Free Spirit

I had a crush on Winnie and this show was fun to watch. Maybe a bit before it's time.

This series -- and particularly Corinne Bohrer -- left an indelible mark on my memory. For eons now, every time I've seen Bohrer on commercials (unfortunately that seems to be her career nowadays) or in films/TV, I smile and say, "Winnie." I've revisited other fondly remembered shows from my childhood and found that they were pretty awful, so I figured that this one surely must be too. So when I found most of the episodes for download on an Alyson Hannigan page, I was simultaneously excited and apprehensive about tainting my memory of the show. This is one of those cases where my memory didn't lie.

Bohrer is truly delightful as witch Winnie Goodwin, who (rather derivatively) finds herself living with the Harper family, where the kids know that she's a witch, but the widower Dad doesn't. Just as I'd remembered, she's essentially a witch version of Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) from "Friends" -- Phoebe even seems to have ripped off Winnie's wardrobe. Franc Luz, who plays father T.J., seems to be a Bob Saget doppleganger, but he was still very good in the role (sadly he now works as a tour guide). All three of the children were charming in their roles (Hannigan was obviously destined for great things, but it's fun to see her in this very early performance).

From my perspective now, I figured that the show's shortcoming would be the writing, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that the writing's pretty solid. Yes, it has the obligatory '80s sappy sitcom moments, but the dialog was generally above average -- and the cast could make even the corniest of jokes fly with their fantastic delivery. Some of the story lines were a bit cliché, but not in a bad way...

I'm really not sure why this show vanished as quickly as it appeared. Another commenter said that it was up against "The Simpsons," but only two of the last episodes of this show aired up against the long-running hit. The show certainly hasn't aged as badly as others in the same genre, such as "Small Wonder," "Down to Earth" or "Out of This World" (not that I'm knocking those shows -- they just really show their age).

Thomas Harper (Franc Luz) is a stay-at-home lawyer single dad to Gene (Edan Gross), Jessie (Alyson Hannigan), and Robb (Paul Scherrer). He moved his family out of NYC. Gene makes a wish and immortal witch Winnie Goodwinn (Corinne Bohrer) magically appears. She becomes the family's housekeeper.

It's not actually horrible. It's just actually bland. It's a standard network family sitcom with a witch. I mostly wanted to see a young Alyson Hannigan before her better known roles. I do remember Corinne Bohrer in a couple of things. Sadly, the dad is a relative dud. The chemistry between Winnie and the dad is stuck in neutral. It's hard when there are no big laughs. Maybe it needs a wacky neighbor kid or a cantankerous grandfather or a comedic uncle. It needs more than this. After a season of low ratings and bad reviews, the show was canceled.

I gave this a chance cause I remember Bohner from the comedy show ER, ER not to be confused with the unintentionally show that is currently on the air, and bohner was an instant favorite of mine. I liked the show, but there was a few obstacles in it's path. the foremost was it was up against a little show on Fox known as the Simpsons. , and the second was not so good writing. I think the for the first time, the time slot killed a show, and not it's writing nor it's actors. As history would prove, nothing would be able to last against The Simpsons. But with Allyson hannigan moving on the Buffy and the American Wedding series, and Bohner moving on to Veronica Mars, they seem none the worst for wear. of course, the same can't be said for their cast mates.