BEWITCHED - "A Safe And Sane Halloween" (1967)

 

The last Weenie Wednesday of this years Countdown is from Season 04, Episode 08 of

"Bewitched." 

 

This episode aired on October 26, 1967 and was called "A Safe And Sane Halloween."

It begins with Samantha reading a Halloween bedtime story to her daughter Tabitha.

In the story, there is a goblin, a gremlin and a Jack O' Lantern.

The story was supposed to put Tabitha to sleep, but sometimes she's a restless little witch.

Oops! Something seems to have happened, and the Halloween trio are no longer in the book where they are supposed to be!

Cute as a bug Tabitha is played by three year old Erin Murphy. Erin was in 102 episodes of "Bewitched," and her twin sister Diane filled in for her on 21 episodes.

Interestingly enough, the Murphy twins shared the same birthday, June 17, with Elizabeth Montgomery's real daughter Rebecca.

Samantha is going to take Tabitha out to go trick or treating, and Tabitha's new friends decide they should go along too, so they sneak out of the house.

The trio of terror follows Samantha and Tabitha around, and Samantha doesn't even notice anything strange going on. She just thinks they are more costumed kids out on a candy hunt.

In the meantime, just to make things more confusing, Gladys Kravitz's nephew Tommy is also decked out as a Jack O' Lantern.

Here's a real power trio for you, 4' 3" Jerry Maren as the Gremlin, had a career that went all the way back to "The Terror Of Tiny Town," and "The Wizard Of Oz." Jerry passed away in 2018 at the age of 98. 3' 11" Felix (She Freak) Silla as the Goblin, just passed away six months ago at the age of 84. Probably the most famous of them all is the 4' 2" Billy (Gog) Curtis as Jack O' Lantern. Billy passed away in 1988 at the age of 79. All three of them were in the 1973 film "Little Cigars."

There's confusion out in the field, and Tommy and the real Jack O' Lantern end up trading places, much to everyone's chagrin! Tommy was played by Bobby (Countdown) Riha.

A bewildered and flabbergasted Samantha finally gets the whole thing sorted out, but she doesn't have the powers to return the guys back  to the book. It's up to Tabitha.

Gladys learns the hard way that it's not Tommy underneath the sheet!

All kinds of havoc ensues when Tommy gets turned into a goat, and Samantha has to watch on helplessly!

We should do a survey, and see who had more, and better facial expressions, Lucille Ball or Elizabeth Montgomery?

 

Not only are the terrible trio full of mischief, they also have magic powers and can do things like putting a goatee on one unsuspecting lady giving out candy, smashing a hovering pie into one guy's face, or adding ears like this to Darrin.

They finally get the guys back into the book, but when they put Tabitha to bed for the night, they find this book, and think that there must be a bear loose in the house, until they notice that Tabitha is sleeping with a new stuffed animal that is a bear. Whew, close call!

After Sam and Darrin leave the room, the real bear comes out of the closet!

Baby witch Tabitha just gets a big laugh out of the whole thing. At least the title of the book was "The Friendly Grizzly Bear."