I just finished watching all 12 episodes plus the original pilot with Liberty Williams (Jana of the Wonder Twins.) The writing is just awful. Really really bad. But I could not help myself. Checking out one episode turned into a insurmountable urge to watch the entire run.
Lisa Hartman (Pre-Movie-of-the-Week-Perma-Scowl) is absolutely adorable as Tabitha. She's cute, she's bouncy, and she does a pretty spot-on Elizabeth Montgomery impersonation, with the voice, the speech patterns, and that big shocked "O" she does with her mouth. And then there is the sexy outfits they rotate her through. Damn the 70's were sexy. Nothing now on Network TV comes close.
At the beginning Adam took on the Darwin role being disapproving of the magic. But the producers obviously saw the bit was a turkey and dropped it.
I didn't think that Tabitha and Robert Urich were a good romantic fit, she being smart, and him smarmy, but the producers were doing a good job of slowly getting them together.
Aunt Minerva started off as an Andora clone, but quickly found her own voice.
And we got 2 visits from the wonderful Dr. Bombay!!!
I think had the show been picked up for an entire season, they really could have made a go of it.
On the other hand, with only 12 episodes, I have watched the entire run and feel great about it. Had there been more, and they sucked, it might have lost it's charm and become grating.
Recommendation: Buy it now, because Sony is not going to keep it in print for long. So for the $15-$30 you can find it now, it is worth it. Five to Ten years down the road, when you have to pay $50-$100 for a used copy, it just won't be worth it.
