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Bewitched
1964 · TV series · 25 min episodes · 8 seasons
Created by Sol Saks
Science FictionFantasyComedyFamilyDrama
Samantha Stephens is a seemingly normal suburban housewife who also happens to be a genuine witch, with all the requisite magical powers. Her husband Darrin insists that Samantha keep her witchcraft under wraps, but situations invariably require her to indulge her powers while keeping her bothersome mother Endora at bay.
3 positive1 negative9 neutralfrom 13 commenters
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14 comments on Hacker News
> [I Love Lucy, Bewitched]
These are good examples of TV pushing the envelope on societal norms, but if you are discussing "pushing a political view", they rank far below "Trek's first interracial kiss".
> A key difference here is you are citing one episode.
That's true, but...
> These shows we are discussing are entirely centered around modern IDPol issues. It's rammed down our throats through every episode.
I have not seen the new shows. I liked reconnecting with old characters in the first few episodes of Picard S1, but didn't even finish the first season.
So I can't comment on those specifically.
But, I can comment on this:
> I know when I can no longer enjoy a show because it's creators are ripping me out of the experience and away from the fictional setting
This is the EXACT SAME COMPLAINT that the people who were upset about Star Trek in the 60s had.
And it extended a lot farther than the interracial kiss. That's just a very easy and obvious landmark example to point out.
Star Trek first aired in 1966. Less than 10 years after crowds of people were held back by the National Guard, but still managed to throw rocks at and spit on little girls because of forced integration in schools.
Star Trek had a multiracial and flamboyant cast, and was frequently communicating messaging about being non-prejudiced, when the Civil Rights Act had just passed.
Trek also frequently communicated messaging about being non-interventionist and only using violence as a last resort, while the Vietnam War was ongoing and a hot-button political issue.
These were ABSOLUTELY complained about as "woke propaganda" (though not in those terms) by the conservatives of the time.
Can you give any examples of network TV that were more political than Trek?
Lucille Ball saying the word "Pregnant" in I Love Lucy which I am sure nobody today would believe evoked shock and awe. Samantha and Darren in Bewitched having a single king sized bed in their bedroom. Until that point all married couples had multiple twin beds and were presumed to never sleep together despite somehow having children.
A key difference here is you are citing one episode. These shows we are discussing are entirely centered around modern IDPol issues. It's rammed down our throats through every episode. I will not be gas-lit. I know what I have seen and what I have experienced throughout all the generations of Star Trek and what it has devolved into. I know when I can no longer enjoy a show because it's creators are ripping me out of the experience and away from the fictional setting and I know I am not alone. I am aligned with the majority of the fans which is exactly why the show is being nuked after flushing millions down the toilet.
Do G-Rated Films Even Make Sense Anymore?
Yes. Plenty of people want to have films that are family friendly, child friendly. The kids get plenty of trauma in school, some city neighborhoods and online. Movies are for an escape from those hellholes.
Movie screenwriters just need to step up their game and get as good as their predecessors. Example: Bewitched, a 60's sitcom murdered a couple miscreants in an episode but only the adults really knew what happened. They did not need blood, guts and gore to get the point across.
Another example? Take the time to watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a late 60's movie but this time with a critical eye, especially around and within Castle Vulgaria. There is a lot going on in there that would not be allowed in movies today but it's just subtle enough to not break any rules as you would have to be a detective to get the gist. That was good screen writing.
In summary, while the rating system is gamed the real problem is the lack of good screen writers and proper enforcement of the existing rating system. Movies are just being churned out as fast as they can be made and the artistic aspects of movie production are dying out and people are being bribed to look the other way.
"Monetize but don't penalize" is one of the options for content holders on YouTube [1].
But in this case, the copyright strikes are for full episodes of the TV show Bewitched, which the copyright holder does care about, and is currently selling for $1.99 per episode [2].
And I don't know about the whole mandatory licensing thing. There are certainly places where I would not want things I've written or photos I've taken to appear, even if they paid me.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_ID_(system)
[2] https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.1ca9f72f-98ce-1216-ab52-15839faafcf2?
Yeah, and Bewitched seems like a terrible example. You can currently buy the complete season on DVD, or watch it streaming. It's continuing to make money and in no danger of being lost.
Of course it's going to be taken off YouTube, the same as if Squid Game were uploaded.
Now if we're talking TV shows that were last place in viewership in the 1960's so nobody's bothered to sell/stream and haven't been syndicated in decades, then it's a totally different story...
I may have missed something but the two take down notices they show are for the Bewitched TV show. They may be old but are still being shown on television and sold on AppleTV/Amazon etc. - they are still making money for the owner.
I can’t see how anyone wouldn’t expect a takedown notice for posting them or similar shows on YouTube.
"Two episodes of the TV series Bewitched dated 1964 aired on ABC Network and almost sixty years later, archive copies of those transmissions were removed from YouTube for violating Sony copyrights, with MCCTv receiving a strike"
Well you can argue that copyright shouldn't last 60 years, and I'd agree, but it does.
Just because you don't like the law, it doesn't mean you can break it without consequences.
Think they are in the process of tearing down the WB one (christmas vacation, bewitched, partridge family, wandavision, etc) to make room for sound stages.
The universal one is unique if you know what to look for. It pops up in a lot of older TV shows. It is kind of neat to see it in twilight zone before they built some of it out.
There are quite a large number of vids on youtube where people go inside the buildings. Most end up being storage for stuff or setup areas for different productions.
I watched every single episode of Bewitched when I was a child. I watched and enjoyed The Wizard of Oz. I definitely enjoyed Bram Stoker's Dracula in my goth youth. Only a few years ago, I purchased a ticket to see one of my favorite actresses in The Importance of Being Earnest; while I only knew a little bit about Oscar Wilde's background, the production crew appeared for Q&A afterwards and explained every single detail of the play to demonstrate just how ga y it all really is, without explicitly portraying a single LGBT character or relationship.
Worse than that, even as community cohesion has evaporated, US culture still encourages Mrs. Kravitzes (from the tv show Bewitched), who hand-wring about other people's parenting for sport. It's the worst of both worlds.
I liked his modern witch stories, clearly adapted from the 40ies "I Married a Witch" with Veronica Lake. Very sexy and charming political fantasy, with the witch being Russian. The most successful TV series ever, "Bewitched" followed.
As you can see in comparison with a better aging-themed movie this year, "So long, my son", the de-aging effects were far inferior to the traditional aging effects. Taking an old actor and making him young is by far worse than taking a mid-aged actor and making him old. Esp. if you look at Pesci and his botched up face-lift job 20 years ago. It's ridiculous.
This all forgets about an too unknown rule in production: The viewer is smarter than you. You can easier replace an actor than age or de-age him artificially in post. This was first proved in the famous 50'ies series 'Bewitched', where the main actor had to be replaced after several seasons, to no detrimental effect. This was the biggest show of its time. No CGI needed.
A few examples:
Tabitha http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=tabitha Rise begins right around the second season of _Bewitched_ when the character Tabitha was introduced; peak (maybe coincidentally) appears to be around the short-lived 1977 spinoff series.
Michelle http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=michelle The rise in popularity was probably influenced by the Beatles song (released in December 1965).
Shirley http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=shirley The peak appears to correspond to the height of Shirley Temple's film career in the mid-to-late 1930s.
It's worth keeping in mind that The Wire is a product of HBO, and cable TV. They are now well established, but they were once upstarts in their own way.
HBO got its start showing rewarmed mainstream Hollywood movies, months or more after their theatrical releasee. This though was enough to make them one of the few bright spots on the vast wasteland of Gilligan's Island and Bewitched reruns that was cable TV. For that, cable operators were able to extract a premium. From there, they branched out into various bits of original programming.
Then came original programming like Oz, Sopranos, the Wire. This was TV that people regarded as art, and as art, superior to anything on network television and hollywood movies.
Other examples to consider, early Miramax and Merchant/Ivory.