Sabrina: The Animated Series

Sabrina: The Animated Series is an American animated television series based on the Archie Comics series Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Produced by Savage Studios Ltd. and Hartbreak Films in association with DIC Productions, L.P. (owned by Disney at the time), the series is an animated prequel of the 1996–2003 live-action series Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

The series aired on ABC and UPN from September 6 to November 19, 1999. Sixty-five episodes were produced.

Premise

Unlike previous incarnations, Sabrina Spellman in this series is depicted as a 12-year-old attending middle school. As in the original comic series, Sabrina lives with her paternal witch aunts, Hilda Spellman and Zelda Spellman, and her loud-mouthed black cat Salem Saberhagen, all of whom advise Sabrina on the use of several magics. Most episodes center on the typical issues of middle school, along with those that emanated from Sabrina's inexperience with or misuse of several magic, witchcraft and extremely powerful and complex spells. Sabrina and her best friend Chloe Flan would often use magic (often from the "Spooky Jar": a cookie jar containing a green genie-like being in the family's kitchen) for all types of perceived emergencies, ranging from trying to fit into skinny new clothes to turning Sabrina's crush Harvey into a superhero. By the end of every episode, Sabrina's innate magical abilities would unintentionally backfire and she would learn that using magic usually is not the solution to her everyday issues.

Characters

Main

• Sabrina Spellman (voiced by Emily Hart) is a witch-mortal hybrid who lives in a comfortable house with her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, and her black pet cat, Salem, in the town of Greendale. Sabrina won't become magically empowered until she turns sixteen, but she is still able to borrow spells from Hilda and Zelda using a magical "Spooky Jar," which she often does. However, she usually finds that her meddling turns situations from bad to worse. Sabrina's friend Chloe is aware of her magic, but Harvey Kinkle, another friend and her romantic interest, is not. Whenever she casts a spell, the magic is made in pink and yellow. Emily Hart is Melissa Joan Hart's real-life sister who played Sabrina's cousin Amanda in several episodes of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series.
• Hilda Spellman and Zelda Spellman (both voiced by Melissa Joan Hart): While Hilda suggests they bend the rules sometime, and use magic to get ahead, Zelda is determined to say "No" right up until the moment she gives up. Hilda is more carefree and reckless than her cautious sister, Zelda, and, although they do butt heads sometimes, they are still sisters. In this series and Sabrina's Secret Life, Hilda and Zelda both have the appearance of teenagers, as this was the punishment they received from Enchantra for "abusing magic" in the past. Whenever Zelda casts a spell, the magic is always made in blue and yellow. When Hilda casts a spell, the magic is made in purple and yellow. Melissa Joan Hart is best known for playing Sabrina in the Showtime film adaptation and the ABC series.
• Salem Saberhagen (voiced by Nick Bakay) knows the right buttons to push to talk Sabrina into just about anything, and he does it guiltlessly—until he's caught. Salem was once a powerful wizard, but he was locked into a cat-form because he was constantly trying to take over the world. However, he makes up for his predicament with magical charms that help Sabrina in some situations. Whenever Salem casts a spell, the magic is made in purple and blue. Nick Bakay is the only cast member to reprise his role from the 1996 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch TV series.
• Uncle Quigley (voiced by Jay Brazeau) is an original character created for the animated series, he is Sabrina's maternal great-uncle and the household's adult guardian, often behaving as a father figure to Sabrina. Despite all his eccentricities, Uncle Quigley does not have any magic powers; like Sabrina's mother, he is a mortal.
• Chloe Flan (voiced by Cree Summer) is Sabrina's best friend who, other than Uncle Quigley, is the only mortal who knows Sabrina's secret.
• Harvey Kinkle (voiced by Bill Switzer) has a cute and sweet personality. While he only admits to Sabrina that she is his "best pal," he likes her very much. However, Harvey is unaware that Sabrina is a witch, although he often sees the results of the magic himself.
• Gem Stone (voiced by Chantal Strand) is a snobby, popular, mean and spoiled girl who lives in a mansion with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stone, down the street. Gem occasionally sees Sabrina as her main competitor for Harvey's attention (whom Gem is interested in as well), though Harvey usually likes Sabrina more. She is inspired by Libby Chesler (Jenna Leigh Green) in the TV series.

Supporting

• The Spookie Jar is a genie who resides in a purple cookie jar in Sabrina's kitchen. Whenever Sabrina needs a special spell, she can get one from the Spookie Jar, but they rarely turn out the way she expects. Spookie Jar speaks entirely in rhymes.
• Perry "Pi" McDonald is Harvey's best friend and Sabrina and Chloe's friend, too. He is very smart and quite unusual in his own special way. His eyes are never seen because his pork pie hat obscures them. He has been described by Sabrina as "totally out of it and really smart at the same time." According to the episode "Upside Down Town," it is implied that he is of Chinese descent.
• Horace Slugloafe is an occasional bully to Harvey, though at times shows him respect. He usually refers to others by their surnames.
• Bernard is a small, bald, nerdy boy with glasses who is friends with Sabrina, Pi, Chloe and Harvey. He is often bullied by Slugloafe and easily bossed around by Gem.
• Tim is a witch hunter who appears in "Most Dangerous Witch," "Documagicary" and "Enchanted Vacation". He was previously bullied by witches as a child due to his lack of magical powers, except his immortality, even though his mother was a witch. For this reason, he viewed witches as evil and so he collects them as trophies for revenge along with his sidekick aardvark named Elton. Tim wears a hat with a witch cauldron marked with a prohibition sign on it.
• Queen Enchantra is the ruler of all witches and head of the Witches' Council. When she casts spells, the magic is made in red and purple.
• Mr. and Mrs. Stone are Gem's parents and the richest people in town. They first appeared in "Witch Switch"; when Sabrina wishes herself to be rich, they almost sent Sabrina to Cambridge when they found out she got a C in her report, but later changed their mind after Sabrina is not wished herself as being rich. They also appeared in "Stone Broke" when they lost their money and had Gem move into Sabrina's house until their dog struck oil.
• Edward Spellman is Sabrina's long-lost father who is a very strong warlock and Zelda and Hilda's older brother. Some years after he and his mortal wife, Diana, mutually separated, he ended up falling for another human named Futura, whom he intended to marry until a jealous Sabrina tried to break them up.
• Diana Spellman is Sabrina's human mother and Quigley's sister who is an archeologist and works at a dig site in Egypt. She is heard in the episode "Picture Perfect".

Production

Sabrina had previously appeared in an animated format on The Archie Show (animated by Filmation), but the popularity of the live-action Sabrina the Teenage Witch sitcom formed part of the basis for this spin-off series. The series was developed by Savage Steve Holland and Kat Likkel and Holland served as showrunner and executive producer of the series. As such, the series reflected some of the irreverent style of humor seen in Eek! The Cat. Celebrity voice cameos in this series included Downtown Julie Brown, Mr. T, Long John Baldry and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Melissa Joan Hart, who starred as Sabrina in the live-action sitcom, served as producer of this series, but her younger sister, Emily Hart (who played the recurring character Amanda on the sitcom), voiced Sabrina. Melissa instead voiced Sabrina's two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, originally played on the live-action series by Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea, respectively. Nick Bakay reprises his role as Salem from the live-action series. The theme music is performed by the Irish girl group B*Witched.

The series was announced to be in production in November 1998, where 65 episodes were commissioned by Disney to air on UPN's then-upcoming Disney block, and would also air on ABC. Disney's Buena Vista Television was announced as the television distributor for the series while DIC Entertainment and Viacom Consumer Products would share merchandising rights. In January 1999, it was announced that Buena Vista International Television would handle international television sale rights.

Episodes

Broadcast

United States

The series aired in syndication on UPN (on Disney's One Too weekday morning-afternoon and Sunday block) and on ABC (on Disney's One Saturday Morning block) from September 6 to November 19, 1999; it remained on ABC until October 13, 2001 (replaced by Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action!) and UPN until September 6, 2002 (replaced by '). Around the same time the show was pulled from UPN, the series moved to both Disney Channel (from September 9, 2002 to September 2, 2004) and Toon Disney (from September 3, 2002 to September 5, 2004 before it was replaced by Sabrina's Secret Life). Sabrina: The Animated Series returned to syndication as one of the launch programmes broadcast on the Syndicated DIC Kids Network E/I block on September 1, 2003, followed by the spinoff series Sabrina's Secret Life which premiered the following November.