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by R.J. Carter Published: June 24, 2005
Tabitha combines the 1970s "with it" feelings of Love, American Style and Laugh In and used the Bewitched hook to grab the ready-made fan base. Unfortunately, it didn't grab them hard enough and only lasted one season. Thank the stars that this new DVD age has come to pass to rescue programs like this and introduce them to new audiences. The focus of the series is, of course, Tabitha Stephens, played with puckish charm by Lisa Hartman. Still single, Tabitha wants to follow in her mother's footsteps and find her a nice, mortal man to forge a relationship with. Robert Urich plays her co-worker at KXLA-TV; he's a far-too-mortal man, who also wants to forge a relationship with Tabitha, but has a little too much of WKRP's Herb Tarlek's personality clinging to him. Marvin Decker is the station manager, Adam also works at the station, and Tabitha's guardian witch, Aunt Minerva, shows up in every episode with one love-starved scheme or another. It's like a magic-sprinkled Mary Tyler-Moore Show Sadly, the series lacked the same dynamic that made Bewitched so popular. The mortal vs. witchcraft / husband vs. in-laws conflict that drove the original series was something that this "date of the week" series couldn't achieve. The mortal vs. witchcraft debate had to be artificially created by stripping Adam of his warlock powers, despite him having these abilities in the original pilot, thankfully included as a bonus feature. In fact, that pilot -- which seems to have had a larger budget and which was filmed on location in San Francisco -- had much more to be desired in a Bewitched spin-off than did the new direction, the only distraction for me being that I kept waiting for Liberty Williams to say "Shape of... a pteradactyl!" (Liberty was the voice of Jayna in the old Super Friends cartoons.) Perhaps if William Asher could have arranged for more guest appearances by the original cast, Tabitha might have been able to more successfully springboard into something of its own, and found the draw for another season or two. Ultimately, it became a remake, not of Bewitched, but of That Girl, with nose-twitching.
Cast Trivia: Lisa Hartman Black will appear in "Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again." Robert Urich went on to star in "Vegas" as well as several other shows before he died in 2002. Mel Stewart made a ton television appearances, and is perhaps best known to classic television audiences as Henry Jefferson from All in the Family. He also passed away in 2002. David Ankrum provided an uncredited voice role in Star Wars as the Rebel fighter, Red two. Grade: B- Other Bewitched links: CinemaSpider |
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