Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) and Sabrina: The Animated Series (1999) Retrospective

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm here to talk about Sabrina the Teenage Witch on home video. Not just the TV show, but all three TV movies AND the 1999 animated series spin-off, since the show doesn't have that many home video releases and the movies on their own don't either. So let's dive in, starting with the 1996 TV movie.

Premiering on April 7th, 1996 on Showtime, Sabrina the Teenage Witch acted as a proof of concept rather than a pilot movie, given that the show would be completely different from the movie, including an almost entirely different cast. Following the end of Clarissa Explains It All in 1994, Melissa Joan Hart's mom, Paula, was looking for another show for Melissa to be on since she was 18 when Clarissa ended and transitioning into more adult roles. She found the Archie Comics series, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and immediately secured the rights for a TV adaptation. Through her production company, Hartbreak Films, Paula took the concept to Viacom, owned by Paramount Pictures, and made a production deal.

The movie was made in Canada, therefore it includes some Canadian performers, including a young Ryan Reynolds as Sabrina's crush, Seth, who is a total jerk. The rest of the cast includes Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Sawyer (not Spellman as it is in the comics as well as it would be on the TV show), Sherry Miller as Aunt Hilda, Charlene Fernetz as Aunt Zelda, Michelle Beaudoin as Sabrina's best friend, Marnie (renamed Jenny for the series), Tobias Mehler as Harvey, and Brian Steele as the voice of Salem. With the exception of Melissa and Michelle, the entire cast would be replaced for the TV show.

I remember seeing this movie at some point after I started watching the TV show in 1998. I'm pretty sure I saw it on TV, but I may have seen it on VHS. I don't remember. I just remember watching it and remember thinking how different it was from the TV show. The movie has more of a '90s teen drama vibe to it, like Ready or Not and Beverly Hills 90210 than the show would. Let's take a look at the home video releases.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch was first released on VHS on September 24th, 1996, only a few months after it had aired on Showtime. I have no idea if there are previews on this release or not because I don't recall having any personal experience with this tape.

The movie was re-released on VHS on July 25th, 2000. Of course, if I did see it on VHS between 1998 and 2003, this is probably the edition I saw. But, like I said, I'm pretty sure I saw it on TV rather than on VHS. 

Then on August 19th, 2003, the movie was released on DVD for the first, and only time. Despite the popularity of the TV show, this movie has all been forgotten by the vast majority of people. Even though it was released on DVD, the movie is so different from the show that it probably won't be included in a series box set. It also likely won't see a streaming release. Though a few people have uploaded it to YouTube and the Internet Archive since the DVD is out of print and likely won't get another release.

Debuting on September 27th, 1996, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was picked up as a series by ABC for its Friday night comedy lineup, TGIF as a lead-in to the other new TGIF series, Clueless, which was based on the 1995 movie of the same name, and the fourth season of Boy Meets World. While Clueless would change networks at the end of the season, both Sabrina and Boy Meets World would become staples of TGIF until 2000 when the original version of the lineup ended. Boy Meets World ended after seven seasons, and Sabrina moved to The WB for its final three seasons.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch was based on the comic book series published by Archie Comics from 1977 to 1983. As with many screen adaptations of popular comic books, novels, movies or past TV shows, the TV show changed quite a bit from the source material. For example, while Sabrina, Aunt Hilda, and Aunt Zelda live in Greendale in the comics, which is close to Riverdale, on the show they live in another fictional town called Westbridge, in Massachusetts. There's also no reference to their cousin, Ambrose either. 

With the exception of Melissa (whose character's name was changed back to Sabrina Spellman) and Michelle (whose character's name was changed from Marnie to Jenny), the entire cast from the movie was replaced, with Caroline Rhea as Aunt Hilda, Beth Broderick as Aunt Zelda, Nick Bakay as the voice of Salem, and Nate Richert as Harvey. New additions would come during these seasons with Paul Feig as Mr. Pool, and Jenna Leigh Green as mean girl Libby Chessler, with Martin Mull as Mr. Kraft, Mary Gross as Mrs. Quick, and Lindsay Sloane as Sabrina's replacement best friend, Valerie Birkhead appearing in season 2.

 The success of the TV show convinced Archie Comics to start publishing a new comic book series, which incorporated alot of the elements of the show, into the comic. In fact, the TV version of Sabrina would appear on most of the covers for the comic, alongside her comic book counterpart. While I've never owned any individual issues of Sabrina, many of the stories from these issues have appeared in various Archie Digests and Double Digests, so I'm quite familiar with Sabrina in the comics.

The show also had an entire series of novelizations that came out during the show's early seasons in the late '90s. I'm pretty sure they were all adaptations of episodes from the show and the two TV movies that aired on ABC rather than original stories, but I could be wrong about that. While we never owned any of these books, I remember seeing them in the Scholastic Book Orders and at the Scholastic Book Fair as well.

My dad worked weekends at this time, so Mom, my sister, my brother, and I would sit down and watch Sabrina on TGIF, alongside Boy Meets World, Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, and single season shows Teen Angel, You Wish, and Two of a Kind (starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in their second TV show following Full House). Oddly enough I vaguely remember watching season 1 of Sabrina and don't remember season 4 at all, but seasons 2 and 3 are the ones I remember the most. I think that's because season 2 is when Teen Angel and You Wish were on and season 3 is when Two of a Kind and Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place were on. So during those Friday nights, we'd watch TV for those two hours and then we'd go to bed at 10 since none of us had school the next morning. And for season 4 of Sabrina and season 7 of Boy Meets World in 1999-2000, Boy Meets World was on at 8, with Sabrina on at 9, so I think that's why I don't remember season 4, because we didn't watch it. 

Once Sabrina moved to The WB in the U.S., I remember watching a few episodes from season 5 up at the cottage on Satellite TV but that's it. I don't remember what episodes they were but I remember the new sets, new characters, Sabrina being in college, and the new opening title sequence.

Unlike the preceding TV movie, the TV show didn't have any VHS releases. However in 2007, CBS Home Entertainment released all seven seasons on DVD. There aren't any bonus features on these releases, except for one on the season 7 release, which I'll get to later. Until recently, I had season 1 on DVD, but I got rid of it for a reason that I'll get to shortly.

In 2010, Paramount released all seven seasons in a complete series value pack, similar to what they did with the classic Star Trek live action shows in the early to mid 2000s. This was merely the original individual season releases packaged together.

In 2016 Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Complete Series DVD box set was released by Paramount. The set contains all 24 discs from the original DVD releases, with no bonus features, except for the single one from the season 7 set. This set was re-released in 2021. This set is the reason I got rid of my season 1 DVD set recently. I got it from Amazon earlier this week, so I decided to get rid of my season 1 set. I'm looking forward to watching the entire series, especially the seasons I didn't watch or didn't watch much of.

Sabrina Goes to Rome is a TV movie that aired on ABC on Sunday, October 4th, 1998, starring Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina and Nick Bakay as the voice of Salem. And they're the only two characters from the TV show that appear in this movie. Also, the voice of Alpha 5 himself, Richard Steven Horvitz, is the voice of a Guinea Pig named Stonehenge in this movie. I vaguely remember watching this movie when it aired in 1998, but it's been over 25 years since I saw it, so I don't remember a thing about it.

The only home video release Sabrina Goes to Rome has is as a bonus feature on the season 7 DVD set. It also appears on the final disc in the The Complete Series DVD set as well.

Finally, on Sunday, September 26th, 1999, ABC aired Sabrina Down Under, a sequel to Sabrina Goes to Rome. Once again Sabrina and Salem are the only characters from the show to appear in the movie. Though Lindsay Sloane, who played Valerie on the show, plays a mermaid in this movie. Now, this is one I didn't see at all. I didn't even know about it until recently. 

Sabrina Down Under got a DVD release on February 7th, 2017, almost 18 years after it aired on TV. Apparently there was a VHS release of the movie too, but, the only one I could find was one released in Australia, so I have no idea if it had a North American VHS release or not.

 Due to the success of the live action show, DIC was approached by Paula Hart to produce an animated spin-off, that aired on ABC and UPN. The cast consisted of Melissa Joan Hart as Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda, Melissa's younger sister, Emily, as Sabrina, and Bill Switzer as Harvey, with Nick Bakay voicing Salem, like he did in the live action show. 

In this series, Sabrina is 12 years old and in middle school and Hilda and Zelda have the appearance of teenagers as punishment for misusing magic. As a result, their mortal uncle, Quigley, who was created for this show, comes to live with them as their legal guardian since Salem is a cat. Which is quite the departure from previous versions of the characters.

Archie Comics published a comic book based on the animated series from 2000 to 2009, replacing the revival series that had taken elements from the live action show. However, it wasn't a straight adaptation of Sabrina: The Animated Series. Instead Archie Comics made it so that the Goblin Queen named Repulsa sends Sabrina to the past in order to relive her middle school years, while Repulsa attacks Enchantra, who is the head of the Witches' Council, in order to bring it in line with the main comic book series at the time. This version only lasted 37 issues, before the Repulsa storyline ended and the series returned to the main status quo of Sabrina as a teenager, in high school.

Around the time the live action series was ending its run on ABC, the animated series was airing on Teletoon here in Canada, and my siblings and I watched this all the time. It was cool for us because we didn't know about the Sabrina cartoon from the '70s since it never aired in reruns here when I was growing up. Or, if it did, it didn't air on a channel we had access to. So, while we loved the live action series, it was also cool to have our own animated series version of Sabrina too. 

Unlike the live action series, Sabrina: The Animated Series had several VHS releases. Two were released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment in 2001, and the other three by Sterling Entertainment in 2004. 

The series also had several DVD releases. The first was released in 2001 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, at the same time as the two VHS releases, and is a compilation of the two VHS releases. Then in 2004, Sterling Entertainment released DVD versions of the three VHS releases they put out. In 2006 Shout! Factory released a two-disc DVD set called The Very Best of Sabrina: The Animated Series. On February 15th, 2011, Mill Creek Entertainment released two DVD sets. The first was a single disc released called Sabrina: The Animated Series - A Touch of Magic, which contained 11 episodes of the series. The second set they put out was Sabrina: The Animated Series Volume 1, which contained three discs with a total of 32 (out of 65) episodes. So far there hasn't been a release containing all 65 episodes.

And that my friends is my nostalgic look at Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the three TV movies, Sabrina: The Animated Series, their home video releases, and the comic book series they inspired. I originally had just planned to do the home video releases of the sitcom, planning on doing a more indepth review of the series once I finished watching the DVDs. But as I was writing this post, it just kinda took on a life of its own and before I knew it, I was talking about the comics, the TV movies, and Sabrina: The Animated Series. So I hope you enjoyed this post, because it's a long one.

That's it for me for this week. I'll be back next week with lots of blog posts. So until then, have a great evening and a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.