Nearly a year ago, we took a look at the first pilot for a proposed Bewitched spin-off, focusing on a now-grown-up Tabitha. The first pilot, which altered the character's spelling to Tabatha, didn't exactly wow network executives, but after the role was recast, ABC bought Tabitha, which debuted in 1977, airing on Saturday nights, at least at first.
As you'll see, Tabitha Stephens still isn't a blonde, but has light brown hair, and played by Lisa Hartman. Brother Adam does turn up from time to time, but Tabitha does have a potential boyfriend, played by TV vet Robert Urich (ex-S.W.A.T.). Unfortunately, the sudden "growth spurt", if ya will, since 5 years had passed since Bewitched had ceased production and was airing in daytime reruns 5-6 days a week on ABC, was still a bit of a detriment. Plus, ABC didn't really have enough faith, otherwise they might've scheduled Tabitha to air on Thursdays, just as Bewitched did for a good part of its run. Of course, the following year, ABC solved their Thursday problem with another series with a supernatural theme of a different sort---Mork & Mindy.
Tabitha is available on DVD, collecting not only the complete series, but both pilots, so you can judge for yourselves if Columbia Pictures Television (now Sony Pictures Television) made the right call in shifting from Louise "Liberty" Williams to Lisa Hartman.
Edit: 7/15/15: Sony has invoked copyrights, so all the available videos have been deleted. RetroAlexander, though, has the open:
Rating: B.
4 comments:
As I'd posted in the original pilot posting, the premise wasn't necessarily a bad one, it's just that TPTB tried to reconstitute the Bewitched series and it was way too obvious! Even the scenerios were basically the same: covering up, deciding to tell a mortal, an interfering relative (Aunt minerva intead of Endora) and of course no visits from Sam & Darrin although we did get the Kravitzes.
I also was annoyed at how Tabitha suddenly was much older than she would have been. She would have been in her teens at this point right? Maybe it would have been better to have had her in a witchy boarding school or something?
I'm guessing they skipped the teen years (to avoid any comparisons to Sabrina, who had returned to TV that same year, briefly) and reset Tabitha & Adam as 20-somethings.
Given how much time had elapsed since Bewitched had ended, it didn't make any sense, other than to suggest that they were figuring on anything from the point that Tabitha was born, even though it stretched over several seasons, were part of one "calendar year" in their continuity.
Another thing I noticed was making Adam into the new Darrin!
He was as humorless as Darrin Number 2 (Dick Sargent)! If anything, it would have made a bit more sense to have had him either encourage Tabitha to use her magic (if you had a magical relative who could do these things, wouldn't you take some advantage?) or perhaps, as implied in that scene, perhaps Adam WAS a little jealous of not having powers.
Of course in the Bewitched series Adam DID have powers - even if they weren't quite as strong as Tabitha's.
And there's the prospect that Adam may have given up his powers somewhere along the way, opting to live the life of a mortal---either that or the producers decided they needed to recreate the vibe between Samantha & Darrin through the kids, but without the incest that would've come with a romantic angle.
Either way, they screwed up with Adam, and that proved costly. Like, they couldn't get Paul Lynde to come back as Uncle Arthur? Bernard Fox and, I believe, Agnes Moorehead were still around at the time, as was Alice Ghostley.
Talk about going in halfway......
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