What if the Roles were Reversed...

[dougiezerts]

...and Darren was the witch (warlock) and Sam was the mortal! How might that have changed the show's dynamics?

[Arfies]

Quite a bit, I think! A huge driver of the show's plot was the 1960s "alpha" male whose life was upended by a wife far more powerful than him.

Given the gender dynamics of the time, I don't think a mortal wife would've demanded her warlock husband give up his powers. Maybe the show would just be like George the warlock and Danger O'Riley. Fun, but where would the conflict be? He'd sort of be the "dream man" for a mortal woman. A modern equivalent might be something like "Twilight" (not a fan, but "supernatural man/mortal woman" thing). Or even Superman/Lois Lane.

[Alan Brady's Hair]

I could see it working with a hapless sort of warlock whose magic was as likely to get him into trouble as out of it. Maybe a Wally Cox-type.

[SitcomsHeydayfan]

Sounds awful.

Plus you couldn't call the show "Bewitched" if it was a male warlock with the powers.

You'd have to call it "Bewarlocked"!

[dougiezerts]

How about "My Favorite Warlock!"

[SitcomsHeydayfan]

Originally Posted by dougiezerts

How about "My Favorite Warlock!"

You're taking that from "My Favorite Martian" so they may have sued!

[king of comedy]

If the show was updated, I say yes.

[TheLittleFaerie]

Originally Posted by SitcomsHeydayfan

Sounds awful.

Plus you couldn't call the show "Bewitched" if it was a male warlock with the powers.

You'd have to call it "Bewarlocked"!

"Bewitched" just means "enchanted", or "under a spell", it's a gender-neutral adjective. Also in real life men use the term "witch" as well. Even on the show, they sometimes called the male witches "witches". It seemed like men and women were called witches, but ONLY men were warlocks

[Chocolate Moose]

ooooooo

[dougiezerts]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

I could see it working with a hapless sort of warlock whose magic was as likely to get him into trouble as out of it. Maybe a Wally Cox-type.

Wally Cox was always great at playing nerdy characters. Yes, I could see that!

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by Arfies

Quite a bit, I think! A huge driver of the show's plot was the 1960s "alpha" male whose life was upended by a wife far more powerful than him.

Given the gender dynamics of the time, I don't think a mortal wife would've demanded her warlock husband give up his powers. Maybe the show would just be like George the warlock and Danger O'Riley. Fun, but where would the conflict be? He'd sort of be the "dream man" for a mortal woman. A modern equivalent might be something like "Twilight" (not a fan, but "supernatural man/mortal woman" thing). Or even Superman/Lois Lane.

This is a very good answer. The mores of the society at that time viewed the man as the provider and the woman as the homemaker. That would suggest a man would use all his skills and talents to provide for his family. To reverse the series dynamic would require constructing some plausible logic placing some contrived restrictions on the use of his powers.