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.