Bewitched - The Lost Episode

When in 2021 JIYUU announced that they were going to incorporate all seasons of the American sitcom “Bewitched” to their catalog, it came as a surprise for fans and media critics alike. The show was a family-friendly comedy, originally aired from 1964 to 1972, and didn’t seem to fit the type of edgy and polemical content that had made JIYUU famous.

A few days later, the full details of the operation were revealed. Along with all 254 episodes of the original series, JIYUU had acquired the rights to produce its own special episode of the sitcom.

“Bewitched – The Lost Episode” would be a half-hourlong show, made entirely with CGI, and it would be released in New Year 2022, along with the eight original seasons, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the show. It was announced as well that, true to JIYUU’s spirit, the episode would contain nudity.

One of the company’s representatives declared “Our cause is that of creative freedom and rejection of any kind of censorship. That is why we decided to produce this special. Even a great show like “Bewitched” had to operate within the limitations of what TV was allowed to do in the 60s. Now we have the chance to produce the episode that several generations have wanted to watch”.

As it was to be expected, twitter was soon filled with morons expressing their outrage about the announcement. Many saw it as a disrespect to the memory of the actors who appeared in the original series. Film critic Scott Mendelson, from Forbes, twitted “Even for a catalog so full of filth as that of Jiyuu, a show that resuscitates an actress with CGI just to take her clothes off is a new low. Utterly disgusting”; then he left his cellphone on the table, grabbed a packet of Kleenex and continued watching “Cuties” on Netflix.

The controversy continued to grow prior to the episode's release, spawning a more general debate about the ethics of CGI recreations of deceased celebrities in any modern media. The polemic ended up being very beneficial to JIYUU, since it generated a lot of free publicity.

In December 2021, Rebecca, Bill and Robert Asher, children of Elizabeth Montgomery, published an official statement meant to end the controversy: “We do not understand what all the fuss is about. They showed us the episode and wanted to know our opinion. We honestly told them that we saw nothing in it that disrespected the memory of our mother. First of all, the program features a CGI rendition of Samantha Stephens, not Elizabeth Montgomery. In addition to that, the character’s nudity is never depicted in a lewd way: there are no sexually charged scenes nor any close-ups of Samantha’s body. The shots look as they would in the original sitcom, only with Samantha being nude. If it wasn’t because this would have not been accepted on TV at the time, it could be a real lost episode of Bewitched. When we watched it, all three of us agreed that, if our mother was still with us, she would probably find it very funny”.

When the episode finally aired, many who had criticized the idea ended up liking the final product. The quality of the CGI was absolutely astonishing. Being only a half-hourlong production, JIYUU didn’t hesitate to invest in hiring the best programmers from the Japanese video-game industry. The result was stunning and received numerous awards. Cinema critic and YouTuber Viviane Fonseca described it best: “The computer-generated image looks so realistic that it makes Rogue One’s Peter Cushing look like Roger Rabbit. They even gave it that sixties color palette... You can see it was carefully crafted, paying attention to all the details, from the characters' physique to every piece of furniture at the Stephens’ house”.

The celebrated CGI was accompanied by a remarkable voice acting performance by professional impersonators that imitated the voices of the live-action cast. Every detail mimicked the original sitcom, from the view angles to the iconic music and cartoon introduction. It was a true present to the fans.

But what about the nudity? Was the controversy justified? Was this a cynical cash grab that affronted the memory of "Bewitched" and its cast, or a loving homage to a bygone show that holds a special place in the hearts of billions? Well, you can judge it for yourself.