BEWITCHED & BeHOLDEN

“Be It Ever So Mortgaged”

Season 1, Episode 2
Written by Barbara Avedon
Directed by William Asher
Produced by Danny Arnold
Original Air Date: September 24, 1964

This episode also introduces one of the show’s most enduring witchcraft gestures: the “witch’s honor.” It’s quick, subtle and completely unique to BEWITCHED. Endora lifts her hand and places her index and middle fingers vertically between her eyes, right at the bridge of her nose — a precise motion that reads as both solemn and comical. Endora is the first to use it, but the gesture isn’t exclusive to her; other witches throughout the series use the same motion as a kind of magical oath, a witch’s version of “cross my heart.” Whether Agnes Moorehead devised it or it emerged in rehearsals with William Asher, it’s hard to imagine Barbara Avedon describing something so specific in the script. Yet this gesture became a visual signature of witchcraft on the show and remained part of its vocabulary for the entire run.

We also get another early instance of Samantha’s dry little “Good” after Endora pops out of the kitchen when Darrin comes home — a reaction that becomes one of her signature beats.

The early scenes between Samantha, Darrin and Endora are already operating at full comedic power. Endora (unseen by Darrin) perched on the stair railing, silently mouthing “Is that him?” to Samantha, is priceless. I can never watch that moment without imagining the crew helping Agnes Moorehead up onto that railing and later onto the bookcase.

Samantha’s awkwardness about being affectionate with Darrin under her mother’s watchful eye is wonderfully human, and Darrin’s line, “You were friendlier on our first date!” gets a perfect reaction from Endora.

We also see the first instance of Samantha making Darrin a drink, a small domestic gesture that becomes a recurring motif — and a reminder of how prominently alcohol consumption (and sometimes overconsumption) figures into the show’s world.

The main plot centers on the Stephens’ decision to buy their home at 1164 Morning Glory Circle. Endora delivers one of her most famous speeches: “We are quicksilver. A fleeting shadow. A distant sound. Our home has no boundaries beyond which we cannot pass. We live in music, in a flash of color. We live on the wind, in the sparkle of a star.” Samantha clearly feels the weight of her mother’s words — the idea that she’s trading a boundless, magical existence for a quarter acre of crabgrass — yet she still invites Endora to come along to see the prospective house. It’s a lovely early glimpse of Samantha’s desire to bridge her two worlds.

Their tour gives us our first introduction to the Kravitzes. Gladys (played with such delightful agitation by Alice Pearce) witnesses the magically enhanced landscaping that Samantha and Endora create — the trees, the flowers, the awnings — only for it all to vanish before she can drag Abner to the window. And this is where George Tobias quietly starts building one of the show’s most reliable comic anchors. His Abner isn’t just the long-suffering husband; he’s the perfect counterweight to Gladys’s frantic energy. Tobias plays him with a wonderfully dry, unhurried patience — a man who has clearly spent years weathering his wife’s alarms and has learned to meet them with a shrug, a sigh or a deadpan “take your medicine.” You can already see the rhythm that will define the Kravitzes for the rest of the series. Samantha really did luck out in having such an unreliable witness as Gladys Kravitz to her witchcraft.

There are so many small character details tucked into this episode. I love the moment when we see Endora rubbing her feet, clearly unused to walking like mortals do.

And this is also the first time she deliberately gets Darrin’s name wrong — calling him “Dennis.” When Samantha suggests they meet, Endora decides she’s not ready and pops out. We also get a reference to her age: “You could change your mind many times in a thousand years. I did.” It’s a throwaway line, but it quietly establishes something the series will continue to hint at — Endora is at least a thousand years old. Samantha, by contrast, is confirmed here to be under a thousand, a detail the show never pins down but loves to tease.

The final shot is perfect: Endora perched on the roof after Samantha and Darrin have stepped into the newly purchased house that will be their home for the next eight seasons.

Endora breaks the fourth wall to inform the audience that the marriage will never last.

Fun fact: This is the first episode with wardrobe credits for the two leads.