Bewitched Stats & explanation of inconsistencies

[Larry Tate]

Bewitched Stats & explanation of inconsistencies

First off the Writing on Bewitched was nothing short of Brilliant & some of the best
that TV Comedy has ever seen, right up there with I Love Lucy & the Dick Van Dyke Show.

Although Elizabeth Montgomery was the main reason Bewitched was to become the finest TV show
to ever appear on TV, it still was so superbly crafted & had such a Brilliant supporting cast with
Agnes Moorehead, Dick York, David White, Alice Pierce etc., that I believe it would have been very
successful even without Liz & at any point in time although without Elizabeth Montgomery not to the extent that it became with her.

I know that it would have been fun to see more of the Witch life, but that was not what the premise
of the show was about & to stay true to the premise & the characterizations & their interaction, that part
of her life had to be strictly background & in support of the relationship between Samantha & Darrin which was
what the premise entailed.

I might add that all this talk about flaws & inconsistencies do not hold much water either.
Almost any aspect of what happened on Bewitched could be explained away by the basic premise
of the show & was not inconsistent at all.

Example, she is a different age at different point in history, in each point it can be explained away in a consistent manner
by the simple use of time travel.

Such as for example she is born in 1500 AD lets say, yet we hear she was 200 years old in 1200 AD, this can be explained in a consistent manner that in 1700 AD she went back in time to 1200 AD and at that point in time was
200 years old 200 years prior to her birth.

Same thing with spells being reversible, as all spells are not the same depending on the type used, the power of the witch enveloped, the intent by them & the reason it is cast all effects the outcome & what the nature of the magical reality is in each instance when it is done, & there is a great range in the type & their effect
and in how they can be manipulated by a third witchly party or not, so that explains why sometimes a spell was reversible & sometimes not.

To be honest I don't see where people get the idea that Bewitched was formulaic
in it's story lines & plot devises.

They say just about every episode was about a spell being zapped on Darrin & then what to do about it.

The stats just do not back this up.
If anything what they suggest as the constant norm was actually the rare exception & in the minority.
So to say Bewitched was just a lot of stale over worked plot devises..............well as they say in the Ozarks about the plausibility of such a statement............................................that Dog just Ain't gonna Hunt.

Spells on Darrin:

0/36
5/36
4/33
5/33
7/30
6/30
3/28
2/26

Transformations of Darrin:

5/36
6/36
0/33
3/33
4/30
5/30
9/28
1/26

Witch Disease for Samantha:

0/36
1/36
0/33
1/33
2/30
3/30
5/28
2/26

Going back in time:

0/36
1/36
2/33
1/33
1/30
0/30
3/28
4/26

Historical Figures brought to the Present:

0/36
0/36
5/33
1/33
1/30
1/30
1/28
2/26

Client Episodes:

12/36
23/36
21/33
22/33
14/30
22/30
20/28
16/26

[tcr1701]

And some interesting statistics from harpiesbizarre.com on the romantic angle (and series writer Lila Garrett stating the writers dropped some of the romantic angle after Dick York left):

There was a sharp drop in demonstrated affection between Darrin and Samantha (affection being measured by counting the number of kisses exchanged per episode) after the fifth season.

The first season there was an average of 2.03 kisses per episode. This climbed to 2.97 in the fourth season, but the sixth, seventh, and eighth seasons averaged 1.93, 1.21, and .062 respectively.

During the York years, the kisses averaged 2.57 per episode, and less than half that number (1.25) were exchanged during the Sargent years.