History Series / Bewitched

* AllPartOfTheShow: The most commonly-used explanation for whatever magical wackiness was going on in any given episode: it was all part of Darrin's latest creative advertising campaign.

* AndYouThoughtItWasAGame: In "Samantha goes South for a Spell" Serena has an affair with a warlock. When his wife tracks her down to Darrin and Sam's house, she [[MistakenIdentity curses Sam]] with amnesia and sends her to turn-of-the-century [[TheDeepSouth New Orleans]]. At the end of the episode, Darrin faints when he's told that his rescue of Sam included a sword fight with a Southern gentleman.

* PantyShot: With Samantha wearing much shorter skirts in the later seasons, it was almost unavoidable (though also likely unintentional) for viewers to catch an occasional glimpse of her panties.

* BigBlackout: "The Short, Happy Circuit of Aunt Clara." It was something of a HistoricalInJoke at the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_1965 actual blackout of the entire east coast in 1965]] (apparently, that was Aunt Clara's fault -- she tried to magic a piano upstairs by saying "I wish that you were light").

* {{Satire}}: Although the series seldom questioned the sexism of its time, it tackled sexism subtly in that Samantha was never once portrayed as less intelligent or capable than Darrin, witchcraft or not. Unlike ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'', in which Jeannie was (nominally) subservient to her Master's wishes, Sam was never anything less than Darrin's partner. Theirs was a very egalitarian marriage, which is why Sam refrained from using magic unless necessary -- not out of obedience to her husband, but out of respect for him. It also continually satirized suburban conformity through Darrin's desperation to appear identical to everyone else, social snobbery through Darrin's parents, and racism both through Darrin's attitude about witches and Endora's prejudice against mortals. With mixed results, the series often satirized obsessive consumerism through Darrin, Larry Tate, and the advertising client of the week. (WordOfGod is that the show's producers and writers intended to satirize consumerism more sharply but were forbidden to do so by the network and commercial sponsors.) Corporate careerism was sent up by Darrin's near-slavish deference to his employer. And some viewers claim to detect a subtle satire of homophobia, primarily through Uncle Arthur, as many of the people involved in the series are now known to have been gay and/or gay-friendly. Plus the very premise of an "invisible" subculture of unusual people, existing alongside the everyday world, encouraged gays (and others) to identify. It didn't hurt that Endora was practically TV's first DragQueen, in look if not in... parts.[[note]]Agnes Moorehead was widely suspected of being a lesbian, an accusation she never confirmed, although she did like to play with people's heads regarding it in interviews.[[/note]]

* TheScrooge: In the ChristmasEpisode, "Humbug Not to Be Spoken Here", [=McMann=] & Tate's latest client, Jesse Mortimer (who is the ''very'' wealthy president of an instant soup company), is pretty much this trope personified, describing Christmas as being nothing more than crass commercialism, and expressing that opinion that Christmas is just another day to him. Meanwhile, Larry teeters back and forth on the fence, but it's mainly because he desperately doesn't want to lose the Mortimer's Instant Soup account, even if it means having a meeting on Christmas Eve.

** The SoapOpera ''Series/{{Passions}}'' (1999-2008) features Juliet Mills as Tabitha Lenox, a genuine witch whose daughter is named Endora and whose parents are a mortal named Darrin and a witch named Samantha. Furthermore, Bernard Fox has made two appearances on the show as his ''Bewitched'' character, Dr. Bombay.

* {{Satire}}: Although the series seldom questioned the sexism of its time, it tackled sexism subtly in that Samantha was never once portrayed as less intelligent or capable than Darrin, witchcraft or not. Unlike ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'', in which Jeannie was (nominally) subservient to her Master's wishes, Sam was never anything less than Darrin's partner. Theirs was a very egalitarian marriage, which is why Sam refrained from using magic unless necessary -- not out of obedience to her husband, but out of respect for him. It also continually satirized suburban conformity through Darrin's desperation to appear identical to everyone else, social snobbery through Darrin's parents, and racism both through Darrin's attitude about witches and Endora's prejudice against mortals. With mixed results, the series often satirized obsessive consumerism through Darrin, Larry Tate, and the advertising client of the week. (WordOfGod is that the show's producers and writers intended to satirize consumerism more sharply but were forbidden to do so by the network and commercial sponsors.) Corporate careerism was sent up by Darrin's near-slavish deference to his employer. And some viewers claim to detect a subtle satire of homophobia, primarily through Uncle Arthur, as many of the people involved in the series are now known to have been gay and/or gay-friendly. Plus the very premise of an "invisible" subculture of unusual people, existing alongside the everyday world, encouraged gays (and others) to identify. It also helped that Endora was just about TV's first DragQueen, in look if not in... parts.[[note]]Agnes Moorehead was widely suspected of being a lesbian, an accusation she never confirmed, although she did like to play with people's heads regarding it in interviews.[[/note]]

* ShoutOut
** Endora's name is a reference to the Witch of Endor in Literature/TheBible.

* {{Satire}}: Although the series seldom questioned the sexism of its time, it tackled sexism subtly in that Samantha was never once portrayed as less intelligent or capable than Darrin, witchcraft or not. Unlike ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'', in which Jeannie was (nominally) subservient to her Master's wishes, Sam was never anything less than Darrin's partner. Theirs was a very egalitarian marriage, which is why Sam refrained from using magic unless necessary -- not out of obedience to her husband, but out of respect for him. It also continually satirized suburban conformity through Darrin's desperation to appear identical to everyone else, social snobbery through Darrin's parents, and racism both through Darrin's attitude about witches and Endora's prejudice against mortals. With mixed results, the series often satirized obsessive consumerism through Darrin, Larry Tate, and the advertising client of the week; WordOfGod is that the producers and writers wanted to satirize consumerism more intensely but were forbidden to do so by the network and the series' commercial sponsors. Corporate careerism was sent up by Darrin's near-slavish deference to his employer. And some people claim to find a subtle satire of homophobia, primarily through Uncle Arthur, as many of the people involved in the series are now known to have been gay and/or gay-friendly. Plus the very premise of an "invisible" subculture of unusual people, existing alongside the everyday world, encouraged gays (and others) to identify. It helped that Endora was just about TV's first DragQueen, in look if not in... parts.[[note]]Agnes Moorehead was widely suspected of being a lesbian, an accusation she never confirmed, although she did like to play with people's heads regarding it in interviews.[[/note]]

* SalemIsWitchCountry: A Season 7 StoryArc has Samantha attending a witches' convention in Salem, Massachusetts with Darrin in tow. Several episodes were shot on location in Salem.

* OutnumberedSibling: Harold Harold, Samantha's driving instructor (Paul Lynde, pre-Uncle Arthur). He had four older sisters (by the time he was born, his mother exhausted from coming up with names for the babies), all of whom are married, and as such, has four brother-in-laws who take turns hiring and firing him in a vicious cycle, hence his insecurities. In fact, his father apparently had himself committed from living in a world of little women.

* AbsenteeActor: Creator/DickYork missed several season 5 episodes, due to the chronic back pain that would lead to his retirement from the series and replacement by Creator/DickSargent in season 6.

* WitchSpecies: The witches were ''not'' mortals who learned to do magic, but rather a separate supernatural race with inherent magic powers.

* EverybodyOwnsAFord: A Chevrolet in this case. Not only did the car company sponsor the show, the theme show was the 1965-66 commercial theme song for Chevrolet cars.

->''"So my wife's a witch. Every married man has to make'' some ''adjustment."''

->''"So my wife's a witch. Every married man has to make some adjustment."''

* TimeTravel: Most notably to Salem, MA at the height of the witch trials.

* PantyShot: With Samantha wearing much shorter skirts in the later seasons, it was almost unavoidable (though also arguably unintentional) for viewers to catch a brief glimpse of Samantha's panties.

* WizardsLiveLonger: While they definitely do age, at what rate is never really made clear. Most witches and warlocks (including Samatha) are casually mentioned to be centuries old. This is a point of some concern to Darrin when it dawns on him that Samantha is not going to age the way that he will. [[note]] Also a cause of worry amongst Samantha's relatives who don't know what Tabitha and Adam's [[MixedAncestry mixed human and witch genes]] will affect their ageing. [[/note]]

** Also neighbor Abner Kravitz. One of the reasons his wife Gladys could never convince him that there was something unusual about Samantha, is that on the rare occasions he ''did'' see something strange, he didn't regard it as out of the ordinary. For example, in one episode, Samantha's Dr. Bombay gets turned into a horse. While waiting to be turned back, he passes the time by playing a game of chess. When Abner finds out there's a chess-playing horse at the Stevens house... he challenges it to a game.