Tabitha

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.

Like a few others, I was disappointed with the series. I was hoping it would live up to "Bewitched" but there really wasn't anything to set it apart from the other bland sitcoms surrounding it. Aunt Minerva really seemed like a tired retread of Endora with a smattering of Aunt Clara or Esmerelda, and Adam substituting for Durweed...Dogwood...Darrin seemed pointless (apparently, continuity wasn't considered. Maybe they thought the younger audience they were shooting for wouldn't have noticed or watched the original series?) The only thing it had going for it was the theme song. While Lisa Hartman was a decent choice for the role physically, it looked like her main direction was "pretend you're Elizabeth Montgomery playing Samantha". Overall, the show didn't feel very original.

As another person wrote What WERE they thinking?! Lisa Hartman was very cute in 1977 but her acting was just plain bad. Perhaps the director told her eye rolling, pouting, huffing and over reacting to "frustrating" situations is funny. I'm also wondering if she was told to try to act like and mimic the wonderful Elizabeth Montgomery as her vocal inflections and reactions are suspiciously very similar. OK It was 1977 a long, long, long time ago so I will cut it some slack. If you watch it for the time warp factor alone (The clothes, the bad disco music, the cheesy laugh track, and the horribly written dialog complete with lines like "Right On" "Foxy Mama" and "Shed those groovy threads") its bearable. Other than that her brother Adam (who i really don't remember much in the original Bewitched) is a dweeb, Aunt Minerva is obnoxious at best and Robert Urich seems completely out of place. Its filmed very similar to many of the TV shows of the 70's - like Wonder Woman the music swells at every commercial break and every ending has to have a close up freeze of Wonder Woman (Diane Prince) smiling and or laughing telling us stupid at home viewers that everything turned out fine. Tabitha has its same bad endings but now we forced to watch Tabitha and the rest of the cast mugging and laughing to idiotic dialog. If it ever finds it's way to TV again its worth seeing just to say I'm embarrassed for everyone involved.

2/10

I just finished watching all 12 episodes plus the original pilot with Liberty Williams (Jana of the Wonder Twins.) The writing is just awful. Really really bad. But I could not help myself. Checking out one episode turned into a insurmountable urge to watch the entire run.

Lisa Hartman (Pre-Movie-of-the-Week-Perma-Scowl) is absolutely adorable as Tabitha. She's cute, she's bouncy, and she does a pretty spot-on Elizabeth Montgomery impersonation, with the voice, the speech patterns, and that big shocked "O" she does with her mouth. And then there is the sexy outfits they rotate her through. Damn the 70's were sexy. Nothing now on Network TV comes close.

At the beginning Adam took on the Darwin role being disapproving of the magic. But the producers obviously saw the bit was a turkey and dropped it.

I didn't think that Tabitha and Robert Urich were a good romantic fit, she being smart, and him smarmy, but the producers were doing a good job of slowly getting them together.

Aunt Minerva started off as an Andora clone, but quickly found her own voice.

And we got 2 visits from the wonderful Dr. Bombay!!!

I think had the show been picked up for an entire season, they really could have made a go of it.

On the other hand, with only 12 episodes, I have watched the entire run and feel great about it. Had there been more, and they sucked, it might have lost it's charm and become grating.

Recommendation: Buy it now, because Sony is not going to keep it in print for long. So for the $15-$30 you can find it now, it is worth it. Five to Ten years down the road, when you have to pay $50-$100 for a used copy, it just won't be worth it.

I don't know what this other review is talking about! This show was fantastic and fun! Lisa Hartman has channeled Elizabeth Montgomery and nailed this role, as every other she has possessed! Robert Urich is charming, even as the egotistical Paul Thurston. You can easily see how much fun was had on this set. Leave the ego's at the door. There is no forced or even bad acting, this is fun TV folks! Karen Morrow is just fantastic as Aunt Minerva and we even get a few "Bewitched" stars making a surprise visit!

I just bought the DVD box set and couldn't be more thrilled. This is when TV was fun and free and not some stupid reality show which is all we have to chose from these days. Long Live the 1970's Sitcom!

Z.