Eighties d Day hand So Pretty Eighties into the City, Gunning money Man World a Day.

Welcome to this bonus episode.

Of eighties TV Ladies.

I'm Susan Lambert Adam.

And I'm Sharon Johnson.

Welcome to the second of our two part fun crossover episodes with the Breaking Maybury Podcast.

Now Breaking Maybury Podcast calls themselves too idiots and they're much more intelligent.

Guests take on classic TV, mostly the Andy Griffith Show to see the weird messages they broadcast into American homes and assess what holds up and what caused permanent damage to the psyche of an entire generation.

It's a very funny podcast.

I will say it is a very explicit podcast, so be warned if you go listen, but also it is very fun.

They cover everything from The Andy Griffith Show to I think they're currently doing Glee.

So it's Marty Schneider and Dan Ludwig and we are very excited to do this crossover episode.

You can go listen to the first part on their podcast, Breaking Mayberry and then come listen to the second part on ours.

The episodes that we cover.

Are season two, Episode one and Season two episode two.

So though they are somewhat related, you don't have to know one to listen.

To the other.

So I think they are not idiots at all.

They're actually quite hilarious and really fun and we've had a great time doing this, So please welcome Marty Schneider and Dan Ludwig.

Hi everyone, I'm Marty Schneider with my colleague Dan Ludwig.

We are the hosts of a podcast called Breaking Mayberry, which you can get wherever you get your pods.

Breaking Mayberry is a show about nostalgia and television, exploring kind of the impact that TV has on generations.

It started as a show specifically about the Andy Griffith Show, but since then we've branched out and expanded to more of a variety show model to do whatever comes to our minds or whatever's requested of us, but really exploring big trends and shows that made impacts on generations.

And I don't know the timing of our release schedule on this, but I believe that when this comes out, we'll be in the middle of a chock block of Glee.

We're gonna go from the sixties all the way up to the Obama years, just really fast.

It's gonna get whiplash on it, tonal whiplash, if you will.

So that's what we're working on.

Now, is is there a lot of comparisons between the sixties and the nineties, like just generationally.

So we just so from doing Glee, I think we were the thing.

That which is not the nineties.

Got to clear that up.

But like the do you mean like the nineties, but the generation of night babies kind yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the people born in the nineties.

Yeah, yeah, at least like when Glee came out.

The thing we kind of noticed was like this just sort of unrelenting like sort of optimism to it, just like things are automatically going to get better, so we don't have to try that hard.

The future is guaranteed.

We're like, oh, you kids, don't know what you're in for.

Oh your summer children.

I think it also does relate a lot to really more of the fifties than the sixties, but that like post war, like we're doing better than ever.

America is doing just fine and doesn't have anything to deal with right now.

This line is going up and I'm assuming it's going to continue that way indefinitely.

So We're going back to a little television show called Bewitched, which was a what I would like to call a witchcom, a witch led sitcom that aired eight seasons on ABC from nineteen sixty four to eineighteen seventy two about a witch who marries an ordinary man, Darren Stevens, and decides she's going to live as a typical suburban housewife and tamp down her special skills, except, of course, she uses them every episode.

Bewitch starred Elizabeth Montgomery is Samantha Stevens, the witch as referenced in our title, and her husband, Darren Stevens, was initially played by Dick York and after several seasons was replaced by Dick Sargent.

Also, Agnes Moore had played her mother and Dora, and there were several other actors who had recurring roles as other members of her family.

So it was part of a time when there were there seemed to be a number of TV shows that had kind of a magical component.

My mother to car, I dream of Genie, et cetera.

But in a lot of ways, I think this one was probably at the time, if not close to it.

Yeah, I remember it being really sweet and lovely.

And you can hear us talk about some of that on on Breaking Mayberry in part one, where we talk about some of the other sort of magical Would you call them magical them?

I call them secret sexy ladies, secret sexy magic ladies.

Yeah, yeah, this is a whole.

My wife is magic and nobody can find out.

Yeah, that was a whole subgenre.

You named three of them.

The fourth one, I think is My Living Doll, which is about Julie Numar playing a sexy robot.

Why is the robot a sexy woman?

Don't ask?

And then guys come up and they want to kiss the hot robot but they can't because they'll get electrocuted to death.

So it's mostly just a guy trying to stop that from happening.

Wow, that one's pretty dangerous.

Yeah, somehow they got multiple seasons out of that premise.

Not the best of that genre, but I'll say my personal favorite of that genre.

Marty has also watched all of My Mother the Car inexplicably against everybody's advice.

And you guys are impressive.

Have you talked about My Mother the Car?

Yes, yes, I think that was a Patreon episode for us.

Yea, all right, all right, well, I'm excited to hear about that, but I'm fascinated by I was always fascinated by we Witched.

I liked it.

I watched it.

I didn't have a huge memory of it because I was probably pretty young.

But certainly you can sort of take some lines too Charmed, to Witches of East End, to Sabrina the teenage witch, you know, in sort of these uh wacky witituation comedies that happen there.

It was the wituation comedy is good.

I like that a lot.

One landed.

Okay, thanks, I'm just gonna I keep throwing them against the wall, sa with sticks.

I'm gonna give you this feedback.

Keep going, don't slow down.

It's working.

Keep keep doing them.

All right.

But so we were looking we we how did we land on Bewitch?

I was excited about it because female driven and we wanted but we wanted to cover something in the sixties.

So it's a little bit in your territory.

Do you guys, what what was.

Your knowledge of Bewitched before it came up on our radar when we were what are we going to talk about?

Part I?

So I, uh, I had insomnia as a kid, so I would stay up and watch a lot of Nicket Night, and this was sort of like the good part of the rotation, Like this was the like I was a lot of the black and white TV was kind of just white noise to me.

But Bewitch would come and be like, I get this premise.

This is working.

The mother in law is very mean and also magic, this is the good part.

Yeah.

And also we did a little bit of I Dream of Jeanie, so we're very sort of we got very acquainted with the magic wife premise, so this was like, all right, let's do the good version of that.

Me personally, I knew very little.

I knew almost nothing about be Wished on other side of the general premise.

But when I said that we were going to do that, my wife got very excited.

So she knew it.

She knew it, she knew I think that was also her nick and night, her and Grandma's show.

I think that was the one that they would like watch and she enjoyed.

So she was very, very excited and gave me backstory on a lot of these characters, which was appreciated but not wholly necessary for the two episodes we were doing.

And I think we managed to find some pretty great episodes.

So the episode we're talking about today is season two, episode two to a very Special Delivery.

It aired September twenty third, nineteen sixty five, and it was basically the beginning of season two is where Samantha basically announces that she's pregnant.

And then in this episode, why don't we head into it.

Just to check what year did this episode come out?

It came out nineteen sixty five.

That feels like a miracle that they did this premise in the sixties, especially compared to what we've been watching the Anti Grippet Show, where notably they had an episode about how difficult childbirth is that did not have a single woman in it.

So, like I just it was just mind boggling that they did this premise.

Dare I ask how they they what the story was about?

Okay if I remember right?

If I remember right, Uh, they are following Andy and Barney are following a farmer around because this is actually very funny for the sixties.

Barney suspects him of growing marijuana.

They never say marijuana, but the so they're following this farmer who is way out on the edge of town, and he comes into town and buys weird supplies like no hoses and blankets.

Are you know boil is like big pots to boil water or something.

I don't.

So they follow him and they find out that the reason why he's been acting so nervous and edgy is his wife is giving birth right now.

So cut to commercial, like they're like, oh, we're gonna go help with this delivery.

Cut to commercial and boy, that sure was a great delivery that you did there, Barney.

Yeah, they love to do that.

They love to do that on that show.

I think monologue from your father about like, man, I'm so stressed out.

This is so difficult for me that my wife is giving birth.

Does anybody want to hear about how this is impacting my interior life?

And they're like so much, so much.

And then they give birth and they're all just out from be like, how are you doing father about the whole birth?

Are you cool?

You doing good?

Be like yeah, I'm holding up.

And then the episode's over and it took us so long to realize that they had not shown a woman.

Oh god.

Yeah.

I also want to say about this particular episode.

So much of this episode is guys making assumptions about how pregnancy works.

And I do appreciate that for this episode you brought on Dan and I, two childless men, to also make wild assumptions about the accuracy of this depiction of pregnancy.

I mean, we learned a lot when you were on our show, particularly how tampons used to work back in the day.

So I'm excited for what I'm gonna find out.

Now.

You can listen to that one on Breaking Baby.

Yeah, so go over to Breaking Mary Berry.

We talk about Alias Darren Stevens, where Darren gets turned into a chimp and you know, by accident and and this time Darren is affected by magic on purpose.

So a little bit about the episode.

Darren has learned in the first episode of season two that Samantha is going to have a baby and he's going to be a father, and his first instinct is to kind of wait on Samantha hand and foot and make sure she's okay, and then you know, and do everything for her so she knows she's she doesn't hurt herself.

And then Larry Tait, his boss at work, convinces him that basically women should never be treated like that, that.

They love it they love to work really hard during their pregnancy.

It's their favorite thing.

And it's better for her and the baby, So then.

You couch it more in terms of that his wife, when she was pregnant, took advantage of her pregnancy to get him to or be treated better or whatever waited upon.

It's gross.

Yeah, he says something to the effect of, like, if you let them, women will make being pregnant an occupation, a career, a career, which on it on the surface is gross but also really smacks of like Reagan era welfare queen kind of nonsense.

You know, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty horrifying, right when you Dora, her mom shows up, who doesn't like Darren, uh, basically shows up and finds out that she's going to be a grandmother.

Darren proves himself to be a kind of a jerk about it, and she basically curses him to have the symptoms of pregnancy and thus chaos and suits.

So so Darren has to have you know, labor pains as it were.

Yeah, okay, but so let's let's let's go to the beginning of this episode because I'm so excited.

One.

So season one and season.

I was sort of fascinated by, you know, the technology of television as well.

Season one and season two were both black and white when they originally aired, and I think why I saw a colorized version was what I was able to find.

Are there black and white versions of these?

Oh?

Yeah, absolutely, there's there's a website called Internet Internet Archive.

The whole the whole series isn't available for free on Internet Archive.

Yeah, and it's it's it's black and white at least season one, season two.

I didn't get any further than that, but it's absolutely in the original black and white.

I feel like that I watched I watched the recolored version.

Yeah, I feel like that would be better because I think I would prefer to not know Andendorra's color scheme.

I disagree, totally disagree.

I'm with Martin Hare.

I misagree because I feel like she would have more of an air of mystery in black and white, not knowing that she was green and purple.

I absolutely loved those lex Luthor colors.

I love that they chose to just scream like we are in color.

Now, look how we can do with technic color.

Look how bright this is.

And it also helps serve to separate her from like normal mortal life.

That's her whole motivation is she doesn't want her daughter to tamp herself down.

She doesn't want her daughter to be a normal, boring mortal.

She says, we're witches, We're big, we're bold, we're magic.

I'm going to stand out as much as possible.

So I absolutely love the most of the time.

I as a purist, I'm kind of against colorizing things that originally black and white.

But if you're gonna do that, I really liked that they went big with this because it fits the character.

See what the color scheme is saying to me is that she has to go fight Batman right after this episode.

I think she might have.

I wouldn't be.

Crossover, that crossover that would actually be so good and honestly.

Like, let me just control f guess I'm sure Adam West appeared on here some point, right, it has to have been a crossover that.

Is so funny and listen, and Dora is such a great character and I love that.

I love that this episode has her in it.

And I also love that it has a little Larry tape because I remember not liking Larry Tape from childhood, but not quite knowing why, and after this episode, I know what, but with the look of this show is so incredible to me, and now is Mayberry?

Has Mayberry didn't ever get colorized?

No, it certainly did.

Oh yeah, well, a sharp drop off in quality that is universally loathed by everybody that liked the show because it also coincided with Don Knott's leaving and just a huge tonal shift in the show.

And you know, the whole thing is very reliant on this kind of like Norman Rockwell, is it the Great Depression or is it the sixties?

And that was really reliant on it being in black and white, and color just shatters that illusion.

Yeah.

Yeah, the show becomes very different after that.

The show becomes a little bit more obsessed with the idea of television.

They leave Mayberry to go to Hollywood for a few episodes.

That becomes very so it's just honestly a completely different show, which has contributed to why Dan and I are trying to talk about anything else while we're doing Glee right now.

Well, I mean, I'm sure there's some line between Andy Griffiths show and Glee.

Did he appear on Glee?

Rond on Glee?

No.

I mean pretty much every person guested on that show at some point, but probably Ron Howard was a little too outside for them.

If I may.

Someone asked earlier it did Adam West appear on Bewitch?

Yes?

He did?

Yes?

Was he was?

Season one episode thirteen.

He played a character named Kermit.

I don't he's then, just skimming through the description.

Yeah he was not he was not a warlock.

He was a but for those one to look for it, it's season one, episode thirteen and it is called Love is Blind.

Okay, all right, I don't understand how you have Adam West on your show about which is in warlocks and he's not magic.

But okay, I guess that's why I don't work until it.

I took a big swing on that, and I'm so happy a pay off.

Yeah that was pretty good.

That was pretty good.

I'm very impressed by that.

Here's the thing.

I just want to talk a little bit about their house, all right, So we start off we're in the bedroom, right, like, yeah, we're in the bedroom at one even though we never see them in bed together.

Right.

As far as I know, I haven't watched the whole episode, I mean, the whole series but in this episode, I don't think they're in bed together.

They are actually at the end, No, a couple a couple of times he's he's on his side of the bed, her side of the bed faces or maybe it's another episode, but anyway, face is the camera.

If you face the bed, he's on the left, she's on the right.

He's facing the other way.

She's facing the camera.

But they are on the same bed.

It's clearly not double you know, two twin beds or something.

Well, I'm thinking of the Dick van Dyke show where it was so clear they weren't allowed to be in bed together.

Right, that was still a thing that that which I take that.

I think this is a your both right situation.

I think that like they're in the bed together.

But if I remember right, just from this episode, she's in the bed and he's standing next to the bed by her, bent over serving her something.

I don't think there's any clips of them both laying down in bed together.

It's always one is in the bed and one is next to the bed, or one is around.

So I think this is a case of you're both right.

Of course, just for the terms of this episode, I should also be making this up entirely.

No, no, I think my apologies because this afternoon before this, I watched both this episode of Very Special Delivery and I watched an episode from the first season where I won't get into all the details, and I think that's where I saw them in bed together.

So my apologies.

But this is like sixty four versus like so Dick Fendyke Show, which I also watch.

That's the other sort of sort of I would say, male female situation comedy that I absorbed a lot of this time period, and they were they were in separate twin beds.

They are currently wearing a Mary Tyler Moore T shirt.

Exactly, but but this one they're clearly they clearly share a bed, and I'm just like that so feels like, WHOA something changed?

We do that they can make a baby.

So one of the things, so one of my quotes about the Dick Van Dyke Show I like from Dick Van Dyke was it was really important for him to kind of break the mold by having the husband and wife actually seem like attracted to each other and have a sense of intimacy, which I guess was like off the table up until this point.

Like the most you can do is a firm handshake, maybe eye contact once an episode, otherwise the sensors will get in here.

And this really feels like in that like tradition, Like it feels like it does I do like that like bed, whether or not they're in a bed together, it does feel like these two people are actually like attracted to each other and they do have like a physical relation.

And it feels like a marriage.

Yes, yeah, that's what I think we're getting it.

These feel like two married people.

Yeah, absolutely, And so that that's nice.

And he's being all like, I gotta take care of you, and he is being a little bit smothering.

I will say, he's like, oh my god, don't move, You're gonna die, you know.

Yeah, But she's like, I've got it, Darren, I'm fine.

It was it was frequently.

It's freually pointed out, like, Darren, you will collapse from exhaustion if you continue going at this rate for the entire pregnancy.

Yeah.

At this point, he's known her pregnancy for like two or three days.

They haven't even told her mom yet, and he's got like eight months to go.

Yeah.

It seems to be an indication though of the general lack of awareness that men then and probably now to a large extent, have about what pregnancy is and how it affects women.

Because you know, he's, as we talked about earlier, Larry's able to convince him to change his behavior of hovering over her the whole time, and even during as we talk about the symptoms that he has.

It's all very very much from a male perspective about what pregnancy is.

And I say this as someone who has not been pregnant, however, I feel like I know a little bit more about what it would be than certainly those two men did back in nineteen sixty five.

Especially and up to and including the man who wrote this episode.

Right to remember that this episode is written by a man who I think was like I heard they like pickles, Yeah, they want pickles.

Well, and very broad strokes.

When we get to the symptoms of pregnancy, right.

There is an early joke about the symptoms of pregnancy I want to reference.

I want to make sure we talk about, and that is in this scene in the front.

In the first scene, Samantha says, listen, I'm feeling really good.

I'm actually I don't have morning sickness.

I don't.

I'm not hurting.

I feel Also, she's only been pregnant, she's like maybe six weeks pregnant, very beginning, very early.

But she says, I feel good.

I'm not having any symptoms.

And then she looks down at her body and says, well, maybe one symptom, and she pats her belly to indicate that's the symptom.

That it's the belly.

But I'll just straight up say it since she's wearing a very baggy maternity thing, I swear.

Until she patted her belly to indicate it, I thought that was a joke about her boobs.

I thought she was like, oh, I thought she was saying, well, okay, I've got one symptom.

My boobs are huge now because because you can't see the baby bump because.

It's very flowy.

Her outfit is all flowy.

So she has to pat her stomach to make sure you understand that's what the joke is.

I'd like to think that maybe the joke was originally about about her breasts, and then Elizabeth Montgomery, yeah, you would like I would like to think that, sir.

But then maybe Elizabeth Montgomery or somebody on set was like this is about the belly, right, Well, I.

Will say she was pregnant in real when they first started shooting this season, and when I watched the previous episode, I actually thought she looked like she had a little bit of a baby bump there.

There were a couple of places where I'm like, she pregnant?

Is that?

What's going on?

And you know, knowing and did they write that in in the next episode?

They did, Yeah, they did.

Indeed, the impression I was under was that you couldn't show a being pregnant on TV, like it was a censorship thing because they were like, if you show that a woman has been pregnant, then you show that she has had sex and that is profane.

So I was like, maybe that's why the robe had to be so flowy, But for my understanding of censorship at the time, they wouldn't even let this on camera.

So I think in this case it wasn't that so much as she was much further along in her personal pregnancy then she would have been in the show, so they were trying to hide that she was.

This is my impression that she was actually pregnant, yeah, as opposed to the other because remember Lucy had Little Ricky back on the I Love Lucy's show back in the mid fifties, so they had kind of already broken that glass ceiling or pregnancy ceiling, whatever you want to call it, back then.

Broken that water.

There you go, see Susan.

Not a hot streak.

So I think we observed before it was still in the same and the credits it says something like Miss Montgomery's wardrobe is provided by Tyler Maternity's or something like this.

So this entire episode, both these episodes are a great ad for that maternity clothing episode or brand, because she looks great, like it's a lovely nightgown.

She looks gorgeous.

She looks so beautiful in this show, like I'd forgotten sort of how beautiful she is and how sort of sparkly and very young Mary Tyler Moore.

There's elements of that and just sort of her sort of joyousness.

I mean, they're both actually quite adorable, I think in this episode.

But she looked great and her outfit looks great.

But I will say that the little tiny apron that she was given for an anniversary gift does not make an appearance when she's in the kitchen.

I was really hoping that Darren would put.

It on show follow up, follow up.

I'd like to think that one of the writers may have suggested it, but somewhere as somebody went, no, we're not.

It's so much.

I do like that Darren is sort of is on the submissive side, Like he's not like a like a very like it's my way or the highway.

He's very like doting and like a little like he's he's you know, he's kind of like beta in a way that I wouldn't expect to see on TV at this time period, Like you just assumed that I'll, like, the husband is always going to be like, let me tell you what's going on.

I'm in charge of his household.

Instead he's like.

It's it's you know.

The obvious comparison we're all we're gonna make constantly is to Idreamgenie and Idagenie is about always about Tony trying to assert himself, trying to start his dominance in a relationship where he is not the dominant one at all, and Jeanie kind of lets him think that and then you know, every episode proves him wrong.

Darren, Darren is super comfortable in himself dren Is.

Darren knows he's not the powerful one because he's like, I'm married a witch until until an older man, an older, more successful man, comes into the picture and tells him how he should behave because it's kind of like his Larry Tate is, for lack of a better term, his his father figure in this, you know.

So it's kind of like his dad comes in and says, don't let your woman treat you like that, son, and then it causes a little behavioral shift for him that is out of character, and then he gets his his comuppance, you know.

So it's nice to see a dude that loves his wife.

But it is so much I will I want to point out that at this point she was married to her third husband, William Asher.

Who was the producer director.

On Bewitched, and so so he's I don't know, I didn't look to see if he directed this actual episode, but he's overseeing the show at this point, and so it's it's very interesting that, I mean, she's pregnant with his child right like at this point.

So it's it's an interesting sort of when you think about that.

What you know, so you got just off stage, you know, just offset going be nice to her.

As it happens.

He did direct this episode, so anyway, I think it's so I think it's so charming.

Darren is very charming in this episode, and he's and he's trying really hard, too hard.

But then Larry Tate, Oh my god, can we talk now?

We can really get into the Larry Tate at all.

I want to say that monologue has a lot to unpack.

I do want to say one thing about Asher before we go on, since Susan brought that up.

That is very interesting to me that this is an episode about a man over protecting his pregnant husband, and behind the scenes, Uh, you have a man who is watching over the work of his pregnant wife.

I think I said pregnant husband earlier.

You did you did dead.

I was trying to mistake in this context because of what the episode is about.

It's about a man protecting his pregnant wife.

And in the background there is a man actually protecting his pregnant wife.

Because Elizabeth Montgomery is not the driving force in this episode.

She doesn't do a ton in this episode.

She was probably not working a lot that week because her director husband didn't want her to work.

That hard interesting.

That that is very interesting.

Now I feel like I want to watch the next few episodes and see if continues for a while, if they're like, Okay, we got to give her some time and she's like or.

If the next director comes in he's like, let's get this woman to work.

We're paying her.

Get her on.

The next episode is directed by Larry Tait.

What so the Larry Tait scene.

Oh my god.

So Larry Tait is.

Such an app and I've said that I shouldn't say that, but he really is.

I was surprised at how forceful that the You're gonna make a career.

Out of it.

So this is this is Darren's boss is Darren's boss.

Darren goes to work and he talks to his boss, and his boss basically says, what are you doing Karen?

For a woman?

You know?

There's like this weird peppering of bragging in it too, because it's like, once I stopped doting on her, she became powerful.

She was gulfing when she gave birth.

The only problem was that it threw off her swing.

So it is like there's like it's like, don't doubt a donte on her because she'll become weak.

But if you don't, my god, you'll have the most powerful wife in the world.

And it's he's read a book.

The book.

The book title he says is Labor for Labor's Sake, which I think we can we can google that.

That sounds made up.

It also sounds like a like a like a working class like socialist text to me.

But he says that he's read a book and his uh, his own wife just had a baby, which I find interesting.

I don't know if we ever see Larry Tate's wife on this show, but I would be willing to bet that she is much younger than him, because this man is probably fifty five sixty years old, right.

Yeah, after to admit, I kind of bumped on that when he said his wife just had a baby, and I was like, I would have I would have expect him to say granddaughter as opposed to wife.

That so, yeah, was she wife number three or four?

Yeah?

Maybe, although it's so hard because as people in the sixties, actors in the sixties often looked way older than they actually were.

Cigarettes everywhere.

Yeah, Yeah, you know what's cool.

We haven't said the plot of the episode.

We did but we haven't gotten to the good part of the episode.

We haven't got into the first we haven't got past the first Well, we're in the second scene, all right.

And on that note, let's take a break.

Welcome back, Let's continue with our conversation.

Go quick and doras.

Here she's in the kitchen and she is lecturing, uh uh.

She is lecturing Samantha Yeah, about how she has royally screwed up by having a kid.

She she describes finding out that her daughters having a child that's an ugly rumor, and says basically like, if you have a kid with him, you're going to be locked into a monogamous relationship for this man's whole life, which, based off of their immortal lifespan, shouldn't really be that big of a deal, like whatever seventy years tops.

Yeah, like it's fine, but it is.

She like she's very like counter cultural in her critique of this.

She'd be like, you're you're stuck in this like straight laced monogamous, Like there's sort of like almost like hippie vibes from the way that she's criticizing this.

Yeah, that interesting and endures the hippie on this.

We talked like a lot of in the other episode about like what the witches are like a metaphor for And I think there is kind of like a counter cultural element to them because I did some digging and Samantha's father is not in a like a relationship with and Dora.

They are like basically a casual hookup.

So like witches are non monogamous.

Uh, They're in kind of this like loose society.

So it is weird that there's also that angle on the criticism of.

Well and there's that idea that that some people read it a little bit coded gay.

They all like they live on the fringe of society.

They have a big secret they keep from everybody else.

I can see that.

Yeah, that makes it makes a lot of sense.

All Right, She's very not thrilled, and she's also like, he's gonna be awful to you.

Harsh What harsh things do you hear from your mother?

Yeah, she's really a witch when you think about it.

She eventually chills out when she's told she can play with the baby whenever she wants, will have no responsibilities whatsoever, and will not be called grandma.

Like.

She does chill out eventually, Yes, but she is still like talking smack on Darren, and Samantha.

Is like, no, he's been you.

We'll see it, mom.

He is totally supporting me and totally behind me, and he's gonna not let me lift a finger.

And then of course he shows up and is a jerk because Larry Tate told him to be and the book told him to be.

One last thing about Larry Tate's monologue, by the way, he makes a pretty good case.

That pretty good case.

He makes a terrible case women used to work in the field, have babies and then go back to work in the field again, which is an awful case to make, and also points out that and also neglects to observe that lots of babies died.

Yes, yeah, lots of women died having babies.

Kind of, Larry, Yeah, Larry does not come off great in this episode.

He's really no, he's really kind of He's the villain in this episode for sure.

Yeah.

Really hearkening back like describing a nightmare of a scenario, like remember when you had to do labor immediately before and after giving birth?

Doesn't that sound great and like something you want to emulate?

So yeah, So Darren walks in he's overcompensating in the other direction right in front of Endora, and that does not go overwell, and so she curses him basically, yeah.

To have the symptoms of pregnancy, not going all the way out to give him like the big Arnold Schwarzenegger junior bump and everything.

But he does have like morning sickness and with a backache.

He walks a little funny, and it's mostly just hormonal.

Well, and what's funny is it is sort of the male version of what we think pregnancy symptoms are in that they come on instantly.

Right.

This is a very good episode of Bewitched, in my opinion.

I haven't watched all of them, but I watched a few sort of leading up to this as we were sort of looking for it.

I think this has got some really great writing.

You know, Darren says, I'm doing this for Sam's good.

Believe me, I know every ache and pain that she has and it hurts me more than her, and and Dora says it doesn't yet, but it will.

And that's when we know that she has cursed him, and it's so lovely.

And so then he wakes up in the morning and he's got a back ache, and he's walking like a waddling you know penguin, which again really only comes in like the eighth or ninth month, So.

You will get all of the symptoms of pregnancy, all of them at once.

You are going to feel nine months of pregnancy in twenty four hours.

Well, it is a curse.

It is, it is which prepped.

So how how do we feel about the Darren's pregnancy symptoms?

Like overall?

Like do we feel like they?

Like?

Again, as someone who's never been pregnant, I did find that the symptoms that he exhibited felt a little cliched, the emotional reactions to things, the pickles, that kind of stuff.

Nevertheless, I did I think I appreciated more the physical pains and aches and such that and Dora put him through more than those other things, which I felt, you know, Hussibly would have written a little bit differently if a woman had written it, perhaps Susan, what about you, You're the only one on this thing that's ever had a baby?

So true.

And so so they go into a meeting the next day, and Darren's in the meeting with client and is overly emotional with Larry, and but also it's a very here's here's the thing.

It is to cliche, it is too broad.

It is not true that that particular thing happens for every woman, but they decide that to lean into the every woman you know wants to eat odd things, especially pickles, because they're having lunch at this meeting, and Darren gets obsessed with everyone's pickle because he's eaten his and is out, so he's extra hungry and all he wants is a pickle.

And they have this great scene and it's actually very funny.

So I'm willing to forgive it because he's all.

Dick York is so good at it too.

He's really lovely and you have to write what Dick York can play too?

Right?

Yeah, yeah, I will give them credit for that.

They do.

He I mean, he's always been my favorite.

Darren.

The Dick's Sergeant was fine, but I really did prefer Dick York's Darren over the other Darren who is.

I think I think the key is that your I'm gonna keep going inn.

I think the key is that York is.

He's handsome, but he is funny looking.

He's got comedian face and he makes funny faces.

He's got A.

He's kind of a naturally funny looking guy, and he makes it funny to watch him his eyes bug out and watch him make different reactions, like I think that's key.

He's a sort of a kinder nicer when it gets angry, it's not as angry for.

Me, Sergeant A.

Sergeant Yeah, yeah, last episode of the one that we covered on our show, he did a pretty good job of playing the angriest the man could ever possibly be.

Ever well he was he had been turned into a chimp, right, yeah, I mean I would think that would rarely bring out the beast in you as it were, So I'm ask you.

Did you come up with that joke after we recorded ours?

And you were like, oh, I got to get that joke in when we do the second part.

That one literally just came out because I was like, I'm not sure I'm going to get another.

Pun in, so I have to be looking for it.

But the pickle scene was because I watched this episode twice and it's very funny where he's asking everybody if they can if he can have their pickle, and nobody wants to give him their pickle, and he's like, but you're not eating it.

Let me have the pickle and then he gets over emotional, so Larry takes him out and then he's like, why are you being so emotional?

He's like, I don't know, I just feel and he's clearly, you know, overly emotional.

So Larry says, you got to go to the doctor.

So he goes to the doctor.

That scene between between Larry and Darren, that was one of the highlight lights for me because Larry was so perplexed, it's no idea what's happening?

Of course, really no nord is Darren and I thought they were both just terrific in that scene.

Yeah, Dick Yorke's delivery of like being asked if he's crying and going.

Like what if I am?

He's so good, I know, I mean cliches definitely let you play with humor a lot.

I think for the time I'm going to give them a little pass on some of this because again, what they're talking about, the meta of it all is that a man has to go through pregnancy symptoms.

That's that's what the audience is enjoying.

And I you know, given you know, just a few years earlier, Dick van Dyke and his wife could could be loving towards each other, but they couldn't share a bed, and we were not that far from when you couldn't you know, have a woman pregnant on on television, And now we've made a man have pregnancy symptoms.

Now we're going for cliche jokes, but they're being performed very well, and I'm willing to give it a lot.

And they're also the funniest of the pregnancy symptoms.

Other pregnancy symptoms you could have given Darren are like swollen feet and hemorrhoids, and so those aren't you know, necessarily as good to do.

No, I mean, imagine Dick York saying I have swollen feet and hemorrhis imagine his delivery of that.

It would have been off the chain.

But at least my periods have stopped.

He did not have to use anything.

He would have crossed that line.

So here, so I'm gonna finally answer the question of like, what what of these symptoms makes sense?

Those symptoms exist, but they most of those symptoms do not come until much later in the pregnancy, I will say.

So the uncomfortableness, really is it for me?

Was in the very last part of the like last month of the pregnancy.

I happened to feel great during my pregnancy.

Not everybody feels that way.

I had like one moment of feeling sick.

They didn't really do the I'm the morning sickness.

Yeah, I don't think you could have.

Like, that's not fun.

It's not fun.

And also this one, I do know.

We don't have a toilet flush on TV until the Brady Bunch, So.

Yeah, whoa, I thought it was all in the family.

Maybe it is all in the family, it pointed it's not until the seventies.

Yeah, yeah, we don't have a toilet flush, so you really can't like have Darren puke in his guts out, which also again not fun.

Yeah.

So that's probably the most like early trimester sort of pregnancy symptom that some women have, not every woman, but.

That is like the one they don't do.

Yeah, he just says he has an upset stomach.

Yeah, which gives the point across.

It's not a joke, but it gets it gets you to where you need to be.

Yeah, since it's all very funny, I was very much like, it doesn't matter.

She's a witch.

He's been cursed with these, so they can be whatever.

And Dora wants them to be right.

I'll give them this.

A man in the sixties paid attention to things that happened to his wife while pregnant and then thought, what if that happened to me?

Which feels crazy, That feels like something they would not be capable of.

Sympathy pains are a real thing.

Like, there are reports of men having quote unquote sympathetic pregnancies, you know, feeling cramps and things that their wives are But it's not funny, all.

Right, but here's here's one of my favorites.

So, so Darren goes to the doctor.

The doctor says, well, everything here describe it sounds like you might be pregnant.

But that's ridiculous.

And that's when Darren is like, oh no, yeah, it gets yeah, yeah, I've been magiced.

Uh and yeah.

So the first thing he does once he knows that he's been cursed with pregnancy.

He goes to the bar.

He goes to a bar to have a lot of drinks.

I think, and to keep in mind, at this point, he does not think that he is like has the symptoms of pregnancy.

My man thinks he is pregnant, Like he thinks that there is a fetus in him.

Yes, and here's where we get like a very extended scene.

And now that you're saying it, Martin, I'm like, this is so because this is so much time without the two of them.

You do not see Elizabeth Montgomery four a good two thirds of this episode.

That's right.

Yeah, it's pretty great now that I didn't even know.

Yeah, yeah, it's It's so he's at the bar and he's basically visited by three dudes, my three spirits.

Three ghosts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he does see the future.

He does look into the future.

The first one is a jerk about it, the second one is like, man, this is awesome.

You're gonna be so famous.

And then the third one hits on his mother in law.

All right, all right, so the the but the dialogue again, I'm just gonna call this guy.

Okay, Bartender, you're all right, mister Stevens.

All right, Joe, I'm gonna have a baby.

Oh yeah, congratulations to the wife, not my wife me you Yes, I'm gonna be a mother.

Well that's great, you know, the first man in the world to pull it off.

You'll be famous.

That Bartender is super chill about this.

I feel like bartender should have also been like, eh, you're cut off.

Yeah, no more drinks, no more for you.

You're pregnant, you know you can't be drinking.

But my favorite line of this is the dream sequence, where.

After the bartender says that Darren envisions himself having a baby, being interviewed by people who are amazed at this man who just had a child, and he says something to the effect of it's causing a lot of problems.

See as the boy's father, I want him to go into politics, but as his mother, I'm against it.

It's hilarious, it's so funny.

It's such a.

That is also my favorite line of the episode.

It's so good.

It's I mean, and this whole little bit, this whole fantasy bit where he imagines that he will have to go to the hospital and give birth to a baby.

And by the way, they show.

Him holding a stuffed animal, not a baby, but he's like cradling a stuffed animal like a.

Baby, and he's clearly just had the baby.

But more importantly than they also get Elizabeth Montgomery basically pacing the waiting room with all the other guys in her overcoat so she we can hide her her actual real pregnancy, and then when they tell her it's it's a boy that she hands out cigars.

It's such a gender bending episode that I absolutely love that crap.

Yeah, I don't think they missed anything.

I think they I think they they they covered it all in terms of some of the pregnancy tropes.

Yeah, it was.

It was really so well done, so well done.

But you know who I really in this episode.

I really liked and Dora because a lot of times, to me, she was mean to Darren and I wasn't always there for that.

But in this episode, she sees the he's treating her pregnant daughter and he's like She's like, I'm not having it.

You think this is such a walk in the park.

Let me show you exactly what it is that she's gonna be dealing with.

And I think, and again I haven't seen it too many episodes at this point, but I think in terms of and Dora, I think this was one of the best for her character because she was really really standing up for her daughter in this one.

Yeah, there's a reason for her to do something to Darren.

Yeah, I mean, she likes messing with Darren, but in this case, there is like a distinctly she gets to be in the right for it.

You know.

Yeah, things are better because she did this, Darren.

It goes back to being a better husband as a result of what she did.

Could somebody have just yelled him yes, but it wouldn't have been as funny.

This was much more fun this way.

Yeah, And in fact, yeah, right, their marriage is better because of it, and like he is now better equipped to take care of his wife for the next eight months.

And that's the conclusion, is him saying, no, honey, I know what you're going through.

I know exactly what you're going through, like through gritted teeth, And she's like, I guess you do, all right?

Well, and then she's like, how lucky am I?

I'm like the only woman ever to like have a husband who knows exactly what this is, you know.

Yeah.

So he and he's real proud of himself.

Always a man.

I'm a man and a million Yeah.

I did so good being pregnant for like twelve hours.

Who's the who's the the like the figure from Greek myth the Oracle that was like both a man and a woman, which made him like incredibly wise.

I Yeah, I feel like Darren By season six is owing to be the ultimate version of that because he has been a man, a woman, a monkey, a dinosaur, probably a race car driver.

He has been every form of human existence, and he is like the ultimate perspective.

I think that's really great, except for the fact, and I will say this was very disturbing at the end of this episode, right before they sort of, you know, wrap it up and reset to we're a happy to best a couple and everything's gonna be fine.

There's that little like thread of domestic violence.

But if that mother of yours ever pulls a stunt like that again, I'm gonna use a little magic of my own, make a few teeth that disappear.

And Samantha says, and no jury will convict you for punching my mother in the face.

What is happening In that line, her response should have been, she could he everything, She's everywhere.

Don't talk like that.

She will disappear you.

She will turn you into a cloud.

She will take your teeth out of your mouth and put them in your brain.

Because she can do that.

She will turn you into teeth.

That will be the next episode.

My husband the jaw, like, oh my god, yeah, it's it's pretty uh, it's pretty indefensible, but I'm gonna try anyway, where.

Marty do it.

No, Marty, we're not on our own podcast.

We can't edit out whatever the hell you're.

About to say.

No, No, it's the man has had a very strange week.

He has been he has been a chimp and pregnant like in the past forty eight hours.

I would probably also have some misplaced anger to go somewhere.

I would also probably say something I don't mean, you know.

The serious mode here is like the show's entire jokes are about the conflict between your in laws and your chosen partner, having your or having your parents not approve of the person you want to be with and having them not like your family either.

So no, don't, don't threaten to punch your mother in law so hard she loses teeth.

But it is an exaggeration of just like lots of people are angry at their in laws for various reasons.

This is the amount.

This is the biggest exaggeration of this.

Okay, I think I got through that.

Okay, I think I got through that.

That was pretty well done.

That was well done, And Okay, this was the time of To the Moon Alice, there was a lot of threats and domestic violence on television.

But I was surprised after such a a woke episode if you were that that it, that it ended with such a vitriol from Darren, even though again he has very good Indoor is awful to.

Him throughout this and this show.

And yes, but yeah, oh well you can't tell me that Samantha hasn't also thought about punching her own mother.

Like.

Well again, clearly Samantha is like, oh yeah, no, she's sowvel and no jury will convict you.

Like I do.

I beg to differ.

Actually, the.

Should convict you also also try that defense.

Go for it.

She turned me into a monkey, go on metaphorically.

No, no, literally, they might incarcerate him in a mental word.

Yeah, she made me feel pregnant.

I thought I was going to be a mother.

Yeah, go for it.

Try the lady, the gentleman of the jury.

I choose to represent myself in this child.

Oh my god?

That all right?

Anyway, well this was so fun and any last thoughts.

I do want to circle back to one thing at the bar because the closing of that Darren is left to go get unpregnanted.

And she is hanging out at the bar with a guy that is basically hitting on her, and he is giving like a speech about like, well, you know, my wife is pregnant right now, and she's fine, it's not that hard.

I'm here drinking also hitting on you.

And she turns that dude.

She gives the pregnant treatment to that guy and definitely doesn't turn that one back.

He's just like that now.

I do I do want to clarify something, damn, because when you said it, I was like, oh, let's let's make that point.

He just naturally is gonna get over the symptoms.

It's just like a temporary spell.

When you say that he's gonna go get unpregnated.

There is not a magical abortion happening off screen.

I just I just want to clarify that for everybody.

Yeah, And that is the way I say that.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

No, No, they want to clarify that we're not going, you know, fetus disappear them and and taking care of it that way.

No, it's just it's just one of those natural twenty four hour pregnancies that you go through.

I thought I thought in Dora cut him some slack.

I thought she was like, all right, you've learned your less No.

No, I watched it twice.

This was because no real resolution to it other than Samantha saying, don't worry, honey, it's just symptoms.

They'll go away.

It's gonna go away.

That's pretty much how they wrap it up and then go away.

I will say again, we talked about Darren patting himself on the back.

There is a chance it just could have backfired.

This is my final thought.

The ultimate resolution is I have felt your pains and now I am more sympathetic to you the possible backfire.

The Larry Tait version of this story is, well, I was pregnant for twelve hours and it wasn't that big a deal.

So what I think and Dora would have had something to say and or do about it if that had been the case.

So fortunately Darren is not Larry Tait, so I think, but I think you're right, but I think she would have come back and given him some more.

The least charitable version I can do of what he says at the end is like, hey, I've been there, I've experienced what you're going through, so shut up and listen to me, shut up and do what I say.

I have empathized with you, so now it's I Now it's time to do exactly what I say all the time.

Oh my god, that's crazy.

This is crazy.

I do want to also point out the other guy at the bar is Gene Blakely and uh and he ends up.

He's in eight episodes of Bewitched.

As different characters or is it just like this one guy.

There's just like this one guy in the background every couple of episodes, going oh man, my nipples are really sore.

No, he's in.

He's in.

He's in like four in season one, three in season two, and like one in season four, and I just like and he's like just the guy listening to Darren like in some of them.

I don't know.

I don't know all of them.

Oh, we're talking about the first guy, not the guy who.

Becomes pregnant, all right, I don't know which one he won there is?

Oh no, no, yeah, I was looking at this because he's like listed as a series regular and his just title is the drunk He's the guy he's drinking.

He's the guy he's drinking with.

Yeah, and and his thing is he sees something from the show and then he like looks at his bottle of liquor and stops drinking it, like he but he just does that bit.

Yeah.

Anyway, I just thought that was, like, he's he's a recurring.

Recurring characters of just a guy that drinks with tarin.

Yeah, just isn't just asn't aside because I was looking for him, and I came across an actor named Dick Wilson, whose character played several characters, one of which was called Drunk.

Dick Wilson was, for those of us who remember back in the day, the actor on the commercial for Sharman, he's the don't squeeze the Sharman guy.

Oh no, not the bear.

Not the bear.

Okay.

But that's one of the things I love about looking back over these over these older shows and looking at at some of the credits and and actors that character, actors like like Dick Wilson who did other things and other where the other shows or commercials or other things that you know of.

But you're like, oh, I didn't know that guy was in that show, you know, Like we didn't know Adam West had a.

Role and Bewitched at some point, so happy I knocked that one out.

Of the guest and his name is Kermit in it.

I'll say this, I'll say this.

I think it's interesting that Dick Wilson is just like a background bit part in there, because clearly, by the fact that his name is Dick, he's qualified to play the lead.

He I mean, then maybe they considered him and then said no, but we'll give you the background.

Yeah, we were looking at him.

He needed another Dick.

Later in the show, he's like doing some some sabotage stuff, like he's trying to, like injure Dick's sergeant be like, I'm the next Dick in line.

I'm gonna take this one.

Some sandbags are falling from the rafters and barely missing Dick Sergeant.

Well, guys, this is fantastic.

I was trying to figure out what we would call it, and I think it might be Bewitched, be Mayberry, and be Pregnant.

So if you enjoyed this episode, go check out us on Breaking Mayberry in the where we look at Darren alias Darren Stevens.

The episode they came right before this episode.

Yeah logical and yeah.

Season one episode Season two, episode one and season two episode two were the ones we decided to do because it kind of fit and kind of neat to look at a woman a female driven television show from the nineteen sixties.

Yeah, thank you guys so much.

It's it's you've been really been a lot of fun.

Thank you for having us on.

Yea, this was so much fun.

We loved it.

Thank you for having us on.

We've come back again anytime.

In today's audiography, check out the Breaking Mayberry podcast on Apple, Spreak, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts, and.

You can watch Bewitched for free at Internet archive dot org.

The link will be in our description.

Season five through eight, I think are available for free on Roku.

As always, we hope ADSTV Ladies brings you joy and laughter and lots of fabulous new and old shows to watch, all of which will bring us closer to being amazing ladies of the twenty first century.

Have a great summer, Babies, sand so pretty into the city.

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