Title from the original Bewitched, which aired on ABC from 1964 to 1972.
From the Dept. of Things You Were Not Aware You Asked For: CBS has ordered a script for a remake of the ’60s sitcom Bewitched. What sorcery is at work here?
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that people who remember Bewitched fondly do more so out of affection—for the charms of Elizabeth Montgomery, for the wacky two-Darrins situation, for their own elusive childhoods—than they do for its status as an all-time great of TV comedy. That doesn’t mean that a remake couldn’t be a very good show; in theory, a reboot of a not-great show can have the potential to be much better, because the makers are free to take more liberties. (The classic example being, though I remember the original fondly, Battlestar Galactica.)
In this case, I actually think that there’s a lot you could do to modernize Bewitched, shake it up, create something surprising and maybe even a little edgy. As I’ve mentioned before, Wilfred is basically an R-rated version of the kind of fantasical-situation premises that were popular in ’60s sitcoms, rethought with an amoral, pot-smoking dog.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem, from the thin available information, to be what CBS is going for, as they’ve reportedly hired the duo who produced Nora Ephron’s limp 2005 movie remake starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, currently boasting a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As I’ve said before, though, it’s all about the execution, and the execution remains to be seen here.
What kind of magic will it take to revive Bewitched? And when is somebody going to remake The Munsters? (Sorry, I mean remake The Munsters again. Oh, wait, never mind.)