Author: Devin Fuller / Source: New York Times
Having already reinvented Archie and the gang on the CW’s “Riverdale,” the comic book writer and showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has modernized another classic Archie character: Sabrina Spellman (also known as Sabrina the Teenage Witch), who returns to TV Friday with Netflix’s “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
” The series stars Kiernan Shipka of “Mad Men” as Sabrina, a young woman struggling to choose between becoming a witch or remaining mortal, as forces of evil conspire against her.The new series is a sharp departure from the lighthearted sitcom high jinks of Sabrina’s previous live-action series, “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” starring Melissa Joan Hart. But Sabrina has undergone a lot of reinventions since her debut 56 years ago. Here’s a refresher on her history, both onscreen and on the page.
‘Archie’s Mad House’
Created by the writer George Gladir and the artist Dan DeCarlo, Sabrina debuted in issue 22 of the comic book series Archie’s Mad House, in 1962. She was introduced as a mischievous teenager who enjoys playing tricks on her classmates. The issue establishes that Sabrina can never fall in love or she will lose her powers (a character trait reminiscent of Kim Novak’s witch in the 1958 film “Bell, Book, and Candle”), but that aspect of the character is dropped fairly quickly, as many of her stories involve going on dates and flirting with boys. Later issues reveal that Sabrina lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda, who look like stereotypical witches — unlike Sabrina, who dresses as a modern teenager. Sabrina appeared in issues of Archie’s Mad House all through the 1960s before moving to other Archie Comics titles, but she received her biggest boost in visibility after her jump to television.
Early Animated Appearances
In 1969, Sabrina was introduced to new audiences in an animated TV special titled “Archie and His New Pals.” Soon after, she appeared in recurring segments on “The Archie Comedy Hour,” in which the character tries to use her magic to solve problems while hiding from Archie and his friends that she is a witch. In 1970, Sabrina received a spinoff, “Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies,” in which she encounters wacky situations involving the Goolies, a group of monsters based on Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, a mummy and a wolf man. The Goolies were later spun off into their own series, and Sabrina’s show was retitled as the first…
The post Excited for the Sabrina Reboot? Here’s How the Teenage Witch (and Her Cat) Have Evolved appeared first on FeedBox.