We are still deep within the depths of television's reboot-a-palooza, with shows like Charmed and Magnum P.I. coming back with brand news casts this fall, and shows ranging from Designing Women to Buffy the Vampire Slayer being worked on for new iterations we might see on TV within a year or so. Now, word has come down that yet another old favorite might be back on the small screen soon, as black-ish creator Kenya Barris is working on rebooting the '60s comedy Bewitched.
According to Deadline, Kenya Barris and black-ish writer/producer Yamara Taylor have co-written the story for the rebooted Bewitched, which has been given a pilot production commitment from ABC. It will focus on hardworking African-American single mom Samantha, a witch who marries the white, and totally mortal, slacker Darren. As the two try to work through their differences, Samantha will discover 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." Barris and Taylor are executive producing along with John Davis and John Fox.
The original Bewitched, which ran on ABC for eight seasons from September 1964 through March 1972, also focused on a witch named Samantha married to a mortal named Darrin, but the comedy on that series came from Samantha's attempts to live the life of a normal, magic-free housewife as her powers and interfering witchy family (especially mom Endora) frequently got in the way. Apparently, ABC and Sony Pictures TV (which owns the rights to the show) have tried before to get a reboot of Bewitched off the ground. ABC was interested in a previous attempt to bring the show back in 2014, while another attempt was made during the 2011-2012 season to get a new version of the sitcom on the air.
Bewitched has been considered a classic sitcom for several decades now. While the show got a short-lived spinoff that focused on Darrin and Samantha's magical daughter, called Tabitha, in 1977, and there was a film of the tale in 2005 with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell, the original show has enjoyed a long life by the way of syndicated reruns around the world, and has even inspired versions in other countries like Argentina, Russia, Japan and India. So, it makes sense that ABC has been looking for a way to bring back the family comedy for a while.
Kenya Barris sold Bewitched to ABC right before his deal with ABC Studios ended on August 15, and he began his official term under his new overall deal with Netflix.
Right now, because all ABC has given Bewitched is a pilot commitment, there's no telling if or when the show will make it to air. But, stay tuned to CinemaBlend and we'll let you know how the series fares as details become available. In the meantime, be sure to check out our summer premiere and 2018 fall premiere guides to see what else you can catch on the small screen in the coming weeks.
