Classic TV Rewind · Episode 2
Black, White and Magic
Season 1, Bewitched. The black-and-white years, 1964 to 1966: how the magic was done before computers, Gladys Kravitz and Alice Pearce, Maurice and the doubtful in-laws, Aunt Clara's first visit, Paul Lynde's driving lesson, and the birth of Tabitha.
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Shannon Morning Glory Circle. A quiet street in Westport, Connecticut. And across from the Stephens house, a curtain moves, just a little.
Carol Behind it is Gladys Kravitz. And she has just watched a vase float across her neighbor's living room, all by itself.
Shannon She runs to her husband. He doesn't look up from his newspaper. And by the time she drags him to the window, the vase is sitting on the table, where it belongs.
Carol Welcome to Classic TV Rewind, where we go back to the shows we grew up with, and find out what made them work.
Shannon This season, it's Bewitched. And this time, we're in the black-and-white years.
Carol Episode two. Black, White and Magic.
Shannon So, let's set the scene. Bewitched's first two seasons were filmed in black and white. That's seventy-four episodes, from the fall of 1964 to the spring of 1966.
Carol And then it switched to color.
Shannon In season three, yes. But a lot of fans think these first two seasons are the best of the whole run. The stories are simple, the cast is fresh, and the show is still working out its own rules.
Carol What kind of rules?
Shannon Mostly, how much magic Samantha uses, and how much trouble it causes. In the early episodes, she really is trying to keep her promise to Darrin. She does the dishes by hand. She vacuums. And when she does twitch, it's usually to fix something, not to show off.
Carol Usually.
Shannon (laughs) Most of the time.
Carol And I always wondered how they did the magic, back before computers.
Shannon Mostly with a very old trick. The camera stops. Everybody on the set freezes exactly where they are. Somebody walks in and adds a lamp, or takes away a chair. Then the camera starts again.
Carol So it looks like the lamp just appeared.
Shannon Exactly. And if you watch closely, you can sometimes catch an actor who didn't quite hold still. A hand moves, or someone blinks. Fans love spotting those.
Carol And the floating things?
Shannon Wires, mostly. Very thin ones, hidden as well as they could manage. It was all very simple, and it looked wonderful.
Carol Now let's talk about Gladys. Because for a lot of people, she's the face of these early years.
Shannon She shows up in just the second episode, when Samantha and Darrin move into their new house. And from then on, she's the one person in the neighborhood who sees what's really going on.
Carol And nobody believes her.
Shannon Nobody. Her husband, Abner, is the calmest man in Connecticut. She bursts in, shouting his name, telling him she's just seen a horse in the Stephenses' kitchen. And he says, very quietly, that maybe she should lie down.
Carol And Alice Pearce was so good at it.
Shannon She was wonderful. Wide eyes, that voice, those hands flapping. She'd done a lot of Broadway and a lot of film before this, and she had perfect comic timing.
Carol And there's a sad part of her story.
Shannon There is. Alice Pearce was already very ill when the show began, and she kept it to herself. She kept working right into the second season. She died in March of 1966. She was only forty-eight. And that spring, she won the Emmy for her work as Gladys.
Carol That's lovely, that they honored her.
Shannon It is. Another actress, Sandra Gould, took over the part the next season. But for a lot of us, the first Gladys is the one we remember.
Carol And the in-laws keep coming.
Shannon They do. On Samantha's side, we meet her father in the first season. Maurice, played by Maurice Evans, a great Shakespearean actor.
Carol Oh, he's very grand.
Shannon Oh, yes. He sweeps in, he quotes Shakespeare, and he isn't impressed with his mortal son-in-law either. He and Endora live apart, but they both agree on one thing. Samantha could have done better.
Carol Poor Darrin.
Shannon And then there are Darrin's parents. His mother, Phyllis, played by Mabel Albertson, who isn't too sure about her new daughter-in-law. Whenever things get strange, she announces she has one of her sick headaches, and asks her husband to take her home.
Carol So both sides of the family have doubts.
Shannon That's right. And that's what makes it work. It isn't only witches against mortals. It's two families who each think their child married the wrong person.
Carol And some other famous faces turn up early, too.
Shannon They do. In the first season, for Halloween, we meet Aunt Clara, played by Marion Lorne. A sweet, fluttery old witch whose spells almost never come out right. We'll have much more about her next time.
Carol And wasn't there a driving lesson?
Shannon There was. In the first season, Samantha decides she wants to learn to drive. And her driving instructor is a very nervous little man, played by Paul Lynde.
Carol Paul Lynde! Before he was Uncle Arthur?
Shannon Before he was Uncle Arthur. He made such an impression that the next season, Bill Asher created a part just for him. A warlock, Samantha's practical-joking uncle. And he was a hit all over again.
Carol Now, season two brings the biggest news of all.
Shannon A baby. Samantha tells Darrin they're expecting, and of course, the first question is the one everybody's thinking.
Carol Will the baby be a witch?
Shannon That's it. And Darrin is hoping, very hard, for an ordinary child. Endora is hoping for the opposite.
Carol And when does the baby arrive?
Shannon In January of 1966, in an episode called And Then There Were Three. Samantha has a little girl, and they name her Tabitha.
Carol And I read that the name was spelled differently at first.
Shannon It was. For the first few seasons, the credits spelled it Tabatha, with an A. Later it was changed to the spelling we know.
Carol And that episode is busy.
Shannon Very busy. Darrin spends most of it convinced that Endora has turned the baby into a grown woman overnight. And it's also the episode where we meet a dark-haired cousin, who looks an awful lot like Samantha.
Carol Serena.
Shannon Serena, played by Elizabeth Montgomery herself. But she gets her own story next time.
Carol So, is Tabitha a witch?
Shannon The show keeps us guessing. All through season two, nobody knows for sure. And Darrin can't decide whether to hope or to worry.
Carol Probably both.
Shannon I'd say so. And the answer doesn't come until the very first color episode, in the fall of 1966. Samantha takes her for a checkup, and finds out. Tabitha is a witch, just like her mother. And Endora couldn't be happier.
Carol And Darrin?
Shannon Darrin loves his daughter. He just adds her to the list of people he has to keep an eye on.
Carol And the audience kept watching.
Shannon They did. Bewitched stayed in the top ten in its second season. And in 1966, the show won two Emmys. One was Alice Pearce's. The other went to Bill Asher, for directing.
Carol So the husband and wife team had a good year.
Shannon A very good year. And the show was about to change in a big way.
Carol Color.
Shannon That's right. And with it came more Uncle Arthur, more Aunt Clara, more Serena, and a doctor who makes house calls by magic.
Carol So, what's your pick from the black-and-white years?
Shannon Mine is the Christmas episode from the first season, A Vision of Sugar Plums. Samantha and Darrin take in a little boy from an orphanage who doesn't believe in Santa Claus. And Samantha takes him to the North Pole to change his mind.
Carol Oh, that's a sweet one.
Shannon It's lovely. And the little boy is played by Billy Mumy, who went on to Lost in Space. What's yours?
Carol Mine is the driving lesson, Driving Is the Only Way to Fly. Paul Lynde as a terrified instructor, with a witch behind the wheel. I laughed out loud.
Shannon And our ratings, out of five twitches?
Carol For the black-and-white years? Five twitches. This is Bewitched at its best.
Shannon Five from me too. And one extra twitch for Gladys, if we're allowed.
Carol I'll allow it.
Shannon That's the black-and-white years of Bewitched. A nosy neighbor, two sets of doubtful in-laws, a nervous driving instructor, and a baby who might just take after her mother.
Carol Next time, the color years. Uncle Arthur, Aunt Clara's doorknobs, Doctor Bombay, and a cousin named Serena.
Shannon That's next time, on Classic TV Rewind.