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'Twitch your nose for the final season of Bewitched,
coming to DVD with all 26 episodes. The series starred Elizabeth
Montgomery as Samantha, a witch who marries mortal Darrin
Stephens (Dick Sargent 1964-69; Dick York, 1969-72), and
have two children: daughter Tabitha and son Adam, both of
which inherited their mother's witchcraft. The series chronicles
Samantha trying to live like a normal wife and mother, but
she and Darrin continued to discovered that life isn't always
easy when you're Bewitched. ***
Moving from Thursday to Wednesday, season eight starts
with a two-parter that takes Samantha and Darrin to Europe,
where she has been transported to Henry VIII's time, as
Darrin and Endora must put aside their differences to get
her back. This season finds Samantha encountering the Loch
Ness Monster and meeting Hansel & Gretel, as her children's
powers started to mainfested. For instance, Tabitha advocates
against violence on television, and as she enters school,
she zaps George Washington to the 20th century. Meanwhile,
brother Adam must know if he has what it takes to be a warlock,
and Endora once again tries to break up Samantha and Darrin,
but in the end: love conquers all. ***
Bewitched ranked #72 in the ratings, getting stomped
by All in the Family, which was at the time the #1 show
in America for five straight years. The show was originally
renewed for three more years, but star Montgomery believed
it ran its course and decided not to continued. Bewitched
spun-off Tabitha in 1976 with Lisa Hartman as Sam and Darrin's
now-grown daughter; it only lasted 13 episodes, but can
be found on DVD. Debuted around the same time with shows
such as The Addams Family and The Munsters, Bewitched paved
the way for current shows like Sabrina, The Teenage Witch
with Melissa Joan Hart in the title role, which ran for
seven years. ***
The series then made its way onto the big screen in
the summer of 2005 as a romantic comedy with Nicole Kidman
and Will Farrell from director Nora Ephron, but the magic
wasn't there, and the film fizzled at the box office. Still,
Bewitched remains popular today thanks to syndication and
became the longest-running supernatural comedy throughout
the 1960s and 70s. ***
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