You Always Want To Be Samantha!

You always want to be Samantha!

My childhood neighbor and friend Rosalie and I would often get together after school and play. My idea for playtime involved acting out scenes from the television show Bewitched. I chose myself for the role of Samantha. Samantha Stephens is a blonde, sexy wife and mother, with her cauldron hooked to the rotisserie. She can twitch her nose and get anything she wants, but she abstains to make her husband think he wears the pants in the family. Serena, Samantha’s cousin, dark haired, is a free spirited, hippy, single witch on the prowl for anything that suits her fancy. Serena purrs when she wants and an occasion howls too.

Rose never wanted to be Serena, she always wanted to be Samantha. She was forever going home and crying to her mom Rachel whenever I suggested it was Bewitched Playtime. (Though, I honestly didn’t know I was upsetting Rose).

“Why does Gina always get to be Samantha?” Was a typical tome said by Rose to her mom. She didn’t really tell me though, so it was only when we were filming for a reality show called Bewitched Fanatical that the situation came full circle, or so I thought.

In 2005, I was living in my “dream house” with my version of Darrin and Tabitha and Adam Stephens, when I got the call from a television producer that I had been recommended by Mark Simpson, The Bewitched Collector, to be the co- guest  on a reality show about fans of the television show Bewitched.

I invited Rose and her mom Rachel to be a part of the filming of “a day in the life of a Bewitched fan”. So, in August of 2005, TV Tropolis,  a Canadian Television Production Company, sent a crew over to my home.

 Rose, as usual was a good sport about the whole day. She graciously did not mention my monopolizing the role of Samantha, however, in between takes, Rachel imitated Rosalie when she was little.

 “Mommy…. Why does Gina always get to be Samantha?”

Fast forward to 2013… A friend came over for a publishing/brainstorming meeting.

She looked at a large painting I have of Mary and Elizabeth. She pointed to Mary and she said, “I’ll be Mary and you can be Elizabeth.”

“Ok”, I said. (Smiling).