Bewitched Again

Mark Wood visited the Bewitched Board in June and gave the following update on the ongoing project of bringing a "next generation" show of Bewitched to TV. Here's his posting:

Mark
Markasey1@aol.com

(IP Address: 205.188.192.22)Browser:Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; AOL 4.0; Windows 98; DigExt)
Tuesday, June 8, 1999

Ok gang, here's the low down on anything new regarding Bewitched: Columbia/Sony who owns all rights to the show has NO plans whatsoever, at the moment, of doing anything Bewitched. Kasey (Louise) and I have tried for more than seven years to make Bewitched Again (sort of a Star Trek the Next Generation way of doing things) happen. Columbia has fought us every step of the way. Last year, we met with a lovely lady named Kim Haswell who is in charge of TV series at Columbia/Sony. For three years she had wanted to do something with Bewitched but the people running the feature movie department refuse to let go of the property and put it back into the hands of the TV people, where Kasey and I personally feel it belongs. Lets take quick stock of the other TV series that have been made into movies, these include: Leave it to Beaver, The Addams Family (one and two), Car 54 Where Are You, Seargent Bilko, Flipper, The Brady Bunch (one and two) and others. One very clear thought on each of these is that the have FAILED terribly at the boxoffice. I question why they keep making them when I have been told by many hundreds of fans of these other shows that they really hate to see any other actor playing their favorite character. Personally I can't think of ANYBODY that could play Samantha or Darrin or Endora or... Sure there are many actors that could look the part, sure wouldn't it be fun to see Shirley Maclain wear all those chiffon robes, sure it would be interesting to see a pre-story fleshed out with people like Sheila and Dave but, while she's a personal favorite of mine and even though she looked great, Anjelica Huston was NOT Carolyn Jones (Morticia) and never will be! If anything is to be done let's further the story and see where these people are now. The ones that are gone will just have to be worked around and, yes, it can be done. Enough of that Soap Box, if you're still with me here I'll take my butt in my hands and suggest this, you wanna try and make a difference? Well, the chance of it happening sits right next to impossible but why don't ALL OF YOU (strength in numbers gang) call Columbia/Sony. Ask for who ever's in charge of TV series production now or a TV movie (great way to start a series) and tell 'em what you want. If you still want the feature film, then tell 'em just that (keep in mind that none of your fav actors will be there probably). Yu'll end up leaving a message but a lot of messages might make 'em think twice about it all. You ready? You still reading? OK, here: Columbia/Sony 310-202-1234 or 310-244-4000 Good luck! (Uhm... don't hold your breath... but don't give up... we've bugged 'em for seven years now it's you guys turn!) HAGS and kisses! Mark...

OK, I know what you're thinking - why can't we just get an e-mail address to send this stuff to? Well, things change pretty quickly at these studios - an e-mail is more likely to get lost in the shuffle than a phone call or even a voicemail message. In any case, Mark and Kasey need your support to bring their concept to the world of reality. We already know a couple of things:

1) Bewitched was (is) a great show - the fact that it's still being shown in syndication almost 30 years after it left the air is a testament to the quality show that it was.

2) This project is being brought forward by Kasey Rogers - someone who was involved in the original series. Let's face it - the Brady Bunch movies were more of a parody of the original series than anything else. Sure, we can't recreate "Bewitched", but that's not what they're trying to do. Just as Bewitched evolved over 8 seasons, things would certainly change in bringing out a new series. Hopefully some of the "magic" will still remain, however.

3) The TV public likes nostalgia as well as supernatural shows (Sabrina being a prime example of both - as well as an example of the medium being brought up to date; although it does bring the idea to a younger audience than the Sabrina movie had). Friday night on ABC recently was almost all supernatural shows - Sabrina, Teen Angel and You Wish - only one of them survived because it had the strongest writing and good original ideas (Teen Angel would have done better with more screen time for Maureen McCormick - Marcia Marcia Marcia!).

4) Network TV listens to the viewing public (OK, not all the time, but they do somewhat). If they know that there is a ready-made audience for the show, they will be much more willing to take a chance on a project. I read somewere that last year there were 40 new shows, but only 6 of those returned for a second season. Plus, they probably make somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 pilots just to make those 40 new shows (a guess - but I'm probably even lower than the real figure). If Mark and Kasey have been pitching their idea for 7 years, that means there are 7 years of episodes we've missed out on already!

So pick up the phone and dial the numbers:

(310) 244-4000

(310) 202-1234