Sweetie-- So thrilled that you started this topic. Now where's Randella?
I, too, absolutely lived for Bewitched growing up. When I was 6, I named my first cat after Samantha. And about eight years ago, i adopted another cat -- all black -- so what else could I call her besides Serena?
Gosh, there's just so much to say. Where to start? Well, here's a bit of news: Elizabeth will be getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next year. I found out through my friend Jennifer, who grew up with Elizabeth Montgomery's neice, Megan. I was so thrilled when several months ago Jennifer and I were out and Megan called on her cell...and I got to talk to her. The first thing I asked is what the family thinks about Nicole Kidman as the front-runner to play her aunt in the Bewitched movie, if it ever happens... Megan said they were all flabbergasted when Nicole's name came up, because Megan has a sister who has been told for years that she looks like Nicole Kidman. And if you caught the Entertainment Weekly cover of Nicole this past January, you can really see her resemblance to Elizabeth. I have had it sitting on my desk at work, and someone actually thought it was Elizabeth, at first glance...
When I was about 11, my dad got a video camera, and it brought a whole new dimension to "playing Bewitched." I figured out that if i put it on a tripod and started it recording, i could hit pause, move things around in the room, and start recording again, and when the video was played back, it would appear as if things had magically moved around. So, I cast my sister as Samantha and dressed her up in some of my mom's old outfits from the 60s, and I enlisted some other neighborhood kids to play the other characters. My little Bewitched shows were always just silly snippets like my sister walking through the backyard, complaining about how hot it was, and that she'd rather be someplace else. She'd snap her fingers, i'd stop recording, she'd run out of the scene, and I'd start recording again, very careful not to move the camera at all. On TV, she would appear to have vanished... In other scenarios, she would complain to "Darren" how messy the house was...my sis and i would throw clothes and toys all over my room, then as Samantha, she'd cite an incantation to clean things up, I'd stop recording, fix everything, and voila! Like magic -- a clean house. How gay!
And you mentioned the themes of tolerance. The show really tackled many social topics so smartly... One of my fave episodes is when Tabitha brings home a friend, a little black girl. Tabitha wants to be black like her friend, I think so they can be "sisters." But instead, she comes up with a fabulous idea: she puts big white spots all over her friend's body, and puts big brown spots all over her own. I thought that was just marvelous.