Preview

Bewitched: Sitcom about a Witch Called Samantha

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1433 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Bewitched: Sitcom about a Witch Called Samantha
Text identification:
"Bewitched" was first telecasted on September 17, 1964 and ran for eight seasons until March 25, 1972 (Hall). Originally, it was aired Thursdays at 9:00pm on ABC. I watched it on a Tuesday night at 2:30am on Nick at Nite.
"Bewitched" is a situational comedy about a witch named Samantha and her attempts to abandon her witchcraft to please her mortal husband, Darrin. The couple was married on the first telecast, but that was the last "normal" event in their marriage. Samantha was continually tempted to use her witchly powers, done by the twitching of her nose, to get her way around the house, and sometimes outside the house. During the course of the show, she has to hide her witchly powers from anyone outside her home, while attempting to lead a normal, suburban life.

Who was the likely target audience for this TV show when it first appeared and/or today? On its original broadcasting time, Chevrolet was the show's biggest sponsor, and during the first six years practically every car in sight was a Chevrolet. The theme music to the show was a variation of the Chevrolet jingle, "See the USA in your Chevrolet "
(Hall). There is a scene in the opening credits where Samantha's broom turns into the
Chevrolet logo. When I watched the show on Nick at Night, most of the advertisements were for other shows that are on Nick at Night, as well as commercials for "Golds Bond", and other elderly-related paraphernalia. I think this is because Nick at Night is aimed at the Generation Xers, those who used to watch these shows in its prime. During the day, the network broadcasts shows aimed towards the Generation Xer's children, and at night, for them. This is an example of how networks don't design a particular show for a particular audience, but design a whole network for them, as we learned about in class. In its original telecast, Chevrolet advertised to suburbia, as did the sitcom. It was initially aired on Thursdays from 9:00

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Chevy vs. Ford

    • 1037 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Louis Chevrolet founded the brand in 1911 in Detroit Michigan, along with W.C. Durant. They both earned a reputation for developing cars with performance, durability, and value. Those characteristics are still a core part in the business today which is the fourth largest automotive brand. Chevy has made performance affordable. With its four and six cylinder engines they have become known for their strong performance and their durability.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Glued to the Set

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Living History Farm. "Television during the 1950s and 60s." Television during the 1950s and 60s. Living History Farm, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2012.…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eventually, he would be replaced by Dick Sergeant. Darrin’s characters main objective in the show was that he and his wife attempted to live as ordinary life’s as conceivable. This meant absolutely no witchcraft, however crazy and chaotic circumstances would arise and Samantha would end up having to constantly bail family members out. Her husband would be the one she would have to bail out of crazy situations. In consequence, the magical spell would be something that would not be possible to exclude from the show. In an article, written by Cary O'Dell, called “Bewitched: Rethinking a Sixties Sitcom Classic,” he states that “A man forbidding the woman in his life to use her natural talents--is clearly a metaphor for the male backlash to the burgeoning woman's movement in the wake of the publication of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique” (O’Dell). There was an underlying feminism in this television show that says women are powerful and they can control the relationship. Even though, she promises to never use her witchcraft. She would be unable to sustain. This would be an extremely difficult task for anyone with these…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The post-war economic boom of the 1950's in the U.S. resulted in overwhelming prosperity in comparison with the rest of the world. This economic boom produced a white, middle-class consumer culture in which that population had more money and time in which to pursue leisure activities such as television viewing and movie-going. These leisurely pastimes produced a conforming American popular culture. We define conformity as behavior in accordance with the expectations of a social group or adherence to societal and cultural norms. In the 1950's, these strict social norms were communicated primarily through television. Between 1952 and 1958 the amount of households owning a television set tripled from 3 million to 9 million. TV advertising created new consumer markets and TV sitcoms from the 1950's portrayed the conservative values and mores of the ideal American life. "Domestic" comedies were very popular and portrayed the stereotypical suburban white family in neighborhoods seemingly unaware of racial discrimination and ethnic problems, and where mothers never desired or were expected to work outside the home. During a Father knows Best episode it seemed that any problems facing the family could easily be solved in a 30-minute time slot. Shows like this promoted honesty and always had a strong moral lesson to end the program. Westerns were also extremely popular. The pioneering idea of cowboys living in the wild and woolly west where good and bad, right and wrong, were evident was very popular…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    My target audience is my fellow classmates and students of all ages. I would like to reach anyone who feels they are “average” and also people who want to be more than average. My audience is of both genders and a variety of ethnic backgrounds.…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most popular forms of entertainment in the United States is television. Whether it's used to spread news, watch sports, or watching a sitcom, television can be used to address the many issues of the period. Television shows such as Battlestar Galactica, The Twilight Zone, The Cosby Show, and Freaks and Geeks have reflected the many societal and political issues of their time period.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1950s Advertising History

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One famous Lucky Strike ad featured a clever combination of cartoon and live action, featuring the singer Gisele McKenzie. Tareytown had an ad that featured what appeared to be two children dancing around a giant pack of cigarettes. And who can possibly forget the Fontane Sisters singing the praises of Chesterfield…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    That 70's Show Analysis

    • 2426 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The accuracy of culture and society portrayed in “That 70’s Show” has made it so many Americans look to this program as a collective memory of that time. They depicted the clothing, the friendships, the music, and the household dynamics during this time period pretty accurately and while people watch this show especially people who were alive during this time it brings back memories and nostalgia. “That 70’s Show” was not only an extremely successful sitcom but it also was a great portrayal of the…

    • 2426 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Comparatively, the endorsements fall short in an advertisement with overflowing emotion and a generous amount of facts. They do have four people from the cast of “The Wire” in the car who are endorsing the products. However, people do not watch that show anymore and since few know what it is, it portrays a lack of endorsements. The only people in the audience that the four guys would appeal to are the ones who watched the show between 2002 and 2008 when it was on air, and are able to recognize them eight years later. So while there were some endorsements in the advertisement, the overall amount falls short of what is desired in an effective…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Crucible

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages

    person had committed witchcraft. When talking to Parris about the girls dancing in the woods he…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In TV shows the production context of a TV show affects the way social groups are represented, this is evident in shows from 1970s to the 2000s and can act as a timeline on how much our culture has evolved and the way we perceive certain social groups. Sitcoms have been a part of the TV culture for a long time and have represented social groups in many different ways and this representation has changed drastically over the last 2 decades. The sitcoms Modern Family, 2010, USA, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, 1990, USA, are the examples I chose to compare and contrast the change in social groups as each show is around two decades apart and they are both aired within the USA. In this essay I will be discussing how these sitcoms represent age…

    • 1320 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Witchcraft in Hollywood

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Witchcraft has been shown onscreen as evil, black magick, rather than a faith, and most people see spells cast by wiggling the nose or pointing a finger to be valid of the ‘witchcraft fable'. Is witchcraft a true, spiritual religion, and if so, are people willing to tolerate it? Many are uninformed of the religious aspect of the Craft, and those that are believe it to be false or wrong according to Jeffrey Mann. In today's society, religious tolerance of different groups of people or cultures is extremely important. By understanding and accepting the differences of real versus imaginary using witchcraft as the prime example, people will be able to see these groups as part of actual society and not just a fictitious, magickal portrayal in entertainment such as Bewitched, Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and The Craft. Hollywood's portrayal of witchcraft in movies and shows is invalid. Now on reruns, the television show, Bewitched, was once very popular. Samantha and Tabitha are shown casting spells nearly every other minute of the half-hour. The show brought forth a revival of the knowledge of witchcraft. In history, before Christianity, Paganism was a primary religion in Europe.…

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A young witch named Samantha (Elizabeth Montogomery) meets and marries a man named Darrin Stephens (Dick York). Samantha refuses to use her powers and tries to become a typical normal suburban housewife. Her gifted family disagrees of the mixed marriage and interferes frequently in the couple's lives. Samantha and Darrin most often embrace, having to overcome the elements that failed to separate them. Samantha appears to be a young lady on where many episodes suggest that she is actually hundreds of years old! To keep their secret, witches avoid showing clues of…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Rubin, R. B., & Rubin, A. M. (1982). Contextual age and television use: Reexamining a…

    • 2617 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    With all the education material out there I found something that was very interesting to why this show has as an educational took. Educational work Magazine tell us this “the decline of civic education and students’ knowledge of US history is alarming. One recent survey found that only 43 percent of the nation’s 17-year-olds were able to place the Civil War within the correct 50-year time period”. (Gorman 2015) This Fact is very alarming to me as a student but also…

    • 1838 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics