In the Beginning...

In my previous post, I mentioned some books that BearManor has published and it got me to thinking about the book that was very pivotal in fostering my knowledge and love of Bewitched even more.

That book is The Bewitched Book (1992) by Herbie J. Pilato.

I've always watched the show as long as I can remember and it really wasn't until I was close to junior high school age that I started realizing that there were actual real people that played Samantha, Endora, and all the rest. When I would look up information about Bewitched at the library (this was way before the days of Google or anything like it), I would only come up with books about T.V. that had maybe a page or two devoted to the show, but nothing more. Anytime I would go into a book store I would always head to the Film & Television section in the hopes of finding something about the show considering there were so many about I Love Lucy or Star Trek but my hopes were always dashed...that is, until the evening of my 16th birthday.

My dad had taken me downtown shopping and I'm sure I intended to go to the Disney Store but then we ended up at the book store as my dad always loves going to the book store and it was right by the entrance. I made my usual way down to the Film & Television section and about fainted when I saw the familiar title of my show emblazened on a blue book cover with the cartoon witch! I couldn't believe it! My dad bought it for me and I insisted my birthday shopping trip was over, that I needed to get home to start devouring this awesome book!

We got home around 9:30 PM and I headed to my room and began reading from cover to cover, blown away by the interviews with Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York, Dick Sargent, and a few other stars of the show. There were pics of them now days and most importantly there was an episode guide which blew my mind as there were 254 episodes!! And of those, 74 of them were in black and white, which up to that point I had only ever seen about three because of a trip that summer to my cousin's house where they had Nick-at-Nite. Anyway, I finished reading the book at 5:30 AM. I was overjoyed!

Over the years that book has been released in different editions and renamed Bewitched Forever, which is quite appropriate as any of us that are big fans of the show will remain bewitched forever.

Around the time the book was published the stars began to pass away and so the interviews they gave are quite precious.

Now, if you all ready have that book, why would you want to get my book? Quite simply, mine gives more detailed descriptions of the episodes, my own personal and entertaining reviews of the episodes, bits of trivia some of which hasn't been discussed before, and trivia about the times and events that were happening when Bewitched was airing to help keep the show in context. I think both mine and Herbie J's books will work well together and I thank him for providing such an invaluable piece to the literary history of Bewitched.

I should mention that Herbie J has several books published by BearManor Media as well about the 80s TV series Life Goes On, the 70s series The Bionic Man and The Bionic Woman and a book about his time as a page at NBC.