Bewitched

Samantha is very pleased when the ladies of the Hospital Auxillary appoint her Entertainment Chairman for the up-coming hospital charity fund raiser, not knowing that this is a job that nobody wants and that they have saddled her with it because she is new in the area.



Looking around, Samantha acts on a tip which leads her to an old, has been magician known as "The Great Zeno" (Walter Burke). It's a while since Zeno has had a job and, to make matters worse, his attractive assistant, Roxie, (Virginia Martin) walks out on him. When Samantha realises that he is more interested in alcohol than in performing, she offers him the job of entertainer at the benefit. Zeno is pretty sure that he can't do it, especially without Roxie, but when Samantha agrees to be his assitant instead, he takes the job.



Predictably, and with much help from Samantha, Zeno is a big hit among the audience at the benefit and he is delighted, never suspecting that his lovely assistant is a real witch. Samantha is delighted when Zeno lands himself a spot doing his act on television. Darrin forbids Samantha to assist him, but she defies him and goes along to the rehearsal anyway, where a much repentant Roxie, who wants to be a tv star, arrives and begs forgiveness before proceeding to try and steal the show from Zeno. Refusing to have any of that, Samantha usesher own magic to make Roxie a laughing stock and give Zeno all the confidence he needs to continue on with his show. All ends well when Darrin informs Sam that Zeno has been booked for a 13 week spot.



This one is a bit slow in places but Elizabeth Montgomery's charm and skill make it watchable.

The episode plot was a great idea with Samantha the witch helping out Zeno the magician regain his confidence and magic. Also the character of Roxie was the perfect villainous to use that by the end you couldn't feel sorry for her when she was totally embarrassed on a national talent show by having the back of her dress ripped off and her girdle exposed for all to see. The show starts off with the vounteer ladies committee meeting at lunch to select the person to be in charge of the annual fundraiser and poor Samantha is the person they have chosen. Samantha now has $50 to go out and find the entertainment for the annual event. Unfortunately with $50 all she can get is Zeno, a poor magician, who has lost his confidence and his ability to perform magic. Worse yet is the fact that his assistant has walked out on him and he has taken to drinking. Samantha feeling sorry for him decides to have him perform and helps him with her own kind of magic. Zeno is a hit at the show and Darrin arranges for Zeno to appear on national tv on the weekly variety show. Once Roxie, his former assistant, hears he is going to be on national tv she comes back and insists that she is back in the act. Zeno agrees to let her back but unfortunately Roxie tries taking over the act first by wearing this shiny beaded evening gown and second by trying to finish all the magic tricks Zeno is trying to do. Samantha finally hits her boiling point and decides to stop Roxie's from taking over the act. While doing one of the tricks Samantha has Roxie's hand get stuck in a fish bowl causing Roxie to eventually head to the back of the stage to try and get the fish bowl off her hand. As she turns and heads back, Zeno walks by her to do his next trick with a small table on wheels an as he goes by Roxie the corner of the table catches the back of Roxie's gown and rips off a large portion of the gown from the waist down. Once the back of the gown is ripped off everyone gets to see the reason why Roxie has such a nice figure in the dress is that she is wearing a long white panty girdle underneath it. Roxie continues to walk towards the back of the stage not knowing the reason everyone is laughing so much is the fact that her girdle is showing. Finally Roxie turns to see what everyone is laughing at and sees the exposed girdle and quickly turns around to hide the rip in her dress. She gets so mad at Zeno she yells at him saying you did that on purpose and goes to throw the fish bowl at him. Samantha zaps Roxie away in a cloud of smoke and everyone is amazed and thinks that it is part of Zeno's act. Zeno continues his act and becomes a huge hit and is ask to continue each week as one of the main acts for the show. The writers did an excellent job with this plot line with making such great characters that you could root for as with Zeno and root against as with Roxie. The actress who played Roxie was also in a couple of later episodes of Bewitched, portraying the wife of the private eye who was trying to blackmail Samantha by threatening to tell everyone she was a witch unless she gave him all kinds of fancy clothes, furniture and cars. It is ironic that in that episode there is a scene where Samantha has that actress's dress blown off by the wind and she is standing there in a full black slip.