TVLine Items: Interracial Bewitched Reboot, Blindspot Promotion and More
Kenya Barris is working his magic on a beloved classic. The black-ish creator has sold an updated version of Bewitched to ABC, our sister site Deadline reports, in which Samantha is a hard-working black single mother who marries a white slacker named Darren.
Per the report, this new interracial Samantha and Darren “struggle to navigate their differences as she discovers that even when a black girl is literally magic, she’s still not as powerful as a decently tall white man with a full head of hair in America.” ABC has reportedly given Barris’ Bewitched a pilot production commitment, with black-ish‘s Yamara Taylor on board to write.
The original Bewitched, which aired on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starred Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York, the latter of whom was replaced by Dick Sargent midway through the show’s run. NBC considered bringing Bewitched back in 2014, choosing to focus on Samantha’s granddaughter, but the project was ultimately scrapped.
Ready for more of today’s newsy nuggets? Well…
* Blindspot has promoted Ennis Esmer, who plays Rich Dotcom, to series regular for Season 4, our sister site Deadline reports.
* Singer/actor Rick Springfield (Supernatural, General Hospital) will guest-star in a Season 6 episode of The Goldbergs as the owner of a karaoke bar and Erica’s new boss, EW.com reports.
* Season 2 of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, which stateside airs on Amazon, has added Andrew Scott (Sherlock‘s Moriarty) to its cast.
* VH1 has renewed RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars for Season 4.
* Netflix has renewed the comedic anthology series Easy for a third and final season, to air in 2019, per The Hollywood Reporter.
* Starz has acquired the British drama Save Me, starring Lennie James (Fear the Walking Dead) as a father searching for his missing daughter, per Deadline. The show will begin airing on Starz on Thursday, Sept. 6.
* Apple has given a series order to an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s book Foundation, from executive producers/showrunners David S. Goyer (Krypton) and Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). The 10-episode drama will chronicle the thousand year saga of The Foundation, a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it.
* Amazon has given a script-to-series commitment to an untitled comedy co-created by and starring Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), Deadline reports. The project is about a socially awkward woman (Horgan) who launches a self-help company and recruits a handsome former male gymnast (The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story‘s Billy Magnussen) to be the face of it.
* Our Cartoon President: Election Special 2018 will air Sunday, Nov. 4 on Showtime, per Deadline.
* IFC has renewed the all-female sketch series Baroness von Sketch Show for Season 4, to air in 2019.
Which of today’s TVLine Items piques your interest?
It’s a hard pass for me. Not a fan of how they’re portraying Darren.
Why? There are lots of white men just like this out there.
A white man who needs to be saved by a black woman? No thank you. You can keep it.
Also how about how POC have been portrayed in everything? Or how about how women have been portrayed throughout history? You don’t care about any of that though. But oh my, one show portrays a lazy white man (they do exist) and you think it is white bashing. Get over yourself.
Interesting that I remarked about the rush of racist posts here and my comment gets deleted. While the clearly racist post above is still here. Keep up the good work moderators.
Isn’t the white male husband slacker a troup at this point though. It certainly isn’t unique when it comes to family sitcoms.
The original was a white man being saved by a witch. So’s this one. What’s the issue?
How they wrote the article. The original had both people as a hard working couple so this one has a character that’s lazy and needs to be saved. The other issue people have here is the author of the article and the creators of the show are upping the racial aspect. Interracial couples have existed forever but the way they are writing this seems to try to be divisive.
Why? White people are loser slackers so That’s exactly how I want Darren portrayed! Give it a chance at the very least. It’s about time something original came out! Can’t wait!
In this day and age, it’s no longer okay to be a white male. People like you and your ilk are coming for my rights.
There is a lot of white bashing going on these days. Two wrongs don’t make a right. It needs to stop.
You admit that white men were bashing? Look I have a euro dad and an African mum. Slacker jock or not I will support this show. You guys can pass lol
Agreed. Puleeeeezzz with this reboot. 🙄. It’s pure reverse racism. We’re still mad and bitter over “white supremacy”, so let’s just reverse stereotypes, make the angry black people happy, and the happy white people angry…all in the name of solving the “racism” problems! 🙄🙄🙄🙄 Ya mean the racist actions of “POC” over whites?
Asking for equal rights does not take away from your rights. POC have been bashed for all of enternity and a few years of so called bashing makes you cry? It’s not bashing when it’s true.
Absolutely agree with you. But continuing down a path of division isn’t the answer. We all need to take a moment and think forwards. Only then will real change happen.
You poor thing. Get over it! And yeah, it’s NOT ok. Time to move on and see how the rest of the world has been living for hundreds of years.
It’s no longer okay to be a white man, yet white men make up ~65% of our elected officials, ~75% of the boards of Fortune 500 companies, and 72% of our Executive office (the President and his cabinet).
White men literally run this country, yet your rights are being taken away? Because one of you is being portrayed as lazy on a freaking sitcom? Wow, the delusion is strong.
Racists come in all colors.
How is have a white man portrayed as lazy (which btw I know a freaking lot of them and they also like to run out on their families) racist? It’s not.
Do you see the irony in referring to a reboot as something original? LOL.
They changed the melanin of one of the two leads — that’s just original ENOUGH.
“White people are loser slackers”? Thanks for the bigoted comment!
I agree, why does every show now have to have an interracial couple, gay couple, or trans person?
Kylie Bunbury for Samantha
No one else need audition. This is the answer.
Wow 😮 this bewitched seems terrible, how did this make it past a big no in he board room?!
I think that genderflipping Samantha and Darren and making him the witch would at least make it more interesting. The idea of making the original subtext plain – and genderswitching it (the original was a metaphor for mixed marriages, with Samantha being the white woman who ‘married below her’ and Darren representing a black person) sounds trite.
How completely ridiculous. Kill it now.
Are people upset she is black? Or that the white guy is a slacker? Like come on people.
Personally, I’m upset that a strong female character (black or white) would marry a slacker (black or white).
Nothing wrong with being a slacker. You Type A workaholic folks are the ones with mental issues.
Hmm, it’s not the slackers who are discovering cures for polio or inventing the internet though…
I basically agree with this. Why would she marry a man like this? I just don’t think this approach is going to work for me. Also no more reboots.
I have no issues that she is black. I don’t like the idea of basically making Darren the enemy because he’s a white dude that gets whatever he wants. It’s not the image I have of Bewitched.
yes, this sounds less funny and way too preachy. i’ll pass
More that the white guy is a slacker where the original Darren was a hard working ad executive. Why does one race need to be crapped on to make another race look better? Why can’t Darren be an equal?
This. I mean, the original show’s gender balance was far from perfect, but it was the ’60s. Sam was still strong and independent in her own right, and often instrumental in helping her husband’s company land or keep clients. Turning him into a slacker means he serves no real value at all? It’s not even a gender flip to have Sam have the job and not him because Sam had a job that didn’t have a wage or standard business hours.
I’m all fine with a black Sam. I just don’t know where the funny is long term in making Darren inherently useless and probably selfish, regardless of race.
What a bunch of crap!!
very excited to hear about ennis esmer’s promotion to series regular. he’s a great actor who’s been on so many tv shows these past few years but hardly ever gets the recognition he deserves. and rich is a hilariously wonderful character.
Agreed. I know he’s in a few Canadian shows and he was awesome in Red Oaks. Love Rich dot com.
I thought Kenya Harris waz not Netflix. Was this already in the pipeline before the Netflix deal?
To repeat something that many before me have said: “Can’t anyone come up with any new ideas?” We don’t need a Bewitched reboot. Period.
[COMMENT REMOVED BY MODERATOR]
Sweetheart I am biracial myself so I am not going anywhere. I am also a dad of 3. My eldest is blond my other two look biracial like myself. To annoy you even more my eldest is dating a black girl. So I am securing the third generation. We are here to stay. I like my world multi ethnic. I encourage my kids to have even more multi racial kids.
[COMMENT REMOVED BY MODERATOR]
[COMMENT REMOVED BY MODERATOR]
I go with what my late mother used to say: if more people of different cultures marry and have children, all of these differences will someday become irrelevant.
Your mother was wrong. Our differences are important.
Yes, our differences are important, but our similarities are greater and more important.
Exactly. While culture matters and it evolves and mutate also. I am fine with people who are comfortable with a monolithic perspective of one culture. I let them be. But I am not asking for permission to have a dual heritage. If this reboot had been designed with two men. Me and my teenage kids we would have watched it also. No bigotry under my roof.
What the eff is wrong with you?
If there’s one thing that needed an “update” from the original Bewitched series more than anything else it was the Darren character – make him less hateable, not more, because ultimately I don’t watch things that cause me to spend the majority of my time puzzling about WHY she married this guy. The concept of a culture clash on two levels (racial and magical) in a nevertheless loving marriage made me intrigued at first…then they lost me. Sigh.
I think that’s why I’ve always liked Jeannie better…Tony only -asked- her to behave; he didn’t try to force her into a magic-less box like Darren.
That is why I believe IDOJ is so much better than Bewitched. The theme of the show and one of my favorites quotes is from “How to Be a Genie in 10 Easy Lessons” by Major Nelson after he tried to give Jeannie a “manual” (unbeknownst to him, a book of torture) on how to behave as a genie – “When you care for somebody, I mean when you really care for somebody, you don’t try to change them. You take the good with the bad and be thankful for what you’ve got. And I forgot to be thankful. I tried to change you, and I was wrong. And I’m sorry.”
There seemed to actually be a character arc with Major Nelson, unlike Darrin who just kept pretending that his wife and children were “normal” and not accepting their differences. Major Nelson had no problem with Jeannie’s powers overall and by the time he married her, he accepted her for who and what she was.
I love that quote! It’s perfect.
I loved Bewitched (I have the complete series on DVD…great for Saturday mornings with I Dream of Jeannie), and I would watch anything Kenya Barris does, so I will definitely give this a shot. I believe Elizabeth Montgomery would love this idea, too!
NOPE
LEAVE BEWITCHED ALONE!!!
Can management do something about the hateful trolling going on in here?
Nothing hateful about it. This is the new normal. We’re just standing up for our rights now and won’t be pushed around by the minorities.
The fact that you knew I was referring to you – despite the fact that I didn’t name you in any way – is pretty telling, wouldn’t you say?
No one’s “pushing you around” here, although some of your comments have been pretty hateful. Let me let you in on a secret: there are both “off” and “channel change” buttons on your remote: if you don’t like a show, don’t watch it. It’s really that simple. (Oh, just so you don’t get the wrong idea, I’m a white guy.)
I thought he Kenya left ABC
I like the idea but let’s not call it a Bewitched reboot. Why not just let it be it’s own creation inspired by. Let Bewitched be, it’s a classic it’s legacy doesn’t need a reboot that goes in a completely different direction
More people will check it out because it’s called bewitched than if it were a new show.
I agree. But unfortunately it wouldn’t make it pass any stage unless they use the familiar title “Bewitched” even though it really has nothing to do with the original. I find that a lot with some reboots…they change everything about the original show, but know they will make it on the air for the nostalgia factor.
Exactly! I wish there were more shows and movies based on the greatly untapped African Americans books. It seems somewhat offensive to always try to turn existing properties into minorities versions.Shows like “Empire” and “Blackish” prove that it can be done. You don’t need name recognition to have success with original shows like the ones I mentioned.
I trust Kenya.. So I’ll give it a look.. As a youngin myself who watches a good amount of freeform and the CW… Dunno if I’m really excited about another woman of color running round saving some white guy…but it could be funny and like I said I trust Kenya to do more than the bare minimum with this idea…
Why cant they just leave Bewitched alone. Don’t remake it
I wonder how many people would feel differently if the roles/races were reversed? I’m a gay white male liberal and this concept feels off. Creators like Barris (who is a genius for creating blackish, an amazing show), should continue to create smart shows that urge a dialogue based on what makes us similar versus a reboot on a classic that seems to be focused on creating division based on race. I would also like to point out the original had a fabulous episode about race in which Tabitha didn’t see color, only her friend, who happened to be a person of color.
Blacks only care about Black people and their problems. They could care less about other races, orientations or trans people. It’s quite sad.
Interesting …. very interesting. The first Bewitched is a classic. This sounds like a recipe for hilarity no matter whether it’s successful or not.
Also why is everyone upset about Darren’s portrayal? He was a doof in the original. Why shouldn’t he be a bigger one now?
LMAO we get it already… Black people are always suffering. Talk about taking a fun story and turning into a woe-is-me story. Why not have it be an Asian, hispanic, trans or lesbian couple? They are the ones that are not represented on TV. I hope this Black Samantha watches Black-ish and realizes life ain’t so bad for her.
My issue with this is that, for me. Bewitched is boring. Write a new show about a witch and forget about the Bewitched trademark. If they have to go with that premise then I’d suggest Viveca A. Fox for Endora.
They should change the name. The story sounds good but it should not be named Bewitched. I like when they make some variants or changes but this might need a change of name, since it will be brand new regarding all the topics they will handle.
Develop it into something more original and call it “Black Magic”. How’s that?
I don’t care about the race swap, but Bewitched IS Elizabeth Montgomery. Samantha can not be done better and NO ONE of any ethnicity should try. HARD pass on this for any true fan of the original.
I 100% agree with all of this!