Cult-TV Theme Watch: Witches

A witch is a (usually female) practitioner of magic, one who casts spells to affect the behavior of other individuals, often communing with the forces of nature to do so. And in cult television history, many witches have the added bonus of being incredibly sexy and beautiful.

In fact, there are two different brands of  “cult tv witch:" the familiar old, hook-nosed hag of Macbeth and American folklore, and the hot, sexy ones, which have appeared more frequently, post-The Craft (1996).

In the case of the former brand, we’ve seen terrifying, hideous and evil witches in Star Trek (“Catspaw”), Rod Serling’s Night Gallery (“Witch’s Feast”), Circle of Fear (“Legion of Demons”), Tales from the Darkside (“Trick or Treat”) and The X-Files (“Die Hand Die Verletzt”).

But oddly enough, it’s the gorgeous young, incredibly attractive witch who has dominated television since the medium’s inception.

An early such witch appeared in The Twilight Zone’s fourth season in 1964, “Jess-Belle.”  There, young Jess-Belle (Anne Francis) becomes a witch after seeking Granny Hart’s (Jeanette Nolan) help in seducing her ex-boyfriend, Billy-Ben Turner (James Best).  The spell works for a time, but at the price of Jess-Belle’s very humanity.   She is eventually destroyed by the man she loves.

The year 1964 also brought the arrival of television’s most famous "good" witch, Elizabeth Montgomery’s Samantha Stephens in Bewitched (1964 – 1972).  A charming witch (with a very, very bad mother, Endora [Agnes Morohead), Samantha attempted to assimilate human culture through her marriage to the human Darrin.  

The setting for Bewitched was Connecticut, in suburbia, and Samantha used her powers to comedic and charming effect in this situation comedy, which remains a touchstone for Generation X.  Another situation comedy witch, Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) later met with similar popularity in her series, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch (1996 – 2003).

A scorned but beautiful witch, Angelique Bouchard (Lara Parker) was the source of much strife in the soap opera Dark Shadows (1966 – 1971).  She was the very soul responsible for cursing Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) to eternal life as a vampire.  She was Barnabas's nemesis throughout the latter years of the series, and served as the central menace of the second Dark Shadows movie, Night of Dark Shadows (1971).

Starting in the 1990s and leading right up until the present, witches have taken a far more heroic turn.  Willow (Alyson Hannigan) in Buffy the Vampire Slayer over seven years developed her powers to such an extent that she could challenge Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) herself.   The final episodes of season six saw Willow go "dark" and become a powerful villain, and many episodes of that year likened the use of magic to a kind of drug addiction. 

Also on the side of goodness were the Halliwell witches -- Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe (Aysssa Milano) – in Aaron Spelling and Constance Burge’s long-running Charmed (1998 – 2006).  These sisters were “The Charmed Ones,” and together formed “the power of three.” 

Most recently, The Vampire Diaries -- a series I initially (and wrongly…) -- dismissed as a Twilight wannabe developed a heroic witch in the person of Bonnie Bennett (Katerina Graham).  

One of the many unique things about The Vampire Diaries as it has played out over three seasons is the depiction of witches as largely African-American, and their disposition as, essentially, servants to (white) vampires like Klaus’s (Joseph Morgan) mother, Esther.  

It’s a very complex racial commentary on the roles of witches in a supernatural hierarchy and also African-American history, and in many episodes, Bonnie is ruthlessly manipulated and exploited by the vampires.  At the end of season three, the much put-upon witch declares her desire and intent to stop being used by the vampire race, and I’m curious to see where the intriguing plot line will lead.