Tabitha

This was a great little show and I know that I am one of the few that remembers it. This is the show that made me a fan of the beautiful and talented Lisa Hartman (Clint I hope you know how lucky you are). This was a great premise based on the daughter Tabitha (hence the name) from the TV Show Bewitched, But little Miss Tabitha is all grown up now and dealing with the world on her own. Over the years I have mentioned this show to many because this is where my mind goes when I think of Miss Hartman since I was never a fan of the prime time soaps. Great little show that deserved a better shot and maybe it's time it got another one.

This show is a steaming pile. The episode I saw on TV Land's Kitsch-en had the worst sound of any show I have ever seen, and even had a nice film scratch down the left hand side for almost the whole show. That didn't detract from the horrible special effects, craptacular camerawork, or awful acting, however! Bewitched had it's charm and originality on it's side. This had nothing but the tell-tale signs of a greedy network trying to suck every last dime out of an old favorite, and it belongs in the Hall of Shame.

When I was a kid, I pretty much enjoyed this show due to the fact that it was pretty much an interesting show. However, since I have gotten older, I pretty much see it as a show that was wrong on several counts. First off, this show tried to be a combination of its parent show and "Mary Tyler Moore" with its concept of a witch who is also a career girl. Unfortunately, this combination was not a success and was probably the main reason this show was not a success. Also, this was an odd show due to the fact that when "Bewitched" went off the air in 1972, Tabitha and Adam were approximately 7 and 2 respectively and in this show which aired five years later they are now in their mid-20's whereas they should have been roughly about 12 and 7. Also, as another commentator mentioned, where did Aunt Minerva come from? If memory serves me right, Samantha was an only child and the closest she had to a sister was her wild cousin Serena. But perhaps the biggest inconsistency of this series was that they never attempted to really develop the relationship between Tabitha and Paul. In the entire run of the show they only had one scene that was even close to romantic. The rest of the time Tabitha was trying to fight off his amorous advances. But you had to know that this show was a disaster when they began bringing back many of the former regular and semi-regular cast members of the parent show such as the Kravitzes, who's niece was one of Tabitha's neighbors, and Doctor Bombay. This show was a perfect example of the lack of originality in television. Luckily it didn't sink the careers of Lisa Hartman and Robert Urich, who went on to successful careers after this show was canceled.

Having been a big fan of its parent show BEWITCHED, I really wanted this "spin-off" to work. I thought the idea of following the escapades of a now grown-up Tabitha was an interesting continuation of the BEWITCHED concept.

The first outing (with Liberty Williams as a very unlikely brunette Tabitha) bombed. I actually cringed while watching it. But ABC seemed determined to make it work (someone there was obviously just as big a fan of BEWITCHED) so they reworked the pilot episode by scrapping the entire original cast and crew.

Lisa Hartman was then cast as the lead and proved to be more charming and likeable. The rest of the cast and the writing however were no improvement over the first pilot. It was mainly a regurgitation of many of the familiar BEWITCHED plotlines and ideas, with mortal brother Adam chastising Tabitha every time she used her powers (as daddy Darrin did with Mom Samantha), and obnoxious, mischievous mortal-phobe Aunt Minerva filling in for Endora - causing problems for all the mortals in Tabitha's life. However, even with original characters from BEWITCHED turning up a few times (Dr. Bombay, Mrs. Kravitz) played by the actors who first originated them, the show seemed somehow detached and alien from the original show.

The whole thing was really not funny and only mildly entertaining, and it lasted only a handful of episodes.

Another nail in the show's coffin seemed to be that the sophisticated TV audiences of that era (the mid 70's), by then used to gritty and groundbreaking sitcoms like M*A*S*H, All In The Family, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, scoffed at such frothy nonsense. It would perhaps seem more fitting now in this current TV decade when audiences are more willing to accept such supernatural, effects-heavy shows as The X-Files, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Sabrina The Teenage Witch (which is in many ways the BEWITCHED of the 90's). With all the current nostalgia these days for the shows/music/movies of the 60's and 70's, it's only a matter of time before someone takes another crack at it...

_Bewitched_ is probably in my top five favourite TV series of all time. The series went off when I was about three, but reruns were a staple in our house for years.

Trying to create a sequel just a few years after the parent show's demise would not have worked under the best of circumstances, starting with the point that, in 1977, Tabitha and Adam still would have been children. Also, late in the original series, it was revealed that Adam was, in fact, a warlock. This was reflected in the pilot of _Tabitha_ where he was an Uncle Arthur-type character. It is also rumoured that, in the pilot, Adam was intended to be gay. This may well be what led the powers that be to render him powerless once the series was picked up. Warlock Adam was the most entertaining part of the pilot. Without him, it was bland and boring. _Bewitched_ was always character-driven with outrageous witches (Endora, Maurice, Aunt Clara, Serena, Esmeralda, the aforementioned Uncle Arthur) and clueless, but entertaining mortals (Gladys Kravitz, Larry Tate and Phyllis Stephens--and their respective long-suffering spouses) and Sam and Darrin as the calm centre. This tension was not present in _Tabitha_, especially after the reworking.

Had the pilot been made 20 years later--about the time _Sabrina_ hit the air--it may well have worked. The characters would have had time to reach the ages at which they were presented. And, contemporary with _Ellen_ and _Will and Grace_, audiences may have been willing to accept a gay warlock Adam. Unfortunately, someone couldn't wait and a fabulous show has this sequel that is best forgotten.