WITCH COUNTDOWN #2: Endora from "Bewitched"

Imagine this. You’re an ageless but mature beauty, an immortal in fact, not tethered to the physical world. You come and go at will and in a clap of thunder, riding the winds of high drama and high fashion like an expert. You are effortless and free, without suffering even one hair out of place. You’re more fabulous than Bette Davis, more dramatic than Joan Crawford (even your eyebrows are superior), and you make Shirley MacLaine’s past lives seem mundane. You are a classic renaissance woman, irreverent and self-possessed, and you wield the power of the gods with a wave of your hand.

You have one problem.

Your only daughter, the light of your life and heir to your magical legacy, married a chimpanzee. She adores this chimpanzee and insists on living with him. Nothing you say or do will deter her.

If you were Endora, from the series “Bewitched”, you might certainly see circumstances this way. She absolutely loathed mortals, so why wouldn’t she consider Derwood an ape?

Endora is the second witch in my Halloween countdown and one of my absolute favorites. Why? Because beneath that scathing and caustic demeanor and that fabulous sense of style, there beats a good heart. It’s true. She cast a number of charms on Derwood, including one that made everyone hate him and one that gave him an unfailing memory. She also hexed her fair share of business deals.  In fact, she did everything possible to undermine her daughter’s marriage, but she never really hurt the blundering jerk.

Endora didn’t send Dum-Dum to the moon or to purgatory. She never zapped Dustin into the gaping jaws of a tyrannosaurus rex or a hungry great white shark. She didn’t put him in the path of a runaway train or the under the tires of a Cadillac.

 No.

Beneath the flamboyance and indignation, Endora wanted her daughter to be happy.