This year simultaneously marks 15 years since Sabrina the Teenage Witch went off the air and her return to live-action TV with the release of Netflix's The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Both shows are adaptations of Archie comics and offer completely different takes on Sabrina Spellman's world. She was created by George Gladir and Dan DeCarlo and her first appearance was in the anthology collection, Archie's Madhouse in the early '60s. Gladir didn't expect her to stick around for anywhere near as long as she has. "We both envisioned it as a one-shot and were surprised when fans asked for more. We continued to do it Sabrina stories off and on in Madhouse until 1969 when we were flabbergasted to hear it was to become an animated [TV show.]"
The series, produced by Filmation, was the first time Sabrina graced TV screens, though it's nowhere near as well-remembered as her debut live-action show. Much of the core premise of the comics carried over into the '90s series. Sabrina Spellman is a half-human, half-witch who has to keep her powers a secret from the mortals around her while also dealing with the usual struggles of a normal teen girl. She lives with her witch aunts, Zelda and Hilda Spellman, and former witch, Salem the family cat and falls for mortal boy, Harvey Krinkle. The series starred Melissa Joan Hart -- of Clarissa Explain It All fame -- as Sabrina and had a hugely successful run of seven seasons before being canceled in 2003. Today, it's as fondly remembered as its supernatural sitcom precursors of the '60s... but what are the things that most fans totally forgot?
20 IT HAD A MOVIE PILOT WITH RYAN REYNOLDS
Like its contemporary, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina began life as a movie, premiering on Showtime in April 1996. In this early version, the Spellmans were the Sawyers, Zelda and Hilda were played by different actresses and Greendale -- the fictional town that the series would be set in -- was Riverdale, Sabrina's hometown in the comics.
The story entails Sabrina wrestling with the ethics of magically manipulating her crush into paying attention to her, a teen heartthrob named Seth who happens to be played by Ryan Reynolds in one of his earliest roles. Eventually, Sabrina realizes that someone better suited to her has been patiently waiting for her to notice him -- Harvey Krinkle, of course.
19 THE BEST CHARACTER WAS A TALKING CAT ROBOT
If you look past the dodgy animatronics, the Spellman's enchanted familiar was the stand-out character of the whole show. Voiced by Nick Bakay, the black cat was actually a 500-year-old witch named Salem Saberhagen who was sentenced by the Witches Council to spend 100 years in feline form to atone for a failed world domination plot.
Sabrina's aunt Hilda, who assisted Salem's "refreshments committee," was punished by having to house the cat at the Spellman residence while he served his time. Despite his villainous origin, Salem mellowed into something of a wacky uncle for the teen witch, fuelling both her worst and best instincts whenever she was in trouble. He also got the best lines and was forced into some downright adorable outfits.
18 MELISSA BEARS IT ALL
Three years into Sabrina's run, Melissa Joan Hart probably gave several network executives heart attacks when she posed for Maxim magazine with the cover heading: "Sabrina, your favorite witch without a stitch!" In true former child-star fashion, the actress proved that her Clarissa days were long behind her -- even while still playing a teenager on TV.
Even more salacious is the backstory behind the shoot revealed in Hart's 2017 autobiography, "Melissa Explains It All." Before heading over to Maxim to take the shots, Hart had been partying pretty hard at the Playboy mansion and admitted she had still been feeling the effects of certain party-enhancers while posing for the camera.
17 THERE WAS A CARTOON SPIN-OFF
Of the several spinoff ideas that were explored following the TV show's cancelation, the only one that got off the ground was Sabrina the Animated Series. The series served as a prequel to the live-action version, featuring a 12-year-old Sabrina voiced by Melissa Joan Hart's younger sister, Emily Hart, and despite only being in her mid-20s, Melissa played Aunt Hilda.
The only other original cast member was Nick Bakay as Salem. The show ran for one year between 1999-2000 before being retooled into Sabrina's Secret Life, aging up the young witch and sending her off to a witch academy. This iteration lasted a mere 26 episodes, eventually getting a CG resurrection in 2013 as Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch starring High School Musical's Ashley Tisdale.
16 BRITNEY SPEARS HAD A CAMEO
Then star-on-the-rise Britney Spears popped up in Sabrina's house during the Season 4 premiere, thanks to some magical meddling by her dad. After Sabrina was upset about missing her favorite popstar's concert, Edward Spellman beamed Britney in for a private gig, and she even stayed long enough to give Sabrina some advice -- and teach her some rad dance moves.
The appearance was also a magical act of corporate synergy, as Melissa Joan Hart's film, You Drive Me Crazy, named after the hit Britney song, was set to come out at around the same time the episode aired. In her autobiography, Hart detailed how the young singer was so tightly controlled by her management, she wasn't allowed to even have lunch with the cast.
15 SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR WAS NEARLY SABRINA
Buffy and Sabrina are pretty similar shows if you squint at them: two teen girls with inherited magical powers that have to hide a paranormal world happening right under their towns' noses. Plus, awkward mid-'90s fashion. That's not where the link ends, though. Sarah Michelle Gellar almost beat out Melissa Joan Hart for the title role in Sabrina.
There was also a serendipitous crossover between the two shows later, when the actress who played Sabrina's cousin Marigold, Robin Ricker, was cast as the mother of a difficult magical daughter (or so it seemed...) in the Buffy episode, "Witch." Buffy even slyly lamp-shaded the coincidence with the line, "She's our Sabrina."
14 THE TEEN CHARACTERS WERE ADULTS
It's common practice for actors to be cast as much younger characters -- provided they can pass for it. Dawson's Creek, which was on the air at the same time as Sabrina, cast a 27-year-old Kerr Smith to play the little brother of Meredith Monroe, herself played by an actress who was a decade older than Michelle Williams and Katie Holmes.
In Sabrina, most of the "teen" characters were played by actors who were in their early 20s. Melissa Joan Hart was 20-year-old playing a 16-year-old Sabrina when the show started, while her high school bully Libby was played by a 22-year-old Jenna Leigh Green. Nate Richert and Lindsay Sloane, who played Harvey and Valerie respectively, were the only actual teens of the bunch.
13 BOTH PENN AND TELLER WERE IN IT
Most fans will remember that Penn Jillette, of real-world magical double-act, Penn and Teller, had an ongoing role in Season One of Sabrina as Drell -- head of the Witches Council and ex-fiance of Hilda. (The two kept attempting to go on dates throughout the season, though Drell would always stand a frustrated Hilda up.)
What you might not remember is that Penn's other half showed up too. Teller played Skippy, a member of the Witches Council during Drell's reign with a much gentler presence than Penn's anti-mortal character. True to their brand, Teller's character was a mute and stayed pretty close to Drell. A new, younger Witches Council took over from Season Six, presumably replacing a now-retired Drell and Skippy.
12 BRYAN CRANSTON GUEST STARS IN ONE EPISODE
From RuPaul, to N*SYNC, to Dick Van Dyke, Sabrina bagged a lot of high profile cameos during its run, as well as of lots of appearances from future stars like Milo Ventimiglia, Donald Faison, Simon Helberg and Bryan Cranston. Considering his cult status now as Breaking Bad's Walter White, it's always fun in retrospect to remember at Cranston's comedy roots.
Before starring on Malcolm in the Middle, Cranston guest starred in the Sabrina episode, "Troll Bride," playing a witch lawyer. Sabrina's aunts enlist his services to get their niece out of a marriage deal with a troll called Roland. In an eery instance of foreshadowing, Cranston's character complains about being hot and removes his trousers...
11 A SPINOFF WAS PLANNED WITH SABRINA'S COUSIN
Due to its success, the WB was keen to milk the Sabrina cash cow for all it was worth. As well as the many tie-in video games and books, the network planned a spinoff starring Sabrina's antagonistic cousin, Amanda -- played by Melissa Joan Hart's little sister, Emily Hart. The series would have been set at the boarding school, Witchright Hall.
A backdoor pilot was carved out for 2000 but nothing came of it in the end. The younger Hart sister did get to voice Sabrina in the Animated Series, though. There are also rumours that an eighth season of Sabrina would have seen Harvey and Sabrina moving into a haunted house, which seems more in line with the property's current darker direction.
10 CASTING STAYED IN THE HART FAMILY
Not only was Melissa Joan Hart's little sister Emily cast to play her irritating cousin, Amanda, but Amanda's own younger sibling, Allie, was played by another member of the Hart family, Alexandra Hart-Gilliams. The show could have had its pick of Hart women considering that Melissa has five sisters in total. And, like the Kardashians, the acting family is a matriarchy.
Paula Hart, mother to Melissa, Emily and Alexandra, has her own production company, Hartbreak Films, and -- surprise, surprise -- has production credits on all of her eldest daughter's projects, from the Sabrina movie to Melissa & Joey. Melissa's husband, Mark Wilkerson also made a cameo with his band, Course of Nature, in Sabrina.
9 SABRINA HAD AN EVIL TWIN
After finally solving her family secret and becoming a licensed witch, Sabrina learns what her family has been keeping from her: all Spellmans have identical twins. Sabrina's is Katarina Spellman, who makes her debut at a family reunion in Season 3 where the sisters are put on trial to determine who is the good twin and who is the bad one.
At first, Katarina passes all of the good twin tests, but trips at the last hurdle when she's willing to throw the "bad" twin -- Sabrina -- into a volcano, proving she'd been concealing her evil nature. She's banished to the Other Realm and sentenced to do community service picking up litter at a theme park, which is pretty lenient for attempted sibling-cide.
8 MELISSA JOAN HART LOVES WRESTLING
In case some fans didn't know, Melissa Joan Hart is a HUGE wrestling fan. So huge, she posts weekly reviews of RAW on Mondays accompanied by the hashtag, #MelissaExplainsRAW on Twitter. One of these tweets got her in hot water in 2015 when she called Kevin Owens a "lazy wrestler," starting a feud between the two that resulted in Owens and several other wrestlers blocking her.
Back in her Sabrina days when Melissa was on better terms with the WWE, her fangirl-ing was likely the reason why a few prominent names from the wrestling world turned up in the show (as well as the product's popularity at the time). Kevin Nash appears in Season 1; Billy Gunn in Season 4 and Chyna in Season 6.
7 HARVEY FINDS OUT SABRINA'S SECRET
Despite having to keep her witch and mortal identities separate, this didn't stop Sabrina from using magic to try and solve just about every problem she encountered. Witnesses to her spellcasting were always taken care of with a memory charm, like her love interest Harvey, who never discovered her secret in the comics.
This was true in the TV series until the Season 4 finale. A season's worth of being caught up in a love triangle between Harvey and his friend Josh culminates in Sabrina relying on magic yet again to fix the fighting. This backfires on her when years of erasing Harvey's memories wears off, leading to a dramatic confrontation where he presses her for the truth.
6 A NETWORK SWITCH AXED MOST OF THE CAST
Sabrina was an ABC show for its first four seasons until the network decided to cancel it after negotiations broke down with the show's production company. The Season 4 finale was originally intended to be the show's last episode but it found a new home on the WB. However, the new network was similarly unwilling to fork over $1.5 million per episode.
A lower rate was agreed upon and with the loss of money came the inevitable loss of actors. Most of the cast members were fired, including fan favorites like Mr. Kraft, Mrs. Quick and -- worst of all -- Harvey! His departure resulted in an unsatisfactory off-screen break-up with Sabrina. Luckily, a fan campaign to bring him back was eventually successful.
5 IT TOOK A RATINGS NOSE DIVE IN SEASON 5
As well as the sudden departure of Harvey and many other characters after Season 4, fans weren't keen on the radical new direction the WB took Sabrina in the show's fifth season. Brad and Dreama weren't good enough replacements for the likes of Valerie and Libby, and swapping the high school setting for a college one sapped a lot of the show's original appeal.
As the WB wanted to attract a teen demographic, a lot of the goofy humor that viewers were used to from earlier in the series was thrown out in favor of more mature storylines. Unfavorable reactions to this change were reflected in the ratings. The show dropped from 12 million viewers in Season 2 and Season 3 to just three million from Season 5 to 7.
4 JERRY SPRINGER IS A WITCH
The Jerry Springer Show spent 27 years on the air between 1991 and 2018 and, love it or hate it, it had a lasting cultural impact. Jerry Springer appeared on The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror IX" to settle a paternity fight over Maggie between Homer and Maggie's birth parent, Kang the alien, while in the UK, the talk show even inspired a satirical musical, Jerry Springer: The Opera.
In the third season of Sabrina, Springer not only made an appearance as himself, but he brought his entire show with him to help solve a dispute between the witches and Mr. Kraft, who was dating Zelda. Naturally, in true Jerry Springer style, things get physical. Perhaps more interesting, though, is the implication that Springer isn't a mortal.
3 I DREAM OF JEANNIE'S STAR IS SABRINA'S GREAT AUNT
Sabrina owes a debt to the likes of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie -- '60s classics that were around for a small window of time when the female-fronted supernatural sitcom was a strangely popular niche on TV. As well as homages like the inclusion of an evil twin for Sabrina, the '90s show went one step further and brought I Dream of Jeannie's Barbara Eden in for a recurring role.
Eden played the Spellman matriarch, Sabrina's great aunt Irma, characterized as the "dreaded holy terror from the Other Realm." Irma first swooped in to test Harvey and Sabrina's relationship after he discovered her secret in Season 6. She approved even less of Sabrina's next love, Aaron -- turning him into a goldfish just for being mortal.
2 ZELDA AND HILDA'S DARK MAGIC
Though Hilda played a big enough role as Salem's wayward minion to earn punishment from the Witches Council, her villainous days are long behind her. She and Zelda are supposed to be good witches, but that doesn't mean all of their spells are wholesome. In Season 1's "Dream Date," they try to help a lonely Sabrina by cooking her up a date out of "man dough."
Things take a dark turn when the temporary -- and sentient -- creature serves his purpose and explodes. In another episode, the mention of a potion used to make an ex-boyfriend a better listener results in a cutaway to the guy waking up with a head covered in ears. Despite his screams of horror, the moment is played off for laughs.
1 SABRINA AND HARVEY ELOPE
After he was axed from Season 5, Sabrina and Harvey fans must have felt like their ship had sunk. Even when Harvey returned in Season 6, things were still rocky between the pair, chiefly because the college-age Sabrina had fallen head over heels for another guy -- Aaron. Though the cracks in her relationship with her new beau were clear, she agreed to marry him.
The final ever episode of Sabrina began with the bride-to-be waking up with literal cold feet on her wedding day. An ill-fitting soul stone with Aaron and a "something borrowed" present that Harvey gifted her in high school culminate in the wedding being mutually called off, leaving Sabrina and Harvey finally free to ride into the sunset on his motorbike.