By David Pierce aka Dr. Bombay

Legendary actor W.C. Fields admonished future actors to “never work with children or animals.” Luckily, the producers of Bewitched ignored this adage. Throughout the eight year run of Bewitched many stories incorporated animals, whether mammal, amphibian, bird, etc. With a few exceptions of extinct (the Dodo bird) or mythical (unicorns) animals, the real deal was used. Below is a list of all the animals that appeared on Bewitched.

 

In Ep. # 4: “It Shouldn’t Happen to a Dog” aggressive client Mr. Barker is turned into a dog by Samantha when she tires of his unwelcome advances. While in dog form he is chased by a tabby cat. During the filming of this episode at the Columbia Studios Ranch assistant director Marvin Miller asked the dog trainer if the dog was ready for a particular scene they were filming that involved the dog running up to a car and putting it’s paws on the hood. The trainer said they were ready and when they started to film the dog simply wouldn’t do it. They later found that the smart dog wasn’t doing what he was supposed to because the hood of the car was hot. Mr. Miller said that this delayed shooting for some time that day. It does make one wonder though if a bigger dog wasn’t going to be used as the one Mr. Barker is turned into seems too small to put his paws up on a car hood.

                 

After doggy Mr. Barker runs away he is picked up by the animal control and taken to an animal doctor where he receives a hair cut and shots. The new Mr. Barker in dog form now looks like a poodle.

 

In Ep. # 7: “The Witches are Out” Samantha changes client Mr. Brinkman’s telephone into a snake. This is one of the rare instances where the real animal wasn’t used.

 

In Ep. # 11: “It Takes One to Know One” when Samantha faces off with Sarah Baker, a witch hired by Endora to break up the mixed marriage, Samantha changes her husband into a piranha when he is about to kiss Sarah. To keep him out of the way and alive for a moment she changes the piranha into a gold fish and puts him in a pitcher of water.

                    

Darrin would be changed into many different animals over the years. These transformations were usually courtesy of Endora so it is surprising that the first time it happens it was at Samantha’s hand.

 

In Ep. # 14 & 56 “Samantha Meets the Folks” Aunt Clara tries to help Samantha impress her in-laws by zapping up a dinner with a main course of coq-au-vin, a dish made with chicken. In true Aunt Clara style she muddles it up and zaps up a live chicken.

 

In Ep. # 16: “It’s Magic” Samantha zaps up some goldfish in Zeno, an alcoholic magician’s, glass to dissuade him from drinking so much. Also to convince him he’s had too much to drink she zaps up a parrot.

              

Later on in the episode Samantha helps Zeno with his magic by zapping up a lot of bunnies from a hat. When he has gained his confidence he creates a dove out of an egg.

              

 

In Ep. # 18: “The Cat’s Meow” Darrin thinks Samantha has turned herself into a cat to check up on him while he is visiting a female client out on her yacht. He then also begins to believe that maybe she has turned herself into a pelican that is perched on the railing of the yacht. It turns out later that the cat was simply a stray but the pelican was really Endora in disguise. This is one of two times (see Ep. #41) we see Endora change herself into an animal, though in this episode we didn’t get to witness the actual transformation.

          

It is said that the Siamese cat seen here and in the next mentioned episode is in reality Elizabeth Montgomery’s own Siamese cat named Zip Zip.

 

In Ep. # 21: “Ling Ling” Samantha helps Mrs. Kravitz get her parakeet, Tweetie, back when he has flown the coop. Samantha also changes a Siamese cat into a woman named Ling Ling.

              

 

In Ep. # 22: “Eye of the Beholder” a dejected Darrin goes for a walk through the park and comes across two squirrels. As he is watching them he hears them begin talking and in fact repeating a conversation he and Samantha had earlier. In reality Endora was just playing tricks on him.

 

In Ep. # 27: “There’s No Witch Like an Old Witch” Aunt Clara tries to perform some magic for a judge by conjuring up a rabbit from her bag. Instead she gets a caged parakeet and a poodle with each attempt and finally gives up when she hears a lion roaring from the bag. We do not, however, see the lion.

       

 

In Ep. # 30: “George the Warlock” Samantha’s former boyfriend shows up to win her back. He arrives in the form of a raven, the very same raven which inspired Edgar Allan Poe to write a poem. Later on when Darrin finds out what is going on George turns Darrin into a penguin.

             

It is said that the penguin had a great deal of incontinence the day of it’s filming.

 

In Ep. # 35: “Eat at Mario’s” in attempt to make the client believe that McMann and Tate is doing a great promotional campaign for Perfect Pizza, Samantha zaps a dog into asking an ice cream vendor for some pizza.

 

In Ep. # 37: “Alias Darrin Stephens” while trying to enlarge a golf cap she had given Darrin for his anniversary Aunt Clara changes him into a chimpanzee. He is later taken to the zoo and caged with the other chimpanzees and when Samantha comes to find him we see a lion in a cage nearby as well as a bear.

                     

           

When Aunt Clara tries to change Darrin back to his human form she changes him into a seal.

 

In Ep. # 39: “We’re in for a Bad Spell” Samantha finds that in order for a curse to be lifted off Darrin’s friend Adam, she must get him to perform various tasks one of which includes kissing a spotted dog on the snout. The other part is to ride a horse through the market place.

                     

 

In Ep. # 41: “The Joker is a Card” Endora pops in from Paris with a gift from Maxime’s. When Samantha opens it the food that was supposed to be in the box is now a frog. Later, in trying to convince Uncle Arthur to stop his practical joking, Endora changes herself into a parrot which her brother thinks Darrin did. This is the second time Endora has changed herself into an animal, and again it’s a bird.

               

Frogs are always associated with witches in the context of a person being changed into a frog. This frog wasn’t any person before hand but simply a dessert and this is the first time a frog appears on Bewitched.

As Darrin, Samantha, Endora and Uncle Arthur are having coffee, Arthur asks Darrin if he would like any cream, at which point he zaps up a cow and tells Darrin to help himself. After hysterically laughing, he says, "I just can't help milking a joke."

 

In Ep. # 42: “Take Two Aspirins and a Half Pint of Porpoise Milk” when Aunt Clara tries to zap up an ostrich feather for a potion she ends up with the whole bird! Marion Lorne was frightened of the big bird as ostriches are known for their tempers. So during filming the assistant director Marvin Miller was asked by William Asher to stand between Marion and the ostrich.

 

In Ep. # 45: “…And Then I Wrote”, while trying visualize characters for a play she is writing Samantha materializes a confederate officer and his horse.

 

In Ep. # 47: “Aunt Clara’s Old Flame” Aunt Clara accidentally changes her old boyfriend Hedley Partridge into a baby elephant.

 

In Ep. # 48: “A Strange Little Visitor” young warlock Merle throws a stick into the air and changes it into a bird.

 

In Ep. # 54: “And Then There Were Three” Serena changes the bossy Nurse Kelton into a frog. This is the first time a person was changed into a frog on the show perpetuating the oft-repeated cliché about witches turning people into frogs.

 

In Ep. # 61: “The Horse’s Mouth” Samantha changes a runaway horse into a woman in order to speak to her better. Of course, Elizabeth Montgomery loved horses and going to the track so this must’ve been a thrill for her to have been able to incorporate a horse into the show.

 

In Ep. # 63: “The Leprechaun” Samantha is helping a leprechaun reclaim his pot of gold from a wealthy business man’s house when his two big guard dogs (Great Danes) come running into the room. Samantha zaps them into little Chihuahuas. Later on the Leprechaun returns them to their former state.

 

In Ep. # 67: “Follow That Witch” part 2 detective Charlie Leach is turned into a parrot when he doubts that Samantha can do it.

 

In Ep. # 70: “Man’s Best Friend” a pesky warlock named Rodney turns himself into a dog.

 

In Ep. # 71: “The Catnapper”, during an opening scene totally unrelated to the episode, Samantha is kept awake by a snoring dog who has found it’s way into the backyard.

Also in this episode Endora changes client Toni Devlin into a cat which detective Charlie Leach ‘cat-naps’. Samantha later changes him into a rat to get him to return the cat.

             

 

In Ep. # 81: “Trick or Treat” one of Endora’s Halloween party guests, Eva, takes a liking to Darrin and makes advances on him until she turns back into a cat at midnight.

Endora also realizes she forgot to order in the caviar for the party and incants for some only to be given a whole fish, who is really Uncle Arthur.

 

In Ep. # 89: “A Gazebo Never Forgets” Aunt Clara zaps up a pink polka dotted elephant in an attempt to get a stuffed animal of the same description for Tabatha. Assistant Director Marvin Miller recalled that they were supposed to have the elephant go up the stairs in the living room but “he was just too big and too wide, and the stairs couldn’t hold him.”

 

In Ep. # 92: “Ho Ho the Clown” Ho Ho is bewitched into obsessing over Tabatha and brings her a pony and balloons.

 

In Ep. # 94: “The Corn is as High as Guernsey’s Eye” Samantha believes that Aunt Clara has turned herself into a cow, when really it’s just the client’s cow making an appearance for a promotional campaign. Later on the Stephens’ receive many cows from the client as he believes they are cow enthusiasts.

      

 

In Ep. # 95: “The Trial and Error of Aunt Clara” Aunt Clara zaps up a stuffed polar bear when she was trying to zap up something nice and cool in the way of a drink. She later zaps up a dog sled team when she was trying for Baked Alaska.

                 

 

In # 106: “Nobody But a Frog Knows How to Live” Samantha helps a frog who has been changed into a man change back into a frog so that he can live happily ever after in a swamp with his girlfriend. This is the third time a frog is shown on the show though this time it was a reversal of the usual witch-frog story in the fact that the frog started out as a frog rather than being a human being changed into a frog.

 

In Ep. # 108: “Long Live the Queen” the current Queen Ticheba zaps in her dogs and throne.

After Samantha is crowned Queen a virtual menagerie of witches/warlocks-turned-animals shows up at 1164 in the hopes that the new Queen will release them from their prison. These animals include a raven, a peacock, a cow, a llama, a pony, some pigeons and some geese.

   

At the end of the episode Samantha accidentally turns Darrin into a goose.

 

In Ep. # 109: “Toys in Babeland” Tabatha brings her toys to life including a monkey that plays the cymbals named Farley.

 

In # 115: “The Safe and Sane Halloween” Gladys Kravitz’s nephew Tommy is changed into a goat by the gremlin.

Later on Tabatha zaps up a bear out of one her books, though what we see is a man in a bear costume.

 

In # 117: “That Was No Chick, That Was My Wife” Tabatha makes her toy chimp come to life and Aunt Clara wonders what to feed it.

 

In # 118: “Allergic to Macedonian Dodo Birds” Tabatha zaps up a baby Macedonian Dodo Bird out of her cosmos coloring book. It turns out that Endora has an allergy to them.

Another instance of the real animal not being used on account of dodo birds being extinct (Dr. Bombay: “Not only that but there haven’t been any around for millions of years.”). Janos Prohaska created this costume. It was used again on Bewitched in Season 8.

 

In # 119: “Samantha’s Thanksgiving to Remember” cows and horses are seen in Plymouth town when Samantha, Darrin, Aunt Clara, Tabatha and Mrs. Kravitz visit for the first Thanksgiving.

 

In # 120: “The Solid Gold Mother-in-Law” Endora turns Darrin into a pony when he says that he is tired of being ridden by Endora. She wanted to show him what it was like to really be ridden.

Later on Samantha finds a different pony out in the backyard but this time it’s not her husband.

 

In # 126: “Snob in the Grass” Samantha makes Sheila Sommer’s dog cause all sorts of trouble for his owner.

 

In # 127: “If They Never Met” as Darrin is putting on his coat to leave, he pushes a chicken out of his sleeve that apparently Endora put in there.

 

In # 133: “Playmates” Tabatha turns bully Michael into a bulldog.

 

In # 135: “I Confess” while demonstrating her powers to the Kravitzes in a dream, Samantha zaps up a movie camera which she changes into a chicken.

 

In # 138: “The No-Harm Charm” Uncle Arthur zaps up a cow when Tabatha requests some milk.

 

In # 141: “Samantha’s Wedding Present” the Kravitzes' dog strikes fear into the heart of a shrunken Darrin.

Later on homeless man Frank O'Hara finally gets his childhood wish of a Shetland pony granted by Samantha.

 

In # 142: “Samantha Goes South for a Spell” Serena arrives with her current boyfriend Malcom in the form of a raven.

Back in 1868 New Orleans Samantha encounters several horses on the street.

   

Rance Butler, who falls for Samantha, is the owner of two dogs.

 

In # 145: "It's So Nice to Have a Spouse Around the House" a little bird alights atop Darrin's head.

       

 

In # 147: “Samantha’s French Pastry” Uncle Arthur pops in dressed as Paul Revere complete with horse.

 

In # 148: “Is It Magic or Imagination?” Samantha zaps in a sheep dog named Clarissa to watch over the house while she is out. Clarissa was never before mentioned nor mentioned afterward. She is quite reminiscent of Nana the Sheepdog from “Peter Pan”.

 

In # 150: “Samantha Loses Her Voice” Uncle Arthur zaps in a poodle for a birthday present, which Samantha assumes is for Tabitha’s birthday, but Uncle Arthur assures her it’s the poodle’s birthday.

 

In # 151: "I Don't Want to be a Toad, I Want to be a Butterfly" Tabitha changes her classmate into a butterfly. Though really an insect, butterflies can be classified as animals. Erin Murphy remembers bringing home the real Monarch butterfly used on the show and kept it as a pet. She fed it sugar water like the wrangler advised. Unfortunately, it escaped when she brought it outside to show the pool man.

 

In #s 155 and 156: “Serena Strikes Again” parts 1 and 2 Serena changes an amorous client into a monkey, and a blonde one at that.

Also in # 156, Serena zaps up a hen while reciting nursery rhymes to Tabitha.

At the end of # 156, we briefly see the organ grinder, Scibetta's, new monkey.

 

In # 158: “Samantha the Bard,” Darrin acts pleased as punch about the fact that Endora has Primary Vocabularitis, which prompts her to say, "Durwood, I do not like the way you gloat, so I'm turning you into a billy goat!" And she does.

 

In # 160: “Mrs. Stephens, Where Are You?” Samantha helps next-door neighbor Mrs. Parsons retrieve her cat, Victoria, from a tree. Victoria is Elizabeth Montgomery's middle name.

Serena changes Mrs. Stephens into a cat for having made catty remarks about the family.

Mrs. Parsons rescues Mrs. Stephens from being attacked by a stray dog.

She takes the cat in to her home which already has many cats. When Samantha goes to look for Mrs. Stephens not knowing what she looks like Samantha changes all the cats to dogs except Mrs. Stephens.

 

In # 162: “Going Ape” Samantha changes a stray chimpanzee into a human.

 

In # 163: “Tabitha’s Weekend” Endora pops in on a horse that she is going to race.

We also see that Mrs. Stephens owns a mynah bird named Black Bart, though when Tabitha twitches him into talking on his own he reveals that he would like to be called "Mr. Marvelous." The bird's voice was provided by Mabel Albertson aka Mrs. Stephens.

 

In # 167: “Daddy Does His Thing” Darrin gets turned into a mule by Maurice for having refused his birthday gift.

Later on Samantha has to go retrieve the now "mule-ified" Darrin from the shelter where there are other mules.

At the end of the episode, Abner Kravitz, who has heard that the Stephens' have a jackass that plays chess, comes over wanting to play chess with it. By this time, Darrin has been changed back to his normal state, but Maurice says he will go get the mule, and after turning himself into one, tells Samantha that he could never pass up a game of chess.

 

 

In # 171: “Samantha and the Beanstalk” Tabitha, while playing around in the story “Jack and the Beanstalk” makes the hen that lays the golden egg lay normal eggs.

 

In # 172: “Samantha’s Yoo-Hoo Maid” new witch-maid Esmeralda sneezes up a unicorn. When Tabitha asks whatever happened to unicorns Samantha reminds Tabitha of the story of Noah and the Ark and tells her that the unicorns missed the boat.

This is also a rare example of not the real creature being used but only on the basis that unicorns aren’t real. In fact, in the episode Samantha alludes to the fact that this really is a horse with a paper mache horn.

 

In # 178: “A Bunny for Tabitha” Uncle Arthur gives Tabitha a wish box for her birthday. She wishes for a bunny. Later on during his magic show for her birthday Uncle Arthur accidentally turns the bunny into a Playboy bunny!

 

In # 179: “Samantha’s Secret Spell” Darrin’s friend is turned into a mouse by Endora.

 

In # 180: “Daddy Comes for a Visit” Maurice changes Darrin into a rottweiler.

 

In # 182: “Samantha’s Double Mother Trouble” Esmeralda, who had earlier sneezed up Mother Goose, sneezes again and changes Mother Goose into her namesake animal.

 

In # 184: “Santa Comes to Visit and Stays and Stays” Esmeralda sneezes up a goat and a pair of seals.

      

She also sneezes up Santa Clause and can’t seem to get him back to the North Pole in time for his Christmas Eve ride so Samantha zaps up his reindeer on their front lawn.

 

In # 185: “Samantha’s Better Halves” in order to catch Larry in his fib about a broken back Samantha zaps up a bat. This is another example of the real animal not being used. And in fact, this bat seems to have been the one used as Igor on “The Munsters”.

 

In #188: "Samantha's Secret is Discovered" Samantha makes Mrs. Quigley the only one to see a male nurse at the rest home turn into a donkey.

 

In #189: "Tabitha's Very Own Samantha" Tabitha is shown riding a pony at the play park. Erin Murphy is shown wearing a bandaid on her chin, which she was reported to have hurt on a pony ride (though in the episode Tabitha is said to have hurt herself trying to fly), but really she hurt it off the set jumping up and down with excitement over an ice cream sundae in the kitchen at her home.

 

In #190: "Super Arthur" as a side effect to a cure Dr. Bombay had given him, Uncle Arthur turns into a colt after mentioning he felt as frisky as one.

 

In #194: "The Generation Zap" Serena uses a butterfly to carry a message to Samantha.

 

In # 196: “A Chance on Love” when Samantha tires of the advances of client Mr. Dinsdale who has been parroting everything she says, she changes him into a parrot.

 

In #199: "Turn on the Old Charm" Endora changes Darrin into a Rottweiler when he asks her to make him a midnight snack. This is an interesting choice for the breed of dog because it is the same breed Darrin was zapped into by Maurice in #180. Could it be that mortals have a specific breed of animal when they are changed?

 

In # 201: “To Go or Not to Go, That is the Question” Endora changes Darrin into a frog, perpetuating the myth of witches turning people into frogs. Later on the High Priestess Hepzibah pops in with her two dogs.

     

 

In Ep.# 202: “Salem, Here We Come” Hepzibah’s dogs are still at 1164. Hepzibah also zaps in her pink flamingo Penelope to lay some eggs for breakfast.

     

 

In Ep.# 206: “Paul Revere Rides Again” Esmeralda accidentally zaps up Paul Revere and his horse.

 

In Ep.# 207: “Samantha’s Bad Day in Salem” warlock Waldo turns Darrin into a crow and later does the same thing to Larry.

     

 

In Ep.# 209: “Samantha’s Pet Warlock” Samantha’s old warlock boyfriend Ashley shows up and decides to mess up Darrin’s dog food client negotiations by turning himself into a dog that couldn’t possibly exist.

 

In # 218: “The House That Uncle Arthur Built” after Arthur has transferred his practical jokes to Samantha’s house Darrin mentions something about a barrel full of monkeys and one appears. Dick Sargent said that he and Elizabeth Montgomery were scared of the chimpanzees as they were rumored to become quite vicious after seven years of age, and apparently, these chimps were much older.

 

In # 222: “Darrin Goes Ape” Serena says that Darrin is acting like a beast so she changes him into one - a gorilla. This is another of the rare examples of the real animal not being used.

 

In # 225: “Sam’s Psychic Pslip” Serena turns Darrin into a young goat when she says that he needs to kid around.

 

In # 227: “Laugh, Clown, Laugh” Endora shows up riding a camel.

 

In # 228: “Samantha and the Antique Doll” Samantha, letting Phyllis think she’s done it, turns Frank into a mule. Later on Endora turns Darrin into a goose so Samantha turns herself into one.

     

 

In # 229: “How Not to Lose Your Head to Henry VIII” part 1, Samantha is zapped back to 16th century England where she encounters a monk riding a donkey. On the road are chickens as well. Later, Darrin is zapped back to the past and encounters a knight on a horse and later the same monk on a donkey.

 

In # 230: “How Not to Lose Your Head to Henry VIII” part 2, Henry VIII’s men ride into the courtyard on horses disturbing a small herd of goats.

 

In # 231: “Samantha and the Loch Ness Monster” Samantha and Darrin encounter the famed Loch Ness Monster while on vacation. It turns out the monster is really one of Serena’s old boyfriends she grew tired of. When she goes to change him back we see her walking under water amidst a lot of fish. After she changes him back he transforms her into mermaid. The mermaid and monster are rare instances where mythical beasts are seen on Bewitched. And going against all previous standards set on Bewitched these two costumes are absolutely so far from resembling a real animal it’s embarrassing!

          

 

In # 237: “A Plague on Maurice and Samantha” Endora turns Samantha into a polka-dotted unicorn when Maurice requests to see that trick as Samantha used to do that when she was a child. Endora had to do it as Samantha was currently sans powers. Again, a rare instance where a mythical beast was seen on the series.

 

In # 240: “The Eight Year Witch” Endora calls upon her Siamese cat familiar Ophelia to help her in trying to break up her daughter’s marriage. This cat was possibly Elizabeth Montgomery’s own cat, Zip Zip.

 

In # 241: “Three Men and a Witch on a Horse” Darrin gets the gambling bug (courtesy of Endora) and ends up going to the track. Samantha joins him and changes the horse Darrin had bet on into a human for a moment. Elizabeth told Bewitched biographer Herbie J Pilato that this was one of her favorite episodes because she loved the track so much.

 

In # 243: “Samantha’s Magic Sitter” Esmeralda conjures up a bear and cougar while babysitting. Later on she conjures up a couple rats and a goose while performing a magic show and changes the client into a monkey.

     

          

 

In # 248: “Tabitha’s First Day at School” Tabitha changes bully Charleton into a bullfrog. Erin Murphy brought home a pet horned toad that was used during filming.

 

In # 253: “Samantha’s Witchcraft Blows a Fuse” Aunt Hagatha zaps up a Dodo bird out of Tabitha’s Cosmos Coloring book so they can use the tail feather from it as part of an antidote for Samantha’s bright red stripes. This was the same bird seen in Season Four and again a fake was used for the real animal which is extinct (Dr. Bombay: “Not only that, but there haven’t been any around for millions of years!”).

 

 

* Behind the scenes stories about the animals come from Herbie J. Pilato’s “Bewitched Forever”.

 

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