MovieChat Forums > Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) Discussion > 'The Elvira Show' (1993 CBS Pilot) VS 'S...

'The Elvira Show' (1993 CBS Pilot) VS 'Sabrina' (1996 Onwards...)??

posted 10 years ago by decmcg
5 replies | jump to latest

Mad to see horror icon ELVIRA (of movies "Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark" & "Elvira's Haunted Hills" & TV's "Elvira's Movie Macabre" fame) once got her own CBS TV sitcom pilot "The Elvira Show" way back in 1993... only to be dropped as TV execs found her character/performance too "risque"!!

However many of its elements (including the set/setting, title-character-discovering-her-powers, witch-aunt/relatives characters, pet talking-black-cat, silly-spellbinding and mortal characters caught in-the-crossfire) eventually wound up in what we were to know as "Sabrina: The Teenage Witch" (1996=2003)!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7it-GI9jj0Q
How close are the two actually related? Anyone in TV-land shine a light on same?!!

[–] decmcg 10 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7it-GI9jj0Q

[–] LesFleursDuMal 10 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7it-GI9jj0Q

I agree! I love that pilot! I go back and watch it every once and while. It was hilarious and way ahead of it's time. You're right, a lot of the elements were ripped off to make Sabrina. The two zany aunts living under one roof, mentoring the young new "school girl" witch, the talking black cat, etc etc. Sabrina was funny but I think Cassandra would have made a better show than the producers of STTW did. Shame.

[–] Kruleworld 10 years ago

i think elvira might have been funnier, but Sabrina's cat was better.

...
Reality is a nice place to visit, but i wouldn't want to live there

[–] paula-gein 9 years ago

Sabrina was a character in Archie Comics who debuted in the late 60's and most of the things you mention were established there. The series is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the source material, except it was more sitcom-y and Sabrina's adventures weren't as big because of budget reasons. Occasionally, Sabrina would crossover with other Archie properties like...er...Archie and the Riverdale Gang, and Josie and the Pussycats. There was a Sabrina animated series in the early 70's, almost three decades before the sitcom, it didn't do too well but it did lead to a successful spin-off; The Groovie Goolies.

Then there's Bewitched, which predates both Elvira and Sabrina.

It rubs the butter on it's skin, y'all.

[–] oknar1977 8 years ago

Cassandra herself talked in british GT magazine she was robbed by her sitcom and taken over by sabrina, these similarities are no coincidence.

thanks to you tube, i've seen the pilot of elvira and it was great! i loved it!
it was different than usual safe crap from american sit-coms, in line with seinfeld, friends featured "risque" ie adult humour disguised for puritans and small children alike.
yet in the same time humour was done with good taste and watchable - unlike south park.

it is a shame they never passed the pilot.
but cbs can ammend, elvira is still here and they should take on the lost chance to make great tv comedy experience.