Sabrina the Teenage Witch; Queen of Puns and Sparkles

Sabrina the Teenage Witch first aired when I was only three years old. I remember watching some reruns from Sabrina’s high school years with my sisters, but mostly I remember seeing her college episodes. I’ve always loved her glittery magic, eccentric aunts, talking cat, and cool Victorian house.

Sabrina’s teenage years are full of goofy situations and magic gone wrong. After she moves in with her aunts and discovers she’s a witch, Sabrina tries to adjust to having magic. Her aunts teach her spells and rules, take her to the Other Realm, and take her on vacuum rides.

Aunt Zelda and Aunt Hilda help Sabrina prepare for her witch’s license and figure out the family secret. And by help, I mean they constantly remind her to get to work while she gets distracted by messing up the normal balance of school and friends by experimenting with magic.

Sabrina is a very caring and hard working person. She wants to take care of her friends and family, and do well in life. She also wants to never see Libby again, which happens very suddenly in the fourth season.

Libby and Harvey get the brunt of Sabrina’s magic gone awry. Libby, the school cheerleader and popular girl, poses the biggest threat to Sabrina’s secrecy. After being her boyfriend for three years, Harvey abruptly reaches his magic limit and remembers everything Sabrina has hid from him. While they were dating, he swallowed any lame excuse she gave him about her crazy life. He likes that she’s odd and doesn’t mind when he can’t get a straight answer out of her.

Sabrina quickly warms up to her magic, figuring out how to not only cast spells but clean up the chaos that always ensues. She starts celebrating Halloween, exploring the Other Realm, and learning her heritage. She earns her witches license, driver’s license, and figures out the family secret.

While the first four seasons are full of cheesy antics and puns, I really like lighthearted humor. Sabrina isn’t unrealistically mature or annoyingly dramatic. She’s just a normal teenage girl… who happens to be a witch.

It’s fun to see all the guest stars. My favorite was Sabrina having a heart to heart with Britney Spears in Paris, and weirding her out with her funky dance moves. Some other great guests were the Backstreet Boys, Kenan and Kel, Nsync, Paula Abdul, Dick Van Dyke, Aaron Carter, Usher, and Avril Lavigne.

I really liked when Sabrina went to college. As fun as her high school antics are, the show definitely matures and explores more in the later seasons. Sabrina’s job at the coffee shop and newspaper, her classes and roommates, they all provide a fresh scene for her to develop her magic.

Sabrina really embraces her witch side and has fun with her magic. She drags her roommates into crazy situations, while hiding the truth of her family from them. Only Harvey knows the truth, because he abruptly reached his magic limit and remembered everything that Sabrina had dragged him through while she got a handle on her powers.

Sabrina is fun and likable. Her world of magic is whimsical and the rules are constantly changing, keeping things interesting. This show is a classic, and one of my favorites from the 90s/2000s era.