Sabrina, the Teenage Witch

Plot synopsis:
The movie centers around Sabrina Sawyer, who is sent to live with her eccentric aunts in Riverdale. On her 16th birthday, Sabrina discovers that she is a witch. Sabrina then develops a crush on Seth, the cutest boy in school who happens to be dating Katie La More, the school's "queen bee." Sabrina has to find a way to use her newly discovered magical power to get Seth to notice her, but at the same time not cast a love spell, which could backfire on her.
After Katie dumps Seth, he starts to notice Sabrina. Sabrina is able to use her magic to win a track competition and get Seth to ask her to the Spring Fling. Katie discovers Sabrina's secret and sets out to let everyone know what Sabrina is. Sabrina has to use her magic to turn Katie into a poodle to stop her but later changes her back. All the while, Harvey likes Sabrina and waits to see if she will have a change of heart and start to notice him. The story ends happily with Sabrina and Harvey together at the dance.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Sabrina The Teenage Witch-The Animated Series From the 1970's.
Premiering on the day before "The Archies" on September 13,1969,the spin-off to one of the most successful animated Saturday Morning shows ever produced,"Sabrina,The Teenage Witch",cast a potent spell for CBS,not only her intended juvenile audience,but over the rival networks as well.
Utilizing the prime-time practice of integrating,promoting, and spinning off new characters from a hit show,the head of daytime programming over at CBS,Fred Silverman carefully planned the debut of the sixteen-year-old sorceress on "The Archies".
Introduced in 1969-1970 on "The Archie Comedy Hour",Sabrina was an apprentice wonder-worker who struggled to concealed her magical powers in order just to be a member of the Riverdale High School gang.
The perky teenager was patterned after the winsome witch from the hit Emmy winning ABC-TV Comedy Series,"Bewitched",played by Elizabeth Montgomery,and was targeted to headline her own Saturday Morning cartoon show during the hiatus of the show.
To be more informative,"Sabrina,The Teenage Witch" will be the only character out of "The Archies" to make the jump from animation to live-action with a series based on the characters which starred Melissa Joan Hart,a show that ran on ABC and The WB for several seasons by the way.Getting back to the animated cartoon series which was executive produced by Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott under the company Filmation Productions and directed by Hal Sutherland and Rudy Larriva and Bill Reed.
Only 49 episodes were made of the series and it ran on CBS from September 11,1971 until August 31,1974.
Then the series made the transition over to NBC where it ran from September 10,1977 until the last episode of the series(it repeats)on January 28,1978.
In the hour long comedy-variety format,Sabrina appeared with the Riverdale regulars, Archie,Reggie,Jughead,Betty,Veronica,Moose,their shaggy companion,Hot Dog,a Latino character and a African-American character,in two of the four eleven-minute cartoons.
In some of her comedies,the young sorceress was supported by a pair of spell-casting aunts,Hilda and Zelda,a warlock cousin,Ambrose,and a cat named Salem(voice by Mel Blanc) that could also summon up an uncanny trick or two.
Several of the cartoons were very psychedelic but little on the fun side.
Sabrina also appeared as a member of the bubblegum rock group,The Archies,which presented a big-beat dance tune and dance-of-the-week between segments.In 1970-1971,two episodes were coupled with "The Groovie Ghoulies", a new series featured a group of merry monsters which consisted of a hippie looking Wolfman character,a Frankenstein character,and a psychedelic Dracula character who were also musicians with a bubblegum type sound as well.
These were tied together with vignettes in a new format titled "Sabrina And The Groovie Ghoulies".
In new comedies made for the 1971-1972 season,the teenage sorceress starred in her own half-hour show for more than three years,one of the most successful Saturday Morning series ever,which was under "The Archies" title.
Under the title of "The Archies" this was the highest-rated children's programming in its premiere season,receiving a 54 percent audience share.
The 1973-1974 season would be fatal.
Sabrina spelled a death knell for its highly touted educational competition as well and other shows,which clobbered it in the ratings.
The 1973-1974 season,Sabrina had competition against "The Curiosity Shop",which was on ABC,and NBC's "Take A Giant Step"....also to boot other programs as well would send it downhill too...The animated series "Star Trek" on NBC and the animated series "The Jackson Five",which was on ABC would prove fatal for Sabrina as well.
It ended its association with CBS in August of 1974.When the series moved to NBC,it tried to bolster its sagging 1977-1978 ratings with thirteen repeated episodes,intitally titled "The New Archie Sabrina Hour",and two months later with the teenager renamed "Superwitch" but the spell was long broken and when the series ended it association with NBC on January 28,1978 it left the air without a whisper never to be heard from again..
Sabrina the Teenage Witch was a good cartoon..
I watched it growing up and there was nothing wrong with it then or now.
Sabrina is a good witch living with her two Aunts Hilda and Zelda.
She goes to Riverdale High and is friends with Archie and the gang.
Sabrina uses her magick to help her friends.
She tries to be an average teenager even though she is a witch.
Kids need to watch to learn about friendship.
As for the sounds and bright lights there are other things on TV far worse.
Have you seen the cartoons now?
So full of violence?
Kids should watch this than being hooked on video games.
They are sitting there mindlessly blowing stuff up.
The music on those hurt my eyes and the loud noises.
Ever been to a video arcade?
Wow!
Enough to send you into a migraine..
Not the worst, but it's a contender.
The cartoon Sabrina was a not much of a cartoon even when it first came out.
This was clearly another "Archie" product, in fact Sabrina started appearing in the "Archie" cartoons for a few weeks before Sabrina came out on her own.
The standards in 1970-71 weren't real high, but we (my brother and I, Saturday Morning Cartoon aficionados of the highest order at 8 and 10 years old) always recognized the "Archie" cartoons as clearly second or third rate.
It was clearly recognized as such, because after a short run on late Saturday mornings, it switched to the Sunday morning "filler" slot.
Sabrina herself was OK, but the associated characters were pretty annoying.
I can tell you that Aunt Zelda looks A LOT better in real life (AKA live action Sabrina) than on this cartoon!The stories were typically witless, with no imagination and painfully loud and blatantly fake laugh track thoughtfully telling you which were the funny parts.
There was no other way to tell!
Quickly spun off were the "Groovy Ghoulies", an assortment of Munsters rejects related (in some undefined way) to Sabrina.
This actually lasted longer than the Sabrina show itself.
I guess they never bothered to look up the meaning of the word "ghoul".Not the worst of it's era, but "Hot Wheels" was more entertaining, and "Scooby-Doo" looks like "Masterpiece Theater" in comparison..
Hazardous to your children's health!!.
Watching this cartoon as a child almost made me delirious!Its over use of extremely bright colors,especially pink,loud cartoonish noises,and characters with annoying and repetitive sounding voices was enough to give me headaches.I DO NOT recommend parents to show this to their children,unless you want to make them sick!I can't believe this became a popular prime time TV show,based on stuff like this!.
sweet series about an ethical girl from a less cynical time.
I had loved the series Sabrina the Teenage Witch as a child, and as an adult, I find it is still one of the better of the limited animation cartoon series from that time.Unlike other magical cartoon characters since then, Sabrina was neither an idiot nor a self-absorbed greed-head (such as the hero of Fairly Oddparents).
Her powers were limited only by her self-restraint, her sweet nature, and her strong personal ethics.The episodes were more sophisticated than average for the time (a time when most cartoons tended to oversimplify the tastes and interests of children), with Sabrina having genuine moments of pettiness, annoyance, and confusion amidst the mandatory Saturday morning cartoon cheeriness.The character also appealed to children on two levels often overlooked at the time: their identification with the Gifted Outsider, and their interest in power and wish magic.
These days, we have seen the Gifted Outsider so frequently that it seems a lackluster cliché', but at the time, children's cartoons tended to encourage conformity.
Sabrina hid her powers, but she used them freely albeit covertly and never expressed shame or regret over who and what she was.I was never able to enjoy the live action Sabrina specifically because it abandoned the sweetness of the series for a hackneyed cynicism and faux edginess.
The cartoon Sabrina and her aunts occasionally became angry and even fought, but the live action Sabrina and family are sometimes downright cruel, such as the time one of the live action aunts simply killed off by zapping a rival musician so she could take over her seat in the local orchestra or when for laughs a live action character ran over Mr. Kraft and apparently killing him off (since he's never seen again in the series).