I decided I had to post the last episode, so you all get a preview from the book
All though we were unaware of it at the time,
Bewitched history was made when ABC aired the final episode of the series, Episode #254: “The Truth, Nothing But the Truth, So Help Me, Sam.”
Durwood finds Samantha gardening out in the backyard in the morning, dirty almost everywhere on her body, but he tells her he doesn’t mind. She offers to clean up to make him breakfast, but he declines as he has a meeting at the office. He also tells her that he is going to pick up a surprise for her that he bought simply because he loves her and he leaves. Endora pops in, sickened at the baloney she believes Durwood is spouting off. She insists that mortals always tell lies as the truth hurts them too much, but Samantha says that isn’t at all the truth. Before Endora can go any further, she says she has an appointment she had forgot about and she disappears.
At the office, Durwood arrives at the same time Endora pops in, invisibly, and he goes to show Secretary Betty the surprise he bought for Samantha, a unicorn pin, as unicorns are Samantha’s favorite animal. Just then Endora freezes them and casts a truth spell on the pin, that whoever comes within close proximity of it, they will be forced to tell the truth. Endora unfreezes them and as Betty approaches she tells Durwood how beautiful the pin is and how she wishes she were married to a man so thoughtful as Durwood. When she goes to leave, she realizes she has been very forward, but Durwood assures her that he didn’t mind and under the influence of the pin, tells her how sexy and tight her dress is. Betty is shocked and when Durwood tries to approach her to apologize, she falls under the pin’s spell and tells him that she wore it specifically for him so that he would notice her. Soon, Larry buzzes in wondering if Durwood has started work on the Cora May Dress account, but Durwood hasn’t and he goes to tell Larry that he just hasn’t had the time, but when he gets on the phone, he truthfully reveals that he thinks the product isn’t worth it and so he couldn’t come up with any enthusiasm for it. Larry shows up in the office wondering if Durwood has flipped his rocker but when he gets close to the pin, he admits that he gave it to Durwood as he didn’t want anything to do with it either. Larry tells Durwood that all though he understands why Durwood doesn’t want to work on it, he had better come up with something for the dinner with the client that night.
When Durwood gets home, he finds that Samantha has her hair up in curlers and he tries to dodge a kiss. She wonders what he’s doing, and he admits that he didn’t want to get a curler in the eye and that all men find women who have hardware in their hair very unattractive. Samantha tells him he’s being unattractive just as Endora pops in wondering why Samantha isn’t pleased with the truth that he’s apparently sharing. She also tells them that she had heard their discussing the dinner party with the Franklins and insinuates that she may want to show up for dinner. Durwood refuses and so Endora pops off.
Later that night, the Franklins and Larry arrive for dinner and the conversation becomes centered on Cora May Franklin, who tells them that she worked her way up the corporate ladder. Mrs. Franklin also tells them that she has come up with a great idea for her dress account which is, “Confucious say, “Don’t be messy-wessy, try a Cora May Dressy-wessy.”” The men are shocked at her conviction in saying something so ridiculous, and when Samantha, who is wearing the unicorn pin, passes by with hors d’ouevers, Durwood tells Cora May how ridiculous it is. Larry is horrified until he gets near Samantha and tells Durwood he agrees. Samantha is shocked and tries to say that Durwood and Larry are joking around with her as they do with every client they like. She accepts that and goes on about her climbing the ladder to her success story, however, Samantha sits next to the usually reserved Mr. Franklin, who tells his wife that she is lying and that, as matter of fact, the reason she got anywhere was because her father owned the company and had given her money to get out of the house. Realizing that something witchly is going on, Samantha excuses herself to the kitchen where she tries to get her mother to appear but to no avail. When she goes back into the living room, Samantha is shocked by how forward Mr. Franklin is with his wife, who is more shocked than everyone else. Soon, everyone begins arguing with everyone else, with Samantha in the middle and it soon ends with everyone leaving before dinner is even served.
The next morning, when Durwood wakes up, he finds that Samantha finally got a hold of Endora, who admitted to putting a truth spell on the unicorn pin. Just then Larry shows up to say that he was up all night trying to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Franklin and he expects Durwood to apologize. Samantha thinks that no apology is necessary and that they can get along without one. Larry threatens to get along at the office without Durwood, but when Samantha stands near him, the pin works it’s magic and Larry admits he couldn’t get along without Durwood. He also admits that Mrs. Franklin had called him that morning and told him that she and her husband had patched things up and they definitely wanted McMann and Tate to handle their advertising. After he leaves, Samantha marvels at how well the pin worked and she and Durwood embrace with words of love.
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I can’t believe this is how they would let the series end with a reheated version of a much superior episode (“Speak the Truth”).
Bewitched is SO deserving of much more! I wonder how it all went down with the ending. It’s been said by William Asher that Liz just said she didn’t want to do it anymore. Obviously it was a surprise that it ended because Agnes Moorehead said so (she got a letter) and I think Erin said that her mother got a phone call saying it was ended. This episode finished filming on 12/16/71 when they went on Christmas break and iff ’n they had followed previous schedules, they would’ve come back about mid to late January and filmed at least four more. So I would think there had to have been more scripts. And this episode was directed by Bill Asher, which I find fitting for the end of the series. I wonder if both Liz and Bill knew before they got to this episode that she wasn’t coming back but they kept it to themselves? And knowing how Liz was with her friends and associates from earlier in her life where she just cut them off when moving on, I’m sure she did the same thing here and definitely wouldn’t have called anyone. There was speculation that Liz and DICK Michaels were having an affair which lead to the split up of the Ashers, however, it’s well known that Bill was philandering well before. Their divorce would happen in 1973. I wonder if Liz quitting was a mixture of her not wanting to be with Bill anymore, getting tired of the retread of scripts, and just outright seeing that the show hadn’t a chance where it was scheduled? Anyway, it’s sad.
The episode isn’t as bad as you think it’s going to be. It does seem like everyone has energy, even Liz, and maybe that’s just cause they knew Christmas break was coming and just the general feeling in the air. It does seem to capture some of the original magic the series once had until you realize that you’ve already heard all these lines before.
The episode begins with a closeup on Liz’s rear, particularly a patch on her pocket. Until recently, I always thought that patch was the US flag on account of the crappy quality of the prints from TV. However, it is the ecology flag and I think that somehow being ecologically aware should’ve been put in the episode, maybe by having the client having something to do with that. I was shocked to the very marrow of my bones to see that on HarpiesBizarre.com one of the original scripts had Samantha saying of
Endora, “And what she knows best is how to be a pain in the @ss.”! Of course it was changed to “And what she knows best is how to be difficult.” I can’t believe they would’ve tried that, but I suppose they were trying to compete with
All in the Family.
The unicorn pin is actually a hippocampus (half horse/half fish) but with a single horn making it a “unicorn” according to Durwood. I actually like it but it seems like cheating on Durwood’s part to say it’s a unicorn when it’s not. And it looks dumb pinned to the middle of Liz’s chest. Another dumb part is how shocked the sex-retary is when Durwood tells her the unicorn is Samantha’s favorite animal. Nobody would be shocked…they would think it’s cute that someone has a mythical beast as their favorite animal while the viewing audience would think it’s funny cause we know that in the context of this show, they’re not mythical.
Of course, I did like Endora lamp-sitting again…seemed like her flying suit was again different, like the collar was much bigger. And Agnes Moorehead’s voice seemed rather deep in that scene, like she had a cold or something. And I always remember the sex-retary mentioning how she has been with her boyfriend eight years and still not married. She started going out with him when Durwood and Samantha got married! That’s a long damn time!
The jumper suit was totally wrong for this occasion but any other time I would’ve liked it minus the pin. I hated Samantha’s “Oh brother” and “Oh no” throughout most of the episode. Seemed like it was merely Liz relating her displeasure with the whole thing.
And it is dumb that Louise is not at the party and yet again, Tabitha and Adam aren’t mentioned. The vacuum salesman was a totally new scene to me and I really liked it because every time I’ve seen this episode it cuts straight from the office to Durwood suddenly giving Samantha the cautious kiss.
And even though it’s not a true series finale, Samantha kind of makes it so when at the end she laughs and says she wishes that Endora were there because she just loves happy endings and then the ending is Samantha and Durwood professing their love for each other, even if it was in a kinda corny way.
The day before, the big screen classic
The Godfather made its debut.
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I didn't post all that I have about this episode in my book, because I want it to be a surprise, however, I wrote in the book what I would've had for a series finale
I'm terribly sad that the "40 Years Ago..." posts are over, though I'm gonna still post the summer reruns up until July 1 when the show finally left primetime. But, I'm over the moon about the fact that these posts all lead to my book! Thank you all so much for reading them and sharing your thoughts!
As a reminder, if you want an autographed copy of the book, please send your name and address to bewitchedhistorybook@gmail.com to be put on the pre-order list.