Note:
This site is no longer being maintained, unfortunately.
Most of the pages haven't been modified for years.
See the
homepage
for the only part of this site
that is being kept up to date.
jump to
bottom of page
production order:
previous episode |
list of episodes |
next episode 
broadcast order:
previous episode |
list of episodes |
next episode 
jump to...
Airing Info
Episode Content
Credits
Other Info
Opinions
DYNs
[top |
airing |
content |
credits |
other |
opinions |
dyns |
bottom]
- Original Air Date
- 27 Sep 96, 8:30pm ET / 7:30pm CT (series debut)
- Production Date
- unknown
- Running Time
- info to come
- Repeated
- please see U.S. airings of STTW
- Also Shown
- please see Worldwide airings of STTW
[top |
airing |
content |
credits |
other |
opinions |
dyns |
bottom]
- Story
- Sabrina learns on her sixteenth birthday that she's a witch.
While trying to
control and come to grips with her new powers, she accidentally turns the
most popular and obnoxious girl of the school into a
pineapple, and must appeal to the Witches' Council
to help her reverse this unfortunate error.
(from ABC's AOL folder)
- Opening Scene
- Zelda and Hilda coo over Sabrina who's floating above her bed.
[Sabrina, Zelda and Hilda in Sabrina's room]
- Closing Scene
- 27 Sep 96 debut:
Sabrina interrupts Salem's story of his world domination plans
to get more milk;
Salem tells her to use a spell.
[Salem and Sabrina in her room]
- 29 Nov 96 repeat:
Salem addresses the ``people of earth'', urging us to worship him.
[Salem on dining room table]
- Fourth Outfit
- First three oufits in opening titles are always the same:
- short, gold dress
-- seen in ??
- brown shirt with little green flowers on it, tan pants
-- seen in this episode
- black dress, pearls, white gloves, big hat
-- seen in ``Third Aunt From the Sun'' (#008)
Last outfit is unique to each episode and has a tagline associated with it.
This episode:
- Outfit: yer basic witch costume (black dress, pointy hat)
- Line: ``This is so not me.''
- Character Names
- Sabrina
- Hilda, Sabrina's aunt (the ``wacky'' one)
- Zelda, Sabrina's aunt (name not spoken until second half of show)
- Salem, the aunts' cat
- Harvey, Sabrina's ``love interest'' at school
- Mr. Pool, her biology teacher
- Libby, her nemesis at school
- Jenny, her friend at school (name not spoken until second day)
- Tad Pole & Frankenfrog, names Jenny gives the frog in biology class
- Edward, Sabrina's father (name in the book)
- Ted, what Zelda calls Sabrina's father in one scene
- Mom & Dad, what Sabrina calls her parents (Mom not seen)
- Brad Pitt (mentioned in Jenny's ``knock-knock'' joke)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hogg, name of couple who used to live in Jenny's house
- Drell, head of Witches Council
(other members of Council not mentioned by name -- see
credits)
[top |
airing |
content |
credits |
other |
opinions |
dyns |
bottom]
- Starring
-
- Guest-Starring
-
- Opening Titles
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch
Starring
Melissa Joan Hart
Caroline Rhea
Beth Broderick
Nate Richert
Jenna Leigh Green
Michelle Beaudoin
Paul Feig
Nick Bakay
Created By Nell Scovell
- Opening Credits
Based on Characters Appearing in Archie Comics
Developed By Johnathan Schmock
Co-Producer Johnathan Sherman
Co-Producer Rachel Lipman
Produced By Kenneth R. Koch
Supervising Producers Carrie Honigblum
Renee Phillips
Co-Executive Producer Norma Safford Vela
Executive Producer Nell Scovell
Executive Producer Paula Hart
Teleplay By Nell Scovell
Television Story By Barney Cohen
Kathryn Wallach
Directed By Robby Benson
- Closing Credits
Finishing the Hat Productions
Hartbreak Films, Inc.
Viacom
Sabrina
Special Guest Stars
Teller as Skippy
Deborah Harry as Cassandra
Robby Benson as Edward
Penn Jillette as Drell
Co-Starring
Melissa Murray Cee Cee
Bridget Flanery Jill
Ren Woods Mrs. Hecht
Shaun Weiss Male Student
Jim Greenall Puppeteer
Sandey Grinn Puppeteer
Jim Boulden Puppeteer
Thom Fountain Puppeteer
Coordinating Producer Ron Martinez
Story Editor Nick Bakay
Story Editor Frank Coniff
Story Editors Neal Boushell
Sam O'Neal
Executive Consultants Barney Cohen
Kathryn Wallach
Executive Consultants Michael Silberkleit
Richard Goldwater
Associate Producer James Hilton
Director of Photography Ron Vargas
Production Designer David Sackeroff
Edited by Stuart Bass, A.C.E.
Casting by Ellie Kanner, C.S.A.
Music by Gary Stockdale
Unit Production Manager Ron Martinez
First Assistant Director Rusty Coleman
Second Assistant Director Joe Hughes
Costume Designer Dianne Kennedy
Set Decorator Julie Fanton
Technical Coordinator Jeanne Sagal
Camera Operators Ron Francis
Bill Layton
Pat McGinness
Chris Schweibert ?
Magic Consultant Joel Hodgson
Special Effects Art Brewer
Production Coordinator Matthew Goodman (*)
Transportation Coordinator Larry Market
Production Assistance Bernice Moschini ?
Gaffer Lon Massey
Key Grip Phil Rose
Sound Mixer John Salcedo
Script Supervisor Grace Carter ?
Property Master Michael Ross
Make-Up Artists Eryn Krueger
Jill Cady
Hair Stylists Ralph Abelus ?
Colleen Labaff (!)
Production Consultant Abby Singer
Post Production Executive Hal Harrison
Assitant Editor Alexandra Komisarah ?
Music Editor Stan Jones
Post Production Coordinator Shannon Celder ?
Salem Animatronic Puppets by Animal Makers, Inc.
Camera Systems by Clairmont (*)
Rerecorded at Modern Sound Facilities
Main Title Design by Production Resource Center
Copyright (C) MCMXCVI
Viacom Productions, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
The persons and events portrayed in this production are fictitious.
No similarity to actual persons living or dead is intended or should
be inferred.
First Publication U.S.A.
Viacom Productions, Inc.
Is the author of this program. For purposes of Article 15 (2) of
the Berne Convention and all National laws giving effects thereto.
Paul Mason
Executive in Charge of Production
Notes:
? = I may have gotten this wrong (hard to read!)
(*) = name is spelled differently in different episodes
(!) = worked on 'Clarissa Explains It All'
A 23 Sep 96 Reuters/Variety article listed a few other credits that
weren't given in the show:
Art Director Dan Reeverts
Set Designer Greg Gneier
Casting Dori Zuckerman
Cathy Henderson
Editor Craig Ridenour
Visual Effects Supervisor Ann Smeltzer
Animal Trainers Mark Watters
Cathy Pittman
[top |
airing |
content |
credits |
other |
opinions |
dyns |
bottom]
- Ratings
- 35th, 10.9 rating, 10.6 million homes.
8th highest-rated ABC show.
2nd highest-rated new ABC series,
after
Spin City
(9th, 14.8 rating).
For more info, see
Friday night Nielsen ratings.
29 Nov 96 repeat:
Tied three-ways with
Family Matters
and
Townies
for 47th,
8.4 rating, 8.1 million homes.
For more info, see
Friday night Nielsen ratings.
- Commercials
- (as shown in College Station, TX, on Waco affiliate KXXV)
[top |
airing |
content |
credits |
other |
opinions |
dyns |
bottom]
- Favorite Lines
- Sabrina:
``And I suppose my mom's a witch, too?''
Hilda:
``I always thought so.''
- ``An old book, a black pot... doesn't anyone shop at the Gap anymore?''
- Sabrina
- ``Did the cat just talk?!'' - Sabrina
- Zelda:
``Apple... pineapple! That's very close!''
Hilda:
``No, it's not!''
- Harvey:
``My mailbox is boring... it's really just a place to put letters.''
Sabrina:
``Mine, too!''
- Hilda:
``Chunks or rings?''
Zelda:
``Hilda... there are other ways.''
Hilda:
``Wedges?''
- ``Are you staring at my mole??'' - Drell
- Salem:
``The sound of the can opener
is the only thing that makes me feel truly alive.''
Sabrina:
``Salem... would you like your rubber mouse?''
Salem:
(after a pause) ``Please.''
- Sabrina:
``Libby thought I was a freak even before this happened.''
Hilda & Zelda:
``See?''
- ``Bubble burst!'' - Sabrina
- Hilda:
``Teens!''
Zelda:
``What about them?''
Hilda:
``Just in general.''
- Favorite Scenes
- Sabrina and Salem talk in her bedroom about how he became a housecat.
- Other Good Stuff
- The little closed-mouth squeal Melissa emits
when the frog jumps out of the pan.
- The way she says, ``Oh, look! A party... sort of.''
- The way she says, ``Did the cat just talk?!'' --
especially her facial expression.
- The look on Melissa's face when she's about to turn around
and see the floating book.
- The look on her face after she turns the orange into a pineapple.
- The way Caroline (Hilda) delivers the line,
``You also can't get rid of cellulite!''
(Specifically, the way she waves the fork as she says it.)
- Sabrina gets beaned by the football in the hall.
- The running gag of the pineapples.
(In particular, when they came back from the commercial break
showing all the pineapple dishes lying around, I laughed.)
- The way Melissa delivers the line, ``My life is over!''
in just the right almost-choked-off whine.
Perfection!
(A very small but important moment for me!
Unfortunately, the writers made her continue.
See
below
in ``Weak points and mistakes''.)
- The look on Melissa's face when she realizes she gets to
repeat the school day that went all wrong.
- The look on her face as she spikes the football in front of Jenna (Libby).
- The way Melissa says, ``Bubble burst!'' --
especially, the look on her face.
- Weak Points and Mistakes
-
[top |
airing |
content |
credits |
other |
opinions |
dyns |
bottom]
- Sabrina has two lava lamps in her room:
a red one beside her bed and a blue one on the other side of the room.
- The part in Sabrina's hair is crooked through most of the episode.
Kinda weird.
(This was intentional;
Melissa refers to it in the
19-25 Apr 97 TV Guide:
``I hate seeing just a straight line.'')
- The painting on the wall in the kitchen --
visible, for example, when Hilda says, ``I just forgot to sign the card'' --
speaks in
``Bundt Friday'' (#002)
and
``Dream Date'' (#007).
Is the woman in this painting a real, historical figure?
They call her ``Louisa'' in the aforementioned episodes,
so maybe it's Louisa May Alcott??
- The black pot/cauldron gets stuck for a split second
as Melissa starts to pull it out of the box.
If it had stuck for a little longer,
they probably wouldn't have been able to use the take.
- There are a few photographs stuck on refrigerator,
three pictures arranged vertically on the wall by the front door,
and three small pictures in a row in a frame in the ``party'' scene
(in which Sabrina gets the book).
What and/or who are in these pictures??
- Sabrina's parents are divorced.
Not only are Melissa's parents divorced,
but I have noticed that many of Melissa's TV (and stage) roles
involve divorced, dead, missing, or abusive parents.
Interesting.
- First thing Sabrina says after coming home
from school...
- after turning Libby into a pineapple:
``I hate being a witch!''
- after getting to relive that day:
``I love being a witch!''
- The character Libby is turned into a pineapple...
Get it?
(As in Libby's brand canned fruit?)
- Throughout the episode, near as I can figure,
Hilda is wearing dark-red fingernail polish,
Zelda is wearing white,
and Sabrina is wearing none.
- What the heck is that big green thing behind the Witches' Council?
An unripe tomato??
- In the scene where Sabrina is lying on her bed (in her nightgown)
talking to Salem, she's wearing an ankle bracelet.
- The words, ``I don't play squash'' are dubbed in Melissa's line:
``Salem, I don't play squash, but how 'bout a dance?''
(Incidentally, this refers to Salem's line earlier in the show,
``I can't go dancing, I can't play squash...'')
- I wonder how many hours Melissa danced around
with that poor cat?
;-)
(There were several versions of this used in promos,
in addition to the one that was used in the show.)
- Colleen Labaff (hair stylist)
worked on CEIA
in the same capacity.
[There's an ``in-joke'' about this in
``Bundt Friday'' (#002).]
- Miscellaneous facts:
- The series begins five minutes after Sabrina turns 16.
- Sabrina's high school is called Westbridge High School.
- Sabrina's father, Edward (or Ted -- that's what Zelda calls him),
is a witch and her mother is a mortal.
They are divorced.
- Sabrina's father told her he was traveling with the Foreign Service;
she thought he was at the Toronto Midway Motor Lodge;
in fact, he's residing in an alternate dimension
and speaks to her through a picture in a book called
``The Discovery of Magic''.
- Her mother is off in Peru digging for fossils.
If Sabrina sets eyes on her in the next two years,
she (the mother) will be turned into a ball of wax.
(It's the Witches Council's way of discouraging mortal-witch marriages.)
- Zelda is the one who turns Libby back to normal.
- By the way,
there's a real book called The Discoverie of Witchcraft
written in 1584 by Reginald Scot.
In it Scot showed how many examples of so-called withcraft
could be explained by normal, physical means.
Anyway, this just might be where the title of the spell book
(``The Discovery of Magic'') comes from.
Or maybe not.
- Comparisons with the
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch movie:
- Character names: Marny in movie = Jenny in series;
Katy in movie = Libby in series (more or less).
- Jenny chooses Sabrina as her lab partner
because she remembers what it was like to be the new kid last year.
In the movie... ??
- Sabrina asks Jenny, ``Do you ever feel like you don't fit in?''
Jenny responds, ``Only all the time. But I don't want to fit in...''
In the movie, she (Marny) responds, ``Every day of the week, man...
every day of the week.''
- Why Salem was turned into a housecat and for how long:
- movie: tempting a mortal into having sex -- 90 years (?)
- series: attempting world domination -- 100 years
- Connections (possibly) to
Clarissa Explains It All:
- Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (see
above)
appeared in the CEIA episode
``Ferguson Explains It All'' (#161).
- Greenland (``So where are we moving? I hear Greenland's a groove!'')
is mentioned in
``President Ferguson'' (#117)
(quote??).
- The Zone (Harvey: ``That was a great catch!''
Sabrina: ``I was in the zone.'') was obviously used in
``The Zone'' (#148).
- Lars H. points out:
When Sabrina said "I guess every school needs a weird kid...
it might as well be me." then the image that popped into my mind was from
CEIA #102
(School Picture), where Janet is lamenting
"Why does my daughter have to be the weird one?" after her conversation
with Principal Merkin on Clarissa's rumored choice of clothing
(or lack thereof) for school picture day.
- ``Parental warnings'':
- Sabrina ``uses the Lord's name in vain'' twice:
``Oh, my God!'' and ``Oh, God! I'm talking to a book!''
- Hilda suggests chopping up the pineapple that Libby has been turned into.
- Stuff about promos:
- When Hilda reverses Sabrina's spell on Libby,
the scene is shown from a different angle
than that shown in promos for the show.
(In other words, they did the special effects for this shot
for at least two different angles.)
- In the promos, they used the shot where Sabrina says,
``Libby thought I was a freak even before this happened,''
but it had a strange look to it, like something happened to the film
(the light parts of the shot were kind of ``smeared'' vertically,
sorta like the effect you get with bright lights
when taping with a camcorder).
No such effect on the shot in the show itself, though.
Very weird.
- There were more shots from the scene where
Sabrina makes Libby's drink spew up in her face
used in promos than were used in the actual show.
In particular, there was a close-up of Libby's face
that wasn't used in the final cut of show.
- The scene where Sabrina says it's ``Unfair!''
that she still has to go to school when she's a witch
was shown from a different angle in the promos.
(It might have also been a different take -- I haven't checked.)
- There were at least three different versions of
Sabrina dancing around with the cat used in the promos.
jump to...
Airing Info
Episode Content
Credits
Other Info
Opinions
DYNs
jump to
top of page
Current section:
Info Archives /
Sabrina /
STTW Episode Pages
Next page:
STTW: ``Bundt Friday'' (#002)
Previous page:
Completeness of STTW episode pages
[Info Archives]
[Melissa]
[Sabrina]
[Clarissa]
[Mailing List]
[What's New?]
[E-mail Me]
Donald Lancon Jr
[e-mail me]
Page content last modified:
Fri, Jul 24, 1998