Something I've Noticed About Bewitched

So I've been watching a lot of this show recently (Season 3), and it has occurred to me that in the animated credits there is a strange anomaly. You'll notice the cartoon of Darrin looks like Dick York, very much like him. But the cartoon of Samantha is very generic, has the wrong colour hair (ginger) and really doesn't look especially like Elizabeth Montgomery. Do any of you know why this is? Is it because they cast someone different or did they not know who was going to be Samantha. Is it because, being female, she couldn't be the lead even though she obviously is the real star and the whole thing was originally a vehicle for Dick York? It's curious. Please offer facts, or if you can't, theories, as to why this is. TIA!

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• I think it is still based on Montgomery, it looks enough like her. The hair is a bit off though—resembles Ann-Margret.

• My guess on the hair color is that the show was originally in black and white and the colorization just wasn't all that successful.

• York just had more distinctive features than Montgomery.

• What R3 said. Montgomery, while pretty, was rather generic.

• Tammy Grimes was the first choice, but I still think it looks like Liz. Liz actually had darker hair about a year before BW went on the air.

• I have no clue, OP, but I do admire your autistic obsessiveness.

• Because originally Samantha was supposed to be played by Thalassa Cruso.

• Samantha was originally played by Pandora Spocks, then she played Serena.

• Elizabeth's husband was the producer, I'm pretty sure the show was created for Elizabeth. In that case, r5 would be wrong. Plus I know they had originally wanted Dick Sargent but he was unavailable, so if the cartoon got had gotten anything wrong it would've been Sargent instead of York. I believe they did change the cartoon to look like Sargent when he came aboard.

• Tammy was the first choice, but the concept of the show was very different at that point and nothing had gone into production. The cartoon is based on Elizabeth. BTW...Liz M said in an interview once that the concept of Samantha hiding her powers was directly related to gay oppression and gay people having to be in the closet. It was discussed openly in meetings but never when network executives were present.

• This looks like the cartoon to me. Her hair was darker when she was younger.

  http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=elizabeth montgomery&view=detail&id=5E01A764

• I hope R8 is being funny. Here's a funny thing about "Pandora". It was L's drag persona, obviously. Paul Lynde loved Liz and was always very sweet to her. But he and "Pandora" had a bitchy, drag queen relationship. "Pandora" also arranged clandestine meetings with Bill Asher behind Liz's back. :)

• Samantha is supposed be sexy first and foremost which is what the illustration communicates. Darren is the unsexy clown so his cartoony factial features are made prominent.

• As a child, I was more fascinated with how that big dark cloud of smoke from the burning pan became a cool backdrop to credit Agnes Moorehead as Endora.

  I%20get%20it%21%20I%20get%20it%21%20-%20me%2C%20age%205

• R11 here. Fuck. Here's the link.

  http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=elizabeth montgomery&view=detail&id=5E01A76404268EA74A4F64862776B4D775F194F3&first=1

• The first couple of seasons were in black and white.

• Thanks for all your contributions.

  OP

• It's a much better caricature of York than it is of Montgomery, but I don't think that's intentional.

• Also, it reads a lot more like Montgomery in animation than it does in the cell you've posted.

• the picture looks like Liz.

• I'll look at it more closely when I get home from the Cosmo Cotillion

• Did you all like Samantha when she had the bangs or in the latter years when she parted her hair down the middle. She was better with the middle part and the "mod" clothes.

• Any woman would look grotesque if you caricatured her to the extent that York and Sargent were. R13 is right. In this show the husband is the buffoon and the wife is the sexy one. That cartoon is Liz and no one else.

• I don't like the early episodes, r22. The campier later episodes were more entertaining, and she also looked better. I thought she looked drab in the early seasons with her dishwater hair, I guess that was her natural color. But she looked fabulous with bright blonde hair, however she styled it. I remember reading on a Bewitched site that she changed her hair constantly in the final season, different dye jobs and styling in practically ever episode. Liz's looks were a big part of the show's appeal.

• The very first episodes were the best because they were very subversive spoofs on the 'typical American family/couple'. the tone changed, presumably to become more tv friendly. The show became political again in later years, but was never as cleverly subversive again.

• She looked much better in the latter years.

• R22, I agree. She was stunning that final season with the middle part and looked ten years younger.

• Elizabeth also looked seductively naughty as Serena.

• Guuuurrrrrllll...you gots WAY too much time on yo hands if yous noticed all dat...

  Precious

• That cartoon opening was nasty. First you see the toon witch flying on a broom stick side saddle. And she's all like "Hey world I'm up here, look at my snatch." Then she's in a kitchen with a dress cut down to there. And she starts shaking those tittie boom booms and her ass, as she's frying up something. Then Darrin comes in and you see in his eyes he's all like,"Mmmmm, I'm gonna get me some witch stuff." But then toon Samantha see this and turns into a cat, but that don't stop the perverted Darrin, he just looks down and say, "mmmm, I'm gonna get me some cat stuff." And then toon Samantha turns back into a woman so if Darrin has his way at least it'll be normal sex, not bestiality.

• Later Darin regenerates and so does the animated Darin

  doctor%20who

• Wow...I thought Liz in the B/W ones looked so much better then the 8th season, "Hippie Witch," look she sported, with no make up and straight hair (and a bit of a tude too!) However, she looked her absolute hottest when the show turned to color and Liz is tanned, blond as hell, and sporting a great bod!

• She looked really good in the seventh season.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DEMZJtlEH-rs%26feature%3Drelated

• Bewitched marathon tomorrow, Oct. 14th, on Logo.

• Montgomery was horrible in the role. They should have hired the actress who played Cousin Serena for the lead.

  Village%20Idiot

• I thought she looked good in the first few seasons when she would still get dressed up to go out or for dinner parties. She had a kind of early 60's elegance that was about to go out of style. She probably looked her worst (relatively speaking) the middle seasons where she was almost always dressed as the stay-at-home mom. She did regain a bit of her style (now in a 70's way) the last season. I am of the camp, once it found its footing, the early seasons were better. The writing was sharper and more adult and did not always rely on magic for the laughs. By the end the show was literally reusing scripts from previous years, although I do have a soft spot for the Old Salem and Henry the VIII episodes.

• Liz looked her hottest post-mod-makeover in "Tabitha's First Day at School."

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DByHp-USyEpg

• I recently saw a few 1st season episodes where Samantha and Darren move into their new home on Morning Glory Lane. Best Ever episodes. The welcome wagon includes (the First) Mrs. Kravitz and two other nosy ladies, 2 with kids. The kids go upstairs to play and encounter Endora, who is annoyed by them. She ties them up and leaves. The mothers go to leave and never notice all tree kids are tied up from playing (like cowoboys and indians) and just want to leave. Kravitz wonders how *All Three* kids were tied up? She goes to leave and say's I'll let in the phone repair man for you ( You used to have them come out to set up service). She saw Samatha take a call from Darren in the kitchen, even though phone not yet hooked up. She retreats home to take her medicine. LOL Wonderful Show. A favorite from my childhood. Do any of you have a favorite episode? Loved Aunt Clara!

• Stay tuned for Bewitched...NEXT, in color!

  Samantha

• [quote]As a child, I was more fascinated with how that big dark cloud of smoke from the burning pan became a cool backdrop to credit Agnes Moorehead as Endora. I never understood what Samantha was cooking that got burned, that always bothered me.

• Larry Tate actor was great as the greedy vain Ad Exective / Owner.

  Uncle Arthur

• I loved Bewiched growing up. The funny part is, I didnt realize I was watching gay camp till I got much much older. Talk about gay in the genes.

• Best creative comedy of it's day.

• Always had a crush on Larry Tate. Silver-haired daddy

• [quote]I never understood what Samantha was cooking that got burned Darren's testicles.

• I hated the way Elizabeth Montgomery looked after Samantha got her hippie chick makeover. She was at her most attractive in the early color seasons. The straight hair and hip huggers ruined her look.

  the%20crone%20of%20Cawdor%20

• They are all dead except Dr. Bombay and Tabatha.

• The show was sponsored by Chevrolet and the end of the opening credits in the early B/W episodes included Darren & Samantha riding on the Chevrolet "bowtie" logo while the announcer said something about Chevrolet cars. Good sponsorship and advertising.

• Funny scene with pie

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DXgncLPRLd2E

• I think it looks enough like her.

  http://lmgtfy.com/%3Fq%3DRecovered+baptist

  PPSM

• Don't click on the link by R50.

• The final scene of Bewitched.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DyXCi0wVY7yA

• The series is noted for having a number of major cast changes, often because of illness or death of the actors. Most notably, the actor playing Darrin was quietly replaced mid-series. The only surviving members of the regular cast are Bernard Fox and the actors who played the Stephens children. The various changes during the series and untimely deaths of several of the regular actors in the decades following its cancellation produced a mythology that the series was cursed. However, a study of the average age of death of the actors, many of whom were already past middle age during the show's production, reveals no unusual pattern

  http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/bewitched.asp

• Bump for Bewitched!

• Weeeeeell!

• Rebecca Asher, daughter of Elizabeth, is script supervisor for Mad Men.