TVLand used to show Bewitched daily a couple of years ago. Hubs and I TiVo'd it until they started recycling episodes -- took maybe a year, maybe a little less.

Regardless of what the show's Powers That Be intended, it has interesting things to say about the situation of The Outsider in mainstream society. Because Samantha doesn't only get pressure from that society to conform to its norms -- she also gets pressure from Witchly Society (especially Endora) to conform to its norms.

Yep. Though I think that aspect tended to correspond more to the overt racially mixed marriage metaphor than the gay subtext.

Bewitched is on today. On, um, I don't know what channel, but I saw it while going through the DirectTV channel guide. Right after I Dream Of Jeannie

A Chicago station shows it -- it's on now! We get the station for some reason. Oh, it's WGN, which I guess is sort of a superstation?

Definitely a superstation. My sister likes to catch the Chicago news on it now that she lives in Vegas. I called her last night and mentioned the snow forecast, and she had more details about it than I did!

I can do either or both. I think Moff's law and cornflake-pissing come in where one person insists the other HAS to approach the art the way they do.

Yes. YES. I enjoy a lot of, erm, "problematic" media (esp. music). And for some of it, I say things like "Yes, I know this is flawed, I know this has all sorts of skeevy subtext, but there are parts of it that are really fun, and that's what I'm going to focus on."

Man, I haven't see Bewitched in decades. I wonder if I should track down a few episodes again.

In spite of number of gay actors, the subtext I also read was as a fantasy metaphor for a middle class guy marrying into a rich family, not accepting money from his wifes rich family and trying to keep her from using her money to escape the traditional wife as servant role. Witches are powerful, pretty much immune to anything mortals can do, and able to torment them as much as they choose. (It is canonical in the series that no real witches were hanged in Salem only people falsely accused.) Think of how the family lives - hobnobbing with royality, expensive clothes, taking up any hobbies they want with no need to work. Much more like jet setters than gay subculture. And one time when Serena thinks her powers are gone for good she decides to marry a rich man, cause "the next best thing to witchcraft is richcraft". (From memory so a paraphrase rather than an exact quote".)

Yeah I watched a LOT of Bewitched as a kid. I think I had a crush on Elizabeth Montgomery even though I was too young to know what a crush was.

I too loved Bewitched, but I was not a Serena fan. As a little kid, I loved order and really wasn't good with shows that upset my idea of order - so I was completely on board with Samantha having an orderly life and I saw Endora, the "witch doctor" and Serena as potentially fucking up her situation. I was so nervous for Samantha all the time and I really was bothered by the way Samantha's mother treated Darrin.

I totally wanted Tabitha's powers, by the way.

As a kid I loved Serena because she was a brunette, and I really wanted Darrin to grow up and get over the whole witch thing. I hated that he thought he could tell her what to do. So I guess I was more on the mother's side.

Yeah, his just out and out ordering not to use witchcraft (except in emergencies) bothered me even as a small child. I thought not wanting his life dominated or taken over by witchcraft was reasonable, but not simply giving orders. I always thought they should have negotiated a set of rules for her use of witchcraft - one that would have let Samantha express herself, and not get stuck with a bunch of boring chores Darin did not have to do. With some rules for Darin too, like not being so quick to be rude to Endora.