{"id":7063508,"date":"2026-09-21T23:27:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T23:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/january-15-2026-the-boob-tube-in-the-60s-70s-bewitched\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T23:27:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T23:27:45","slug":"january-15-2026-the-boob-tube-in-the-60s-70s-bewitched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7063508","title":{"rendered":"January 15, 2026: The Boob Tube in the 60s & 70s: Bewitched"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[This week marks the 60th<\/sup> anniversary<\/a> of the
\ndebut of the Batman<\/i> TV show & the 50th<\/sup><\/a> of The
\nBionic Woman<\/i>. So I\u2019ll AmericanStudy those shows & three others from the
\n60s & 70s, all of which happen to start with the letter \u2018B\u2019! I\u2019d love your
\nresponses and other TVStudying thoughts for a crowd-sourced weekend post that
\nneeds no \u201cApplause\u201d sign.]<\/p>\n

On how Salem both inspired and was inspired by the 60s sitcom, and
\nwhy that\u2019s profoundly problematic.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Walter
\nMetz\u2019s 2007 history<\/a> of Bewitched<\/i>, the show\u2019s creator Sol Saks<\/a> was
\ninspired by two films featuring witchy romance in a contemporary setting. The
\nmore famous, Bell,
\nBook, and Candle<\/a><\/i> (1958, but an adaptation of John Van
\nDruten\u2019s 1950 Broadway play<\/a> of the same name), features Kim Novak as a
\nmodern witch who uses a love spell on Jimmy Stewart. But to my mind the more
\ntelling is I Married a
\nWitch<\/a> <\/i>(1942, an adaptation of James Thorne Smith\u2019s posthumously published
\n1941 novel
\nThe Passionate Witch<\/i><\/a>), in which Veronica Lake\u2019s modern witch seeks
\nrevenge on Fredric March\u2019s descendent of Salem Witch Trials accusers but ends
\nup falling in love with him instead. When we take these two cinematic predecessors
\ntogether, we can see the origins of a show largely focused on sitcom problems (marriage
\nand parenting, home and work conflicts, neighbors, and so on) but with an
\ninteresting layer of a multigenerational magical family (main character Samantha Stephens\u2019s mother<\/a>
\nand later her and her husband Dick\u2019s daughter, both fellow witches<\/a>, in
\nparticular).<\/span><\/p>\n

If Salem played a small role in the show\u2019s origins, Bewitched<\/i>
\nwould eventually play
\na very significant role<\/a> in Salem\u2019s evolving late 20th<\/sup>-century histories.
\nAs that hyperlinked Smithsonian <\/i>magazine article (itself based on Witch
\nTrials historian<\/a> Stacey Schiff\u2019s New
\nYork Times piece<\/span><\/a><\/i>) notes, it was when
\nthe show filmed special
\nepisodes in Salem<\/a> in 1970\u2014including one episode where Samantha travels back
\nin time and becomes one of the accused in the Witch Trials\u2014that the city first
\nbegan to lean into the possibilities of using these controversial and painful
\nhistories as a vehicle
\nfor tourism<\/a>. That possibility gradually became not just a reality but the
\ncity\u2019s defining one in the 21st<\/sup> century, to the point where most of
\nits public signage, marketing, and even institutions like
\nthe police<\/a> call it \u201cThe Witch City<\/a>\u201d and\u2014most
\nstrikingly when it comes to the influence of Bewitched<\/i> on this process\u2014since
\n2005 one of its central public parks features a life-size
\nstatue of actress Elizabeth Montgomery<\/a> in character as Samantha.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already written a good bit in this space about why that \u201cWitch
\nCity\u201d emphasis is at
\nbest seriously complicated<\/a> and at worst deeply
\nfrustrating<\/a>, and I don\u2019t want to rehash all those arguments here. Instead,
\nI\u2019ll just note that it\u2019s particularly fraught to connect this particular sitcom,
\nwith its central emphasis on the wacky hijinks that befall a witch and a
\nnon-witch who are also a married couple, to the histories of Salem and the
\nWitch Trials. After all, one of the most famous pairs of Witch Trial victims
\nwere Martha
\nand Giles Corey<\/a>, a woman who was executed after her husband testified
\nagainst her at her witchcraft trial\u2014and after which he subsequently was accused
\nand executed (in the admittedly badass moment with which I began that hyperlinked
\npost) as well. I don\u2019t have any problem with Bewitched<\/i>\u2019s premise on its
\nown terms, and as those prior pieces indicate I have long since made my peace
\nwith the contradictions of Salem. But this seems to me to be a case where life
\nand art should stay quite fully distinct from one another. <\/span><\/p>\n

Last TVStudying tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What do you think? Other 60s and\/or 70s TV you\u2019d highlight? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This week marks the 60th anniversary of the debut of the Batman TV show & the 50th of The Bionic Woman. So I\u2019ll AmericanStudy those shows & three others from the 60s & 70s, all of which happen to start with the letter \u2018B\u2019! I\u2019d love your responses and other TVStudying thoughts for a crowd-sourced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[9874,1851,74912,194167,3805,2947],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7063508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-history","tag-60s","tag-70s","tag-bewitched","tag-boob","tag-january","tag-tube"],"yoast_head":"\nJanuary 15, 2026: The Boob Tube in the 60s & 70s: Bewitched - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7063508\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"January 15, 2026: The Boob Tube in the 60s & 70s: Bewitched - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[This week marks the 60th anniversary of the debut of the Batman TV show & the 50th of The Bionic Woman. 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