My Thoughts on Bewitched by Gina Meyers

 

    Like a fairy godmother's magic dust, a good sitcom covers reality with fantasy and illusion and provides the modern-liberated child with security of reruns on the tube.-Gina Meyers

 

    On September 17th, 1964, Bewitched debuted on ABC, also known as the American Broadcasting Company.  ABC is one of the three television networks with CBS and NBC producing shows and being considered rivals of ABC.  It glittered and gleamed on television for eight seasons. It hit number 2 in the most popular television sitcoms of 1964 according to the Nielson Ratings.

     In September of 2024,  a group of tried-and-true Bewitched fans will convene in Burbank for a 60th Anniversary Celebration to commemorate this milestone.

   

     If you've never heard of Bewitched then you might need to know the premise behind one of ABC's true gems. Bewitched is an American television sitcom originally created by Sol Saks. It is about a beautiful, nose-twitching witch named Samantha Stephens, played by Elizabeth Montgomery, who is married to a strait-laced mortal named Darrin Stephens, played by Dick York and later Dick Sargent. Samantha being married to an ordinary man, is continually faced with dilemmas in which she must use her magical powers to solve the plethora of problems that her family faces. 

There are many reasons why I believe Bewitched has stood up over time. For one,     Bewitched is first and foremost a love story. Who doesn’t love a love story? Secondly, Bewitched had such an amazing cast and crew and group of writers, directors, and producers. That alone gave Bewitched a popular place in the world’s hearts and television viewers minds. Thirdly, Bewitched, reminiscent of all great television sitcoms, shows us our place in life.  It gives us a glimpse of the family we would like to be a part of, the job we wish to land, the person we would like to become, the friends we would like to have, and the dreams we wish to fulfill.   Lastly, Bewitched teaches a valuable lesson, that there is “magic” in us and it is waiting to be freed.  A talent cannot be suppressed; a gift cannot be ignored in order to please someone else.  In Samantha’s case, her talent was witchcraft, and she tried to please her mortal husband Darrin by abstaining from her craft.

A gift is irrepressible and eventually it will emerge. Look at all the chaos that occurred when Sam tried to suppress her talent.  

Bewitched showed fans that we all have special hidden talents/ “magic” that need to be explored. 

My latest book,  With the Twitch of the Nose, its Magic, is meant to be informational, fun, and a treasure to add to your Bewitched collection. You, the reader, are invited to the “magic” show.  It pays homage to one of America’s most enduring magical situational sitcoms. 

We want love to be magical.  We want to live simply and happily.  No one wants their life to be humdrum, married to an individual that sometimes acts like a dum-dum, living in a home in the middle of doldrums, with average children.  We all desire to be special and unique.  Not only do we want to meet Mr. or Miss Right, we want it to be a mystical experience.  In a life that has countless trying moments, we deserve something magical to cherish.  Just go back for a moment in time—look down memory lane.  What are your fondest memories?  Do they seem unreal, like a dream?  That is exactly why Bewitched was so appealing.  It made us secretly wish that there were real witches like Samantha that turned mundane life into magic!

Purchase Unofficial & Unauthorized Bewitched Screenplay

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The Magic of Bewitched Cookbook, Coming Soon To Audibles & I Tunes (take a listen) by, Gina Meyers, 101 Things to learn about Bewitched

 

Serendipity Media Group · Bewitched Book, by, Gina Meyers Introduction

Bewitching Beginning, short story about my first "magazine signing" at Barnes & Noble, by, Gina Meyers

“Write what you know”. That was what her writing instructor at the Community Adult Class said back in 1994 in an old musty smelling classroom at Clovis High School in Clovis, California. She had already been writing what she knew and what she knew a lot about was the television show Bewitched. How was that going to make her known? Or rather how was that going to make her money? Skinny, perky Gina, an entrepreneur at heart felt out of place in the writing class. She felt the intellectuals glaring at her cause she was young, well, 23, and they were concerned about grammatical errors and when to use a hyperbole in a sentence and all she cared about was the fact that her marketing and entrepreneurial zeal actually was resonating with others, fans, and moguls in the television industry.

 

Me at my first "magazine signing" at Barnes & Noble in Fresno, California with fans of The Bewitched TV Show. Note: I am holding a pen, it looks like a cigarette. Another note: All ages attended the signing. In the background, the Community Relations Manager.

By this time, Gina had already convinced Barnes & Noble to host a Bewitched Trivia night, now mind you Gina didn’t even have a book to sell, just a tiny scrawny cookbook that was printed off at Kinkos the night before per her cousin Paulette Grilli’s suggestion. And her mother too, she was there to help. She did have a magazine article, a Darrin Trivia Guide of sorts, the exact title was "Social Darrinism", a.k.a. Mangled Monikers and she served as a consultant for all things Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie in the Collectible Nick at Nite Magazine, with a young John Travolta (From his Welcome Back Kotter Days) emblazoned on the cover. Further convincing was in order. Gina worked for a subsidiary of Xerox and worked at California Business Furnishings off of Brawley and Shaw in Northwest Fresno. The techy guys liked Gina and worked along side her cubicle upstairs in the more narrow than anything upstairs kind of long room. Her idea, put Elizabeth Montgomery’s face, aka Samantha Stephens from Bewitched on $100,000 fake colored bills. The graphic designers loved the idea and ran with it and Gina had plenty of Bewitched Bucks to hand out for the correct trivia answers during the evening festivities. She religiously met with the Barnes and Noble CRM (Community Relations Manager) and they cooked up a Halloween Costume Contest too, plus upstairs at the large and spacious Barnes & Noble there was a cafe of which it had been decided, Bewitched Blackberry Italian Sodas and a Tabitha Banana Latte would be on the Bewitching menu.

Further adding to the fun, The Fresno Bee decided to publicize the event in the Life Section and have Gina on the front cover. That involved runs downtown to The Fresno Bee for a photo shoot, and a couple of meetups with reporter Rob Vaneski. Answering Rob’s questions were interesting, her first taste of the news media had started to percolate and Gina kind of knew that publicity would be one of the most important features of sharing her love of the television show Bewitched.

Sketches from creating The Magic of Bewitched Trivia & More book cover, by, Gina Meyers

 



 

Perhaps, one of the most interesting things about being a writer, is getting the opportunity to work with other talented people. Artist Erik Davison is one such person. I've saved these rough sketches that he so brilliantly drew to show the progression and the vision that I had for my Magic of Bewitched Trivia and More book cover. Initially, I dreamed that my book cover would resemble the opening credits from Bewitched with cartoon Samantha riding on a broom with the Manhattan skyscrapers in the background and the sky blue. "Weell", as Samantha Stephens used to say, those dreams came to a crashing halt one day when I was perusing the Barnes & Noble Popular Culture section at the bookstore and I came across Herbie J. Pilato's Bewitched Book. From that point, 1994, to 2004, when The Magic of Bewitched Trivia & More was published, I guess you could say, my inspiration was brewing. You can view Erik Davison's artwork at: http://my.fresnoarts.net/profile/ErikDavison. You can purchase Herbie's Bewitched Book: Herbie's Books. You can purchase Gina's book at: Magic of Bewitched at Amazon

Happy Anniversary Bewitched, 50 Years!

By, Gina Meyers

How do you pay homage to a television show? A show that completely changed my life. A show that changed millions of people's lives and still reruns even today. "Weeelll" as Samantha Stephens would say, you just wiggle your nose and go for it! Before I wrote The Magic of Bewitched Trivia and More Book, I was an aspiring writer. After writing the Bewitched Book, I became an author. Not only that, I became a  Bewitched Expert and traveled the United States on a book signing tour, and started a fan club, that reached people in Japan, England, Australia, and even some prison inmates down south. My children got to join in the fun of exciting Bewitched talks, Halloween Parties, book signings, trivia contests, mall extravaganzas, meeting celebrities, traveling to Salem, Massachusetts to see the Samantha Statue and so much more. They got to go on the radio with me, participate in an internationally televised television show (called Bewitched Fanatical), help me prepare for television segments, create food for television segments, join in the newspaper interviews, etc. I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy magazine interviews, live television cooking demonstrations, participating in fun Bewitched related events.

My favorite memories are too many, but I'll try.
1) Having a book-signing in Glendale, California at The Barnes & Noble with Kasey Rogers, Louise Tate, the "bosses wife". A boy came for his fourteenth birthday to my book signing as his birthday present. I remember my son Lucas was a baby at the time and my husband took him for awhile during the event. Me, my daughter Lauren, Kasey Rogers, and her mate, Mark Wood laughed and had a great time. We met many fans of Bewitched that day and each person had a story to share.

2) Hosting a Bewitched Bash at our  custom home in North East, Fresno. The best part was donating proceeds to NAMI and Make A Wish Foundation. The amount of work that went into the party and my type A personality when it comes to details I wouldn't wish on anyone, however, the event was very fun and memorable.

3) My (former)husband surprising me with a Bewitched Play in Shell Beach, California. A dinner party murder mystery  Bewitched theme was held at The Cove in Shell Beach. 

4) Staying at The Historic Hawthorne Hotel, where the Bewitched Cast and Crew stayed during the filming of their Salem Segments.
5) The librarians in Salem giving me dozens of newspaper clippings about Bewitched.
6) Aloha, my Bewitched Book Signing in Hawaii. The best part was being presented with a lei.
7) Oscar, the manager, at the now defunct San Francisco, California Fisherman's Wharf Barnes & Noble. He always made me feel welcome.
8) The countless events at the Edwards Theater, now defunct Sierra Vista movie theater.
9) The complimentary coffees, double chocolate frappuccinos that everyone in the family was allowed during my autograph parties at Barnes & Noble.
10) The hundreds of people that I have connected with as a result of Bewitched.

It all started because I loved a television show. From that passion grew a joy of writing trivia tidbits, honing in on my marketing skills, creating events, hosting trivia contests, creating culinary classics. Bewitched, spans decades and generations. It unthaws the proverbial TV Dinner and brings it to life with a charming cast of characters that everyone can relate to. We all have had an overbearing boss, or a neighbor that was just way too noisy,  a kooky cousin, crazy relatives and a mother or father-in-law who just gets our goat.

It's magical, like life.... Thanks Bewitched for making my dreams into realities, cheering me up on  bad days, being there through it all, and teaching me so many lessons.

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).

Bewitched, Bedazzled, Bewitched

Bewitched, reminiscent of all great television sitcoms, shows us our place in life.  It gives us a glimpse of the family we would like to be a part of, the job we wish to land, the person we would like to become, the friends we would like to have, and the dreams we wish to fulfill.  Like a fairy godmother’s magic dust, a good sitcom covers reality with fantasy and illusion and provides the modern liberated child in all of us with the security of reruns on the tube. 

Bewitched   teaches a valuable lesson, that there is “magic” in us and it is waiting to be freed.  A talent cannot be suppressed; a gift cannot be ignored in order to please someone else.  In Samantha’s case, her talent was witchcraft, and she tried to please her mortal husband Darrin by abstaining from her craft.

A gift is irrepressible and eventually it will emerge. Look at all the chaos that occurred when Sam tried to suppress her talent. 

Bewitched showed fans that we all have special hidden talents/ “magic” that need to be explored. 

The Magic of Bewitched: Trivia and More book is meant to be informational, fun, and a treasure to add to your Bewitched collection. You, the reader, are invited to the “magic” show. 

We want love to be magical.  We want to live simply and happily.  No one wants their life to be humdrum, married to an individual that sometimes acts like a dum-dum, live in a home in the middle of doldrums, with average children.  We all desire to be special and unique.  Not only do we want to meet Mr. or Miss Right, we want it to be a mystical experience.  In a life that has countless trying moments, we deserve something magical to cherish.  Just go back for a moment in time—look down memory lane.  What are your fondest memories?  Do they seem unreal, like a dream?  That is exactly why Bewitched was so appealing.  It made us secretly wish that there were real witches like Samantha that turned mundane life into magic!

Bewitched Banana Blueberry Bread

1- 6 ounce size of Light Vanilla Yogurt

2 bananas

½ package of Frozen Blueberries

1 Tablespoon of Vanilla Extract

1 teaspoon of Baking soda

2 eggs

butter (optional)

2 cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

½ cup of vegetable oil

Directions: Mix all ingredients (excluding flour) with an electric mixer on medium speed, scraping sides with the spatula until well blended. Add flour and blend. May add the blueberries early since they are frozen. If using fresh blueberries, wait until you have added the flour, then spoon in and fold fresh blueberries. Spray (or grease) a loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for forty minutes, or until a tooth pick placed in the center of the bread comes out clean.

Some people are just Bewitched...in a good way by Gina Meyers

Before there were babies and boyfriends, there was Bewitched. There were backyard Bewitched plays and barbies, and ballet lessons…. And Bewitched. Bewitched is a television show that aired from 1964 to July 1972. It was and still is my favorite television sitcom of all time!!! Before there was biking and hiking, for me… there was Bewitched. And now there is baking and book signings because of Bewitched. I always wished I could wiggle my nose—like Samantha Stephens from Bewitched. I always wished that I could just clean up the house in an instant, erase every problem I’ve ever had, and have that sort of “magical” unconditional love that Samantha bestowed upon Darrin Stephens, her rather “uptight” advertising executive of a husband.

As I said before marriage and mortgages and carpools and soccer games, and ballet competitions, and multitude of school projects, work obligations, and just everyday obligations….I live a very magical life…..As a popular television critic Rick Bentley put it so many years ago, I lead a very “charmed life”.

Today a group of people from around the cosmos are coming together for the annual Bewitched Fan Fare in Salem, Massachusetts. They aren’t witches or warlocks (as we all have been accused of), and yes, there really was a time in history when people were accused of “being witches and were burned at the stake”. As Samantha put it (or rather the very brilliant writers on one of the most beloved supernatural sitcoms in history stated: “I belong to a minority group.”) We all do-- if you really think about it.

Heaven knows being an expert on a television sitcom that ended close to before I was born-doesn’t actually bring home the “bacon”. But, being passionate about something has “saved my bacon on more than one occasion”.

Whichever (witch ever) way you look at it… Believe in your dreams.

My introduction written on a spiral bound notebook circa 1991ish, now published since 2004 in The Magic of Bewitched Trivia and More book:

Bewitched reminiscent of all great television sitcoms shows us our place in life. It gives us a glimpse of the family we’d like to be a part of, the job we wish to land, the person we’d like to become, the friends we’d like to have, and the dreams we wish to fulfill. Like a fairy godmother’s magic dust, a good sitcom covers reality with fantasy and illusion and provides the modern liberated child in all of us with security in reruns on the tube, (aka, television set).

Bewitched Fanatical Television Show, August 2005.

Venus and Adonis Episode from Bewitched.

 The Magic of Bewitched Trivia and More, by Gina Meyers

Cosmos Cotillion Cream Cheese Cookies

16 ounce package of cream cheese

¼ cup of margarine

1 package of lemon cake mix

1 egg

1 tsp. of vanilla extract

          Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the margarine, egg, and cream cheese into a bowl until well blended. Add vanilla extra and the cake mix. When mixed, roll the cookie mixture into balls and place on a not greased cookie sheet. Bake dough for 8 minutes.

Cosmos Cookies

1/2 cup margarine

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Galaxy Icing (to complement Cosmos Cookies)

Mix together:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

3-1/2 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Food coloring-optional

Directions: Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Thoroughly mix together margarine, vanilla, sugar, and three drops of food coloring (any color).  Add flour and salt and work until dough can hold together. 

Mold dough by Tablespoonfuls around a few chocolate pieces, nuts, or cherries.  Place cookie dough on a baking sheet approximately 1 inch apart for 10 minutes or until light brown.

Once the cookies are cool, dip tops of cookies into Galaxy Icing. Decorate cookies with colored sugar, sprinkles, candies, or coconut.  Makes 25 cookies.

I’ll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind

(By, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart & Serena)

Whenever you are tonight

I got a feelin’ that you look out of sight,

So I’m gonna blow you a kiss in the wind.

And when it reaches your lips your lips my dear,

You’re gonna smile and feel me oh so near,

So I’m gonna low you a kiss in the wind.

I’ve been laying here in my bed

The images of pretty thoughts runnin’ through my head

About a guy in my mind I can feel

I can almost touch

Oh, my goodness

I miss you and I want you so much.

Wherever you are tonight

I got a feelin’ hat you look out of sight

So I’m gonna blow you a kiss in the wind.

Yeah, I’m gonna blow you a kiss in the wind.

 Mocha Kiss Chocolate Chip Cake

1 package of Butter Fudge Cake mix

1 small package of instant vanilla pudding

4 eggs

1 pint of sour cream

¼ cup of chilled strong coffee, such as French or espresso roast

½ cup of oil

8 ounces of chocolate chips     

Directions: Mix all ingredients in a bowl with an electric mixer. Place batter into a  sprayed bunt pan and bake at  350 degrees for forty minutes. Cool and serve. Once cooled, generously dust top of cake with powdered sugar.