Posted by Dr. Bombay on September 1, 2011, 11:55 pm Resident Bewitched Historian
...tonight ABC re-aired Episode #228, "Samantha and the Antique Doll" which originally aired April 22, 1971. This would be the last rerun episode of the summer in prime time, though the Eighth Season wouldn't start until two weeks from now.
Phyllis comes for a visit and brings a top for Adam and a very old cloth doll for Tabitha, a doll which her grandmother gave her as a little girl. As Samantha and Phyllis visit, they hear Adam cry and find that he wants to play with the doll. Tabitha is afraid he’ll break it, but Samantha tells her that he promises not to and to let him play with it. Adam takes it across the room and the women go back to visiting until they notice the doll floating across the room to Tabitha, who had zapped it over. Phyllis is shocked and Samantha is nervous about how she’ll explain it. She asks Tabitha to take Adam to play out on the patio as she puts the doll up on a shelf and when Phyllis asks how the doll could possibly float through the air, Samantha suggests that she had been reading up on mind over matter and that it may have been Phyllis who had willed the doll to Tabitha. Phyllis surprisingly accepts that answer and tries to will the doll to herself again. Samantha obliges and twitches it to her. Pleased with herself, Phyllis wonders why it just didn’t work right away and Samantha tells her that she also read that supernatural powers have a tendency to come and go. She also promises not to tell anyone else, which Phyllis agrees with and she decides to leave.
Later on, Phyllis arrives at home with a lot of books about supernatural powers she had got from the library and she tells Frank about her new powers. He thinks she’s flipped her lid especially when she tries to levitate an hourglass to him. She tells him that Samantha can attest to her powers and that they should go over there.
Phyllis and Frank arrive at 1164 right after Durwood has come home and Phyllis takes Samantha into the kitchen to discuss her powers some more. She tells her that she’s read about some people having a familiar, a certain object that gives the person their powers and she’s decided that hers is at Samantha’s house which is the reason her powers wouldn’t work at home. Samantha can’t believe how nuts this all is.
Meanwhile, Frank is worried about Phyllis and shares this with Durwood. They don’t notice Tabitha creeping down the stairs and just as she zaps the doll to fly to her, Samantha and Phyllis enter the living room and Phyllis declares that the doll must be her familiar! She tells Frank that she can show him her powers now and she tries to levitate the doll for him but it doesn’t go anywhere. Frustrated with his wife, Frank takes Durwood with him to make a drink while Phyllis goes to study up some more on her powers. She later returns with a spell to say, that at first doesn’t seem to work, however Samantha twitches that doll to fly until Phyllis yells for Frank to come and see. When the doll lands Frank shows up and tells Phyllis she’s got to be crazy but she tells him it’s because he’s a non-believer and an old goat. That gives Samantha the idea that the next time Phyllis says that she’ll turn Frank into a goat which should scare Phyllis away from doing any more magic.
A little later Phyllis confronts Frank again, who still won’t believe her and so when she tells him he’s as stubborn as a mule, Samantha twitches him into one. Phyllis is shocked and worried that she may not be able to change him back but Samantha suggests they have a séance to contact Phyllis’ grandmother, who people said she had strange powers, for a suggestion. They set up for the séance and soon Samantha twitches up an apparition that tells Phyllis she shouldn’t have fooled around with the powers and that the way she can get Frank back is with love and with that, the ghost disappears. Phyllis is confused but Samantha tells her that there is no power greater than the power of love and Durwood suggests that she tell his father that she loves him and that might bring him back. Phyllis apologizes to Frank but reminds him that he means everything in the world to her and so with a twitch, Samantha turns Frank back into a man and the elder Stephens embrace.
Even though it’s a remake of Season One’s “Abner Kadabra,” this is one of my favorite episodes! True, it isn't as good "Abner Kadabra" but I think it has a lot of fine points and I would give it at least two and a half to three stars. First of all, this is the first time that Liz (without the inclusion of Serena) seems like she's not bored this latter part of the season. She actually seems really into it, especially trying to hold back the fact that she finds Phyllis' sudden all-knowiness about the supernatural, ridiculous.
The doll should’ve been a porcelain doll as being cloth it would've been in tatters had it been as old as Phyllis said. I totally loved all the levitation of the doll and the fact that it was wearing funky black shoes that reminded me of a witch. And even cooler was the fact that Phyllis mentioned that people thought her grandmother had extra special powers.
This is the first time that Tabitha has done the crossed fingers to work magic. And I cannot believe they would dress Tabitha in such short dresses! It’s wrong!
This is also the return of original Frank, Robert F. Simon! It's been since "It's Wishcraft" in Season Three since we've seen him. I like him much better than Roy Roberts and it's too bad Endora wasn't around to flirt with him some more. And it's also the last time the elder Mr. and Mrs. Stephens will appear on Bewitched. I wonder why the writers and the producers chose to not use the Kravitzes or the Stephenses anymore? Anyway, I like that we got the scene of Phyllis expressing her true feelings towards Frank, even if he was a jackass at the time. It made her seem more like a real character instead of the b###h we always think she is, and to which she admitted.
I liked the séance with the spooky Salem music and I thought the ghost was fun, though corny. It was voiced by Liz. I hated, though, how when Phyllis says, "It doesn't look like her?" Samantha says, "It's her spirit, not her body!" Why wouldn't a spirit of someone deceased look like their mortal body? I guess there are some that may believe that, but I definitely don't. Not to mention all the ghosts up to this point (MacTavish in the episode of the same name and Uncle Willie from “Tabitha’s Cranky Spell”) have all looked like their mortal body.
ABC would've still been promoting the new season with commercials advertising the new Wednesday slot. I've never seen that commercial, but of course, there is this Eighth Season promo.
"I never did dig what Sammy dug about that dodo." ~ Serena
Re: 40 Years Ago...
Posted by maurine on September 2, 2011, 9:34 am, in reply to "40 Years Ago..."
Well, Doc, I diverge from your assessment on this one. It's one of my least favorite episodes! I really hate that doll I agree: it should've either been "loved to death" by that point (kind of like the Velveteen Rabbit) or been a porcelain doll. And it just irks me how they redid the earlier episode with Alice Pierce. And even the mule-thing is recycled.
But I love Robert Simon! He's so much more believable as Darrin's dad (especially in Dick Sargent's case, I think). He's just goofy enough and devoted to his wife (THINK what he puts up with!) to remind me of Darrin. I didn't realize it had been that long since we'd seen him.
I don't know what's up with the short dresses on Tabitha either. I'm about five years old than Erin, and petite like she was, and my dresses never grazed my bum. Maybe that was the style outside of the Bible belt!"Witches are good! Witches are dear!"
Re: 40 Years Ago...
Posted by maurine on September 2, 2011, 9:37 am, in reply to "Re: 40 Years Ago..."
Here are some little girls' dresses from the 1971 Sears catalog. They are a little on the short side, but not THAT short!"Witches are good! Witches are dear!"
Re: 40 Years Ago...
Posted by Twitchell on September 6, 2011, 4:31 pm, in reply to "Re: 40 Years Ago..."
The way I remember it, back in those days, the thinking was the shorter skirt the better. It didn't matter if you were 4 or 40. This was especially true in the late 60s and early early 70s when the mini hit the main stream. Am I the only one that remembers this?