There are two types of blogs.
OK, there are more than two. But that's how these pronouncements begin. The first type of blog is like mine. I write what I write; it might be about me, or something I've seen, and I'll offer a link or two. It's the sort of message you might find tacked to a refrigerator, if we shared the same kitchen.
And then you have the second type: the blog that feels like an essay. You sense wit and intellect and life experience behind the words. And the words are served on a silver platter; artfully arranged and well-seasoned, a meal for the mind.
That's why I like Something Old, Nothing New. Jaime J. Weinman looks at popular culture with the same eye for magic you'd expect of a biologist moonlighting as a tour guide, turning over a random leaf and revealing the tree frog living on the flipside.
In this instance, he's considering the tv show Bewitched. The magic is that he's charmed me into renting the show's first season.
In "Eye of the Beholder," Endora shows Darrin a portrait of Samantha that was painted centuries ago, demonstrating that witches never age. The episode focuses on Darrin's adjusting to the fact that he and Samantha will not grow old together (there are some pretty poignant moments with him observing a happy elderly couple). But we can recognize in the situation, and the way it plays out, an examination of our real-life concerns about aging and mortality. There's even an episode where Darrin is convinced that his swinging bachelor friend (Adam West) must be under a spell when he falls in love with Samantha's plain friend, because the friend is changing so much and so quickly; at the end, it finally seems to dawn on him that what changes a man is not magic but love and marriage.
The first season sounds perfect. The only drawback, if I remember right, is the theme song. I think it was played with a heavy foot, with none of the swinging flourish I associate with the later seasons. I googled the Bewitched theme song and found the seldom-heard lyrics. Clearly, love as magic was the show's inspiration:
Bewitched, bewitched, you've got me in your spell.
Bewitched, bewitched, you know your craft so well.
Before I knew what you were doing I looked in your eyes.
That brand of woo that you've been brew-in' took me by surprise.
You witch, you witch, one thing that's for sure,
That stuff you pitch - just hasn't got a cure.
My heart was under lock and key, but somehow it got unhitched.
I never thought my heart could be had.
But now I'm caught and I'm kind of glad to be Bewitched.
Bewitched-witched.
And speaking of theme songs, I was never a fan of I Dream of Jeannie, but the song has aged well, like wine uncorked from a genie's bottle.
Here's a clip of a snazzy version by Big Kahuna and the Copa Cat Pack.
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