Classic TV Rewind · Episode 3
Doorknobs and Doctor Bombay
Season 1, Bewitched. The first color years, 1966 to 1969: Tabitha's magic revealed, Aunt Clara and her doorknobs, Ben Franklin in the suburbs, Uncle Arthur's jokes, Serena, Doctor Bombay, and the Pilgrims who accused Darrin of witchcraft.
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Shannon September 15th, 1966. For two years, Bewitched has been black and white. And tonight, for the first time, it's in color.
Carol And who better to show it off than Endora. Flowing green and purple gowns, bright eye shadow, a red flip of hair. She looks like she's stepped out of a paint box.
Shannon Meanwhile, at the doctor's office, a little girl is about to make her toy pony float right to her. And her mother is about to find out.
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, the color years.
Carol Episode three. Doorknobs and Doctor Bombay.
Shannon So, a little background. In the mid-sixties, the networks were switching their shows to color, one after another. And by the fall of 1966, almost everything in prime time was in color.
Carol So Bewitched went along with everyone else.
Shannon It did. And it suited the show. Magic looks better in color. The flashes, the smoke, the costumes. Endora especially. Agnes Moorehead was famous for loving the color lavender, and now everyone could see it.
Carol And the first color episode is a big one.
Shannon It's the one we mentioned last time. Samantha takes Tabitha for a checkup, and finds out that her little girl really is a witch.
Carol And how does Darrin take that?
Shannon Well, first Samantha has to figure out how to tell him. But once he knows, he does what he always does. Loves his family, and hopes the neighbors don't notice.
Carol And Tabitha herself looks different now.
Shannon She does. From season three, Tabitha was played by twin sisters, Erin and Diane Murphy. And after a while, Erin played the part on her own.
Carol She was adorable.
Shannon She really was. And Erin Murphy stayed with the show until the very end. For a lot of people, she's the only Tabitha there is.
Carol Now. Aunt Clara. Let's talk about her.
Shannon Gladly. Aunt Clara was played by Marion Lorne, who'd been a stage actress for decades. Movie fans might know her from Strangers on a Train, as the dotty mother.
Carol And on Bewitched, she's the sweetest witch there is.
Shannon The sweetest, and the least reliable. Aunt Clara means well. She just can't get a spell right. She tries to fix a lamp, and she blacks out half the East Coast. She tries to fly in, and she lands in the chimney.
Carol And the doorknobs.
Shannon Oh, yes. Aunt Clara collects doorknobs. She carries them around, she talks about them, she's always looking for a new one. Marion Lorne collected them in real life, and the writers put it in the show.
Carol That's wonderful.
Shannon And she gave us one of the best stories of the color years. Aunt Clara tries a spell, and accidentally brings Benjamin Franklin into the twentieth century.
Carol You're kidding.
Shannon Right there in the suburbs, in 1966. He's fascinated by everything. Electric lights, fire engines, all of it. And of course, he gets into trouble. He's arrested for taking a fire engine, and Samantha has to help him out.
Carol And there's a sad part of her story, too.
Shannon There is. Marion Lorne died in May of 1968. And just ten days later, she won the Emmy for playing Aunt Clara. Like Alice Pearce two years before.
Carol Two lovely ladies, both honored.
Shannon They were. And both much missed.
Carol And then there's Uncle Arthur.
Shannon Endora's brother, and the biggest practical joker in the family. Paul Lynde played him, and every time he turned up, the show got a little bit sillier.
Carol What kind of jokes?
Shannon Oh, everything. Joke props, trick handshakes, his head popping up where it shouldn't. And bad puns, lots of bad puns.
Carol And Endora can't stand him.
Shannon She can't. Which is half the fun. He teases Darrin too, but he teases Endora even more. And Darrin, for once, kind of likes him.
Carol And Paul Lynde had a big career after that.
Shannon Huge. A lot of people know him best as the center square on Hollywood Squares. But for Bewitched fans, he'll always be Uncle Arthur.
Carol And Samantha's cousin, Serena.
Shannon Serena is everything Samantha isn't. Samantha is sweet, Serena is wild. Samantha is blonde, Serena has dark hair. And Serena loves causing trouble, especially for Darrin.
Carol And they're both Elizabeth Montgomery.
Shannon Both of them. And here's the fun part. A couple of years later, the credits started listing Serena as being played by someone called Pandora Spocks.
Carol Who didn't exist.
Shannon Who didn't exist. It was a little joke, and it was Montgomery's own idea. And when the two of them are in a scene together, it's done with split screens and body doubles, and you almost believe they're two different people.
Carol Serena got groovier as the sixties went on.
Shannon Much groovier. Short skirts, love beads, hip talk. Samantha is the nice girl from the suburbs, and Serena is out at a party somewhere.
Carol And then, the doctor.
Shannon Doctor Bombay. He first turns up at the end of season three. When a witch gets sick, you call for him, and he arrives in a puff of smoke, wherever he was.
Carol Usually somewhere exotic.
Shannon Always. Mountain climbing, at the beach, in the middle of a fancy party. He's been called away from all sorts of things. And his cures work, mostly. Eventually.
Carol Who played him?
Shannon Bernard Fox, a British actor. And just like Paul Lynde, he'd been on the show before, as someone else entirely. Back in the black-and-white years, he played Osgood Rightmire, a lecturer who went around telling everyone that witches don't exist.
Carol And then he came back as a witch doctor.
Shannon (laughs) He did. And here's something our Ships fans might enjoy. He was in two Titanic films. In the 1950s, he played the lookout who first saw the iceberg. And almost forty years later, he was back for the big Titanic movie in 1997.
Carol Oh, that's lovely.
Shannon Isn't it? From Titanic to Bewitched, and back to Titanic.
Carol And through all this, the heart of the show doesn't change.
Shannon No, it doesn't. It's still Samantha and Darrin. Two people in love, trying to raise a family, while her relatives keep popping in. The colors are brighter, the stories get bigger, but the marriage stays at the center.
Carol And the stories really did get bigger.
Shannon They did. In one, Samantha is chosen as Queen of the Witches. In another, Aunt Clara sends the family back to the Pilgrims at Plymouth. And Darrin ends up accused of witchcraft.
Carol Darrin! Accused of witchcraft.
Shannon The one man in the family with no magic at all.
Carol So, what's your pick from the color years?
Shannon Mine is from season five, Samantha Loses Her Voice. Uncle Arthur plays a joke and switches their voices. So Samantha's voice comes out of Darrin, and Darrin's voice comes out of Samantha. And they have to get through it with Larry and Louise Tate, which puts a real strain on things. It's Paul Lynde at his best.
Carol And mine has to be the Thanksgiving one. Samantha's Thanksgiving to Remember. It's funny, and it's sweet, and it ends with Thanksgiving dinner back home.
Shannon And our ratings, out of five twitches?
Carol For the color years? Five twitches. Aunt Clara alone is worth it.
Shannon Four and a half from me. Not every episode is a classic, but the best of them are some of the best in the whole show.
Shannon That's the color years. Aunt Clara and her doorknobs, Uncle Arthur and his jokes, Serena, Doctor Bombay, and a little girl with a lot of magic.
Carol Next time, the most famous change in sitcom history. One Darrin leaves, another arrives, and the show carries on.
Shannon That's next time, on Classic TV Rewind.