It's an allegory of relations between the sexes. Darren wants to provide for his wife and protect her. He can't do that if she has powers, or so he thinks. Instead of working together to find a new way to live in which the woman can use her full powers and the man can still feel empowered, he forbade her to use them and she tried to live like that, but she nevertheless acted out on her frustration from time to time, though only to help make their traditional life together work out.
September 18, 2014
"Even as a child, I didn't understand why Darren was so against using the magic."
Wrote MayBee in the comments to last night's post marking the 50th anniversary of the premiere of "Bewitched." I answered:
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I always thought it was because he feared what would happen to them if their neighbors and the authorities found out about her being a witch.
I like and agree with your answer. You could have said that it was because he was traditional, dominant male as well as a control freak and that he was holding her back from realizing her full potential. She was the judge of her own full potential and chose the traditional marriage/stay at home mom route. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT CHOICE but the networks would be afraid to produce that show today!
Scott, that is so simple it can't be right.
The Prime Directive of the United Federation of Planets existed mostly so it could be violated.
It was about the male being the head of the household, the provider...the one with the power, as it were.
Samantha using her power usurped Darren's rightful role; it emasculated him.
What Prof. Althouse said, in other words.
I agree with Scott M--while it might sometimes be cool to have a magic-maker in the house to keep you from starving or make life easier, the repercussions of the misuse of such powers (including the authorities finding out) could outweigh that.
Plus, his discomfort with the use of magic in the house was both a comedic and plot device. Otherwise, it's a show about a happy family that always can get what it wants, with no conflict.
"I always thought it was because he feared what would happen to them if their neighbors and the authorities found out about her being a witch."
That's an aspect of the allegory. The neighborhood is composed of conventional, traditional marriages, and Darren and Samantha are committed to fitting in and anxious about the discovery that they are not what the are trying to be.
Just how affluent does a society need to be to have it's citizens read misogyny into Bewitched?
America is on the verge of the women's movement, and this show perfectly met the needs of many viewers, those who valued traditional marriage and those who were getting ready to break loose. Everyone could comfortably enjoy this domestic comedy and, without too much anxiety, contemplate what was going on in our culture. It was really about us, but witchcraft isn't real, so we could enjoy the self-critique.
It was a cute husband/wife show. She was a good witch who wanted good for her husband. But she had some evil relative witch she summoned who played tricks on powerless people. Was it her mother, or some ancient relative from whom she derived her familial powers?
Anyway, he was only a silly man with no powers acting like husbands had authority.
I always wondered why, when she so radically altered his appearance, she didn't make him look more like Steve McQueen or Paul Newman and, for that matter, change his appearance more often. Superpowers are wasted on women like that.
It couldn't be that it created a tension between the characters that led to better comedic situations in the episodes.
"Ann Althouse said...
America is on the verge of the women's movement, and this show perfectly met the needs of many viewers, those who valued traditional marriage and those who were getting ready to break loose. Everyone could comfortably enjoy this domestic comedy and, without too much anxiety, contemplate what was going on in our culture. It was really about us, but witchcraft isn't real, so we could enjoy the self-critique."
Huh.
William,
She did change his appearance permanently after the first season. The fact that he still looked like Darren told me that she was not a very good witch.
As a kid, I wanted to believe that Darren in this show - as well as Maj. Tony Nelson in "I Dream of Jeannie" - objected to the use of magic because they saw it as cheating. They weren't 100% opposed to using magic when they thought it was absolutely necessary, but did discourage its use because it seemed the honorable thing to do.
And something else. I think deep down, they both realized how potentially dangerous magic could be. I recall an episode of "Jeannie" in which the title character temporarily transferred her powers to Tony Nelson. He becomes grandiose and obsessed with the idea of fixing the world with his newfound powers.
Whereupon, in a charmingly serious and grown-up moment for a sitcom, Jeannie warns Tony of all the harm that could result - if he used magic to stop a drought in one place, he could cause a huge flood in another. If he used magic to stop one war, he could cause ten others to break out. Tony learns his lesson.
Now, I suppose you could accuse Tony (as well as Darren, who got his own set of magical powers in a 2-parter in the Dick Sargent era) of hypocrisy - as long as it was their partner who had the magic, they wanted it kept bottled up, but when they had the power, they wanted to use it themselves. But at least they were trying to be responsible - back in the days when responsibility was considered a virtue.
Hmmm. Interesting.
So what does it say about me that as a girl child, this really bothered me?
I didn't mind it when he did things like discourage her from teleporting, say, to another time.
But when it was about throwing together the perfect dinner party for some Larry Tate emergency? It would have helped them both!
I'm pretty sure that Darren was gay, because all those sitcom dads secretly were. Samantha was his, er, husband, who had cast a spell on everyone to make them think he was female. And Tabitha is an allegory about miscegenation. I believe I'm on solid ground here.
"I always thought it was because he feared what would happen to them if their neighbors and the authorities found out about her being a witch."
That's an aspect of the allegory.
Or it's a staple of pretty every show about 'somebody with magic' set in a modern era (and sometimes otherwise, witness the show Merlin). Keep the magic secret, because if somebody finds out you can't live your life anymore.
It couldn't be that it created a tension between the characters that led to better comedic situations in the episodes.
But this is the actual answer.
Like always, the Feminists miss the point when it comes to black people. This was the era of the Civil Rights Movement and here is a white man who can no longer keep his house in order without the help of someone else's magic. The whites need every trick they can to stay on top of the black man they see as threatening their very house, the house they built using the riches that come from four hundred years of oppression.
Hell, Darren works in advertising -- his very existence in society is to create the illusion that whites can have the best of everything, and exclude blacks from this fantasy world.
It was all in front of you, yet you refused to see it. Typical...
It is turtles all the way down...
That's an aspect of the allegory. The neighborhood is composed of conventional, traditional marriages, and Darren and Samantha are committed to fitting in and anxious about the discovery that they are not what the are trying to be.
Imagine the alternative, if he had embraced her using her powers - they certainly couldn't live in the conventional neighborhood, but at the same time, as a mortal, he was clearly not welcome in her world, either. They would have been complete outcasts.
The life and death aspect of him being mortal and her not being always bothered me, though. I recall them addressing it once and she just saying that he would get old and have the youngest wife on the block, like it was no big deal, but the fact that he would grow old and die while she kept on seemed off to me - he was just a blip on her radar, like owning a short-lived pet. I wondered if she would (or did) have other marriages, just as meaningful, with other mortals.
I might have over thought these things.
Another aspect is that witchcraft would have been looked at as 'evil'.
He wouldn't want Samantha burned as a witch, after all!
I never liked "Bewitched" much, but I loved "I Dream of Jeanie." They showed those two back to back on our local TV station when I was young. I wonder what that says about my views on traditional society?
The life and death aspect of him being mortal and her not
Wait, she was immortal??? I don't I caught that as a kid.
Samantha could've used her powers to have James Earl Ray's rifle jam, and MLK would still be alive, but no: magic is best used for white frivolities like cocktail parties.
It is turtles all the way down...
Is nobody going to say it was really about communism?
Did they ever do a Halloween episode where Samantha turned out to be an evil Satanic witch who used her powers to destroy their Christian neighbors and ultimately Darren had to try to kill her with a crucifix, at the urging of his boss Mr. Tate, but Darren failed and was cursed to be a slave for Samatha's coven for eternity?
Or was that some nightmare I had as a kid?
Wait, she was immortal??? I don't I caught that as a kid.
They were kind of vague on how it actually worked, but Andorra always referred to non-witches as "mortals," so that sort of implied that witches were not. There was one episode where he discovered some old picture of her, looking exactly the same, from hundreds of years ago (which is when they addressed this issue of her not growing old with him). But obviously, they did have life cycles (since she had a mother) and did age, even to the point of detriment (see dotty Aunt Clara), so it's not clear whether they were immortal or just aged really, really slowly compared to humans.
Again, I really over-thought this show. I was mildly obsessed when it came on Nick at Night when I was a kid.
"I never liked "Bewitched" much, but I loved "I Dream of Jeanie.""
I think "Bewitched" was more old-fashioned, supportive of those who felt good about traditional marriage, while "I Dream of Jeanie" skewed more Playboy. Jeanie was a servant to a single man, and she continually offered herself in a girlish but sexy way.
(I don't much remember watching either show, I confess. I preferred "The Monkees.")
chillblaine, Data/betamax3000, and MayBee each pose a similar thesis to Althouse's. If popular TV is the mirror of society, maybe they're right. I hope not given Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, and Walking Dead.
"Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeanie" seemed to be aimed at the pre-Boomer generation, I think.
As for The Monkees: "We're the new generation/And we've got something to say."
Of course, everyone's tired by now of what we had to say.
Of course, everyone's tired by now of what we had to say.
Not everyone. The purveyors of "WAIT! I'M STILL YOUNG" products still tell you what to say.
Re: "
Of course, everyone's tired by now of what we had to say."
Blacks are beyond tired of that generation's broken promises.
And would it have killed them to have had a black Monkee?
It is turtles all the way down...
The newly crowned Miss America is a witch. And by witch, I mean an evil person who seeks to cast spells and corrupt weak minds.
I just found out who she worked for as an "educational intern." Many readers here also read L.I., and already know this.
In a world where Rush Limbaugh cannot be allowed part ownership of an NFL team, justice would see that this whore of bablylon would surrender her crown.
It bothered me that Genie had just the one outfit.
Obviously, it bothered me when people did not use magic for the things for which I would use it.
Now.
Let's talk about how these two shows influenced the Satan Worship!-blame craze of the 90's, when watchers of Samantha and Jenie were themselves parents.
Did people overly believe, because they had grown up watching these shows, there were people who practiced dark magic and they were bad, bad people (as Darrin would have us believe?)
Did the West Memphis 3 come about because of Bewitched?
I always thought there was a strong feminist message in Bewitched (and Jeannie). An attempt to force a woman to suppress her true self and conform to a suburban society's expected norms is satirized as wrongheaded, silly and ultimately futile. Remember in most shows, it is Sam's use of her magic that saves the day in the end.
Is nobody going to say it was really about communism?
It was really about communism.
I think 'mortals' could just as easily be the witch version of 'muggles', but the old picture thing sounds vaguely familiar too. They just never really dwelt on it. But this is a concept that is explored in the vampire tv shows/movies as well. The end answer is that it pretty much sucks. Unless she could somehow use magic to give Darren a longer life span.
Again, I really over-thought this show. I was mildly obsessed when it came on Nick at Night when I was a kid.
I watched this and I dream of jeannie, but I think I liked jeannie better.
"Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, and Walking Dead" all mirror present day society. Breaking Bad mirrors the loss of societal norms and morality, which leads to destruction of the family, several families by the end. Sons of Anarchy is a family structure which is forced to develop its own morality to survive in an evil world. Walking Dead is another clan that surrounded by others that have lost all intellect and self control.
It is like reading Edward Gibbon but with more interesting character development and pacing.
In a land of mortals, achievement through magic removes or distorts value. It was Samantha's place to assimilate, not disrupt, her adopted culture.
betamax3000 said...
Like always, the Feminists miss the point when it comes to black people. This was the era of the Civil Rights Movement......
Pretty certain Elizabeth Montgomery and O.J. Simpson had first inter racial TV kiss.
Can't disagree with the feminist overtones identified by our hostess, but sitcoms don't thrive without strongly defined and compelling characters. Genie and Bwitched had two of the best in their second male leads. David White as proto-MadMan and all around lovable louche, Larry Tate and the great Bill Daley as the hyper-self aware and low startle reflexed Major Healy.
Darren used his magic in the bedroom, that's what kept Sam in line.
Mrs. Kravitz was always watching from next door. Couldn't have it be know that his wife was a witch.
Genie and Bwitched had two of the best in their second male leads.
Yes, now that I think about it. I loved "Jeannie" because I loved Roger. He was the best. Andorra and Darren always bothered me a little.
What do they show on Nick at Night now? We do not have cable, but METV started showing all those old shows. My kids love watching the old Adam West Batman, Giligan's Island, and yes, even The Monkees.
As for The Monkees: "We're the new generation/And we've got something to say."
KustomKing George Barris created the Monkee Mobile. He autograped my coffee cup at a car show and : ".I have that cup till this day.."
The writer doesn't understand b/c the idea of a man's life can't get past her own narcissism.
How dare he want a normal life.
She's the one who chose a human - a "weaker" partner with no ability to compete - the usual white idea of "fairness."
Darran had as much ability to say "no" as any rape victim.
Witches,...
FullMoon: "Pretty certain Elizabeth Montgomery and O.J. Simpson had first inter racial TV kiss."
What year was the 1971 movie "The Omega Man" shown on TV? That film as you recall had an interracial love scene between Moses (Charlton Heston) and new and upcoming actress black actress Rosalind Cash.
Mightn't it have to do with almost every time people used magic, it made his life worse?
Moon and Drago,
It was Star Trek, when Kirk and Uhura kissed. This is known by everyone.
Xmas said...
Moon and Drago,
It was Star Trek, when Kirk and Uhura kissed. This is known by everyone.
I do remember that kiss, but it was like the OJ/Montgomery kiss. A bit of peck.
The Heston/Cash scene was making out.
Heston does nothing halfway.
Crack probably still has nightmares about it.
Cedarford will now be angered again at me for mentioning Crack as Cedarford is under the impression that Crack does not materialize unless I conjure him up.
Matthew Sablan said...
Mightn't it have to do with almost every time people used magic, it made his life worse?
Well, the left told us that Obama was "magic" and "sort of a God" and we see how that has worked out so, yes, I'd have to agree with your premise.
A corollary to your premise is that whenever a leftist violates their leftist principles their lives improve. Whenever a conservative violates their conservative principles their lives generally become worse.
"It was about the male being the head of the household, the provider...the one with the power, as it were.
Samantha using her power usurped Darren's rightful role; it emasculated him."
Well of course. No doubt every script meeting started off with that reminder. Its not like they said "Hey, you know what would be funny? Plus we could run with it for literally years!" No, that would be crazy talk.
I loved "Jeannie" because I loved Roger. He was the best.
I think I liked Jeannie better because as a child I found all the nasa plots were more interesting than 'let's have a dinner party for your boss'. Although Samantha had an evil twin/cousin, and that was fun. Wait, did Jeannie have one too? Was she blue?
"I always thought there was a strong feminist message in Bewitched (and Jeannie). An attempt to force a woman to suppress her true self and conform to a suburban society's expected norms is satirized as wrongheaded, silly and ultimately futile. Remember in most shows, it is Sam's use of her magic that saves the day in the end."
But it's also consistent with the traditionalist message that said behind every great man is a great woman. The home-based spouse in a single-earner family is providing her form of support, and the two are a team and both make strong contributions.
"But it's also consistent with the traditionalist message that said behind every great man is a great woman. The home-based spouse in a single-earner family is providing her form of support, and the two are a team and both make strong contributions."
Samantha took her place in the background and did not seek public recognition for what she did. Whatever made the man look better was what she wanted. The conflict was that he wanted to feel that he could be great without her use of her powers, so she restrained herself when she could, because that also was for him (and, ultimately, for them as a couple).
Xmas said...
Moon and Drago,
It was Star Trek, when Kirk and Uhura kissed. This is known by everyone.
I was off by less than a decade, close enough!
(I don't much remember watching either show, I confess. I preferred "The Monkees.")
Somewhat surprised at that. It was something that my middle brothers watched. And, the girls of our generation (and probably still to this day) were much more into music, musicians, etc. The Monkees were put together as a band by Hollywood, and their shows just too contrived and plastic as a result.
Shanna beat me to it @9:32.
Without the secrecy, there is no show. Period.
It was a staple of the time. Bewitched and Genie were not alone. Off the top of my head, I can add My Favorite Martian, Mr Ed, & My Mother the Car.
But if you really want to over think this, we can discuss the last three in terms of family member homosexuality, bestiality, or oedipal issues projected upon that American icon, the automobile.
Nah, I think I'll stick with secrecy. It's had a longer comedic shelf life.
If Samantha subversively manipulated her husband's success, her nasal twitchings don't hold a bell, book, or candle to the ultimate subversive 1960s sitcom—The Beverly Hillbillies in which the straight-shooting laconic bumpkin Jed constantly outwitted the conniving, fast-talking, greedy city-slicker banker and his vain wife. The innocent, animal loving, fertility goddess Ellie May was far happier than the downtrodden sexless banker's secretary. Granny, a herbalist healer and locovore chef, was decades ahead of her time, and the crawdad-smoking Jethro harkens back to frontier days of true virility and manliness.
Actually, it was more of a commentary on mixed marriages. Instead of black and white, you had mortal and witch.
And yes, while she held back on her powers in deference to Darren's male pride, it was essential that she did from a storytelling standpoint. After all, where's the conflict if she were free to use her powers? Every episode could have been wrapped up in less than five minutes.
I honestly never considered any of this because I watched it as a hormone-addled teenager and found Samantha to be just captivatingly ridiculously h.o.t.
Other than as a just plain useful plot device, one got the sense that witches and humans just stayed separate and this was a rare instance where two of them loved each other and tried to make it work. He would have been told from his cradle that magic and witches and stuff are, if not evil, Just Not Right, and she, because of her love for him, tried to give up that part of herself to live like a normal human (Cf., Being Human, BBC and its version here).
We're probably also supposed to liken it to inter-religious marriages.
"Somewhat surprised at that. It was something that my middle brothers watched. And, the girls of our generation (and probably still to this day) were much more into music, musicians, etc. The Monkees were put together as a band by Hollywood, and their shows just too contrived and plastic as a result."
It was a TV sitcom. How was it any more contrived than Samantha and Darren?
If they played music some of the time, well, that was the characters doing what was there job. They were comedians and actors and they could sing.
The songs were excellent pop songs, like "Daydream Believer."
And, frankly, they were cute young boys. Why wouldn't a teenage girl in the 60s love The Monkees?
Women good!
Men Bad!
Bewitched was a feminist plot.
Notice how they switched Darrens in mid-show?
That was to show that men were just interchangeable widgets, a source of income. Their identity is unimportant.
Two can play at this game.
I'm pretty sure that Darren was gay
The second Darren was. (at least the actor that portrayed him was)
I liked the first Darren much better.
Is this a good place to mention that the Jonas brothers disney show was basically the Monkees?
Yeah, I basically agree. I had an instinctive dislike of Darin, especially Darin 1 because he was stupid to boot. The older Darin 2 was cranky, but not as obnoxious - tho I understand Gen X pop culture purists (usually guys) vastly prefer Darin 1. Must be that 3 Stooges gene acting up again. If I watched it now the Darin 2 character would likely get on my nerves. Nor could I understand why one would want to cut off the magical realm if available nor why she would have married Darin I the first place.
Someone recently sent me One Day At A Time on DVD. As a kid I completely blanked out the adults and pretty much only paid attention to the Barbara character.
Wow, it really shows how much we've changed culturally. It was so incredibly archaic in so many ways, and not just the attitudes the mom character was dealing with. As an adult I broke out in a cold sweat thinking about the precariousness of their financial situation. The spunky 34-yr-old, white suburban mom of two teenagers with no work history moving to a crap apartment and not taking alimony so she could live her values and independently support them on temp jobs until she became established? Yeah, right, like that could happen now w/o safeguards. The wage has decreased so much in relative value. Not even budging on better schools for her kids?!?
The David attorney character WAS ONLY 26!!!! on the show and IRL. 26 -yr- olds just don't look like that now, even if they are Marines.
I don't even want to think about what's going to happen if I rewatch Family Ties.
There was also the issue of Darin falling in love with this magical hot pepper and then trying to contain and stamp out what made her so attractive to him in the first place - something I've personally experienced in relationships and which def transcends gender.
Double r in Darrin. A thousand pardons.
Not really relative, but:
Speaking of TV.
Home with an injury, watched a soap opera('cause the girls were pretty)
.Wide eyed, told my wife when she came in from shopping, blah, blah, ".....that Erica kane is SUCH A BITCh!"
She has been laughing for about 30 years now at my naive self.
I think that Ann's analysis is quite good, and it shows that there is value in taking aspects of pop culture seriously, up to a point.
I"I am woman, hear me roar" was just around the corner. Even though Darren "forbade" her from using witchcraft, he had no real power to prevent her. She acquiesced because she thought it was in her interest too (she loved him for whatever reason and wanted to live more like a human), not because she had no other choices.
Maybe she found value in having more than a modicum of self restraint. Oh, would that more folks in contemporary society think such thoughts :>)
I think 'mortals' could just as easily be the witch version of 'muggles', but the old picture thing sounds vaguely familiar too.
Agnes Moorhead was old, yo!
Darren (Dick York) was the original Beta male?
"He was just a blip on her radar, like owning a short-lived pet."
Welcome to "love" in the modern world,....
betamax3000,
I don't know if you're parodying/mocking me, but keep it up:
I'm laughing my ASS off over here,....
betamax3000,
"Samantha could've used her powers to have James Earl Ray's rifle jam, and MLK would still be alive, but no: magic is best used for white frivolities like cocktail parties."
ROTFLMAO!!!!!
betamax3000,
"It is turtles all the way down..."
Laughing, hand over mouth, Geisha style,...
As a kid, I thought it was the same reason the first comment stated.
The neighborhood is composed of conventional, traditional marriages, and Darren and Samantha are committed to fitting in and anxious about the discovery that they are not what the are trying to be.
I think you're over thinking it.
I remember seeing the first (and possibly only) episode of a sitcom some years ago in which a black tv weatherman found a black (male) genie. They were pretty clearly going for the Bewitched/I Dream of Genie sitcom niche. And I knew immediately that the creators of that show had completely missed the boat.
The whole point of those shows is that the person who nominally has the power (the husband Darrin, or the "master" Tony) is in reality completely at the mercy of the witch/genie, and the only thing standing between him and sometimes well-deserved catastrophe is the witch/genie's overall good nature and affection for him.
OK, how about Barnabas Collins and 'Dark Shadows'? What did that say about American culture, the occult, feminism, racism, and whatever?
Birches said...
I never liked "Bewitched" much, but I loved "I Dream of Jeanie." They showed those two back to back on our local TV station when I was young. I wonder what that says about my views on traditional society?
What that says is that Barbara Eden in a bikini top saying "Yes, Master!" was a lot more interesting to a young male than Elizabeth Montgomery twitching her face around. I have reason to know.
It's really about assimilation. My father-in-law (I am told) forbade my immigrant mother-in-law and her sisters from speaking Danish in the house, not because he was afraid of the power of Danish, or some such nonsense, but because he wanted the children to grow up 100% American (he was the son of an immigrant himself), and not be thinking about the old country. There were lots of families like that in mid-twentieth century America.
Thanks to multiculturalism, today's immigrants remain poor and unassimilated.
re: Sean's "assimilation" argument.
I was about to go down a similar route, but comparing it to "mixed marriages" of differing races or religions.
Admittably it was a very one sided situation as Samantha's family knows Darren is mortal, but I don't recall seeing anyone in Darren's family. Likely if any such family was depicted on the show they'd have no idea that Samantha was a witch.
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