Bewitched Kitchen Appliances Early Episodes

[launderess]

Ok, Antenna TV just began their daily showing of Bewitched so figure would have it on as "background".

Tonight's episode was the first or perhaps second when Darrin tells Sam he has purchased a home and she and Endora go to take a look.

Camera pans around the kitchen often enough of the Stephen's current home and one can make out the Maytag W&D set, and a Sunbeam mixer (which seems to have followed to Morning Glory Circle), but the dishwasher is odd. Do not remember a dishwasher with a glass door from the 1960's. Also IIRC didn't Sam have a top loading DW in these early episodes?

 

[whirlcool]

The top loading DW was in the place they were living in before the Morning Glory Circle house. It only appeared in episode 1 or 2 of the series. I believe Endora materialized on top of it one time.

I think they used Frigidaire washers & dryers until after the 1969 set fire then they used Maytags. So if you saw a Maytag washer & dryer than it was an episode filmed after 1969.

 

[gansky1]

The early episodes in their first home had a Maytag washer and dryer set and the dishwasher was a store demonstrator glass-front Lady Kenmore top-load.

 

[washdaddy]

I recall those episodes and was fascinated by the window front on the DW but don't recall what brand it was. Once they moved to Morning Glory Circle Frigidaire took over in the kitchen with the Flair range, DW (couple of diff models during their stay there),the frig, and the W/D in it's little niche.

 

[petek]

Here's an interesting site about the Bewitched kitchen and how it changed

http://www.harpiesbizarre.com/kitchen.htm

 

[Unimatic1140]

Check this thread out, it shows that dishwasher later on down...

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?5168

 

[whirlcool]

That dishwasher looks like one of Robert's creations!

 

[launderess]

Never understood why the thing was in the kitchen in the first place. I mean what was the point? There didn't seem to be an oven, range or whatever above so what would a housewife done with the thing? Store wood for the fireplace in the living room?

While we are at it isn't it kind of odd for a home in the North East to have an electric "compact" range like the Flair? Why not a full sized gas range and or cook top with separate ovens?

Being as all this may the house including kitchen was very well laid out. Just perfect for a newly married young wife and mother. Compact (Endora calls it cramped) and easy to manage but with many thoughtful details. For instance the sliding wood "windows" between the kitchen and living room meant you could keep an eye on the children at the dining room table or in LR whilst you were in the kitchen. Ditto for the window over the kitchen sink.

Of course in reality we now know the floor plans really never matched how the house was used on the set. The master bedroom at various times was at the top of the stairs to the right and down the hall (over the living room, which was impossible), and to the top of the stairs to the left.

Then there was the case of the mysterious back staircase that supposedly acted like a service way between the kitchen and upstairs.

 

[whirlcool]

I wonder if anyone ever built a house with the interior of the Bewitched house? I read somewhere that if a house like that was ever built according to the interior specs, it would look different on the outside than it looks on the show.

In one of the links above it states that the back staircase really looked fake and nobody was ever on it beyond the third step, lest they hit heir head on the ceiling.

I think they call those "windows" between the kitchen and dining room/living room shutters. >!

 

[mrb627]

Frigidaire W/D on Bewitched

Was there ever an episode of Bewitched where Sam interacted with the machines?

Malcolm

 

[rinso]

Didn't Tim the Tool Man accidentally blow up the bewitched house on a Tool Time episode?

My partner and I watched an old SciFi movie called Earth VS The Flying Saucers. In one scene, you can see the Bewitched house façade in the background on a residential street. Not surprising, since both were filmed on the Columbia lot.

 

[twintubdexter]

A glass-front Lady Kenmore demonstration model dishwasher...boy these Autowasher members know everything!

 

[petek]

Back in the day of filming these shows they probably had no idea that one day (now) with the help of the internet people would be dissecting every scene for continuity errors etc.. LOL

 

[gfm8959]

Bewitched

and a few others. Priceless!

 

[iheartmaytag]

Flair Range

I read in the book "Twitch upon a star." That Frigidaire appliances and Chevrolet cars were featured on the show because GM was a major sponsor. They even gifted Liz a station wagon, but she drove a Jag.

 

[petek]

Here's a great commercial for the 1965 Chevrolet lineup featuring the cast of Bonanza, Bewitched, and Robert Vaughan from Man from Uncle.

 

[washdaddy]

Malcolm- Let's get real here!

Samantha had enough on her hands just whipping up some culinary delights for Darrin, Larry, and Louise on a moments notice without Endora throwing a fit.

Can you imagine what hell would have broken loose if she caught Samantha do Darrin's dirty laundry?

O.M.G.!!!!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Malcolm, in the episode where one of the relatives brings George Washington back, Martha is brought back at some point and is most unhappy with the modern world. Sam tries to show her how easy it is to get her laundry clean and bright with her modern washer and dryer, but Martha says she has servants to do that. At least she did not say slaves.

Last night, in an early B&W episode, Endora was devastatingly serene on first meeting Darrin, but got pissed and left in a column of smoke. She was dressed in black, looked so different from her usual self and had such a cold fury about her that it was startling to watch, especially after all of the years of watching the later episodes.

 

[whirlcool]

I noticed that too about the way Endora was presented. BTW, did you know that the name Endora was brought to the show by Agnes Moorehead? It's a biblical name direct from the bible. Ms. Moorehead was a well known religious fanatic.

Anyway, in early development of television series the characters may change over time due to what works best, what the actors portraying the parts seem to think about the character, etc. Some directors are open minded to this, some are not. Usually by the end of the first season this is pretty much all worked out.

 

[launderess]

Think Early On Endora

Was more menacing because that is what producers (and or Mrs. Moorehead) thought witches would be like. It also provided a counter balance to Samantha's blonde/blue sweet, innocent and all so nice.

Of course that would only go so far in a series that lasted a few years, so over time Endora toned things down. She realizes her daughter loved Derwood and despite whatever nasty things she and other witches did, wasn't going any where.

Not to get all soppy, but love is the most powerful force in the universe supposedly. Where it exists in true, pure and steadfast form evil cannot wholly destroy or even break it apart. One assumes this is why every single spell placed upon Ding-Dong is eventually reversed when Sam threatens to forever shut out who ever did the mischief. Even when Maurice saps Darrin to smithereens, Sam's tears and threats (along with Endora planning to move in with him), force the powerful warlock to reverse course.

Of course Bewitched never really got too deeply into the witch thing. I mean Sam is often depicted as being very involved with the local church for instance.

To me the interesting thing was always what would happen as Darrin visibly aged but Samantha did not. Endora was supposed to be a thousand or whatever years old, and Sam two or three hundred. By the 1970's Darrin would have been in his late thirties or reaching forty. Suppose it would be rather like vampires that live among the living, Sam and Darrin eventually would have to move away to someplace new to stop persons from talking.

While we are "out there" it amazed me that Sam and the other witches often came down with weird illnesses specific to them, but yet Samantha saw mortal doctors each time she had children and was delivered of them in a normal hospital without any problems or anyone noticing she was "built different".

The other "odd thing" is that mathematically witches like Sam's family couldn't exist without some sort of reproduction "control". I mean when you live for hundreds or thousands of years you cannot reproduce that often or the world would be flooded with your species. Same one supposes with vampires. If everyone who died from being infected with that lot became one as well the entire world shortly would become like Salem's Lot.

 

[danemodsandy]

Eugene:

"Didn't Tim the Tool Man accidentally blow up the bewitched house on a Tool Time episode?"

Yes, he did, although it was a special effect and did not actually demolish the house.

The Bewitched house, like almost all backlot sitcom houses, serves as storage for filming equipment for items like large lights. Only a small amount of the interior is usable, usually just enough to show a small portion inside the front door. These areas are built only to show a credible amount of interior when someone answers a front door; the real interior is on a soundstage.

Not all "famous sitcom houses" on studio backlots are the original seen in the sitcom; these houses get moved from one part of the lot to another, and sometimes rebuilt, copied exactly. The Leave it to Beaver House seen on Universal tours today is a copy, not the original. Interestingly, it houses restrooms for actors working on that part of the backlot.

Not to worry, 1164 Morning Glory Circle still stands on the Warner Bros. Ranch; HuffPo ran a piece on it earlier this year:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/bewitched-house_n_3504264.html[this post was last edited: 11/6/2013-19:24]

 

[vacbear58]

Endora In Black

"I detest sounding like one of those mothers who know it all but unfortunately, I do"

Season 1, Episode 4 "Mother meets Whatshisname" - my favorite of all the episodes

Al

 

[vacbear58]

More Endora

Personally I never found any of the witches threatening, even when watching it when it first aired here in 1966 - I would have been 8 years old then.

As regards Endora's relationship with Samantha, it always appeared to me that she was loving and affectionate - and they did lots of mother/daughter activities - such as when Samantha first goes to view 1164 - and they discuss decorating & furnishing - in their own manner of course.

In episode #4 referenced above she drops in on Samantha for coffee and they discuss cooking while Samantha prepares dinner.

In a later episode they pop out for lunch, albeit "a marvelous little restaurant on the left bank of the Seinne" and take in a Paris fashion show after.

As regards Darrin, to me its just another take on the husband/mother-in-law scenario, its just that MIL is sophisticated, glamorous and not a little mischievous.

For me, it was Darrin who was always the unsympathetic character - in many ways suppressing Samantha and trying to make her something she is not. Maybe even at that young age I recognized something in myself which that chimed with - fortunately for me it was not something I ever had to deal with much.

But I do still think that the actors performances did a great deal to bring added dimensions to the written words - for me there is only, and can only ever be one Samantha and one Endora - Elizabeth Montgomery & Agnes Moorhead.

Al

 

[launderess]

Darrin & Samantha

Have been analyzed and the result often is that the show was about the emerging "new" woman of the 1960's and 1970's (women's liberation movement), versus more traditional roles.

Remove "witchcraft" and substitute employment outside the home for instance and you would have heard husbands all over America saying same as Derwood; "no".

Darrin essentially forces/wants a powerful woman to submit herself to his rule. That Sam wants to be "mortal" or "normal" makes things easier but the result is the same.

In contrast you have other supernatural women of the period "Jeannie" and "Phoebe Figalilly" who are smitten with their men and have no problems in submitting to their will. In contrast to Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie is a 360 turn around. Jeannie has a "master" who though later becomes her husband.

You will never convince me that a creature as beautiful and powerful as Samantha would be happy for decades as a true mortal housewife. Sam claimed she could live as such but when the witches council strips her of her powers it more than rattles her cage. She along with Tabitha, Uncle Arthur and Serena eventually have their powers restored (and Sam cannot wait to test hers out), but the fact it bothered her to be made "earth bound" shows she totally wasn't ready to be wholly mortal.

 

[danemodsandy]

Endora Visits the Cleavers!

Well, sort of.

This is a shot of Agnes Moorhead stepping out of her spiffy new 1955 Ford Country Sedan station wagon in front of what was then known at Universal as the "Paramount House." It was built earlier that year by Paramount Pictures for a flick titled Desperate Hours, and it was built at Universal because Paramount didn't have room for it on their lot at the time. They rented the space on Universal's "Colonial Street," and built the house; Universal's condition was that the house pass to their ownership once Paramount finished with it.

In this picture, it's seen in All That Heaven Allows, with Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorhead, Conrad Nagel, the delightfully nasty Jacqueline deWit and Baby herself, Virginia Grey. A portico was added to the house for this movie.

A few years later, in 1959, Universal remodeled the facade, removing the portico, and used it as the Cleaver House in Leave it to Beaver when the show moved from CBS to ABC, replacing the former Cleaver abode on Republic Pictures' backlot. The present-day Cleaver House at Universal is a copy of that iteration; today's "Colcnial Street" itself is also a copy, moved from its 1950s location. Desperate Housewives was a recent use of the current "Colonial Street."

So, that's what Endora's doing at the Cleavers'!

 

[launderess]

All That Heaven Allows

Jane Wyman as the original cougar! *LOL*

Imagine giving up that cool tall drink of water young Rock Hudson because of one's children or gossipy friends.

Agnes Moorehead was delicious as the nasty and gossipy queen of local Society. Her "you'll get back into ... I'll see to that", comment speaks volumes about the sort of closed and closed minded little town/village society that existed at that time.

So Ms. Wyman gives up her hunk and what did it get her? Son and daughter leave home and tell her to sell the house (IIRC) and basically abandon her for their own lives.

 

[launderess]

Yes, Endora and Sam Did Get On Well

One of my favourite was when Sam and later Darrin get involved in politics to assist a local election against a crooked incumbent.

At the end of the episode when Endora reveals "everyone has been perfectly miserable because water main hasn't busted, so I burst one!", and while Darrin is babbling to himself going upstairs Sam and Endora look at him as if to say (these foolish mortals....).

Endora: Didn't he want the water main to burst?

Sam: Yes, mother

Endora: Then why does he look so unhappy?

Sam: You wouldn't understand mother.

Looking back Endora was probably being very protective of her daughter out of some very well founded reasons. I mean having lived over a thousand years with mortals Endora knew a thing or two about them (Salem was not the first nor last series of witch trials in history), and their nature.

Endora and the family also knew Sam's time with Darrin would be brief by their standards. Given the average lifespan of white males then Darrin could expect to live only another forty or so years. Sam OTHO would be around for ages longer.

 

[danemodsandy]

Here's....

....A more recognizable shot of the house; you can see the dormers and the large window that are so familiar from Leave It to Beaver.

And yes, that's Agnes Moorhead again.

P.S., Launderess - Wyman tries to give up hunkalicious Rock for the sake of the kiddies (who are both grown and entirely capable of minding their own damned business if only they would), but her inner cougar resurfaces - in the most ladylike manner of the 1950s, of course - in time for the final clinch.

 

[whirlcool]

That was also the Marcus Welby house too. Here's a glitch for you. When you watch that show you see the shingle for Dr. Welby and Dr. Kiley. The house is numbered 127. When you watch the opening or credits to the show the 127 numbering is mysteriously gone!

I think I also saw the Leave it to Beaver house on a episode of Dennis The Menace recently too. All these houses are on the same street at the old Revue Studios which evolved into the Universal Studios.

 

[danemodsandy]

Allen:

Revue was a television division of Universal, founded by MCA, who acquired Universal (buying the lot first, in '58, and then Universal itself in '62) and re-named Revue Universal Television. Universal is the oldest studio in the American motion picture business, having been founded in 1912. Paramount is the closest contender; parts of the Paramount lot date to 1917.

The use of the Cleaver House on Marcus Welby, M.D. was a bad mistake, I always felt. Leave It to Beaver was in heavy syndication at the time, and having the instantly recognizable Cleaver House in Marcus Welby didn't help that show's credibility. I always found exterior shots of the house to be jarring.