A question for a Monday:
If Elizabeth Montgomery had owned a Subway franchise, would that make it a Sam Witch Shop?
And you know why you should never get hungry in the desert? Because of all the sand which is there.
(Also: Why cats in the desert are like Christmas? Because of the sandy claws.)
All seriousness aside, as many of you know, I named my dog Samantha in large part due to a major childhood crush (my first really big one) on the bewitching Samantha Stephens. I’ll bet she made great sandwiches!
Wait… Sandwhiches? … Sandwitches? … Now I’m confused…
(For the record: Subway is the only “fast food” joint I’ve been in for well over a decade. Except for that time a year ago when I was seriously craving some fries from Micky D’s.)
Logos con carne 
September 21st, 2015 at 12:47 pm
Haha. I used to watch that show when I was a kid. I think my favorite character was her mother. Her husband, on the other hand, seemed like the biggest fool ever. Why have a normal life when you can avoid it?
September 21st, 2015 at 1:11 pm
Heh, yeah. A lot of that was the prime-time 1960s sitcom environment. A primary theme behind so many sitcom stories (Three’s Company was an entire series based on this premise) was covering up some perceived “problem” from others. In most cases, it was some lie or action done by the person who now needed to cover up (and, of course, the lie/deed is always revealed, apologies are made, lessons are learned… until next week).
With Bewitched (and a similar show, I Dream of Jeannie), it was the entire situation the characters had to cover up.
But I totally agree. It would have been awesome being married to a witch! God, can you just imagine the fun you could have. Why even work for a living? You could do whatever you really wanted to do. (And being married to that particular witch would have been double-plus awesome. XD )
September 21st, 2015 at 1:16 pm
I was a fan of ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ myself. I saw it long before Bewitched. (Though I know Bewitched predated it.) The male character of IDoJ being an astronaut probably had something to do with that preference for my six year old self.
I eat at Subway regularly, although I have to admit I occasionally also do McDonalds and Jack in the Box.
September 21st, 2015 at 1:44 pm
Yeah, I watched I Dream of Jeannie as well. I’ve come to realize that, for me, TV shows tend to be about the characters. And as a hot-blooded (single) male, often about particular female characters (as my recent TV post reveals).
I saw Jeannie as a bit of an air-head, which is a seriously unattractive trait for me. Samantha Stephens was the level-headed, sensible one, plus being a strong and independent woman, which (witch?) was all hugely attractive. The men on both shows were kind of undeserving zeros in my book, so Bewitched won by a witch.
The thing is, both shows had a great deal in common. Magical woman, comic foil guy, suspicious boss… XD
I remember Jack in the Box with fondness. I used to eat there regularly in college. I don’t think we have them in Minnesota (or maybe I’ve never noticed one). We also don’t have my all-time favorite: Carl’s Jr. (who had real onion rings, not those pseudo clone things BK has). We do have their sister joint, Hardee’s, but they tried to kill me. Twice. So I don’t eat there anymore. Ever.
I did like Arby’s a lot (although I’m ashamed of how long it took for me to realize what “Arby’s” meant), and — loving Tex-Mex food above all others — I have a major soft spot for Taco Bell.
If I were to hit a fast food joint, odds are highest on Taco Bell or Arby’s. (Although if that fries craving hits again… gotta admit, no one does better fries.) Generally, for a burger, I’d rather hit a local bar & grille and get a fancy one.
September 21st, 2015 at 2:28 pm
On characters, I was too young to make those assessments. (To give you an idea of where I was at, I was also enjoying Lost in Space around that time.)
IDoJ was definitely a copycat of Bewitched (it came out a year after Bewitched), so their similarity was intentional. I suspect if I tried to watch them today, my reaction might be a lot different. (I tried to watch a Gilligan’s Island episode a few weeks ago and couldn’t, despite loving it as a kid.)
You just triggered me to google the origin of Arby’s name. I can’t see where you have anything to be ashamed of for not figuring *that* out. The initials R.B. from “Raffel Brothers” seems pretty obscure.
Never been much of a Hardee’s fan. I do love me some Taco Bell, although I usually regret eating there afterward. We have a local chain called Raising Cane’s with which I have a similar relationship.
September 21st, 2015 at 3:30 pm
I’m one of those oddballs that have been chasing women since kindergarten (I used to have day dreams about rescuing my kindergarten teacher from drowning… odd in that I didn’t learn to swim until many years later). I was “married” in second grade. She used the ring I gave her on her egg-carton caterpillar art project (which got hung in the hallway display outside the classroom — I was so proud). It wasn’t until around fifth grade that I understood the real nature of the attraction.
It is funny (sad?) how some of those old shows we remember so fondly do nothing (or not much) for us now. I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy watching Bewitched again. Maybe an episode or two for old times’ sake. I bought many seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Get Smart and Mission: Impossible, and I still haven’t watched them all (I have them for years now).
(TMTMS was a ground-breaker for the time, and had some really good writing. Plus I’d met the cast, so there’s a (very small) personal attachment plus a huge amount of respect for the show… but watching them again doesn’t seem to interest me. Something for a rainy week someday, perhaps.)
A friend loaned me his three seasons (the total series) of Gilligan’s Island. I know what you mean, but I did enjoy watching them. There was a certain level of genius in that show despite how utterly ridiculous it was. And, while we’re taking woman on shows, I realized I’ve changed: I was totally Mary Ann all the way back in the day. These days? Definitely a Ginger man! [what’s the smiley for leer? 😎 ]
I was a big fan of Lost In Space. Of course, part of that was a crush on Judy. XD But still, anything close to decent SF was rare those days, so we took what we could get. I bought the DVD of the first season, but I did have a hard time getting through it. It’s kind of interesting to watch how they turned Smith from an evil spy to a buffoon.
Arby’s also stands for Roast Beef. That’s what I was referring to. I didn’t even know about the Raffel Brothers.
Must be all the crap I eat — I’ve long said I have a cast-iron stomach; maybe from all the hot salsa — but I’ve never suffered from Taco Bell stomach. At my advanced age that’s not quite as true as it used to be, and it’s been well over a decade since I’ve had Taco Bell, so who knows! (And these days, it’s usually the medium salsa rather than the hot. OTOH, salsas degraded what they call “hot” when salsa became “America’s #1 condiment!” Pace hot these days is about what their medium used to be.)
September 21st, 2015 at 5:55 pm
Yeah, I’ve been disappointed when I tried to watch old favorites such as Space 1999 or The Six Million Dollar Man. I actually did watch the first black & white season of Lost in Space a year or two ago. It wasn’t as terrible as I anticipated, although the silliness factor started to set in toward the end of the season. I couldn’t make it through the first episode of the second season.
I wasn’t much of a fan of The Mary Tyler Moore show when it was on, but from the excerpts I’ve seen over the years, I suspect I’d like it if I watched it today.
I used to have a cast iron stomach. I could eat anything and the worst I ever suffered was mild heartburn. About 10 years ago that changed. I now live on Prilosec. Getting old stinks.
September 21st, 2015 at 7:06 pm
Yeah, Man from U.N.C.L.E. is another one that started off fairly serious and got goofier over time. In their case, more science fiction-y, although it hurt more than helped. Given how important that one was to me as a kid, I was surprised at how long it took me to watch all three season DVDs.
Mission: Impossible is another I just loved, but which didn’t cross the years as successfully for me as I expected. My more experienced eyes noted how many “industrial” settings were just parts of the studio lot (essentially any “warehouse” or “factory shop” and many foreign “offices”). And how often they used that same studio backlot “city street” redressed in various ways and shot from various angles. OTOH, the ingenuity of getting so much out of what must have been a fairly low budget was impressive.
I was having stomach pains back in 2005 (?) and was on Prilosec for about a year, so I know it’s effective. After a year I stopped without having the pains come back. I figured then (and now) that it was stress, which was considerable at that point in my life. Even so, getting old definitely, as you say, stinks.
September 21st, 2015 at 3:35 pm
If I do say so myself, that “photoshop” turned out okay. The back lighting in her hair and on her shoulders looks like it comes from the lights you see behind her. It took a while to find the right images for the background and foreground, and I think I found the right ones.
Sometimes these efforts make me groan a little, but this one makes me smile!
And the expression on her face is great for the gag!
September 21st, 2015 at 6:43 pm
I loved that show Smitty and wished that I could wiggle my nose and my room would be clean! ❤
Diana xo
September 21st, 2015 at 7:09 pm
Just being able to wiggle your nose like that would be pretty cool! Did you see the movie version with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell? It was cute. Kidman elevates just about anything she’s in, and as I recall Ferrell was more restrained than usual (I usually don’t care much for him).
September 21st, 2015 at 7:11 pm
No I did not see it. Would you recommend it? I feel like I’d be betraying the original!
September 21st, 2015 at 7:19 pm
Lady Di, it’s borderline… depends on how much you like the actors and how curious you are about how they did a movie about it.
It actually involves a modern day re-make of the old Bewitched, so there’s a level of self-awareness that’s kind of cute. Kidman plays an actual witch who ends up being the “unknown name” they pick to star in the show. So it’s about a Samantha-Darrin kind of thing going on between Kidman and Ferrell in “real life” while also staging a re-make of the old Bewitched in which they star.
Most movie versions of old TV shows just can’t be the old show, and so they suffer in comparison. (You can read some comments above about how even those old shows don’t work as well for us old fans as they did.) Many movie versions don’t seem to try to honor their source (The Wild, Wild West… I’m looking at you!), but Bewitched did okay in that regard, I thought.
September 21st, 2015 at 7:22 pm
sounds like a show within a show Smitty, intriguing!
September 21st, 2015 at 7:25 pm
A show within a show referring to an old show! Yeah, that part was clever.
I think, on balance, now that I think about it, I would recommend it. It’s not a five-star movie or nothin’, but for fans of the old show, it’s worth seeing.
May 19th, 2023 at 7:28 am
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