MovieChat Forums > Bewitched (1964) Discussion > A Majority of Two

A Majority of Two

posted 7 years ago by [email protected] (1732)
11 replies | jump to latest

This odd little offering - the next to last for Marion Lorne - is not a well-liked episode. In
fact, on Vic's Bewitched Site, there's a "Bewitched Critic" who sites this as the very
worst episode ever made (my pick is "Samantha's Shopping Spree").

While I don't love this episode, it gets points for being different, and for, well, having
Aunt Clara in it! Of course it's ludicrous to have Richard Hayden playing a Japanese
man, but he isn't nearly as offensive as, say, Mickey Rooney's cartoonish turn in
"Breakfast at Tiffany's." Also, Hayden is believable, and does as much as he can to
play the character with a sense of honor and grace. When I watch it, I enjoy it to a
certain degree.

Thoughts?

[–] [email protected] (5517) 7 years ago

Just watched this episode a few weeks ago while going through season four! Not a favorite. It was no Macedonian Dodo bird or any Serena/Uncle Arthur favorites, but it had its moments.

It was a bit "odd" and different. But as you said in another thread , the Endora and Maurice marriage was "groundbreaking", so too this was ground breaking to see an elderly women in love and involved in a romance.

There was an episode before this one about "Ocky", Clara's boyfriend in the English castle. I wonder if the show was planning a story arc with him before the actress passed away.

When I saw this episode as a child I didn't notice that Richard Hayden wasn't Japanese. But that was the way movies and TV were. I used to watch the Charlie Chan films and Charlie Chan was played by a Caucasian. Ricardo Montalban played a Japanese character on Hawaii Five-O.

I made up a backstory for Mr. Mishimoto that would explain why he didn't look very Japanese. His mother was Caucasian! In the episode he told Samantha that he attended Oxford. So, of all the schools he could attend, why did he go there? I decided that his mother was an Englishwoman and that's why he went to school in England.

But at least Richard Hayden played the character with dignity and grace and not like some cartoonish caricature.

It was interesting and unusual that when Ocky wanted to make up with Clara, she simply vanished and did not say goodbye to Mr. Mishimoto. She left it up to Samantha to give her regrets. Clara must have been really in love with Ocky.

The one thing I always remembered from this episode was the Japanese philosophy of "losing face". It was the first time I heard of it and it stuck with me. It is so important to allow someone to keep his dignity and not embarrass him.

The other thing I remembered was Mr. Mishimoto's favorite dish, Hong Eye Ron Goo Rash, Hungarian Goulash! lol

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

Octavious - or "Ocky - was mentioned before the season four ep about the English ghost. In season three's terrific Aunt Clara offering, "The Short and Unhappy Circuit of Aunt Clara", Ocy had left for another "Young witch." Then, Ocky showed up to help Clara with her problem.

And let's not forget Hedley Partridge, Clara's old beau from season two.

[–] [email protected] (5517) 7 years ago

Ocky sure liked to play the field. Wonder why Clara put up with him? hmmm...

Hedley Partridge, oh yeah! "Aunt Clara's Old Flame" Charlie Ruggles was a favorite character actor of mine from old movies. He was in 'Bringing Up Baby' with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

That was another sweet episode. Clara and her old beau both had lost most of their ability to do magic, but they still wanted to impress each other by pretending they had all their powers intact.

Some of these episodes make me wonder why the show portrayed Samantha as having the only happy marriage among the witches. Her parents were married of course, but as we have said in other posts, they weren't happily "together". None of Sam's other relatives were married or had families. They seemed to live the lives of perpetual adolescents. Of course, Aunt Hagatha or Aunt Enchantra could've been married. They just never mentioned it in any episode.

The only married couple among Sam's friends that I can think of was in "A Strange Little Visitor" when she babysat for some friends. The dad, Walter Brocken, was played by Jimmy Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek).

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

Hagatha and Enchantra could've been married - and divorced four times. Each. And if rich, famous movie stars
can't seem to stay faithful (very few were/are) and and married, it makes sense that this kind of hedonistic
life would frame people who had the power to have/do anything. I think that was the point of Bewitched, and
why Sam finally found that limits and structure can lead to real happiness.

[–] [email protected] (5517) 7 years ago

I'd settle for knowing just how Hagatha and Enchantra were related to Samantha. lol

In "Endora Moves in for a Spell", the dialogue establishes that Endora was an only child until her annoying little brother Arthur came along.

Could Hagatha and Enchantra be Endora's cousins? Just something I wonder about.

We know Sam's parents married. Maybe there were others who also married. But we didn't get to see them. The flamboyant behavior of Serena and Arthur was a lot more entertaining to watch than a happily married magical couple.

In the season two episode, "A Strange Little Visitor", the Brocken family seemed like a nice, normal nuclear family despite being magical. They even knocked on the front door and didn't just pop in to surprise Samantha.

We never do find out just how many witches there were in the world. I can't believe they'd all be wild and crazy and acting out like Serena.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

The Brocken family is a rarity. To me, 90 percent of the witches and warlocks are presented as single, in
an open marriage, or in bad relationships (like the old dude who was cheating on his wife with Serena
in the teaser for "Samantha Goes South For a Spell"). Clara's boyfriends weren't steady (we never hear
about Hedley after "Aunt Clara's Old Flame", although that doesn't mean they didn't continue to date. But
there's be no "Oocky" if she was exclusive with Hedley). And Esmeralda was always hurt.

To me, the witch world was presented as extremely hedonistic. But, again, I believe this was deliberate,
as it highlighted the uniqueness of Sam's commitment.

One must also wonder if Endora wouldn't have been at least a tad jealous if Sam married a powerful
warlock. True, Sam would practice witchcraft, but Endora STILL would not have had Sam full-time.

[–] [email protected] (5517) 7 years ago

Yes the Brocken family was a rarity on Bewitched. Most of Sam's relatives and friends were portrayed as pursuing hedonistic lifestyles.

I still wonder though, if that was just the background Samantha came from and not an indication that ALL of witchdom lived that way.

Endora was jealous of anything or anyone who took Samantha away from her. Makes me wonder why she tried to get Sam to hook up with her old boyfriends.

In season one there was 'George the Warlock', one of the more inferior of the early episodes. Played by Christopher George, he was a handsome guy, but definitely a playboy and he had no real devotion to Samantha. He immediately fell for the neighbor, Danger O'Reilly.

"Once in a Vial" in season four had Endora convincing an old beau of Sam's, Rollo, to use a love potion on her. A bad episode all around, imho.

Why would Endora want to break up Sam's marriage to a man who was clearly devoted to her and replace him with a player who ran around with lots of women? Endora seemed to have some strange ideas as to what was "best" for her daughter!

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

I don't agree that "Once in a Vial" is a bad episode; it's actually one of my very favorite episodes. In
fact, it's the only story where the remake with Sargent ("Make Love Not Hate") is equally as good. I
often can't decide which one I like better.

When I was a kid, and watched BW in reruns, "Vial" was pulled from syndication. This and the sixth
season show where Phyllis sees Sam changing the furniture and it's blamed on drugs were never
shown (the latter was due to the "drug" message, I later learned. But I don't know why "Vial" was
never shown). I didn't know it existed until I was in my mid-twenties.

A side note about Christopher George: He was one of the first male celebrities to pose for
Playgirl magazine in the early '70's before his untimely death. And unlike Burt Reynolds, he
bared it all. And at the risk of sounding vulgar, his little friend was a definite disappointment.
Strange that he would do this. Every time I see "George the Warlock", and he's wearing those
tight pants, I giggle, because I remember clearly what this man didn't possess. Again, apologies
for being vulgar; I simply couldn't resist!

[–] [email protected] (5517) 7 years ago

Well, interesting, "Vial" is a rather vile episode to me, bad play on words I know!
There were a few redeeming moments of hilarity in the episode. Endora and Darrin's client, the perfume salesman Bo Callahan, had a funny encounter in the restaurant. He was so clueless as to how he was irritating Endora with his comments about "old dames" had the right to smell as good as "young chicks."

I think she was two seconds away from turning him into an artichoke. I wish the "vial" in question had turned her into someone who was willing to make a perfume commercial for Callahan. After the spell wore off, Endora would be horrified that she lent her image to a mortal, commercial enterprise!

What I did NOT like was Endora asking Sam's old beau Rollo to try and seduce her away from Darrin.

He tells Endora flat out that she was the "one conquest" that got away. So really, what was Endora hoping to accomplish? She would prefer her daughter be some playboy warlock's "conquest", break up her marriage and take Tabitha away from her father? I thought it was Endora at her most selfish and thoughtless.

As for the love potion that caused her to elope... Callahan was not under a spell. Why did he agree to an elopement? The magic aspect of the show was unreal, but the characters lived in the real world. They had no blood test or marriage license. They could not have gotten married then. But if they did get married, Endora would have disappeared when the spell wore off. There was no legal marriage.

And the love potion only lasted an hour. Did Endora think Sam would go of with Rollo after an hour's influence of a love potion?

The first season episode with Christopher George was a bit more believable. Sam was only married a short time and had no children yet. Endora was still trying to get Sam away from her mortal marriage.

Didn't know the actor posed in Playgirl! Maybe Sam saw that issue and that's why she turned him down. LOL

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

Yes, there's a sloppy aspect to "Vial", but I love the energy, as well as that other married couple.
I think those two add so much to the episode.

Husband: Hiiiiiiiii there.
Wife: What?
Husband: Where have you been...all-of-my-life?

Also, I have a fondness for any episode that shows the Gabriel blowing the horn on the weathervane
at the top of the stairs. I think I've already written that I paid an Australian artist to
recreate one for me. It's identical to the one on the show (same color, size) and hangs in my
kitchen.

[–] [email protected] (5517) 7 years ago

Yes I remember that you mentioned a fondness for that weathervane. I actually like the painting of the ship that hung in Darrin's study. I bought one very similar to it for my mom a long time ago.

That client/husband "under the influence" of the love potion was pretty funny. But Endora acting lovesick just wasn't amusing to me. She barely knew the man and there she was hanging all over him. Didn't Callahan sense that something was amiss? lol

To me Agnes Moorehead was a lot funnier as an acerbic, , angry-with-mortal-behavior witch. I enjoyed her conversation with Callahan in the restaurant. But when she was under the influence of the love potion and acted like a simpering schoolgirl, that was just awful to me.

And again, I thought it was so wrong for her to try and break up her daughter's marriage and family. At the very end of the episode Sam and Darrin tell her to basically "get lost" for a while. I think Endora knew she was wrong because she doesn't even argue with them, just pops out!