Darrin Stephens

Counterculture piñata, that’s Darrin in “To Trick-or-Treat or Not to Trick-or-Treat,” the season six (1969–70) Halloween episode of Bewitched.

By this time, the fondly remembered sitcom was running out of steam, surviving largely on the irresistible appeal of star Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha. I was already pretty much fed up with Darrin’s and Endora’s refusal to just get along—and I was only ten years old. Cute rather than consistently funny, the episode is interesting to see now for how it transmuted the mess in which the world beyond fictitious Morning Glory Circle was embroiled.

The installment opens with Samantha and Tabitha (Erin Murphy) working on Halloween costumes. Endora (Agnes Moorehead) arrives, then Darrin (Dick Sargent). Toes are stepped on, Darrin provokes Endora, yada-yada, she turns him into an ugly witch. But it isn’t a hag that a traffic cop sees in a subsequent scene. Scraggly, long-haired, long-nailed Darrin is clearly a hippie ... and a gay one to boot. It’s a pretty funny spoof of the current cultural craziness. The cop even references Tiny Tim, no doubt drawing big laughs in living rooms across America. (“Tiptoe Through the Tulips” was a hit the previous year.)

Dick Sargent working it as Witch Darrin.

 

What’s even funnier than this whack at the weirdos, though, is how the mainstream smugness is laced throughout with “hip” lingo. Characters say things like “bummer,” “whatever turns you on,” “get with it,” and “freaked out.” And of course Endora is flapping around in her far-out frocks. Make fun of them as you will, the flower children have irrevocably strummed their way into the zeitgeist.

This episode is also notable for flagrantly promoting Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, in which millions of kids would participate that year. Good for them. I’d have liked it better, though, if the collection had been used to give little Miss Murphy acting lessons.