Friday, August 27, 2010

A sight for sorcerer's eyes: Salem, Massachusetts' "Bewitched" statue







They've taken Sam to heart in Salem with T-shirts...

...and other tributes around town.


A pretty witch marries a jumpy, mortal adman. They live in either suburban Connecticut or New York state (depending on the episode) where she keeps house and has to hide her true identity from prying neighbors. Her disapproving mother and colorful relatives interfere and make the adman even more jumpy. The mother turns the husband into a frog (or worse) and the witch twitches and her nose turns him back. Hilarity ensues. That just about sums up the 1964-72 TV sitcom "Bewitched," starring Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha, Dicks York and Sargent as Sam's husband Darren, and Agnes Moorhead as Sam's mother Endora. It came from that glorious 1960s TV era when every sitcom had to have a gimmick: The Munsters were monsters, I Dream of Jeanie was a genie, and Patty Duke had an identical cousin. It also had a breezy theme song and fun animated opening credits. When the TVLand network started erecting statues of characters from their stable of classic sitcoms in different parts of the country, they saw fit to a create a likeness of Samantha sitting on her broom in a moon crescent as she is depicted in the show's opening. But where to put the sorceress sculpture? Salem, Massuchusetts, with its storied, witchy past (and its use as a location on the show a couple of times), seemed like a (super) natural location. After a bit of controversy and protest from some of the townfolk who thought it was insensitive to put a TV sitcom statue on the very sight where 19 innocent people were executed in 1692, the TVLand people smoothed things over and dedicated their magical memorial in 2005. It's charming and enchanting any witch way you look at it.

3 comments:

  1. That Samantha statue looks creepy.

    I am really enjoying your blog.

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  2. Thanks so much! I live in Salem and your blog made a perfect link to show some friends on Facebook just what a disservice the Chamber of Commerce did Elizabeth Montgomery with that piece of bronze at Washington and Essex Streets. She was much prettier than that! :)

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