Sabrina, The Teenage Witch: Season Three

For anyone who grew up in the late fifties and early sixties our childhood was defined by the comics we read. You choice in comics set which social circle you were in and played a large part of who your friends were. For boys the choice was between the more tradition DC comics with Superman, Batman and the Green Lantern. Those you wanted to be a little more cutting edge went with the Marvel universe that contained Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and Captain America. There was another major brand of comics that most of us ignored, the girl comics. The most popular of these came from Archie comics with the flagship Archie, Betty and Veronica characters. In 1962 another character was introduced, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch. We knew about her but most guys, unless they had a sister, never read one. In 1996 this comic was brought to television first as a pilot made for TV movie than as a weekly half hour sit-com. Okay, I admit it, I watched it. It was light, fun and dare I say, interesting. Before you go calling Chris Hanson on me I had a daughter in those ‘tween years at the time. Even as an adult and far removed from the target demographic this series was enjoyable. The characters were permitted to take on topics that would be important to the kids watching and if you sat there with your kid a chance for the parents to gain a little insight.

The series dealt with a teenaged girl who discovers she is a witch with magical powers. Magic has been part of story telling since before mankind painted on cave walls so you can’t really go wrong with that as a basis for a show. It is also the perfect format for flights of imagination. Who hasn’t at one time or another wished they had powers like this. Now the third season of the series is available on DVD thanks to the folks over at Paramount. Unfortunately the DVD box states that some episodes have been edited from their broadcast versions. There was no indication of just what has been changed but after watching them I couldn’t see anything major that was changed. Part of the draw or this series was the popular music that was slipped in. There is also a warning on the cover that some of this was also changed. At the time of the original production networks were just beginning to arrange for digital rights to popular music used in their series and many shows like this legally required some changes for the DVD release. For the sake of the fans they will hopefully get this worked out before the season four which had an appearance by Britney Spears, back when she was popular for performing.

For a light family sit-com there was an amazing continuity for the story lines. There was always an episodic story with a nice resolution within the required 22 minutes they the writers went beyond that. Layered over the episode’s dilemma was a season long theme. In season one it was Sabrina coming to grips with the fact that she and her aunts were witches. Season two saw Sabrina studying for the magic license as required by the dreaded Witch’s Council. In season three she has gotten her license but is still not able to use it or a lot of her magic. Before the final approval is granted by the Other Realm License Bureau one more thing is required. Sabrina finds out that first she must learn the family secret. In order to help her aunts, Zelda (Beth Broderick) and Hilda (Caroline Rhea) will give her clues and bring family members to help her decipher the secret. The family cat, Salem Saberhagen (voiced by Nick Bakay) tries to help but more often than not just gets Sabrina into more trouble. That is to be expected since he is a warlock sentenced to a century as a cat by the council for trying to take over the world.

Before the season get move on the first episode had to resolve a problem left over from season two. Sabrina was torn between two boys, her high school sweetheart Harvey Kinkle (Nate Richert) and a young warlock she met during her license training, Dashiell (Donald Faison). She tries to use magic but is ultimately helped by the first of her visiting relatives, Doris (Carol Ann Susi). By the end of the episode Sabrina realizes that having a boyfriend like Dashiell that she could be herself with was not as important as what she feels for Harvey and she decides to stay with him. Sabrina also gets a new best friend for this season Valerie Birkhead (Lindsay Sloane). Valerie is socially inept, shy and very unsure of herself. She is also thankfully clueless when it comes to all the strange things that always happen around Sabrina. Sabrina’s arch enemy Libby Chessler (Jenna Leigh Green) is still around trying to break up Sabrina and Harvey and generally making the teen witch’s life miserable. As the head cheerleader Libby was at the top of the school’s social structure and the pet student of the uptight Principle Willard Kraft (Martin Mull). Kraft briefly dated both of the aunts and it turns out in this season that he was also married to a woman Lucy (Julia Duffy) who, unknown to him, was a witch.

A large part of what made this series work was the cast. As Sabrina the producers made the best possible choice, Melissa Joan Hart. Although she was twenty when the series began she had a youthful appearance and exuberance that let her play a believable teen. She was also a veteran of television starting at the age of 9 with small roles and graduating to staring in her own Nickelodeon Network series ‘Clarissa Explains It All’ at the tender age of 15. She would go on to direct and produce episodes in later seasons. Hart had a production company of her own, Hartbreak Films for this series and other projects. When you look at the train wreaks many childhood stars become it is reassuring that Ms. Hart has remained scandal free and is now married expecting their second child. As a parent of a daughter this is the role model you want your kid to see on TV. The other actors here are also excellent. Beth Broderick plays Zelda as the brainy, intellectual aunt. She is always showing the value of education and stability in life. In a wonderful contrast is Caroline Rhea as Aunt Hilda. She was the fun loving aunt, kooky and wild but still in agreement with Zelda when it came to correcting a mistake by Sabrina. Rhea was just right for the role. She is a successful stand up comedienne and has a natural wit and sense of timing. Rounding off the standing cast is Nick Bakay as the voice of the troublesome Salem. Bakay did multiple duties for most of the series serving also as a co-producer and writer. He is the devil on Sabrina’s should urging her to be mischievous.

Paramount once again brings a classic family friendly television series to DVD. This third season release is plain vanilla with no extras in sight. It would have been great to hear from some of the cast but oh well. All 25 episodes are here for your enjoyment. This series provided good lessons for the kids cloaked in great fun. You can let your kids watch this alone without the slightest worry about the content but you can also sit with them and enjoy it as a family.

Posted 12/25/07