Bewitched Meets Mad Men!

Bewitched fans LOVE Mad Men! The similarities to even a casual viewer are obvious: 60's, advertising, smoking, drinking, pretty blonde wife, the fact that Don & Roger look like sexier versions of Darren Stephens & Larry Tate. I've been watching since the first episode of the first season & knew that there would be Bewitched references. The talented writing team didn't disappoint. I loved when there was mention that Don Draper should have lunch with Bill Asher at the Brown Derby 'He'll probably cast you'. Darren & I went to the Mad Men Finale Event at the Television Academy last night & had the chance to chat with the shows creator, Matt Weiner, the stars & the writers. They're all Bewitched fans! Little known fact, my dear friend Rebecca Asher (Elizabeth Montgomery & Bill Asher's daughter) was script supervisor on some early episodes. She's directing Raising Hope now (& I feel like a proud big sister). Adorable Kiernan Shipka, is so poised & articulate. I think she's amazing as Sally Draper & clearly has the most fully developed, interesting character ever written for a young actor on television. I've always said I'd love to work on another series when my kids were older. I've been so particular about what should be my return project to the small screen. I really didn't think MegaOctopus Piranha Boy was the right choice..Don't you think Tabitha Stephens Sterling has a nice ring to it? Heck, I'd be happy to play 3rd secretary down the hall & say "Good Morning Mr. Draper!'.

Bewitched Memories: My Thoughts on the Tabitha Series

With the huge success of Bewitched & the fact that the series ended without cancellation, it was inevitable that there would be a remake (or remakes). The first attempt was a pilot, Tabatha (with an A not an I), broadcast on ABC on April 24, 1976. The pilot starred Liberty Williams as a brown eyed, brunette Tabatha who worked for Trend Magazine in San Francisco. It was awful & wasn't picked up. The network completely reworked the concept & came up with Tabitha. The pilot aired on May 7, 1977 and the series debuted on September 10, 1977. in both series attempts, the concept was that my character was a grownup & alas, I was just 11 & 12. Lisa Hartman played the grownup me in the Tabitha series & the network made a great effort to cast someone that they thought looked like I would as an adult.

The network execs had me bring in bunches of photos, so the opening montage could have a mixture of my childhood photos & Lisa Hartman's. Adult Lisa looked like me, kid Lisa looked nothing like me. The opening voice over said something like, "Tabitha grew up like most kids, with braces & freckles..". I didn't have either, so they painted some on one of my photos as an option.

The Tabatha series wasn't great. It's been included in several lists of the worst series of all time! It did a nice job of launching Lisa Hartman's career. At the time, I was disappointed that they didn't wait a little & do the series with me, about Tabitha's adventures in high school. I did watch it at the time, but haven't seen it since. Here's my acting composite from that time:

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Bewitched Bunch?

I kind of enjoy cross-over TV shows, where the cast of one show visits another. Sometimes this is done as a setup for a spinoff, like Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy or one of the versions of CSI or Law & Order. Sometimes the crossover is just for fun, like when the cast of Bewitched suddenly became animated & visited the Flintstones. As a child, my dream crossover would have been a visit to the Brady Bunch. We were filmed at the same time for the same network (ABC). I even sometimes shared an on set tutor with the Brady Kids. Maureen McCormick was on a couple episodes of Bewitched before she was a Brady. I would have loved to be a classmate of Cindy & Bobby. It doesn't matter that they're three years older, TV age and real age don't always coincide. Marcia & Jan could have been my babysitters! Can't you imagine the fun we would have had? I'm friends with most of the Brady's in the "real world". Susan Olsen has even puppy sat for us when we've gone on family vacation. What crossover TV show would you like to see?