• Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    The joke being that that’s basically the plot to every episode.

    Endora is Samantha’s mother, so Darren’s mother-in-law.

    • zabadoh@ani.social
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      8 months ago

      Where would a young person even encounter Bewitched and actually watch it these days?

      It’s on various streaming services, and maybe that sitcom/classic TV channel on digital broadcast

      You’d actually have to seek it out to watch it, as opposed to coming across it when channel surfing.

      Another American cultural reference that will be lost to technology…

      • Album@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        Yeah it was different as a kid, I had Nick at nite before it was it’s own channel so the cartoons rolled into I dream of genie, bewitched, Mary tyler moore, dick van dyke. Welcome back cotter, happy days

        I’ve seen pretty much every episode of these shows even though they were an easy 20 years before my time.

        You can stumble across it on Pluto or tubi but who would bother when YouTube exists and these shows… I’m not sure they hold the test of time even though I look back on them fondly.

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Who even channel surfs anymore? You have to seek out everything now. I find myself watching Pluto just because you can find random shows without having to know about it already.

      • captainWhatsHisName@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        I think it’s on Tubi which is free and young people can figure it out. But they won’t stumble upon it like you said

      • fidodo@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I’ve never actually watched an episode but do know about the general premise somehow, I think through references to it in other media. I was able to figure out most of the joke even though I don’t know the character names.

  • captainWhatsHisName@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    I remember watching some bewitched reruns and they only had a few plots.

    • Husband doesn’t want wife to use witchcraft ever
    • Husband wants to be the breadwinner and doesn’t want any magical help with his career. By the way his job is in advertising which is useless and stupid so why would he care?
    • Wife’s in laws hate husband and make problems for him using magic in some way
    • Nosey neighbor keeps seeing strange things but nobody believes her

    It’s a comedy so nobody ever thinks to use magic in a way to help society or something, so that’s ok. But it’s very noticeable how mundane the plots are. Also I think there were a few other old shows where the characters were in the advertising business or television business. I bet this was done to pander to the people who were paying for the show.

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I think the characters are in those careers commonly because it’s what the writers know.

      • fishos@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Close but it’s because if the husband is an advertiser, then it’s REALLY easy to slip product placements in. It was part of the transition from the actors just blatantly looking at the screen and advertising the product to making it more subtle.

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      So many of the plots are of the form “housewife disobeys husband” that it’s seriously hard to watch.

        • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Like the times the wife has a valid disagreement and the immediate response is for her to “stop being hysterical.”

            • designatedhacker@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              On The Honeymooners his catchphrase was “one of these days Alice, bang zoom straight to the moon.” He was going to hit her so hard she flew to the moon. The height of comedy at the time.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          Eh, it doesn’t bother me, but it’s probably because I grew up with it. I’m quite capable of separating that nonsense from the rest of the show, and not being misogynistic toward others (or so my wife says).

        • Hasherm0n@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Even some not so old. JAG is a show I loved as a kid. I tried to watch it again a couple of years ago and was shocked at how much misogyny was portrayed in it.