TO TRICK OR TREAT OR NOT TO TRICK OR TREAT

Bewitched

Season 6 (1969)

Bewitched had a long run of eight seasons and the show was pretty shameless about recycling plots in its later years.  Hence this Season 6 episode, which is basically an amalgam of two of the show’s earlier Halloween episodes, Season 1’s “The Witches Are Out” (in which Sam and Darrin argue over the portrayal of witches in an ad campaign) and Season 2’s “Trick or Treat” (in which Endora turns Darrin into a werewolf).  Then again, pretty much ALL of Bewitched’s episodes involve either Darrin being transformed into something and/or some sort of ad campaign gone wrong.

Despite the rather unoriginal premise, “To Trick Or Treat Or Not To Trick Or Treat” holds some wacky surprises.  We begin with Samantha working on Halloween costumes for Tabatha and some of the neighbor kids, only for Endora to appear and be offended by a stereotypically ugly witch costume.  The argument escalates when Darrin shows up, and—surprise!—Endora casts a spell on him to teach him a lesson.

This brings us to the most enjoyable part of the episode, in which Darrin slowly transforms into a hag at the office (and in front of a new client, because new, rich clients are fucking EVERYwhere in the world of Bewitched).  While it’s funny to see Darrin try and hide his rapidly changing appearance, it’s made even more weirdly delightful by the fact that he’s basically undergoing gender reassignment surgery before our very eyes.   In addition to his warty nose and missing teeth, he sprouts long hair and bizarrely glamorous purple-pinkish fingernails.  

Fleeing the office, Darrin gets stopped by a cop who first compares him to 60s singer Tiny Tim and then makes various disparaging remarks about how basically Darrin will never have sex because he’s ugly.  It’s as weird and awkward as it sounds.

If you’re wondering when Halloween comes back into the picture, I’m getting there.  A now fully transformed Darrin is forced to take Tabatha and her friends trick-or-treating, since his new client’s wife is a big supporter of the “Trick or Treat for UNICEF” campaign.  Of course all the neighbors think Darrin’s just in costume and he ends up raising a lot of money, which he delivers to the client and his wife at a Halloween party later that night.  Samantha ends up resolving the ad campaign dilemma by modeling a glamorous witch outfit and suggesting Glinda the Good Witch as the new mascot.

Bewitched is always campy fun, and this episode ups the camp factor by about a 100.  I’m a fan of Darrin #1 and the early black and white seasons, but Elizabeth Montgomery is as charming as ever in these later seasons, and Endora is forever the Head Bitch in Charge.  I’ve read at least one biography of Elizabeth Montgomery that highlighted her charitable efforts and said that she was the one responsible for some of the show’s more socially conscious elements (such as the UNICEF subplot in this episode).  It all adds up to a lot of harmless fun with a trippy 60s, gender-bending twist for good measure.

Recurring Themes: Darrin and the kids Trick or Treat for UNICEF, just like Harvey Kinkle on a Halloween episode of yet another witch-themed show, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

Halloween Quotient: 4

See It, Skip It, Own It?

What better time of year to watch Bewitched?  See it, along with the show's earlier (even better) Halloween offerings.

THE 25 GREATEST TV MOMS, PART 2

Welcome back to Part 2 of my list of the 25 Greatest TV Moms!  Without further ado, let's get to the list...

15. Phyllis Lindstrom
Show: The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Long before Amy Poehler played the “cool mom” in Mean Girls, there was Phyllis Lindstrom.  Phyllis was an enlightened 70s supermom: she had her daughter Bess call her by her first name, talked openly about their feelings, and even let Bess perform in a middle school production of Hair (they played the nude scenes with their clothes on).  But the real joke was that behind her efforts to play it cool Phyllis was as neurotic and overprotective as any other mother.

Episode to Watch: “The Birds…and…um…Bess”  
Phyllis turns to Mary when it comes time to tell daughter Bess about the facts of life.

14.Thelma Harper
Show: Mama’s Family & The Carol Burnett Show

After posting her picture online in honor of Mother’s Day, I was thrilled to discover how much people still love and remember Mama.  Spinning out the popular Carol Burnett Show skits, Mother Harper (played by the significantly younger and uber-talented Vicki Lawrence) ruled the roost.  She was constantly putting her children, daughter-in-law and nephew in their place but when the chips are down who wouldn’t want Mama on their side?  Her particular brand of crotchety common sense reminds me of another icon of mine: Judge Judy!

Episode to Watch: “Mama Gets Goosed”
Mama plans on killing a live goose for Christmas dinner, much to her family’s dismay.

13. Endora
Show: Bewitched

If I was doing a list of TV’s greatest mother-in-laws Endora would have to be number one.  While she gave her son-in-law hell, Endora was actually a great mother to daughter Samantha.  She always challenged Samantha to aim higher and not to abandon her magical heritage.  Think of what a boring show Bewitched would have been without Endora causing trouble! She was also separated (divorced?) from Sam’s father Maurice, making her something of a feminist TV pioneer: a powerful, liberated, single mother.

Episode to Watch: “Trick or Treat”
On Halloween Endora transforms herself into a trick-or-treater (played by a young Maureen McCormick!) and curses what’s-his-name.

12. Aunt Bee
Show: The Andy Griffith Show

Aunt Bee is the second “mom” on the list who isn’t biologically a mother, but anyone who watched The Andy Griffith Show knows just how wonderful a surrogate mother she was to Andy, Opie and even Barney.  Slightly ditzy but full of heart, Bee was the beating heart of Mayberry.  I for one would kill to be invited to one of her Sunday suppers… minus the pickles, of course.

Episode to Watch: “The Pickle Story”
Aunt Bee’s loved ones can’t bring themselves to tell her that her homemade pickles taste atrocious and go to great lengths to protect her feelings.

11. Lorelai Gilmore
Show: Gilmore Girls

Lorelai Gilmore is the cool mom that Phyllis Lindstrom longed to be.  Of all the moms on this list Lorelai is probably closest to her kid; their relationship was more like that of sisters than mother and daughter.  At times Lorelai’s expectations and attempts to keep others out of their lives bordered on the pathological, but at the end of the day she’s a model single mother who got her daughter to the Ivy League and simultaneously became a successful businesswoman, and she did it (mostly) on her own terms.  

Episode to Watch: “Road Trip to Harvard”
After ditching her fiancé Lorelai takes daughter Rory on an inspirational trip to Harvard.

10. Lucille Bluth
Show: Arrested Development

Don’t get me wrong: Lucille Bluth is a terrible mother.  She’s monstrously selfish, hard-drinking, and highly critical.  Her adult children are a mess of neuroses, insecurities, and resentment as a result of her “style” of parenting.  Still, Lucille makes for some damn good TV, as she’ll stop at nothing to get her way and her children are her favorite pawns.  The most recent season of Arrested Development hinted at some growth for Lucille, but I personally hope she keeps up her evil ways in the future.

Episode to Watch: “My Mother the Car”
In which Lucille exploits her own son’s head injury to guilt him into getting closer to her and turn him against his siblings.

9. Charlotte Pickles
Show: Rugrats

Rugrats showed us several different modes of motherhood, as displayed by child-psychology addict Didi and feminist bruiser Betty.  However workaholic Charlotte will always be my favorite.  Charlotte always had her cell phone glued to her ear, barking orders at beleaguered assistant Jonathan and doing her mothering in short, concentrated bursts.  She left the majority of the parenting to her husband, which I always thought was rather neat.  Plus she wore a really killer blazer-skirt combo that Ally McBeal herself would lust after.

Episode to Watch: “Mommy’s Little Assets”
Charlotte brings Angelica and the babies to work with her, with both disastrous and surprising results.

8. Kate Gosselin
Shows: Jon & Kate Plus 8 & Kate Plus 8

Okay, I know Kate Gosselin is probably going to my most controversial choice, especially at #8.  I’m not endorsing her televised exploitation of her children or her bitchy behavior, but I also just can’t get enough of watching of her.  I’ve written before that Kate’s brand of suburb bitchery is right up my alley and no one can deny that when it comes to motherhood or her marriage, Kate makes for some memorable not-so-guilty pleasure TV.  I can't wait to see her on Celebrity Apprentice (I'll feel actually guilty about watching that one, but I can't stay away!).

Episode to Watch: “Shopping for Ten”
Kate memorably emasculates then-husband Jon while Christmas shopping at Toys’r’Us.

7. Sophia Petrillo
Show: Golden Girls

If Kate Gosselin’s inclusion on this list proves controversial, Sophia Petrillo not making the Top 5 may also rub some people the wrong way.  Despite her tiny frame Sophia dominated her daughter Dorothy; she was the ultimate truth teller, and her little old lady appearance let her get away with saying and doing a lot of otherwise shocking things.  Despite being described as a “vindictive little sea monkey” by her own daughter, you never once doubted the fierce maternal love that lay beneath Sophia’s acid disposition.  

Episode to Watch: “The Housekeeper”
Sophia is actually absent for most of this episode, which shows that things can go quickly go off the rails without her around.  When she does arrive back home she quickly cuts through the bullshit.

6. Helen Morgendorffer
Show: Daria

Like Charlotte Pickles, Helen Morgendorffer does not have a good work-life balance.  Also like Charlotte, Helen is usually seen on the phone or on her way out the door, heading to her job as a lawyer (maybe she worked at one point with Clair Huxtable?!). Unlike Charlotte, however, Helen makes more of an effort to connect to her two teen daughters, whether it’s mandated family dinners (with frozen lasagnas or husband Jake doing the cooking) or concentrated interrogations.  At the end of the day, however, Helen really was a great mom who genuinely cared for her family and managed to be there for them when it counted, despite her heavy workload. 

Episode to Watch: “Psycho Therapy”
Up for partner at her firm, Helen drags her family for a weekend of psychoanalysis, where she must own up to some of her failings as a mother.

Check back tomorrow when I reveal the Top 5!

THE LEPRECHAUN

Bewitched
Season 2 (1966)

Nick and I are both big Bewitched fans, though we each prefer a different Darren.  Which Darren you like says a lot about your psychology: I’m all for the original, Dick York, and Nick prefers Dick Sargent (which I find weird).  Differences in Darren aside, we’ve been enjoying watching the complete series on DVD, which Nick received for Christmas.  In honor of St. Patrick’s Day we jumped ahead a bit to Season 2’s “The Leprechaun.”

The episode begins in typical Bewitched fashion: Darren (still Dick York, since this is only Season 2) arrives home from work and Samantha reveals that they have a supernatural visitor, in this case a leprechaun.  Just as Darren begins to complain about yet another of Samantha’s weird relatives she rather gleefully reveals that the leprechaun is in fact from Darren’s side of the family.  It’s a nice twist that pokes fun at the show’s predictable (yet undeniably delightful) plots.  

Brian O’Brien, the eponymous leprechaun, is a distant relative of Darren’s who has come from Ireland in search of his last remaining pot of gold.  Apparently leprechauns derive their magic from their gold, and Brian’s emergency stash was hidden in a fireplace that was transported to a neighbor's of the Stevens.  The neighbor—surprise!—also happens to be a wealthy businessman that Darren hopes to sign up as a client (aren't they all?).

Extreme Makeover: Shoe Edition

Darren refuses to help Brian, who slowly drinks his way through the Stevens’ entire liquor cabinet and adds giant buckles to Darren’s dress shoes.  After Brian makes a failed attempt at stealing back the gold and ends up in jail, Samantha agrees to help him. She uses her magic to sneak them into the neighbor’s house (memorably turning giant guard dogs into Chihuahuas).  Just as all seems well the neighbor/businessman appears with both the pot of gold and a loaded gun.

The man with the golden...pot.

After threatening to shoot, he quickly changes his mind upon learning that Brian is a leprechaun, as he himself is an Irishman.  He happily hands over the gold… and then grabs Brian and demands he grant him a wish.  Seriously, this guy goes through more mood swings in one scene than… I dunno, a mood ring or something else with a lot of moods.  He goes from gun-toting thug to cheerful Irish laddie to creepy kidnapper and then back to nice guy again.  For it turns out his wish is simply that Brian serve as mascot for his Irish lace company—but he’ll be paid and get full benefits (so why did he need to capture him instead of just offering him the job in the first place?!).

Brian O’Brien is quite delightful, as leprechauns go; he’s played by character actor Henry Jones, who appeared on a whole lot of TV shows over the course of several decades (there's an Ethel Award just waiting for him).  There are a lot of nice Irish touches in this episode as well, including even an Irish cop and the aforementioned reference to Irish lace.  What’s missing are my two favorite things about Bewitched: Endora and Mrs. Kravitz.  In my perfect world, there’s a Bewitched spin-off where Endora and Mrs. Kravitz are reluctant roommates and have wacky adventures together.  If I ever capture a leprechaun of my own, that will be my wish…

St. Patrick’s Day Quotient: Lots of Irish cheer to be found here, earning the episode a 3.

See It, Skip It, Own It?
It’s not one of Bewitched’s best, but it will do for some satisfying St. Patrick’s Day viewing.  Go ahead and take a gander.