Tabitha

Tabitha
Opening title sequence for Tabitha
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Jerry Mayer
Directed by	Charles S. Dubin William Asher Charles Rondeau Murray Golden Herb Wallerstein George Tyne Bruce Bilson
Starring	Lisa Hartman David Ankrum Robert Urich Mel Stewart Karen Morrow
Theme music composer	Jeff Barry
Opening theme	"It Could Be Magic" performed by Lisa Hartman
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jerry Mayer
Producer(s)	Robert Stambler William Asher George Yanok
Running time	30 mins. (approx)
Production company(s)	Columbia Pictures Television
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Audio format	Monaural
Original run	April 24, 1976 – January 14, 1978
Chronology
Preceded by	Bewitched

Tabitha is an American fantasy sitcom that aired during the 1977-1978 season on ABC. It was a spin-off of Bewitched, which had ended its run several years earlier. On Bewitched, Tabitha had been played for 6 seasons by Erin Murphy

Synopsis

North American DVD release

The series starred Lisa Hartman as Tabitha Stephens (some sources spell her name "Tabatha"), the daughter of Samantha and Darrin, now a young woman in Los Angeles working in television, while learning how to use and control her witchcraft powers. Helping her along (or hindering her) is her younger brother Adam (David Ankrum) and previously-unmentioned Aunt Minerva (Karen Morrow), while Robert Urich appeared as her love interest.

Four actors from the original series appeared in separate episodes. Bernard Fox reprised his role of the warlock Dr. Bombay, while George Tobias and Sandra Gould made guest appearances as Abner and Gladys Kravitz. Dick Wilson reprised his role as the drunk man who thinks he is hallucinating. Neither Elizabeth Montgomery nor Dick Sargent appeared on the new series.

The series takes place in the "present day" (late 1970s) yet does not attempt to reconcile how Tabitha and Adam could be in their early-to-mid 20s when they had been young children at the time Bewitched (also "present day") ended five years earlier. As a pre-teen, Erin Murphy was too young to play an adult Tabitha.

There were in fact two pilot films produced for the series. The first, which was broadcast by ABC on April 24, 1976 (and used the variant spelling Tabatha for the title) starred Liberty Williams in the title role, with Bruce Kimmel as Adam.^[1] The major difference between the pilot and the series was Adam was a full-fledged and mischievous warlock in the pilot, but was made a mortal for the series (thus making him the disapproving figure as Darrin had been, and going against the original series, where Adam had been proven capable of magic in the last season).

In the first pilot, Tabatha was an editorial assistant for the fictional Trend Magazine, lived in San Francisco, and had a boyfriend named Cliff (Archie Hahn), and also contended with the supernatural antics of Adam, who wanted Tabatha to use her witchcraft and have some fun.

In situations that were very similar to the original debut of Bewitched, Tabatha tells Cliff that she is a witch, who at first doesn't believe her, but later discovers that she was telling the truth. Also, much like her mother did when she used her powers to deflect the unwanted affections of Sheila Sommers, her father's former fiancee, Tabatha deflects rival Dinah Nichols (Barbara Rhoades) from seducing Cliff.

The first pilot (directed by Bewitched producer/director William Asher) sold the series, but ABC changed the sitcom's setting from San Francisco to Los Angeles, recast the main roles, and ordered a second pilot with Hartman and Ankrum. This version also gave Tabitha an "Aunt Minerva", who had never been referred to on the original series and who fulfilled a similar role as Endora had in Bewitched.

The revised Tabitha pilot aired on ABC on May 7, 1977 and the series properly debuted on September 10 of that year. The series' second official episode would not air until November 12. The series then continued more or less uninterrupted but failed to garner sufficient ratings to be renewed for a full season. The final episode aired on January 14, 1978 for a total of 13 episodes produced and broadcast, including the two pilots.

Characters

• Tabitha Stephens (Lisa Hartman) was the main character. She is the daughter of Samantha and Darrin Stephens. She twitches her nose, much like her mother does, to invoke her magic spells.

• Adam Stephens (David Ankrum) was Tabitha's younger brother. He is the son of Samantha and Darrin Stephens. He is against Tabitha using witchcraft (much like Darrin, their father, was) and persuades Tabitha not to use her magic. Although he himself has some semblance of warlock powers, he doesn't use them in the series. Despite that, though, he does love his sister.

• Aunt Minerva (Karen Morrow) was Adam and Tabitha's aunt. She is a meddlesome, but well-meaning busy-body and encourages Tabitha to use her magic. She is the mother figure for Tabitha, in lieu of Samantha.

• Paul Thurston (Robert Urich) was the egotistical, somewhat obnoxious host of The Paul Thurston Show on the fictional TV station KXLA, where Tabitha worked as a Production Assistant. Paul was a love interest for Tabitha.

• Marvin Decker (Mel Stewart) was producer of The Paul Thurston Show and Tabitha's cranky but lovable boss at KXLA.

Episodes

Production notes

Tabitha was taped at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television (previously known as Screen Gems, who had produced the parent sitcom Bewitched).

DVD release

In 2005, to coincide with the release of the first season of Bewitched on DVD (and the release of the Bewitched feature film), Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the entire run of Tabitha on DVD. The original Liberty Williams pilot is included as a Special Feature.

References

External links

• Tabitha at the Internet Movie Database
• Tabitha at TV.com
• Tabitha at EpGuides.com
• Bruce Kimmel reminisces about the first pilot