I wouldn't be surprised that if Bewitched was on the air today, people would immediately jump on Darrin for always acting domineering, chauvinistic, and obnoxious. For instance, why in hell should Darrin complain about how Samantha does the housework? They could have compromised by letting him work and trying to further his career, while she kept house in her own way - and perhaps use her magic for "security" (burglars and such).

Darrin, as originally written, was a very traditional man - husband is the breadwinner and wife is mother and housewife. Samantha could have anything she wanted but craved the challenge of "normal" life. I can also see why she fell for York's Darrin but not Sargent's.

It was interesting that in the early episode where Darrin's friend had a curse on him Samantha was reading Aunt Clara's book of spellees (people under a spell) and Darrin's name was in it. He asked Samantha what it had written about him. She said "you are going to marry a witch and live happily ever after..." the she admitted that it didn't really state that...but didn't say what it did have.

I always thought it interesting that they were hinting there was some witchcraft related reason that they got together.

I always wondered what she saw in him!!!

Darrin, as originally written, was a very traditional man - husband is the breadwinner and wife is mother and housewife. Samantha could have anything she wanted but craved the challenge of "normal" life. I can also see why she fell for York's Darrin but not Sargent's.

It was interesting that in the early episode where Darrin's friend had a curse on him Samantha was reading Aunt Clara's book of spellees (people under a spell) and Darrin's name was in it. He asked Samantha what it had written about him. She said "you are going to marry a witch and live happily ever after..." the she admitted that it didn't really state that...but didn't say what it did have.

I always thought it interesting that they were hinting there was some witchcraft related reason that they got together.

I've heard (and I'm not sure if it was intentional) the suggestion that Darrin and Samantha's marriage can be looked at as an analogy of a white man who marries a light skinned African-American woman and asks her to pass as white. Or it was meant to be a commentary on interfaith marriages like I believe Elizabeth Montgomery and Bill Asher's (who was Jewish) was in real life. It could even be seen as a metaphor for a rich woman who marries a working-class man and she has to "hide" her class privilege. In a nutshell, it's easy to come to the conclusion that Darrin was a deeply conventional and rather prejudiced man who had inadvertently fallen in love with someone whose culture he could not understand nor accept. He loved Samantha, but never unconditionally and with a certain amount of discomfort.

I've often thought Bewitched was a re-telling of a marriage where the woman is a repressed early 1960s lesbian: her husband knows, but wants her to keep the secret. However, once he's out of the house, inevitably, she fails at repressing her inner self.

Her mother, meanwhile, is out of the closet, and doesn't care what "men" think. She's disgusted by "Durwood" and all men in general. She doesn't get what Samantha sees in him, at all. She'd rather Samantha hang out with other witches.

I just have to believe that Samantha loved Darrin because she saw to the core of his soul, and they were connected, because a lot of his behavior is horrible and he's constantly doubting her, almost right from the start, but she forgives him time and again, because of that connection and that love.

I can understand Darrin wanting to make it on his own without Samantha's witchcraft. There have been episodes where he tries to go along with Sam using her powers but he just can't deal with it. Overall, I don't think he wants to take advantage of Sam's powers for his own gain, he wants to succeed on his own. And he wants Sam to be happy with what he can give her.

There are times when Darrin does ask Sam to use her powers for his benefit, and I think that once that happened Sam should have just used her powers when she wanted to. And of course once Sam started to become "ill" from not using her powers enough, she should have used her powers regularly with Darrin's encouragement and approval, for her health.

As I've alluded towards prior, I've often heard that Bewitched is one of those shows if released today, would receive severe backlash. The show starts off with Samantha struggling to find a way to tell her husband that she’s a witch and when he finally realizes, instead of saying something like “It’s ok, honey, I love you no matter what or I love you just the way you are” or something like that, he tells her that she needs to conceal don’t feel, don’t let them know. He tells her that she needs to control herself to be more normal and she agrees submissively.

He had big ears and a whiny voice. PASS.

I always wondered that myself. She was much smarter and even-tempered. But he did REALLY love her, despite his testiness toward her family.

In the first episode, Endora's response to finding out that Darrin is mortal is to ask, "What if he finds out?" Samantha replies that she doesn't believe in secrets, and is going to tell Darrin. When he fjrst disbelieves her, she says that she wasn't going to do witchcraft anymore, but then does some tricks to convince him. It seems clear that the "no witchcraft" stuff isn't something that Darrin is imposing on his own.

I seem to remember that Samantha was the first one mention not doing witchcraft anymore, and Darrin going along and believing she'd just give it up. And well into re-watching season 2 Darrin does go along with Samantha doing witchcraft when it's convenient for him just about as much as he chastises her when he catches her doing witchcraft when it doesn't benefit him.

Darrin flip flops a lot during the series, but once there is evidence that Samantha not doing witchcraft could do her harm or cause problems, Darrin should have been encouraging Sam to do a little bit everyday.

He had big ears and a whiny voice. PASS.

LOL! I agree, I couldn't stand either of the Derwoods. They were both so unattractive. I never understood why they didn't cast a handsome actor as Darrin, until I found out Liz's husband was the producer! ;) Honestly, the concept would've been much more believable if Sam had given up witchcraft for a better looking and more interesting man.

I think the word "normal" is in question here....for Samantha being a Witch IS normal, she was adjusting to a life that was abnormal to her. I always thought it was sorta unfair for her to be expected to give up everything that was natural to her and conform to Darrin's world.... It would almost be like her bestowing powers onto Darrin and say, "Now be a witch!"