BEWITCHED

BEWITCHED
1964-1972 ABC

BEWITCHED
National Lampoon #142, January 1982
w: Ted Mann
a: Berni Wrightson

I've always said National Lampoon up to 1975 was the only Lampoon that counts. After that most of the original staff left and they went into a steep decline. Except for most of the original cartoonists like Shary Flenniken and Gahan Wilson, and new blood like Mimi Pond and B. K. Taylor, the front section was a pale imitation. They started to get bitter about how Saturday Night Live was a watered-down version of what they were trying to achieve. In the late 70s it looked like the old Lampoon and had its moments, but was more about “show us your tits” and “foreigners smell”. Sure, the original incarnation offended everyone too but now it seemed more hateful and partisan.

In the eighties, it jumped the shark even further, with every other issue having some kind of Back to School Summer Sex theme and becoming more of an R-rated version of MAD, even going so far as to parody movies and TV sometimes. Case in point is this Bewitched parody. It still has nice Berni Wrightson art.

The idea here is that Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) and Endora (Agnes Moorehead) aren't just magic witches like on TV. Gladys Kravitz (Alice Pearce/Sandra Gould) is spying on them.

Samantha and Endora perform ceremonies like witches really do in literature.

Gladys' eyes melted seeing this, and she must tell her husband Abner (George Tobias).

Endora and Samantha must go thru drastic measures to get rid of the plague of toads in their house. Meanwhile, at Darrin(Dick York/Dick Sargent)'s office...

Sam and Endora are visited by a girl scout selling cookies and sacrifice her to get rid of the toads while an angry mob descends on them. And Darrin comes home only to be included in the witch-burning.