By Paul How long should a good TV sitcom run? Not for ten years, that is for sure. Most shows that make five or six seasons consider that good. Bewitched lasted for eight years, and the kindest words that can be said about that eighth season is that they shot only 26 too many episodes. For the first five years, Bewitched had good ratings, but it dropped 13 places in the polls by the sixth season, and disappeared from the polls in the seventh season (see Figure 1). That should have been a clue to end the series right there. Unfortunately, the network, producers, or whomever else you would want to blame, did not see it that way and the show went on for a poor eighth season. What were the reasons? Clearly, the audience got tired of the show. But why? Too much exposure? Changing interests? The appeal of different types of programs? Changes in the show itself? Some of the possible reasons are listed below. How much these changes affected the ratings is purely guesswork, but they should be examined: |
In
1964, the TV population was searching for a little bit of magic to free
them from the trials of the world. Bewitched fit the bill perfectly.
Eight years later the audience tastes in TV programming had changed
to the point where a witch-based comedy was not the "in" thing. Had
Bewitched aired two years earlier, a run from 1962 to 1970 probably
would have been accepted more in the later years.
Competition
for Samantha in the Looks dept.? There were 22 women that could be classified
as competition. There were seven in the first year, and 11 in the first
three years, then another 11 over the next five years. In
the later years, there was a definite decrease in the number of regulars
per episode. Season one started out with an average of 2.306 appearances
by regular or semi-regular cast members per episode. By season three,
this number had climbed to 2.818, and then decreased to 1.678 in the
seventh season, and fell to 1.383 in the eighth season. Of note in the
eighth season is the absence of Darrin’s parents, Uncle Arthur, and
the Kravitz’s. Paul Lynde had his own show during the eighth season,
which explains the absence of Uncle Arthur. However, the absence of
the Kravitz’s and the elder Stephens’ is never explained. Viewers of Bewitched enjoyed the chemistry that York and Montgomery displayed. This scene is from # 104, How To Fail In Business With All Kinds of Help. There
was a sharp drop in demonstrated affection between Darrin and Samantha
(affection being measured by counting the number of kisses exchanged
per episode) after the fifth season. The first season there was an average
of 2.03 kisses per episode. This climbed to 2.97 in the fourth season,
but the sixth, seventh, and eighth seasons averaged 1.93, 1.21, and
.062 respectively. During the York years, the kisses averaged 2.57 per
episode, and less than half that number (1.25) were exchanged during
the Sargent years. In
later years, there was an increase in the number of clients and guest
stars used. There
was a sharp drop in the ratings when Sargent replaced York as Darrin. Many
faults can be found in the eighth season, but most can be traced back
to the beginning of the sixth or seventh seasons. Notable in the last
two seasons, and emphasized in the eighth season despite claims of increased
budgets, were cheaper-looking sets, fewer cast members, and recycled
scripts. Also
evident was a drop off in cast performances, especially by Elizabeth
Montgomery who was reported to have been against doing the eighth season. After
the first two years, there was a drop in the number of bedroom scenes.
In the early years, the episodes frequently began or ended in the bedroom.
Later, the episodes usually started in the kitchen and ended in the
living room. Starting with the sixth season, the drop in bedroom scenes
was drastic. In the first two years, there were nine episodes each season
where Darrin and Samantha were shown in bed together. The number of
occurrences decreased after that, down to four in the fifth season (had
York been in all episodes the fifth season, the number should have been
at least six), and then took a drastic drop in the sixth, seventh, and
eighth seasons to 1, 3, and 1 respectively. Beginning
in the middle of the fourth season, the percentage of episodes that
featured dirty tricks on Darrin increased and became more prevalent
in later seasons. This was accompanied by more abrasive dialog between
Darrin and Endora. In
the later years, there was considerable reuse of early scripts, to the
point where not just the plots were similar, but entire lines were repeated,
word-for-word. This is especially noticeable in # 254,
which is a remake of # 50. The entire
climax scene is almost word-for-word the same in both episodes. What
can be seen, and this may be another problem of the series, is the switching
of the comedy lines from Darrin to Samantha. Darrin’s diminished role
can be seen in other episodes, but # 254
is the best example. There was a considerable drop off in the number of writers and directors used in the last three seasons. With this decreased staff went much of the variety of the show. Nine different directors were used in the first season, while only three were used in the eighth. In the first season, there were 20 different writers/writing teams for 36 episodes, and no one writer wrote more than five episodes. In the eighth season there were only eight writers for 26 episodes, and one writer wrote 10 of them (actually, only two writers wrote 19 of the 26 episodes). |
Figure 1: Bewitched Ratings Guide
SEASON
|
AUDIENCE SHARE
|
RANKING
|
1
|
31
|
2
|
2
|
26
|
7
|
3
|
23
|
8
|
4
|
23
|
11
|
5
|
23
|
12
|
6
|
21
|
25
|
7
|
15
|
Not ranked
|
8
|
10
|
Not ranked
|