Darrin Stevens was/is a bigot

[DantesFire]

I started watching Bewitched again about a year ago and first time I ever noticed that Darrin is a bigot. Perhaps it justified in that Darrin doesn't like witchcraft because the witches don't like him. Maybe because it's the 60's tv and the wife is suppose to be compliant to the husband (according to the networks and their sponsors). Maybe because even as tolerance was being taught on tv, differences were still being made into big deals.
I always wondered if Samatha and Darrin existed in real life would they eventually gotten a divorce? If their marriage was a christian-jewish marriage and the husband forbidded the wife to pratice her religious beliefs, how long before the wife would have to walk out or let her soul be crushed under their "love". If their marriage had been maybe white-black inter-racial marriage and the white husband didn't want his black wife to see any of her black friends and family memebers, don't you think many of her old friends and family would have protested even moreso. Come on Darrin didn't even want anyone to know that Endora was there.
Darrin would have Samatha deny her power to the point of it affecting her health. (Not having seen all of the episodes I don't know if having the kids deny their powers affected them badly.) Darrin also appears to be constantly trying to teach his kids that having magical powers was bad. It's understood that at times, it was best to keep their powers a secret, because it was shown often enough that mortals feared witches, but I remember a few times where Darrin frowned upon his kids using their powers in the privacy of their own home.
Of course Darrin was also a hypocrite. When he might benefit from her using her powers he thought it was ok. Any other time "Sam, I strictly forbid you to use your powers!"
Put yourself into Samatha's place and her childrens place. Wonder how she thought her husband was a terrific man. Of course realize many abusive relationships works on the concept that one spouse thinks the world of the other one. And that any abusiveness is just a form of love.

[Perderabo]

Using this much analysis on a sitcom indicates that you are missing the point. Characters in sitcoms must do things that don't make much sense. I usually just accept the situation, suspend disbelief, and enjoy the show. The only exception to this is "Amos 'n Andy" which seems too mean-spirited toward blacks for me to enjoy.

Shouldn't Andy have fired Barney long ago? Ditto The Skipper and Gilligan? Damn near any sitcom marriage exhibits problems that should shatter any real marriage.

But if people behave sensibly in sitcoms, it won't be funny.

I am just as foolish as you to try and answer your question directly, but here goes:

From a Christian viewpoint, (the only one available to me), there are two sources of supernatural power: God and Satan. When Darrin sees Sam performing witchcraft, from his standpoint she is sinning. It is ok to love a sinner but hate the sin. So he would be remiss to fail to try and stop Sam from using witchcraft. Ditto his children. And he slips himself when he tolerates it. I cannot imagine things from Sam's viewpoint, she never seems to question the source of her power. But the differences between them are vast, clearly their mutual love must be very great to constantly overcome them.

But I must say again that this level of analysis of the situations in sitcoms is silly.

[DantesFire]

I have to admit I was bored when I began to analysis it in depth, but I realized what was going on by just watching. If you just watch and play Darrin and Samatha as real people, you wonder why Samatha let's him do the stuff he does.
Never have I gotten the impression that Samatha's magic was satanic in natural, but as I have stated I have not seen all of them. The impression I constantly got was Darrin didn't want magic used was because it meant his family wasn't normal. Also as far as I know they never showed religion on that show. As far as I understood it, the networks do not like to bring up religion on tv, not so much as now but definitely back in the 60's.
As to the supernatural having only 2 sources, God or satan, doesn't work for me. I believe there is a God, but not the one in the bible. Since the bible is bias opinions and not true factual history, warped by hundreds of years of alteration and misunderstanding (Seriously think about it, even today different religions even thought it's basically the same bible do not contain the same text. Some have more some have less, some have the same text with different stories And you have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls.)
Science has been having a hard time dealing with the supernatural because of bad and misleading information, especially the one of science or magic. The thing you have to realize is the supernatural is another form of science. Such as using herbs was once thought of as witchcraft, note Tomatoes were once considered evil because they are blood-red. Ghost are now believed to be thought as psychic impressions. Seeing the future, Dreams and hunches are now being seen as your brain predicting and figuring out things in possible logical outcomes, Not magic, just using different parts of your brain. Ability to move things with your mind, set things on fire, electric shocks, rare but have been documented.
Magic and the supernatural is considered satanic because it was misunderstood, in large by the same people who would say, "If it ails you, use leeches", same people who would rub **** on themselves because it came from the pope, same people who say, "God bless you," in order to put your soul back in.

[The T]

I agree with perdarado (sorry if I got name wrong). Did you ever notice that ALL of the actors EVER on the show are DEAD!!>?!?!?!?!?! Kind of a coincidence huh? They died from freak accidents or rare diseases. there is something about the show that sems satanic. I still do like watching it though. It is an interesting show and something new always happens. Just the same though if you really go into the details alot of the spells and things they said were true in real life about the witch stuff. Sometimes the chantings or alot of just the sayings I ahve heard of in real life! They don't just come from an imaginary point of view. I think I even heard that they had a real witch on the set alot of the time or help with the scripts! I am not sure if that is true but I do beleive I heard that before!
WEll talk to you guys later!

------------------
See ya~The T
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Butler-Your Coat?

Fonz-Yeah it's my coat, are those your pants?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[DantesFire]

Nope I didn't know most of the cast were dead. How did most of the major characters die?
I used to date a wicca and it seemed more like a pagan religion than a satanic one. She worshipped the earth goddess, sun and moon, celebrated certain times of the year like winter and summer solartice, used crystals, incense, herbs, etc. Chanting just seemed like rhymes sometimes made up for just that occasion. I only attended a few events and it seemed more like people hanging out and having fun, probably only allowed to the tamer stuff. Any real Wiccas out there?
What did you mean by spells and stuff you heard in real life? Most of the spells on the show just seem made up for whatever they are trying to do and lots of times with a sense of humour. A witch on the set? Where exactly did you hear that one? That seems farfetched, last thing I think they would want in the 60's is to inspire a bunch of religious fanatics to boycott the show because of "attempts to spread satanism".

[Perderabo]

Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick Sargent, Agnes Moorehead, and Paul Lynde all died from cancer. Dick York died from emphysema. David White died from a heart attack.

Most of the sitcom stars from the sixties are getting long in the tooth. There's going to be more of this happening over the next decade.

I always get a little weirded-out when I watch "My Favorite Martian". Who would have guessed that Ray Walston would be the last surviving cast member? And he's still going strong...

[The T]

Well I ain't sure if I really heard about the witch on set. Maybe that was for something else, but I do know that alot of the spells are real maybe not the spells they use but real witches do use them. And wiccas and wickens are usually just as bad. We should worship the Lord, not the earth and goddesses and stuff. The earth made the earth? I don't think so. I am not trying to condemn you, don't think that. I am just saying what I know is true. The bible says "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" you've heard it right? Well then worshiping any other so-called god (Grass, earth, sky, idols) would mean you are putting that before the *TRUE* God! you get my drift? I can explain more if ya want. Just a breif overview of what I beleive.

------------------
See ya~The T
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Butler-Your Coat?

Fonz-Yeah it's my coat, are those your pants?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[DantesFire]

Cancer, emphysema, and heart attacks are not what I would call freak accidents nor rare diseases. Sounds like regular stuff that happens to people who used to smoke alot, suntanned and ate plenty of bacon. Or just got old.
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me", again who wrote that? Think about it, if you want to be a leading francise in the spiritual area you would tell people we are the only one and prove it by having it written somewhere. Tricks like that have been employed by religious and political leaders before and now. Example during the middle ages most people were kept ignorant of reading because the church wanted to do the thinking for people. Even today you are suppose to follow certain edicts from the pope because when it comes to God he is large.

[Perderabo]

*sigh* I didn't mean to start a fistfight here folks, I was just trying to show an alternate point of view to the "bigot" comment. But let's try to throw some light in with the heat here...

First, DantesFire, you are correct that Wicca is a Pagan religion and not a Satanic one. But Gavin Frost founded the Church of Wicca in 1968. Bewitched premiered in 1964, a full 4 years before there was a Wicca. Clearly Samatha cannot be intended to portray a Wiccan Witch. The writers had no idea what actions Dr. Frost was going to take in 1968.

Second, Wiccans are governed by a code of ethics. Here, for example, is the Wiccan Rede:

Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill
If it harm none, do what you will.

And "none" means "none", Wiccans cannot harm even themselves.

Now compare that to Sam's behavior. In one episode I recall her being troubled by a nosy investigator. She wiggled her nose and he was teleported into a bull ring in Mexico with a bull charging at him. Wiccans would find behavior like that just as intolerable as Christians.

Wiccans do like like the term "Witch" because it is not very specific. They are not Satanists and they never claim to possess the kind of power that Sam displays. Their spells are much closer the Christian concept of prayer than they are to Sam's wiggling nose.

But don't take my word for it, read their website to confirm all of my comments about Wicca.

I should have been more specific in my original post that I commenting on Satanic Witches. Most Christian Churches and the Church of Wicca agree that Satanic Witches are very rare indeed, if they exist at all.

[DantesFire]

I didn't think this was a fist fight but I do get passionate about proving myself right. I still think Darrin was a bigot and like I said if you thought of Samatha instead of being a witch but a black woman or jewish woman, or any other usually scapegoated group , you would say, "Damn Darrin Stevens is a bigot."

[The T]

Just forget it. Forget I even mentioned it. You can beleive what I beleive and I will beleive what I want.



------------------
See ya~The T
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Butler-Your Coat?

Fonz-Yeah it's my coat, are those your pants?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

[DantesFire]

I could believe what you believe,buuuuuuut I think I'll believe in what I believe.
Again I state Darrin Stevens was a bigot.
I will try to clarify. He hated his wife's culture, her family and friends because they were different. He didn't want them around when he was or even when he wasn't. He was scared the neighbors and his friends would find out (perhaps we can let this slide because he probably also didn't want people to know cause he knew a witchhunt would most likely occur.) He had her not use her powers to the point where it affected her health. But if opportunity popped up he wasn't afraid to ask his wife for magical assistance but only on his say so. Etc, etc, blah, blah, later.

[The T]

I TOTALLY agree! You are absolutely right! Darrin is a bigot! all your points are very good! Why couldn't he just let her whip up something for dinner real quick that would taste better and everything!? But if it was a guest or client, well ho ho ho! he had oto have the works!

------------------
See ya~The T
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Butler-Your Coat?

Fonz-Yeah it's my coat, are those your pants?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I think Fonzie is a godless bigot for insulting the butler that way. Just because Fonzie feels inadequate is no reason to insult someone who is working for a living and as much a victim of a class structure as Fonzie himself. The bible says if someone asks for your coat you should give them your shirt as well so Fonzie should have given the butler his coat and his shirt.

[The T]

DUH! He didn't know!!!! He thought he was serious! he wasnt raised with PERFEST ETOQUETTE so he wouldn't know that's what he said. DUH! Yeah your right though, it would have been really funny if he said "Yeah sure, and take my shirt while your at it" hehehe.

------------------
See ya~The T
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Butler-Your Coat?

Fonz-Yeah it's my coat, are those your pants?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~