher's directorial history. And everything I've heard about Elizabeth, she was just one of those people others were instantly comfortable around, plus she had the talent to back it up. Besides, who wouldn't want to zap something up or disappear? Maurice Evans always looked like he was having a ball.

OK, here I have to bring up the two Darrins, or people will never forgive me. Several times you make the point about the Stephenses' marriage - its importance to the overall story, as Darrin tries to accept that his new wife is a witch, and Samantha struggles to deal with mortals. Given that, was it absolutely necessary to the show to recast Darrin, rather than to kill him off (for example) and have Sam looking for a new husband? I'd imagine that wouldn't have worked at all.

If Bewitched had been a soap or a primetime drama, Darrin would have been killed off for sure. But you just couldn't do that on a sitcom at that time. Even when 8 Simple Rules killed off John Ritter's character, it was pretty revolutionary, and that was in 2003. It's true – Darrin and Samantha's marriage was the cornerstone of the show. They could have changed Darrin's appearance through witchcraft and gotten away with it, but I think the show was smart to not call attention to the recast. In fact, in The Bewitched Book, Herbie J. Pilato talks about the first episode Dick Sargent filmed; it was a remake of a second season episode in which Endora divided Darrin. Samantha has a line: “I only want one Darrin.” But the producers realized the irony, so they shelved that episode until audiences had a chance to get used to Darrin's new face. Surely Dick York would have stayed had his back injury [that he sustained on the set of the 1959 film They Came to Cordura] not made it impossible, but since that wasn't the case, it seems to me they handled things the best way they could.

Adam-Michael James (The Guardian/Sally Cole)

So out of all that, do you have most and least favorite episodes?  And are there some cast members or guest stars that worked, shall we say, better than others?

This is also something I cover in the “Within the Continuum” section; I have a whole top ten best and worst list. But I'm happy to go on record and say I consider “Sisters At Heart” (#213) my favorite. Tabitha has an African-American friend Lisa, and wants to be her sister so badly that she accidentally gives them different-pigmented polka dots. At the same time, a client of Darrin's turns out to be a racist, so Samantha's schools the guy by making everyone, including himself, appear black. It's the most direct handling of racism the show does, but it's also magical and fun. I'd have to list “Soapbox Derby” (#90) at the bottom. Not that it's a bad episode, but it comes off too Disney for my taste; it doesn't feel like Bewitched.

As for guest stars and supporting cast, there are so many wonderful actors that we could be here all day if I started naming them. I love both Mrs. Kravitzes (Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould), and of course Bernard Fox (Dr. Bombay) and Paul Lynde (Uncle Arthur) and Maurice Evans (Maurice). Sara Seegar is a blast in her many different roles, as is Dick Wilson. I only hint at it in the book, but I wasn't fond of Deacon Jones' turn as the Giant's guard in “Samantha and the Beanstalk” (#171). To be fair, I'm not a fan of stunt casting in general!

Are there any plot lines they didn't follow that you would have liked to see them develop more?

Adam was just discovered to have powers toward the end of eighth season; it's a shame the show ended there, because so much story potential had just opened up for him. I think the show also missed a beat by not letting another main character in on Samantha being a witch. It seemed implausible after a while that the mortals all saw these incredible things happening and never clued in. How cool would it have been for Louise to find out, and then have to work with the Stephenses to keep it from Larry? There were also a lot of one-off characters that it would have been nice to see making return visits. Tabitha's friend Lisa, for example. Gladys had no less than six nephews; bringing back the same one instead would have been great for continuity. One mortal, Irving Bates, knew Samantha was a witch because Tabitha turned him into a little boy – a lot of story could have been built around that. But television continuity wasn't the same in the '60s and '70s. The stuff I mentioned, those are the kinds of things you'd see today on “Big Bang Theory” and “Modern Family.”  When Bewitched was on, an episode aired once a year, twice if you were lucky, on little 13-inch screens. So the kind of magnifying glass we apply to shows now wasn't necessary.

Do you see anything on television today that you'd call a descendant of Bewitched? What's the difference between it and Charmed, for example?

I have to admit, I've never seen Charmed, though I read about it when it was on. I do think that all fantasy shows the last 50 years, especially ones involving witches, can be traced back to  Bewitched – it was the first supernatural sitcom. There wouldn't even have been I Dream of Jeannie if Samantha hadn't gotten there first. Look at Once Upon A Time, and that Hallmark Channel show, The Good Witch – Bewitched's influence is still living on. I'd probably say its closest descendant was Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. I never got past the first episode because I felt it was ripping off Bewitched! (laughs) Both shows have a Witches' Council! Though Sabrina first appeared in comic strips in 1962, so it's not clear whose Witches' Council came first. Those are the kinds of things I explore in my book.

Would they be stupid to try and remake this show today?

I think it would only be stupid if it wasn't done right. It seems every year now, there's a crop of reimagined shows, and I've yet to see one last a full season. I'm sure you know that, last fall, NBC green-lit a new Bewitched series; I haven't heard anything about it since, but it's apparently slated for the 2015-2016 season. So far they're on the right track – instead of a straight-up reboot, they want to do a continuation of the original series focusing on Samantha's granddaughter. That's definitely a step in the right direction. You may remember something similar was attempted in 1977, with the Tabitha series, and that was a disaster.

I remember shaking my head over that one.  

Even as a kid I knew Tabitha wouldn't be in her 20s yet; it seemed they took the basic idea of Bewitched but threw most of the history out. That would be this new show's biggest mistake. There are too many fans who know Bewitched intimately, and they would be as outraged now as fans were in 1977 if the show was brought into the 21st century without having deep roots in what came first. I actually think it could work really well. First things first, bring back Erin Murphy as Tabitha. Oh, I'm full of ideas. And if the new show needs any help with the original series' continuity, I have a whole book on that very subject. And they can always call me!

Have you ever lived next to someone like Gladys Kravitz?

Thankfully, no. I'm a very private person, so if I had been Samantha, I would have been buying much thicker curtains. (laughs)

Could you ever have worked for McMann and Tate [the ad agency where Darrin worked]?

Oh, my God. (laughs) I did once have a data entry job where people were getting fired left and right, and you never knew where the axe was going to fall next. I don't know how Darrin could ever work in that atmosphere, with Larry threatening to can him all the time! I would have loved for Darrin to open his own agency for a while, just to teach Larry a lesson. They did flirt with that in eighth season, but carrying it over for a few episodes would have been cool. I think even the show realized they were having Larry fire Darrin too often. In fifth season, it happened three episodes in a row! Not long after that, the show pulled back. Of course, Larry's hot-headedness is part of his schtick. If he had been a real boss, someone would have reported him!

Could Darrin have ever made it in Mad Men?

What an intriguing question! I've only ever seen the first seven episodes of Mad Men. I wanted to like it – the acting is superb and they really captured the time and place; it's just that I found the characters so reprehensible. I guess they're supposed to be, but it didn't make me want to follow their further adventures. As an ad man, I think Darrin could totally cut it at Sterling Cooper. Did you ever see that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode where that particular crew travelled to the past and interacted with the original Enterprise crew from “The Trouble with Tribbles”? It would be epic if they could do something like that with Mad Men and Bewitched. I can just see Don Draper walking into McMann & Tate!

You knew I had to ask - which Darrin do you prefer?

Oh, of course – this is the question I get asked the most. And it's an understandable question. Yet it's not really a fair one, you know? No matter which Darrin I say, the other Darrin's fan base will be unhappy. Plus somehow I feel it denigrates both Dick York's and Dick Sargent's performances – especially Dick Sargent's – to get into a discussion of which Darrin was better. They both did wonderful things with the role, and it wasn't Dick York's fault he had to leave the show because of his back injury. In the book, I say that if Dick York was the Darrin Stephens of the '60s, then Dick Sargent was the Darrin Stephens of the '70s.

That's a great way to look at it!

I'll quote George Washington when he visited the Stephenses: “There, I think I answered that question without lying.” (laughs)

All in all, what do you want people to take away from The Bewitched Continuum?

I guess it's twofold: I want to make sure people don't forget the show, yet I also want to help fans enjoy the show in a whole new way. Part of what excited me about writing The Bewitched Continuum is exploring the world of witchcraft, and the fiction, which hadn't been done before. Everything out there is pretty much about the actors and the filming and all the real-life stuff, but when you really break it down, it's the magic and the characters and the stories people love. Is my book going to cure world hunger? No. But it's a reason for new fans to discover the show and established fans to delve even further into it; you can have the book at your side when you watch and go through each episode in order, or skip around. Mostly, I wanted this book to be a celebration of a show we're still talking about 50 years later. It's truly a labor of love. That may be the biggest magic of all!