never watched
should i
share By all means!The first two seasons in black and white are charming and original. There are a few clunkers like "Pleasure O'Reilly", but overall the first few seasons are magical, no pun intended.
Season three is the best. Dick Sargent is a more than adequate replacement for Dick York in season six. Unfortunately, the following two seasons have a lot of recycled scripts and rehashed stories. Elizabeth Montgomery was tired and bored with the show. She wanted out and it's pretty apparent in a lot of her performance.
But definitely watched the first four seasons.
I'd say, hop around, if you can, but definitely start with the pilot, and work your way through about five of each of
the first four years.
BW isn't everyone's cup of tea. My parents, and my brother, thought it was tolerable at best. It's definitely the
best show "of its kind" (one-camera romantic fantasy). And it's character-driven.
But don't be surprised by how many cast changes there are. Quiet a few.
Never understood what was wrong with your family gb, not loving this classic! lol
I remember the first episode of the fifth season when the new Darrin premiered. We were watching (as usual) and my dad happened to be in the room and he saw this new guy playing Darrin.
He asked who he was and then, "Oh, did Dick quit?"
My mom said, "Listen to him, like he's a friend of Dick York!"
I thought Dick Sargent did a fine job with very big comedy shoes to fill. He played the role with his own style. In that first episode when he's practicing with a golf club, he has a few choice words for Endora!
Bewitched was a show that had so MANY cast changes. The loss of Alice Pearce was a big one. Her Gladys Kravitz was snoopy but she had a good heart, like when she took a pregnant Samantha some of her chicken soup. Abner said that it was against the law to poison people. lol
She often meant well and I think her nosiness came from loneliness. Abner seemed to ignore her. He read his newspaper, did his crossword puzzles and basically didn't pay much attention to her. He never took her stories seriously and usually just said, "Gladys, take your medicine."
Of course that's not a knock at George Tobias's Abner Kravitz. He was hysterically funny. Most of his wisecracks went over my head as a child. But now he makes me laugh.
Sandra Gould had her moments. She was funny in a lot of episodes. But she never seemed to capture the warmth of her predecessor. She always had an underlying cattiness about her.
When I first bought the b&w episodes, I was surprised to realize how much I liked the first Louise Tate better than the second. It was just something about her that seemed genuine, low key and a better match for Larry. The second Louise seemed so "sitcom" to me, like she was trying too hard to be funny.
The loss of Marion Lorne was a big one. I used to wonder why she was never mentioned again, but as gb pointed out, Sam was probably still seeing her. We just didn't see it on screen. They would certainly never address her death in a sitcom back then. So we have to imagine that she was still around.