One Season Wonders: Tabitha
Tabitha was a spinoff of the beloved 1960’s series Bewitched. The series starred a pre-nose job Lisa Hartman (Knots Landing) as Tabitha Stephens, the daughter of Samantha and Darrin, who is all grown up and living in Los Angeles. The show follows her as she learns to use and control her witchcraft while working at a television station. Her younger brother, Adam (David Ankrum), in classic Darrin Stephens fashion, discourages her from using her witchcraft while Aunt Minerva (Karen Morrow) channels Endora and does just the opposite. Robert Urich stars as Tabitha’s love interest and television personality Paul Thurston and Mel Stewart plays her boss, Marvin Decker.
Although Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York (or Dick Sargent for that matter) didn’t ever show up on the series, a few actors from the original series did reprise their roles. Bernard Fox shows up as Dr. Bombay, and George Tobias and Sandra Gould guest star as nosy neighbors Abner and Gladys Kravitz. Also guest starring are tv favorites Barry Van Dyke, Fred Willard and Werner “Col. Klink” Klemperer.
The pilot premiered on ABC on May 7, 1977 and the series debuted on September 10 of that same year. The second episode didn’t air until November 12, after which the series continued normally. It failed to perform in the ratings and was cancelled after only 12 episodes. The final episode was shown on January 14, 1978.
The DVD release includes all 12 episode plus the original, unaired pilot which starred Liberty Williams and Bruce Kimmel in the roles of Tabitha and Adam in a somewhat different setting.
My StumbleUpon Page
Leave a Reply