MovieChat Forums > Bewitched (1964) Discussion > Fourth of July

Fourth of July

posted 7 years ago by [email protected] (1732)
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Since a lot of us watch the Halloween shows in October, the Thanksgiving ep on Thanksgiving, and the Christmas shows in December, I was wondering if anyone besides me does a Fourth of July show. In the last seven years or so, I usually pull out the Ben Franklin two-parter. Once a year is enough for me, as I'm not generally fond of two-parter episodes. But this gem is, to me anyway, the best of the "historical figures conjured from the past." Fred Wayne is terrific as Franklin, and Aunt Clara is a hoot here.

Trivia: This two-parter was actually the very first color shows shot for season three, even though they didn't air until December of '66. Montgomery is wearing very little makeup, and I think they hadn't get gotten the right "look" for her "in color" Samantha yet.

[–] [email protected] (5918) 7 years ago

I do like to watch all the holiday episodes at the appropriate holiday, but never thought of this two parter as a Fourth of July episode. But actually, if you are going to celebrate the Fourth, it might as well be with Ben Franklin!

I watched it yesterday and I think I'll give it another view today. Many interesting things about this offering. The first part was aired without a laugh track. Wonder why they did that? Still, it's interesting. The theme of the show is a bit more serious without the supply of fake giggles and guffaws.

The guest stars supply a lot of interesting elements. The prosecutor, Chuck Hawkins,played by Mike Road, had me wondering, as I was sure I knew the actor from SOMEWHERE! I could not place his face but luckily with the internet, I could look up his acting bio. A few years ago when I looked it up, he supplied the voice of Race Bannon from the Jonny Quest cartoons. It was a favorite show of mine.

Ben Franklin has always been one of my favorite historical figures. When I was nine I took out my first Franklin biography from the school library. He fascinated me.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

The episode DID have a laugh track, as did the video tape offering from Columbia House. The lack of a laugh track for
the part one of the DVD release was clearly an error.

When I was a kid, they used to broadcast "Hippie Hippie Hooray" (never one of my favorites to start with) without a
laugh track. Another error in a 16 MM local broadcast copy. But the laugh track is present in the TV Land/DVD copies.

[–] [email protected] (5918) 7 years ago

Saw this episode in syndication without a laugh track. And the DVD I have has no laugh track. I think no laugh track does the episode justice. It was a somewhat serious episode, there was humor, but a laugh track would have been annoying and intrusive. Just how I see it.

"Hippy Hippy Hooray"? I saw that broadcast without a laugh track. It didn't deserve one! ha! It was the only Serena episode that I found cringeworthy.

At the time it was aired I don't think they realized that the "hippie" aspect would make the episode dated. But that's not my real problem. First, Serena seems to have a major disdain for all things "mortal", why would she involve herself in the hippie counter culture?

Maybe because it gave her a chance to wear hippie "threads" and carry a psychedelic guitar, or as Larry Tate called it , a "psychotic" guitar.

But Serena never sported blonde hair before or after this episode. It was just an excuse for Larry Tate to see her picture in the paper and get his knickers in a twist over "Samantha" becoming a hippy. He said it would be bad for McMann and Tate's "image". And why is that? In the vanity episode, Darrin laments that the firm's advertising targets the "under thirty, youth" crowd. Even today, many ads and commercials target the youth market.

Larry was being a worrisome old fuddy duddy. As if their clients would even RECOGNIZE the wife of one of the firm's executives in the newspaper. No names of the so-called hippies were given.

Why did the Stephens have to explain about Serena? A few months earlier in "That was No Chick, That was My Wife", Samantha is in Chicago with Darrin on a business trip. Louise sees her by accident when Sam pops back home to take care of a problem with Aunt Clara. Sam later enlists Serena's help to explain to Louise that she saw her cousin.

Still, I watch the episode, but I fast forward the IFFIN song. Blech!

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

I bought the Columbia House, limited collection of BW episodes on VHS (I still own them, and while I never watch
them, I've kept them for sentimental reasons). In any case, the laugh track is there in both Ben Franklin eps.
Same thing when I was a kid. There would be no reason to not put a laugh track in part one, but put one in part
two. This is clearly an error, and the show plays oddly without it.

[–] [email protected] (5918) 7 years ago

I didn't know Columbia House put out a collection on VHS. I do have the "collector's edition" of episodes from season one. It's 16 episodes in four clamshell boxes. The artwork is pretty and I keep them, like you do, for sentimental reasons. I have one portable TV with a VCR, but it doesn't work too well.

I've never seen the first part of 'Ben Franklin' with a laugh track. I wonder who was responsible for the goof?

I recall reading that this was the first episode filmed but shown midseason. It was the first episode with the recast Gladys. I got the idea that the show wanted the audience to forget Alice Pearce's portrayal before introducing a new actress.

I kind of felt sorry for Sandra Gould stepping into an established role portrayed by someone so talented. I guess she wanted to make the role her own, but in this episode she is a nasty unlikable character. Pearce's Gladys was a nosy pest, but she always seemed to imbue her with a sweetness and a befuddlement. Gould's Gladys had a hard, b#tchy edge to her. There were a few episodes later on where I liked her, but I would definitely NOT open my door to a neighbor with her attitude. I think Samantha showed a lot of restraint!

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

I think that (perhaps) the Ben Franklin episode was thought of as educational, and the best way to show off
the episode (s) in this fashion, means private prints were set aside without the laugh track. Perhaps part
two also had a ready print available without a laugh track. Obviously, when the third season went to DVD
(approximately ten years ago), somebody goofed and used a "laughless" print from season one, and then
backed it up with a laugh-track coded part two.

[–] adamdurrance (60) 7 years ago

If they ever restore this show for bluray, I hope they give us the option of shutting off the laugh track.
They did this with Mash aand I prefer it that way. If I find I'm wrong, I can always turn it back on.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

Ugh. I think the laugh track is part of the charm of "Bewitched", and other sitcoms, and it would play
really flat without it. In the the part 1 Ben Franklin ep, the pacing seems off, with all sorts of awkward
pauses.

Alan Alda absolutely HATED the laugh track on "Mash" and fought to drop it during the show's initial
run. I hated that series (especially due to the fact that nobody made any effort to look like it was
the 1950's. Alda and Lorreta Swits' hair alone was embarrassing, it was so 1970's. So much for
Alda's "artistic vision").

[–] Galactus03 (4375) 7 years ago

Well the hair styles were ok in the beginning...swits was ok and Aldas was grown out because he was being rebellious. But the last few seasons swit did indeed have an 80's style cut. I was more bothered by the amount of Christmas episodes and the retcon of years...they had to fudge stuff because the Korean war was three years and the beginning of the show we are already over a year into the war....

[–] [email protected] (5918) 7 years ago

If you want to talk "hairstyles", the guys on Happy Days, aside from Fonzie, sported very seventies hair styles! No crew cuts for Ritchie, Potsie or Ralph. lol

MASH had no laugh track in the OR which made a lot of sense. I have to agree with that. But yeah, many holidays and seasons passed by when the characters would've only been in Korea for another two years. It was sort of a running joke that the series lasted a lot longer than the war.

I don't think Margaret Houlihan's long flowing hair was exactly military or very practical since she was an OR nurse. But when don't TV shows take dramatic license? lol

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

Dramatic license??? Alda was an egomaniac (as were most of the cast), yet they couldn't
be bothered trying to look like anything other than the 1970's in appearance, body language,
and even scripting. I'm not saying "Mash" isn't a classic. It is. I loathe the show, but
I recognize its immense qualities. I just couldn't get into it.

"Happy Days" was charming - in its first one-camera season. When it went three-camera/
studio audience, and became "The Fonzie Spectacle", I stopped watching. Same thing
with "All in the Family" - when Mike and Gloria moved next door and the drooling, bald
baby Joey came along, I stopped watching that show, too.

Curiously, I know a lot of people who feel the same way about "Bewitched" - when
Sargent came on, they stopped all together. Can't say I blame them. But I'm a devotee
of all eight years. And "Bewitched", for all its magic, is NOT "Mash" OR "All in the Family."

[–] [email protected] (5918) 7 years ago

"Dramatic license"? Just trying to be tactful!

No argument about Alda's ego. I loved the show when it first aired. But when I watch reruns, I only like the first few 'Henry Blake' seasons. Those years seemed to capture the zany, we're just "dopey doctors" trapped in the Army scenario. The later years, oh my yes(!), Alan Alda began to run things and to insert his philosophy and political views into just about every episode.

Even at the beginning, it always irritated me when Hawkeye bent over backwards to stick up for North Korea and any Commie he ran into while badmouthing the Army and America.

Happy Days was a great show in the first season. I agree when it became Fonzie's "Happy Days" and the studio audience hooted and screamed when he made an entrance, it lost its charm.

Actually I still liked All in the Family when baby Joey was born. It was only a natural outgrowth of a young married couple's lives. And I think it made Archie and Edith grow too. Archie softened up a bit and was devoted to his grandson. Edith seemed to grow more of a backbone by becoming a grandmother.

I loved Bewitched right up until the end. By the time Dick Sargent came on, the show was getting old, didn't have the same charm as the first few seasons. But it was still good. Just watched a few of the first season six episodes and Sargent was a lot funnier than I remembered.

[–] adamdurrance (60) 7 years ago

I find myself re watching the 8th season for the it's so bad it's good quality.
For me it's interesting to watch the cast give up. Exception is Agnes who usually put in what she could.
The one who played Martha Washington seem to put in a good effort.
No doubt 1-3 we're the zenith years but the 8th is my guilty pleasure.
One thing that kind of bothers me about some 60s shows were characters that wear the same clothes. Maurice did that. Don't remember a different outfit on him at all.
Although I do work with people who never seem to change thier clothes at all either, and the work is physical so it is a turn off to me to see that.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

It was his "Warlock" outfit. It was his "signature." And Maurice was only in ONE
episode per season the first three; he wasn't in the fourth at all, and he only
did two in season five. And who's to say it was the exact same outfit? I'm sure
he had several different pairs (both the actor and the character).

All in the Family: To me, the art of the series went out the door when Mike and
Gloria moved next door. The central tension was missing, as it was based on
FORCED co-habitation in the first five seasons. And a baby usually means
"jumping the shark" (as it did with Adam on "Bewitched"). I just didn't care
that the Stivics had a kid, and the show, while not lousy, just got soft in the
center and became another Sunday night diversion, as opposed to a controversial
must-see series.

As for the acting, O'Connor lost his edge and became clownish. He overplayed
terribly, as did Struthers, who mugged someting awful (it was not cute to see
her pinch or smack her father's forehead. So cartoonish).

Like Lucille Ball, O'Connor didn't know when to quit. Amusingly, he always
threatened Norman Lear that he'd walk away if certain demands were not
met. Yet he wound up kicking and dragging his way off the show, first
with the insufferable Stephanie years, then with the awful Archie Bunker's
Place.

[–] [email protected] (5918) 7 years ago

adamdurrance- I just have to get seasons seven and eight. I saw some of the episodes a few years back and was struck by how the show became zany with more and more outlandish magic. Elizabeth Montgomery was clearly bored and wanted out, so she seemed to be in "what the heck" mode, let's just get through it.

The first few seasons resonated with emotion. It was more of a true love story with Sam's magic getting in the way. I was surprised when I bought the first two seasons. I had forgotten how little magic was used in some of the episodes.

Some sixties characters did wear the same clothes a lot. The Cartwrights were fabulously wealthy,but seemed to own one outfit apiece. lol Shows like that did it for convenience and continuity. The characters dressed the same so they could use and re-use the outdoor stock footage of them in the same clothes.

Maurice swooped in with great flair wearing his tux and opera cape. That was his look. Somehow I can't picture him popping in wearing jeans and a t-shirt! ha!

[–] adamdurrance (60) 7 years ago

Two things I can think about I liked about the later seasons were the updated magic sound effects, and the different ways Endora would make Sam jump when delivering a written message.

[–] [email protected] (1732) 7 years ago

"The different ways Endora would make Sam jump when delivering a written
message."

From "This Little Piggie":

Sam: Mother...I'm not accusing...I'm just asking. Did you put a hex on
Darrin this morning?"

A yellow balloon floats down and Sam reads it.

SAM: "Hex no."

POP!!!! Lol!

[–] adamdurrance (60) 7 years ago

Yip, and I think more than once the flaming arrow would hit the ground close by making Sam jump.

[–] HitlerDidNothin (15) 7 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Galactus03 (4375) 7 years ago

Good idea....I think I will pull those eps out today. They are indeed two very good eps..