Bewitched: Season 3
The introduction of color takes a bit of the magic out ofBewitched, but adorable toddler Tabitha brings her own special enchantment to this third season, which earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series. Also nominated were Elizabeth Montgomery as sophisticated, albeit domesticated, witch Samantha, Agnes Morehead as her disapproving mother Endora, and Marion Lorne as addled Aunt Clara, whose mis-spellings wreak havoc in the Stephens household, as when she unwittingly conjures up Ben Franklin in "My Friend Ben." As the season begins, "typical average baby" Tabitha reveals her heretofore-dormant supernatural powers. In the next episode, "The Moment of Truth," Darrin (Dick York) is distressed to find out about his daughter. "Remember 'normal'?" he wails to his wife. "We were going to have a normal married life" Though one laments that Serena is missing in action, the return of Bernard Fox as Dr. Bombay (in "There's Gold in Them Thar Pills") and Paul Lynde's practical joker Uncle Arthur are always welcome, even if Arthur's feud with Endora in "Endora Moves in for a Spell" never reaches the comic heights of season 2's "The Joker Is a Card" (the Yagazuzie Zim episode).Other venerable character actors cast their distinctive spells, including Estelle Winwood ("Hold Me, Touch Me" in the originalThe Producers) and Reta Shaw (Mary Poppins) as Endora's sisters in "Witches and Warlocks Are My Favorite Things; Marty Ingalls as a rival ad agency spy in "Dangerous Diaper Dan"; Norman "Mr. Roper" Fell as Sigmund Freud(!) in "I'd Rather Twitch Than Fight"; and, in a bizarre cameo, Willie Mays as one of Endora's Halloween party guests in "Twitch or Treat." ("You mean he's a...," Darrin stammers. "The way he hits home runs?" Samantha replies, "What else?"). Sandra Gould, replacing Alice Pearce, joins the cast as busybody neighbor Gladys Kravitz. One of the season's most enjoyable episodes is "A Most Unusual Wood Nymph," which allowed York to break out of his confounded husband character to portray the lusty Darrin the Bold, a cursed 14th-century ancestor. And with the sight of the ravishing Montgomery in a castle-maid costume, who needs extras in this otherwise charmed four-disc set?--Donald Liebenson