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Charmed
Created by	Constance M. Burge
Starring	Holly Marie Combs Alyssa Milano Rose McGowan Shannen Doherty Brian Krause Dorian Gregory Julian McMahon
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	178
Production
Running time	41-44 min.
Original release
Network	The WB Television Network
Release	October 7, 1998 – May 21, 2006

Charmed was an American television series that ran for eight seasons on The WB. It was produced by Aaron Spelling and is about three sisters who are the world's most powerful good witches, known throughout the supernatural community as "The Charmed Ones." Each sister possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve over the course of their lives. The Charmed Ones live together in a manor and use their supernatural abilities to battle the warlocks, demons and other evil forces that populate San Francisco, California.

The show was the last in its generation of supernatural-themed shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Roswell, and has many times been noted for its mixing of multiple genres (from horror and fantasy to comedy and even soap), as well as surviving a number of archetypal jump the shark moments, most famously the departure of one of the leading actresses at the end of season three. It also had the highest rated debut (until the debut of Smallville at 8.40 million), for the WB Television Network, with 7.70 million viewers tuning in for the series premiere, "Something Wicca This Way Comes".

As of January 2006, with the airing of episode 8.12, Charmed became the longest running show with all-female leads, surpassing Laverne & Shirley. The series ended its run on May 21, 2006. The Charmed series finale, "Forever Charmed", pulled in a season high of 4.49 million viewers.

Premise

Template:Spoiler Charmed began with the three Halliwell sisters — Prue, Piper and Phoebe — coming together six months after the death of their grandmother. After moving into the family manor in San Francisco, the youngest sister, Phoebe, discovered an old book — the Book of Shadows — in the attic. Reading an incantation from it, she unwittingly set in motion events that fulfilled an ancient prophecy. Strange and harrowing occurrences began which eventually led the sisters to realize that they are witches.

They discovered that not only do they possess supernatural powers, they come from a long line of powerful witches. The first in the line, Melinda Warren, was burned on the stake. However, before she died, Melinda prophesied that each coming generation of Warren (later renamed Halliwell) witches would grow stronger and stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters. They would be the strongest witches the world had ever seen.

Prue Halliwell, the oldest sister, developed the power of telekinesis, later gaining the power of astral projection. Piper, the middle child, was initially given the power to freeze molecules, later developing the power to blow things up, molecular combustion; both of these abilities are linked to molecular movement rate. Phoebe, the youngest sister, had the original power of premonitions, later obtaining the power to levitate; in addition, her empathic powers developed in later years.

After the tragic death of Prue, it was revealed that the sisters had a younger half-sister named Paige, born to their mother Patty and her whitelighter Sam. As this was forbidden and unheard of at the time, the baby was given to a nun and later adopted by the Matthews family. Her birth parents requested only that her first name begin with 'P', to continue the tradition. From her whitelighter father she inherited the power to "orb". This also had an effect on the powers she inherited from Patty, and instead of telekinesis, Paige is able to call for an object; the object in question will then orb to her. This power is called telekinetic orbing.

A central theme throughout the show's run is the sisters' struggle to balance normal lives with their supernatural responsibilities. The burden of keeping their destinies a secret from the outside world has repeatedly created tensions in their friendships, workplaces and romantic relationships. Only a few know their secret and help them on a regular basis. The most important is Leo Wyatt, a Whitelighter assigned by the Elders to guide and protect the sisters. Leo means a great deal to the sisters both professionally and personally: he heals their wounds, advises them collectively and individually and mediates between them and the enigmatic Elders. He also becomes the love of Piper's life, her husband and father of her two children. Others who have kept the Charmed Ones' secret over the years include policemen Andy Trudeau and Darryl Morris, tormented half-demon Cole Turner — his demon half going by the name Belthazor — the mysterious time-traveler Chris Perry and most recently Christy and Billie Jenkins and Paige's husband Henry.

Characters

Main

• Prue Halliwell - (Shannen Doherty) (Seasons 1-3)
• Piper Halliwell - (Holly Marie Combs)
• Phoebe Halliwell - (Alyssa Milano)
• Paige Matthews - (Rose McGowan) (Seasons 4-8)

Supporting

• Leo Wyatt - (Brian Krause) (Recurring Season 1; Seasons 2-8)
• Darryl Morris - (Dorian Gregory) (Seasons 1-7)
• Andy Trudeau - (Ted King) (Season 1)
• Dan Gordon - (Greg Vaughan) (Season 2)
• Jenny Gordon - (Karis Paige Bryant) (Season 2)
• Cole Turner - (Julian McMahon) (Seasons 3-5)
• Adult Chris Halliwell - (Drew Fuller) (Season 6)
• Billie Jenkins - (Kaley Cuoco) (Season 8)

Recurring

• Penelope "Penny" Halliwell - (Jennifer Rhodes)
• Patricia "Patty" Halliwell - (Finola Hughes) (seasons 1 - 5, 7 - 8)
• Victor Bennet - (James Read) (seasons 3 - 8)
• Sam Wilder - (Scott Jaeck) (seasons 2, 5, 8)
• Little Wyatt Halliwell - (Jason & Kristopher Simmons) (seasons 5 - 8)
• Older Wyatt Halliwell - (Wes Ramsey) (seasons 6 - 8)
• Little Christopher "Chris" Perry Halliwell (seasons 6 - 8)
• Elise Rothman - Rebecca Balding (seasons 4-8)

Billing order

In the first 3 seasons, the actresses portraying the Charmed Ones are billed according to the ages of their characters: Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano. The initial 5 episodes lists the actors/characters as Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, T.W. King, Dorian Gregory, and Alyssa Milano. Beginning with episode 6, the Charmed ones are listed by character age, followed by the inspectors Andy Trudeau and Darryl Morris. From the 4th season onwards, the veteran leading actresses receive the coveted first and last billing while their new costar gets the middle spot: Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, and Holly Marie Combs as "Piper". The leads are then followed by whichever supporting players are contracted for that particular season. If one of the supporting players does not appear in a particular episode, his/her name also does not appear in the opening credits. Brian Krause, who became a main cast member halfway through the 2nd season, was in virtually every episode by the 3rd season. His name is listed 4th in the credits from season 3 onwards, apart from in season 8 where Kaley Cuoco (Billie) takes that spot.

Show changes

In its eight-year course, Charmed has undergone many changes, including departure of cast and crew members, some of which have had a large impact on the series as a whole. While in the case of some of the newer changes executive producer Brad Kern openly referred to budget cuts as the reason, most of the changes happened without the reasons being released into public, giving rise to much speculation and debates among fans. Some of the changes are frequent topics of argument in almost every Charmed internet forum even today, most notably the Kern-Burge and the Milano-Doherty dispute.

Initial changes

• Originally Lori Rom was cast as Phoebe but she left the production soon after shooting began. Parts of the first episode had to be reshot with her replacement Alyssa Milano.
• The Book of Shadows was moved from where it initially was set (in a chest) to a podium.
• Charmed was picked up for a full season after the ratings success of the first two episodes, according to the documentary The Women of Charmed produced in 1999. By then, the first few (most probably six) episodes had completed production. Some of the crew was then replaced, including the series' composer (thus discontinuing the use of the many chime instruments characteristic of the opening episodes).
• Some basic story elements of the Charmed world laid down in the initial six episodes were later changed. The Book of Shadows was later established as untouchable by evil; Grams' husband and grandfather of three sisters had their name and timeframe changed; the sisters having relationship with their father even though in the initial episodes they wanted nothing to do with him.

Changes in story structure

Between the second and the third season, creator and executive producer Constance M. Burge had left the crew of the show, leaving her former position to executive producer Brad Kern. Burge continued to produce other shows, but remained as creative consultant until season four. Burge's departure resulted in changes in the story structure of the show, from a "demon of the week" system to using third or half season-long story arcs. Also, more importance was given to the protagonists' personal lives.

The serial connection of episodes culminated in the second half of season four. Despite the ratings actually rising during season four's final story arch from 4.19 to 4.21, the WB asked Brad Kern to abandon the serial system in the future. This led to the largely episodic structure of season five, and resulted in the two systems being balanced from the sixth season. The departure of Constance M. Burge has been often debated in Charmed fandom. While reasons were never made public, unsupported claims (such as Burge leaving because she did not agree to the introduction of the character Cole or because of the story arc-episodic structure debate) still circulate among fans debating over whether Kern or Burge would be a better producer.

Departure of Shannen Doherty

At the end of the third season, Shannen Doherty left the show, resulting in her character's death, and in the introduction of Rose McGowan's character Paige. While in episode 3.16 the Angel of Death foreshadowed Prue's death, episode 3.22 remained as a cliffhanger, and Prue's death was only established in the season four premiere episode. Fan speculation continues to this day, some pointing to rumours of on-set issues with Doherty regarding punctual appearance at work and tension with co-workers, others putting blame on Alyssa Milano for reasons such as her supposedly asking the show's producers to let Doherty go. These rumours even today lead to harsh debates and flame wars over whether it was Doherty's, Milano's or someone else's "fault" that Doherty left.

Doherty's departure is the best known change in Charmed, and while there is debate over whether the show got better or worse after Prue's death, it is most often agreed that after season three the characters' dynamics have changed, and the individual sisters' storylines became more balanced.

Timeslot changes

The show witnessed multiple changes in its timeslot. From its initial Wednesday night, Charmed moved to Thursday nights in Season 2, and during Season 4 it moved again, this time to Sunday nights, to anchor "The WB's Big Sunday" event. The change in broadcast day played a central role in the show's change of ratings, as from the moment Charmed moved to Sunday, its episodes had to continually compete with other strong-rated shows such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and The Simpsons, as well as events such as the Golden Globes.

Changes in the Charmed universe

In the first three seasons, the magical world of Charmed introduced original concepts such as the spiritual nexus or the workings of the show's witchcraft, and involved creatures such as Whitelighters and Darklighters, and also a number of mythological creatures not frequently adapted to television, such as the Woogyman, the Wendigo or the Banshee. This is probably attributable to Constance M. Burge as well as story editor Robert Masello, introduced as the show's mythology expert (as seen in the 1999 documentary Women of Charmed).

Gradually from the fourth season, besides keeping the dominance of creatures with attributes explicitly created to conform to the storylines, Charmed started to rely more heavily on using creatures from classical (i.e. Greek and Roman) mythology as well as from miscellaneous folklore items well-known in contemporary culture.

Budget cuts

Budget cuts in the last few seasons have led to many minor, and a few major changes in the show.

• Budget cuts have caused demons to gradually become entirely human-like from the monsters with rich costumes and make-up witnessed in the first seasons.
• One of the most notable budget-related changes was the WB's decision not to include Brian Krause and Dorian Gregory in season eight. As Brad Kern said in a number of interviews, he had to restructure the budget to include Krause in as much as ten episodes, to avoid abruptly ending his storyline. Enough money was saved to include Krause in the final two episodes of the series.
• In an interview in Charmed Magazine Issue 8, Brad Kern revealed that in season eight Kern, executive producers Aaron Spelling and E. Duke Vincent and a number of crew members opted to reduce their own salaries in order to maintain the show's quality.
• It is speculated that many of the powers used in the show (especially Phoebe's levitation) were cut mainly because of the budget. This also explains why Phoebe received empathy (a power that requires no special effects)

Syndication

The series was originally shown on the WB television network in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The show has been licensed to numerous other networks, such as TNT, to show reruns (TNT currently airs reruns four times every weekday).

• Argentina: Charmed is aired subtitled on the cable channel Sony Entertainment Television in primetime, and reruns of the first three seasons of the series are aired from Monday to Friday in the afternoon.
• Australia: Channel 10 (free-to-air channel) finished airing Season 7. They have acquired the rights to the 8th Season, and plan to show them later in the year. Meanwhile, TV1 (on Austar and Foxtel) shows seasons 1-4.
• Belgium: Charmed reruns and new seasons always air on Kanaal Twee.
• Bosnia and Serbia: Charmed is aired on Pink channel everyday.
• Denmark: Charmed is shown on TV3 (Denmark), and they are showing season 8. It is named "Heksene fra Warren Manor" (Danish), which translated means "The witches from Warren Manor". The name was briefly changed to "Charmed" a few years back and then changed back again.
• Finland: Charmed is aired on Nelonen (Channel 4). Its Finnish name is "Siskoni on noita", which when translated back to English is "My Sister is a Witch". This can be seen as a reference to the Finnish name of Bewitched ("Vaimoni on noita"), which when translated in English is "My Wife is a Witch". They are currently sending Seasons 1 and 7. They show it every Sunday at 13.30 (Season 1) and Monday 19.00 (Season 7)
• France: Charmed is aired on M6. Season 8 will be on M6 in September.
• Germany: Seasons 1 through 7 have been aired on Pro 7 under the title "Charmed - Zauberhafte Hexen", the latter phrase meaning "Magical Witches" (or, ambiguously, "Enchanting Witches"). The German dub was also bought by Austrian ORF1.
• Greece: Star Channel is currently showing Season 7 every Sunday at 16:30.
• Hungary: The show was bought in 2003 and broadcast up to Season 7 on TV2. Reruns (currently of Season 3) are shown weekly, with Season 8 premiering at an unknown time. The show's title in Hungarian is Bűbájos boszorkák, roughly meaning "Charming witches".
• India: Season 8 of Charmed is currently running on Star World.
• Italy: Charmed (in Italian "Streghe", which means "witches") is primarily shown on Rai Due which shows the newest episodes, but it is on rerun on FOX and La7.
• Lebanon: The show airs on Star World, Tuesdays at 21:00 p.m and the last episode aired on 13 June 2006 . It also airs on Showtime Arabia's TV Land (Season 5 till now) and on MBC 4 (Season 4 till now).
• Macedonia: "Волшебнички" (Charmed) airs on A1 TV, every night at 23:30, and it's currently airing the 5th season.
• Malaysia: Season 8 (finished) is aired by Star World and Season 7 is currently aired by Ntv7.
• Malta: Charmed can be viewed on Thursdays at 9pm or Saturday at 10pm on Living TV. It is also shown on Living TV from noon till 2pm and repeated at 5pm-7pm daily.
• Middle East & North Africa: Charmed airs on satellite from the major networks, on the Showtime Arabia satellite Pay-TV network via TV Land, as well as on Star World, via the Arab Digital Distribution platform. On Free to Air satellite, it's broadcasting on the MBC network's MBC 4 channel.
• Netherlands: Season 8 was being aired Friday nights at 8.30pm on NET 5, the last 8 episodes will be aired in the fall of 2006.
• New Zealand: Charmed is shown on both TV3 and Sky 1. TV3 is showing Season 8 on Tuesdays, and currently repeating Season 6. While Sky 1 is showing older repeats of the show, (Season 5) on Sunday afternoon, repeating on Monday afternoon.
• Norway: TV3 Norway is showing Season 8 every Sunday.
• Poland: Polsat is showing Season 1 every Saturday.
• Portugal: TVI is showing Season 7 every night subtitled, Season 8 will be shown later on this year.
• Philippines: it airs on Studio 23 every Monday since March 1999, all year long with a complete repeat of the current season every year until the new season airs, which is usually end of March or early April. Season 8 on Studio 23 will finally air on March 6, at 8:20 p.m., and is advertised as "the final season of Charmed". Season 8 also currently airs every Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. on Star World, an Australasia-wide cable channel.
• Singapore: Charmed can normally be viewed on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 weekly at Wednesday night at 10:00pm. Season 8 will air on June 30 2006 (Friday) at 8.30pm, a diversion from the usual Wednesday broadcasts. Charmed can also be viewed on Star World Tuesday nights at 8:00pm.
• Spain: new seasons are aired by Telecinco and older seasons are currently repeated by Cosmopolitan, FDF and Cuatro.
• Sweden: Tv3 is showing Season 8 on Sundays. In Sweden Charmed is called 'Förhäxad' which can be translated to 'Bewitched'. Sweden airs on a slightly delayed schedule compared to the USA.
• Switzerland: SF2 will begin airing Season 1.
• Turkey: Charmed is aired on Dizimax channel. Season 1-7 is broadcasted everyday.
• United Kingdom and Ireland: Charmed can be seen daily on satellite and cable channel Living TV as well as Channel 6. Terrestrial channel Five airs Seasons 1-7 on Saturdays; Channel 4 has bought the rights for Season 8 on normal British terrestrial television, and plans to air episodes beginning Summer 2006.
• Ireland: Charmed is aired terrestrially on TV3.

DVDs

DVDs of Charmed were released no earlier than 2005, mostly due to licensing issues with the commercial songs in the individual episodes.

The first seven Charmed DVD sets contain no special features whatsoever, in accordance with Paramount's "no extras" policy, and much to the chagrin of both the fans and of Charmed executive producer, Brad Kern, who has stated many times that his continuing efforts to persuade Paramount to include any extras were unsuccessful. In 2006, Paramount's television DVD department was taken over by CBS, resulting in a promise that the last Charmed DVD box set (to be released in the UK and Australia by the end of 2006) will contain extras.

Release dates

The first season was released initially in the United States. Australia, The United Kingdom, New Zealand and The Netherlands are in the lead in terms of DVD release dates.

Cover art

Cover art for most seasons is the same for Regions 1, 2 and 4. Currently, only the covers for seasons 3 and 5 have been changed for their Region 1 releases. As seasons 6 and 7 release information for Region 1 has yet to be announced, it is unknown whether or not the Region 2 and 4 covers will be used for the Region 1 releases.

References

1. ""Charmed" Spell Is Broken" Eonline.com. URL Accessed June 6 2006.
2. Constance M. Burge bio Imdb.com. URL Accessed June 6 2006.
3. "Channel 4 picks up final 'Charmed' season" Digitalspy.com. URL Accessed June 6 2006.
4. Final word from extras on Charmed" Tvshowsondvd.com. URL Accessed June 6 2006.
5. "Brad Kern Interview Tvshowsondvd.com. URL Accessed June 6 2006.
6. "CBS works some magic" Tvshowsondvd.com. URL Accessed June 6 2006.

External links

• TheWB's official Charmed website
• Charmed at IMDb

v t e Charmed
Original series (1998–2006) Reboot series (2018–2022)
Seasons	Original series Season 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Comics and novels and short stories Season 9 10 Reboot series
Characters	Prue Halliwell Piper Halliwell Phoebe Halliwell Paige Matthews Billie Jenkins Kyra Christy Jenkins
Episodes	"Something Wicca This Way Comes" "All Hell Breaks Loose" "Forever Charmed"
Music	"How Soon Is Now?" The Soundtrack The Book of Shadows
Related	Book of Shadows Power of Three Awards and nominations Merchandise
Category

• 1990s TV shows in the United States
• 2000s TV shows in the United States
• Charmed
• Comedy-drama television series
• Fantasy television series
• WB network shows