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Bewitched is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typical suburban housewife. The show was popular, finishing as the second-highest-rated show in America during its debut season, staying in the top 10 for its first three seasons, and ranking in 11th place for both seasons four and five. The show continues to be seen throughout the world in syndication and on recorded media.
Bewitched was created by Sol Saks under executive producer Harry Ackerman and starred Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens, Dick York (1964–1969) as Darrin Stephens, and Agnes Moorehead as Endora, Samantha's mother. Dick Sargent replaced an ailing York for the final three seasons (1969–1972).
Hanna-Barbera produced the opening and closing animation credits. In 2002, Bewitched was ranked No. 50 on "TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time". In 1997, the same magazine ranked the second-season episode "Divided He Falls" number 48 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
During its run, the series had a number of major cast changes, often because of illness or death of the actors.
In I Married a Witch, Wallace Wooley (Fredric March) is a descendant of people who executed witches at the Salem witch trials. As revenge, a witch (Veronica Lake) prepares a love potion for him. She ends up consuming her own potion and falling for her enemy. Her father is against this union. In the film Bell, Book and Candle, modern witch Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) uses a love spell on Shep Henderson (James Stewart) to have a simple fling with him, but she genuinely falls for the man.
Both films were properties of Columbia Pictures, which also owned Screen Gems, the company that produced Bewitched.
In its first season, Bewitched was the ABC's number-one show and the best-rated sitcom among all three networks, coming second in ratings only to Bonanza. Bewitched aired at 9 p.m. Thursday evenings. It was preceded on the air by another sitcom, My Three Sons, and followed by the soap opera Peyton Place. My Three Sons finished 13th in the ratings and Peyton Place ninth. The block formed by the three shows was the strongest ratings grabber in ABC's schedule. Arnold left the show after the first season, leaving producing duties to his friend Jerry Davis, who had already produced some of the first season's episodes (though Arnold was still supervising the writing). The second season was produced by Davis, and with Bernard Slade as head writer, misunderstandings and farce became more prevalent elements, though this season still included a number of more low-key episodes in which the magical element was not strongly emphasized. With the third season and the switch to color, Davis left the show and was replaced as producer by William Froug. Slade also left after the second season. According to William Froug's autobiography, William Asher (who had directed many episodes) wanted to take over as producer when Jerry Davis left, but the production company was not yet ready to approve the idea. Froug, a former producer of Gilligan's Island and the last season of The Twilight Zone, was brought in as a compromise. By his own admission, Froug was not very familiar with Bewitched and found himself in the uncomfortable position of being the official producer, though Asher was making most of the creative decisions. After a year, Froug left the show, and Asher took over as full-time producer of the series for the rest of its run. The first two seasons had aired Thursdays at 9:00, and the time was moved to 8:30 shortly after the third year (1966–1967) had begun. Nevertheless, the ratings for Bewitched remained high and it placed among the top 15 shows through the 1968–69 season. It was the seventh-highest-rated show in the U.S. for 1965–66 and 1966–67. Similarly, it was number 11 the following two years.
At the time, the show had won three . William Asher won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series in 1966. Alice Pearce posthumously won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of Gladys Kravitz, and Marion Lorne won the same award posthumously in 1968 for her portrayal of Aunt Clara. Producers were faced with how to deal with the deaths of both these actresses. When Pearce died in early 1966, Mary Grace Canfield was hired to play Gladys's sister-in-law Harriet Kravitz in four episodes. Comedienne Alice Ghostley was approached to take over the role of Gladys the next season, but turned it down. Pearce and she were good friends, so Ghostley decided to decline the role out of respect for Pearce. In the fall of 1966, Sandra Gould was hired as Gladys Kravitz. Gould remained with the show until the spring of 1971. After Marion Lorne's death in the spring of 1968, she was not replaced, and the character of Aunt Clara was not seen after the fourth season. Beginning in the show's sixth year, Alice Ghostley was finally used to play the character of Esmeralda, a kind but shy and inept witch who served as a nanny and nursemaid to Darrin and Samantha's children, Tabitha and Adam. (Ghostley had appeared in a similar role as Naomi, an incompetent domestic, hired by Darrin to do housecleaning for a pregnant Samantha in the second-season episode "Maid to Order".) In another notable casting change, Louise Tate, played by Irene Vernon during the first two seasons, was played by Kasey Rogers thereafter.
The fifth season of Bewitched (1968–1969) proved to be a turning point for the series, most notably with the midseason departure of Dick York and the record eight episodes that were filmed without him afterwards (although aired out of order with previously filmed episodes). York was suffering from recurring back problems, the result of an accident during the filming of They Came to Cordura (1959). As a result, many episodes in seasons three and four had York's character of Darrin out of town on business. Towards the end of the season five, York's increased disability, which had caused numerous shooting delays and script rewrites, resulted in his collapsing on the set in January 1969 while filming the episode "Daddy Does His Thing." He was immediately rushed to the hospital, and after a long talk with producer-director William Asher, York decided to leave the series. At about the same time, Montgomery and Asher announced that they were expecting another baby, and Samantha and Darrin were to also have another child in the fall of that year. On screen, Samantha tells Darrin over the phone the news of her second pregnancy in the fifth-season episode "Samantha's Good News". That same month, Dick Sargent was cast to play Darrin beginning in the sixth season."Sargent Replaces Bewitched Costar". Los Angeles Times. January 31, 1969. p. G14. Also during this season, Serena (Samantha's identical cousin, also played by Montgomery, but credited to Pandora Spocks in some episodes) was used more frequently. Filming of scenes involving both Samantha and Serena was accomplished by using Melody McCord, Montgomery's stand-in.
Beginning with the sixth season's (1969–1970) opening credits, in addition to York being replaced with Sargent, Elizabeth Montgomery was billed above the title, and David White now received billing, as well, after Agnes Moorehead's. During this year, the show incurred a significant decline in ratings, falling from 11th to 24th place. In mid-1970, the set of the Stephenses' home was being rebuilt due to a fire. In June, the cast and crew traveled to Salem, Magnolia, and Gloucester, Massachusetts to film an eight-part story arc in which Samantha, Darrin, and Endora travel to Salem for the centennial Witches Convocation. These location shoots marked the only times the show was filmed away from its Hollywood studio sets and backlot. Season seven premiered with eight so-called Salem Saga episodes. These on-location episodes helped the show's sagging ratings. During that year, though, scripts from old episodes were recycled frequently. By the end of the 1970–1971 season, the ratings for Bewitched had noticeably dropped and the show did not even rank in the list of the top 30 programs. ABC moved Bewitcheds airtime from Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. to Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. at the beginning of the eighth season. The schedule change did not help ratings, as the show was now pitted against CBS's popular The Carol Burnett Show. Fewer recurring characters were used this season; the Kravitzes, Darrin's parents, and Uncle Arthur did not appear at all, and Louise Tate only featured in three episodes. Filming ended in December 1971, and in January 1972 the show was finally moved to Saturday night at 8:00 p.m., opposite television's number-one show, All in the Family, where it fared even worse, with Bewitched finishing in 72nd place for the year.
During its first five seasons, Bewitched was sponsored by both General Motors’ Chevrolet division and the Quaker Oats Company. As a result, Chevrolet vehicles were often prominently featured on the series, even as a part of the storyline (an example of product placement), and many scenes showed the Stephenses having breakfast in the kitchen. Sponsors in later seasons included Bristol-Myers, Kodak, and Oscar Mayer.
On the Columbia studio backlot, the Kravitzes' house was actually down the street from the Stephenses' house exterior. Both houses' exterior doors opened to an unfinished entry, as the interiors were shot on studio sound stages elsewhere. A "front porch" set, replicating the porch of the backlot house was created, as well. From 1964 through 1966, the Kravitzes' house was the same as used for The Donna Reed Show. Beginning with third-season color episodes in 1966, the Kravitz house sets were the same as what would (years later) be featured as The Partridge Family house.
Production and filming for Bewitched was based in Los Angeles, and although the setting is assumed to be suburban New York, several episodes feature wide-angle exterior views of the Stephenses' neighborhood showing a California landscape with mountains in the distance. Another example of questionable continuity regarding the location can be seen in season six, episode six: Darrin's parents drive home after visiting the new baby, passing several large palm trees lining the street.
The Paul Lynde Show bore some similarities to Bewitched; some of the sets used for the Simmses' house and backyard were used from the Stephenses' home. The name of Paul's law firm McNish and Simms was similar to the name of Darrin Stephens's advertising agency McMann and Tate. Many actors regularly seen on Bewitched also appeared on Lynde's series, including Mabel Albertson, Herb Voland, Jack Collins, Richard X. Slattery, and Dick Wilson.
At the same time, to help fulfill the network's contract with Bewitched, Asher and Harry Ackerman created another ABC sitcom for the 1972–1973 season called Temperatures Rising. The series starred James Whitmore and Cleavon Little. In its first year, the sitcom struggled with its format and ratings and in midseason, Asher was replaced as producer by Bruce Johnson and Duke Vincent. Despite its challenges, the series ended its first year with a respectable 29 share and was renewed for the 1973–1974 season. To improve ratings and help Paul Lynde fulfill his contract with the network after the demise of his show, ABC wanted to make some changes. When The New Temperatures Rising Show debuted in September 1973, Lynde had replaced Whitmore and the emphasis on black comedy in the show became more prominent. In spite of the changes, ratings for the series fell well below those of the previous season.
When Screen Gems head John Mitchell and ABC chief programmer Barry Diller noticed that The New Temperatures Rising Show was failing, they contacted William Asher and asked him to return and salvage the series. The show was resurrected on July 18, 1974, after a six-month hiatus with its original title Temperatures Rising. Joining Lynde and Little in the cast was Bewitched alumna Alice Ghostley. Once again, the changes in cast and format failed to resuscitate the series and Temperatures Rising was canceled, with the final episode broadcast on August 29, 1974, ending William Asher's original contract with ABC and Bewitched.
Airing during the civil rights era, Bewitched broached taboos about interracial marriage.
In a 1992 interview, Elizabeth Montgomery was asked if the show was an allegory about closeted homosexuality. She answered, "Don't think that didn't enter our minds at the time. We talked about it on the set—certainly not in production meetings—that this was about people not being allowed to be what they really are. If you think about it, Bewitched is about repression in general and all the frustration and trouble it can cause."
At its heart, the series was about the basic issues of achievement vs. instant gratification, a recurring theme in such episodes as "A Is for Aardvark" (directed by Ida Lupino) and "Charlie Harper, Winner". Darrin continually asserts the value of earned accomplishment, though even Samantha has to remind him when he weakens and asks for the easy way out (as do the scriptwriters). Samantha is drawn to Darrin partially because her former life allowed so much opulence that it became frivolous and self-indulgent, attributes that her flamboyant family continued to exemplify.
The Stephens couple would also notably sleep in the same bed in a time when television couples were often depicted as sleeping in separate beds.
The first episodes featured a voice-over narrator "performing comic sociological analyses" of the role of a witch in middle-class suburbia. The style was reminiscent of Hollywood films such as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). In a 1991 audio interview with film historian Ronald Haver, Elizabeth Montgomery revealed that her father Robert Montgomery was originally approached and asked to narrate these episodes, but he turned it down. Instead, the narration was done by Academy Award-winning actor José Ferrer, who did not receive credit.
The series inspired the rival show I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970) on NBC, which was produced by the same studio as Bewitched (Screen Gems).
On June 15, 2005, TV Land unveiled a Samantha statue in Salem to mark the show's 40th anniversary. On hand were three surviving actors from the show, Bernard Fox (Dr. Bombay), Erin Murphy (Tabitha), and Kasey Rogers (Louise Tate), as well as producer/director William Asher.
The film earned $22 million less than the production cost domestically, but it earned an additional $68 million internationally. The New York Times called Bewitched "an unmitigated disaster."
In 1966, the series was adapted as a strip in Lady Penelope, beginning from issue 12 and lasting until the comic's demise in 1969."Comic Anderson": Part 2" – FAB Issue 63, Stephen Baxter, p.40 It ran for 14 issues. Bewitched
On October 22, 2014, Sony Pictures Television announced that it sold a pilot of Bewitched to NBC as a possible entry for the 2015—2016 US television season. This show would have concerned Tabitha's daughter Daphne, a single woman who despite having the same magical powers as her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, is determined not to use her special abilities to find a soul mate. The new version of the proposed series, written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, had been on the radar of several major networks, including ABC, after Sony began shopping the project to interested parties.
On August 23, 2018, ABC announced that it had bought a pilot for a single-camera Bewitched remake from Black-ish creator Kenya Barris. This was Barris's last new project for the network before his exclusive contract with Netflix went into effect. Around the same time, an animated reboot series was optioned by 9 Story Entertainment and GO-N Productions, but never got off the ground.
On June 8, 2023, it was announced Sony Pictures Television Kids would be producing an animated Bewitched series that was to center on Samantha and Darrin's daughter Tabitha as a teenager. The series was previewed at MIPJunior on October 3, 2023. On February 14, 2024, Judalina Neira was announced to be writing and executive producing the reboot series.
From 1973 to 1982, the entire series was syndicated by Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures. By the late 1970s, numerous local stations either omitted black-and-white episodes or exclusively aired them during the summer, as there was a prevailing belief that such episodes were generally less appealing than those filmed in color. From 1981 to about 1991, only the color episodes were syndicated in barter syndication by DFS Program Exchange. The first two seasons, which were in black and white, were not included because Columbia retained the rights to them. Beginning in 1989, Nick at Nite only aired the black-and-white episodes, which were originally unedited. The edited versions of the episodes continued in barter syndication until 1992. Columbia syndicated the entire series beginning in 1991. The remaining six color seasons were added to Nick at Nite's lineup in March 1998 in a week-long Dueling Darrins Marathon. Later, seasons 1 and 2 were colorized and made available for syndication. Eventually, they were made available for DVD sales. The cable television channel WTBS carried seasons 3–8 throughout the 1980s and 1990s from DFS on a barter basis like most local stations that carried the show.
The show aired on the Hallmark Channel from August 6, 2001, to May 24, 2003. Bewitched then aired on TV Land from May 31, 2003 to November 10, 2006, and it returned to TV Land on March 3, 2008, but left the schedule on September 30, 2011.
In September 2008, the show began to air on WGN America, and in October 2012, it began to air on Logo up until January 1, 2024.
Antenna TV has aired the show in conjunction with I Dream of Jeannie since the network's launch in 2011. The cable and satellite network FETV also airs the show together with I Dream of Jeannie. The show also aired on GAC Family for a brief time in 2021.
In Italy, the series aired on Raiuno, Telemontecarlo, Italia 1, Rai 3, Canale 5, Retequattro, Boing & Paramount Network under the name ( Life as a Witch) from 1967 until 1979.
The Russia-based channel Domashny aired the show from 2008 to 2010.
On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including Bewitched. They have subsequently re-released the first six seasons, with seasons 1 and 2 available only in their black-and-white versions.
On October 6, 2015, Mill Creek Entertainment re-released Bewitched – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. Special features were stripped from the release. The first two seasons are in black and white only.
On February 5, 2025, Australian distributor ViaVision Entertainment released a Blu-ray box set of the first two seasons of Bewitched, containing all first- and second-season episodes in high-definition black and white, with standard-definition versions of all colorized episodes. On May 28, 2025, Australian distributor ViaVision Entertainment released a Blu-ray box set of the next two seasons of Bewitched, containing all third- and fourth-season episodes in high-definition color.
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