It’s here! My Season 1 Bewitched DVD set. 36 episodes! Boy, TV has changed a bit in the last 40 years, hasn’t it?

Well, that goes without saying. I happened to catch one of the old B&W episodes of Bewitched on my parent’s cable while I was out of town, and it was one of those *annoying* episodes where Samantha comes up with a great idea for one of Darren’s ad campaigns and he passes it off as his own without batting an eye and the episode ends with them hugging and her saying how she doesn’t want his job, she just wants to be the PerfectLittleAverageHousewife for her big super-star Ad Exec man.

WTF??

You’d be nobody without her, buddy.

It made me think twice about buying the DVD set instead of being patient and waiting for Netflix to notice it’d been released. But I’ve liked this show for a LONG time and have only caught episodes here and there in a totally RANDOM order and I wanted to see it in the order it originally aired for once. Plus, only $27.00 bucks.

I think what ultimately makes this show tolerable is despite the episode-ender “important lesson” lip-service to “You-man, me-little-wife”, the show ultimately subverts that message because Samantha’s heritage and strong personality won’t allow her to be an “obedient wife”. Not to mention the support she gets in her liberation from her family, which to a person look askance at the life she is trying to live (and not just the denying her magic, but also the submissive housewife routine as well).

I’m not saying this is a feminist show, ’cause I don’t think it is, at least not consciously. But it’s one of those shows like I Love Lucy that gets its energy and charm from the Wacky!Disobedient!Wife gimmick and says a lot about the transition in attitudes that were going on in pre-1970’s America.

The real reason I like the show is I have a soft spot for supernatural family stories.

Well, duh.