...tonight ABC re-aired Episode #215, "Mary the Good Fairy, Part 1" which originally aired January 21, 1971.
Just after Durwood arrives home with a big box containing a client’s new product, Tabitha comes in wanting her mommy to pull a string attached to her loose tooth that Sidney Kravitz, Gladys’ nephew was going to pull, however, Tabitha didn’t trust him. Samantha is nervous about doing it, and possibly a little queasy, but Tabitha tells her to be brave and count to three and before she can get to three Durwood walks in a spacesuit looking contraption startling her causing her to pull the string. Pleased that she now has something for the Good Fairy (?!), Tabitha runs across the street to tell Sidney. Durwood explains that he’s wearing a new weight loss device called the Reduce-a-lator which causes you to lose weight by letting you be in a portable sauna. He had brought it home to help him with inspiration for the new campaign.
A little while later Tabitha runs home saying she is never going to play with Sidney again as he told her there is no such thing as the Good Fairy. Samantha reminds her that it’s OK for Sidney to not believe in the Good Fairy because many mortals don’t even believe in witches, and they both know that’s not true.
Later that night, in a shower of magic dust, the Good Fairy flutters in on what looks like grade-school-Halloween-project sparkly wings and she tiptoes over to Tabitha’s bed where she exchanges Tabitha’s tooth for a coin. When she goes to leave the room, via the door, she runs into Durwood, who was up getting a glass of milk. He yells for Samantha as he realizes this must be one of Samantha’s kooky friends, and he’s right as Samantha runs into the hall and exclaims with delight, “Mary!” She introduces Durwood to Mary the Good Fairy, who tells Samantha she had felt it was a witch’s house but she wasn’t sure which witch. Samantha invites her to stay for a bite to eat. Mary admits that she would also like something to warm her bones and so Durwood offers her some brandy as Samantha goes to make a roast beef sandwich. Mary loves the brandy and asks for some more and immediately gets crocked. Now that she realizes she’s not able to even stand up, Mary worries about who is going to collect the rest of the teeth and she nominates Samantha, who at first declines until Mary reminds her there is no one else to do it. Seeing that she has no choice, Samantha concedes and with a touch of Mary’s wand, they change outfits. After quelching Durwood’s resistance, Samantha goes outside to begin her flight and happens to be seen by Mrs. Kravitz who was up because of a mosquito that was bothering Sidney. She freaks out especially when the fake looking wings actually give Samantha flight!
After exchanging coins for teeth, Samantha flutters back in ready to give Mary back her wings but Mary has decided that she would like to try out the mortal life and she refuses to switch! Samantha is furious but realizes that without Mary’s consent, they will not be able to switch. When Durwood finds out he’s even angrier than before, but Samantha reminds him that he’s the one that got Mary crocked. Just then there is a knock at the door and Samantha sees it’s the Kravitzes. She goes to hide telling Durwood to tell them that Mary is her aunt. Durwood answers the door to find that Mrs. Kravitz would like for Sidney to play with Tabitha and when he tries to refuse politely by saying that Tabitha hasn’t had breakfast yet, Gladys takes that as an invitation for Sidney to join in breakfast. She also wonders if Mrs. Stephens is back yet as she had seen her late in the night with the fake wings, but Durwood tells her that it must’ve been a mirage caused by the bright moon light. Abner agrees and they leave. When Durwood goes to speak to Mary about changing her mind, he finds that she’s not in the living room anymore and he doesn’t find her in the kitchen. Thinking she may have gone out back with Tabitha and Sidney he discovers that she’s not there. He tells Samantha that Mary has gone somewhere and that he must go look for her. She offers to go but he tells her she should stay in so that nobody will see her wings. Outside he doesn’t see Mary anywhere and begins to panic.
Just then Sidney and Tabitha come in from playing startling Samantha who says that she’s dressed like that as she’s trying out Halloween costumes causing Sidney to think she’s flipped and he tells her she’s too old to go trick-or-treating. And before she knocks him with her wand, the image pauses with the announcer telling us to “stay tuned for the Return of the Good Fairy next week on Bewitched!”
I've actually always enjoyed these episodes about Mary, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Imogene Coca reminded me so much of this friend of my mother’s. We always used to go to her house to visit and she'd always give us ice cream and butter cookies. However, rewatching this I would give it maybe two stars, if that.
I also see that the writer, Ed Jurist, who has written FAR superior episodes, was kind of taking pot shots at the special effects people. For instance, Mrs. Kravitz tells Abner that Mrs. Stephens is wearing a short dress and fake wings. It's like the crew of Bewitched knew that they'd look fake so you may as well say something and get a joke out of it because suddenly Samantha is flying with her so-called fake wings. I don't think it's any excuse though. They should've tried for real looking wings and a much younger and hotter Tooth Fairy but Liz probably didn’t want to have competition.
Have any of you ever referred to the Tooth Fairy as the “Good Fairy”? The only time I've ever heard her referred to as the Good Fairy was on Bewitched. I remember my friend Jessica and I getting into a HUGE argument about what the Tooth Fairy wore. I always imagined her in a blue sparkly dress but Jessica insisted it was purple. It made me so maddd!
And did you notice the dead flowers on the coffee table?! What the hell?
I wonder if Erin actually let Liz pull her tooth out or did they just put a fake one in?
Even though I enjoy this episode, I always view it as the defining point where Liz is starting to lose interest in being Samantha, and with the show in general, and I base this on how she acts during the scene at night when Durwood gets up to go check on things and she keeps telling him to "shoosh!" even when he trips. I don't know about you, but the Samantha I know would totally get up and say, "What happened, sweetheart? Are you going to be OK?" And also at the end when she goes to hit Sidney with her wand, what the hell?!
All that and the fact that they don't even try to hide the wires where before you'd be hard pressed to see any, all leads me to believe that everyone was giving up, but no one more so than Liz. And how strange especially right after "Mother-in-Law of the Year.”
On a side note, in one of the
Sabrina the Teenage Witch novels about the turn to the new millennium, there are a bunch of short stories in it and one of them has Sabrina taking over for the Tooth Fairy who is described as an older lady with short reddish hair and a lacy white outfit.
And, the Reduce-a-lator outfit must've been put back in storage because about thirty years later it showed up in the
Muppets from Space (1999) movie. The movie was produced by Sony and there is an extra wearing it at the end when everyone is waiting for a UFO to land.
My favorite line from this episode is when Mary calls Durwood "a gorgeous hunk of mortal.” She must've really been sauced!
Three days before, the second tower of the World Trade Center is completed at 1,362 feet making it the second tallest building in the world.