earlytalkie I confess that I forgot about this show until I saw a few episodes listed on YouTube. This show was an attempt to revive the magic of Bewitched in a hipper, more "with it" setting for the late seventies. The attempt to emulate the single woman in the TV workplace dynamic of The Mary Tyler Moore Show is all too obvious, right down to the giant "T" on Tabitha's apartment wall. Lisa Hartman was not bad in the lead, but she does try to channel Elizabeth Montgomery in the earlier show. The show uses characters from the old series like Dr. Bombay and the Kravitzes, then completely ignores details from the old series like the fact that on Bewitched, Adam was shown to be a warlock. The attempt to re-create the Darrin/Samantha conflict of Bewitched by making Adam a stuffy mortal simply does not work due to the fact that this is a brother and sister instead of a husband and wife. The fact that the two siblings are in their twenties instead of the age they would have been in actuality could be explained by the odd "aging process" of the characters in Bewitched. No one knew exactly how old Samantha, Endora and the rest were. This show tries to pick up where Bewitched left off in 1972, the year it was cancelled. Music cues and the "twitch" are all riffs on the earlier show. It is my opinion that Bewitched lasted about 5 years longer than it should have. The later seasons, are, for me, nearly unwatchable due to the poor writing and recycled stories from earlier seasons. Tabitha's story lines are a slight improvement over the stale final seasons of Bewitched, but they are no great shakes. Karen Morrow as Aunt Minerva is pretty good, but Robert Urich is wasted here as the stereotypical stupid, lecherous, handsome stud who hosts a show at the TV station Tabitha works for. For some reason, Sony seems to have shelled out some money to make the film quality of this show look almost new. The colors are bright and the sound is fine. The few episodes I've seen are watchable time wasters, but just watch an early episode of Bewitched to see how good and entertaining the supernatural Stephens can be.

Poseidon-3 Even though supernatural/magical series of this kind were very popular in the 60s, there was little call for them in the 70s or 80s ("Sabrina" and "Charmed" came along in the 90s to a mostly welcome reception.) In any case, this one had trouble finding its identity and by the time it was further on its way, it was too late and the guillotine was released on it after 11 episodes. A spin-off of the long-running "Bewitched," this focuses on the female child from that series (played here by Hartman), now grown up and working as a TV producer in Los Angeles. Also appearing in the series were Ankrum, her brother (younger than her on "Bewitched," but now inexplicably her elder!), Stewart, her boss, Urich, the narcissistic star of the TV program she produced, and Morrow, a "vivacious" and somewhat meddlesome aunt. Stories centered around various issues at the station with occasional focus on Hartman's love life. Hartman, though usually appearing to try to mimic "Bewitched" star Elizabeth Montgomery, certainly had the appeal, perkiness and impish humor to put something like this across, but was defeated by some really shoddy writing and a lackluster supporting cast. Also, within just a few episodes, she went from a modestly dressed teen to having her body exploited in the most flimsy, tight and abbreviated clothes available! Initially, Ankrum took on a sort of "Darrin Stephens-esquire" quality, being bereft of supernatural powers himself and chiding Hartman any time she used them. Eventually, this obvious, derivative and tired stance was abandoned, though it left the character with practically nothing to do at all besides appear briefly to spout some worthless and unfunny dialogue. Urich, while handsome and effectively smug, seemed to be sleepwalking through most of the shows and seems as if it's asking too much for him to stay awake and alert for the camera and recite his lines! He and Hartman did manage to create a certain degree of chemistry, however. Stewart was featured heavily in a couple of episodes, but usually was relegated to a few lines here and there. His character lacked distinction for the most part. Fans of the original series were always delighted with the flamboyant and outrageous Endora, played by the amazing Agnes Moorehead. Here, they had to make due with the supremely inferior Morrow, popping in wearing decidedly less imaginative clothing and lacking the magnetism that Moorehead (and practically every other witch and warlock from the original show) possessed. Though successful onstage, somehow Morrow never transferred appropriately on screen, her broad persona not registering in the more intimate medium of TV. Aside from this, the writing was so inept that there were scarcely any particularly interesting or entertaining spells, transformations or situations with which to delight an audience. The budget for the series always appeared to be $2.97 per episode anyway. As the series wore on, it began to hit a bit of a groove with the cat and mouse romance between Hartman and Urich beginning to develop (though Hartman is portrayed as a "good girl," sexuality in general is not ignored on the show), the (some might say ill-advised) addition of a ditsy friend in Willis and a bit more cohesive format overall, but the writing was on the wall. Feeble attempts at connecting the two series included appearances from old neighbors Tobias and Gould and family physician Fox, though the new incarnations only bore slight resemblances to the previous ones. Original star Montgomery (along with Dick Sergeant, Paul Lynde and others) wisely steered completely clear. The chief asset of having the series on DVD is the ability to watch a show morph from the original pilot (with an entirely different cast!) to a regular series that is tweaked and fiddled with continuously until its inevitable cancellation. There's also the fun of seeing some period clothes (check out Urich's football jersey-inspired nightshirt!) and the garish décor and furnishings of the era (most notably Hartman's apartment, the decoration of which sometimes changed, especially her entry walls which were sometimes wood grain veneer and other times loud floral wallpaper!) This is best as a curio or for "Bewitched" completists.

Zinone I don't know what this other review is talking about! This show was fantastic and fun! Lisa Hartman has channeled Elizabeth Montgomery and nailed this role, as every other she has possessed! Robert Urich is charming, even as the egotistical Paul Thurston. You can easily see how much fun was had on this set. Leave the ego's at the door. There is no forced or even bad acting, this is fun TV folks! Karen Morrow is just fantastic as Aunt Minerva and we even get a few "Bewitched" stars making a surprise visit!I just bought the DVD box set and couldn't be more thrilled. This is when TV was fun and free and not some stupid reality show which is all we have to chose from these days. Long Live the 1970's Sitcom! Z.

anslem-1 This show is a steaming pile. The episode I saw on TV Land's Kitsch-en had the worst sound of any show I have ever seen, and even had a nice film scratch down the left hand side for almost the whole show. That didn't detract from the horrible special effects, craptacular camerawork, or awful acting, however! Bewitched had it's charm and originality on it's side. This had nothing but the tell-tale signs of a greedy network trying to suck every last dime out of an old favorite, and it belongs in the Hall of Shame.