Original subtitles

Come on, we get this together.

The power of three will set us free.

The power of three will set us free.

The power of three will set us free.

The power of three will set us free.

| met Aaron spelling 1982 when | first went to work on "Matt Houston”.

| was brought in as a story editor and quickly was directing the show,

and producing the show, and ended up running the show by the third season.

And | was in awe of Aaron when | first met him.

It was Aaron and Duke Vincent.

Duke Vincent was his partner for 27 years, and Duke was the one

who had hands, daily stuff on "Matt Houston".

So he was the one | was involved with all the time,

but Aaron was always involved in the casting.

In fact, the first season, "Matt Houston" was a guest star show.

You would have it was a murder mystery, and then

all these Hollywood stars were the suspects,

much like "Burke's Law". He did "Burke's Law" in the sixties,

and that was his idea for "Burke's Law".

And Aaron and | got along right away.

And when Aaron likes somebody, he keeps hiring you.

| ended up working on and off with Aaron,

like | did "Star Trek" for 26 years,

right up until 2006 when "Charmed" went off the air.

| had done a bunch of TV series for him as a writer, producer,

director, depending on, movies of the week.

And | would come and go, but whenever he had something

that he needed me for, and | was available, | would be coming back.

And that's why they hired me to be executive vice president in 1996,

because they wanted to make sure | was there

and always available for them.

And it was a great relationship.

| mean, he was around producing television from the mid sixties,

and | got him the first time in '82. So he'd been doing

it for 20 years by the time | started to work for him,

and then we did another 25 years.

And the shows that he did, and his instincts

for what the audience was looking for

was quite remarkable. And it was while | was at Spelling

that we developed, and | started doing "Charmed".

| had six years as executive vice president,

and then | moved from that job where | was supervising "Charmed", among all

our other shows, over to "Charmed" as producer director.

Book of Shadows.

Connie Burge created it. Connie had created "Savannah" for us,

which was a big hit for a short period of time

on the WB, when the WB was first starting.

And she came in with this idea about a show with witches, sisters,

and we developed it, and she wrote the pilot script.

And here's a fantastic story about "Charmed".

We originally sold the show, and went to pilot,

it was Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs,

who was Shannen's best friend at the time, and still is,

and then Lori Rom. Alyssa Milano, wasn't in it.

Lori Rom was this third star of the show.

So Shannen was the only real star. We shoot the pilot.

The pilot is bought.

We're two weeks from starting to shoot the series, Lori Rom calls us and says,

"| can't do the show. | just can't do it."

So two weeks from starting to shoot, we don't have a third star.

We had just worked with Alyssa on "Melrose Place".

So Aaron calls Alyssa, she was on vacation in Hawaii, and said,

"We have an opening on 'Charmed™

"Can | send you the script? Will you consider it?"

Sent her the script. She read it, she loved it.

She said, "I'll do it."

So suddenly we have Shannen, and Alyssa, and Holly, and the show

became a big hit immediately out of the gate.

And | don't know that it would have without Alyssa,

because she was a big name, Shannen was a big name.

You needed both of those, | think, to supercharge it.

So as it turned out, we got lucky when Lori left,

but that's an amazing story to me.

I've never heard of anyone ever doing that before or since.

We re-shot every scene she was in

when we started production, because we never aired her...

| don't even know where that film is. It's somewhere.

But we never aired it.

So every scene that she had been in was re-shot with Alyssa

when we started production that season.

Everything looks the same.

You're right.

What if the house still needs work?

Everything feels the same, so nothing's changed, right?

When it aired, it was a huge hit immediately.

| think it was the highest rated pilot

airing they'd ever had.

And we were picked up that week, | think, or the next week.

We were picked up instantly for the rest of the season,

because you do 13,

and then your picked up for the back nine.

And we got picked up immediately. Yeah, it was a hit right away.

And it was fun to do.

| love doing scifi, and | love doing supernatural stuff.

And what the show really was was three sisters

who happened to be witches. It wasn't about three witches.

So the fact that every episode was about them, and their lives,

and how it interconnected to each other, and

interconnected with boyfriends and stuff,

made it relatable. And that's why we got such a big fan base.

And it's still on two or three times a day on TNT,

and it's running on Netflix.

| mean, the show has got a huge, huge fan base.

Are you okay?

No, I'm not okay. You've turned me into a witch.

You were born one. We all were.

And | think we better start learning to deal with that.

When we're developing "Charmed", the movie "The Craft" came up,

as did other movies about witches.

And it had been out a few years before.

It was a much darker version of what we wanted to do,

and this was more a push about being sisters, but it was a good

reference point in terms of a hip show about women being witches.

When you're developing a show, you look at everything that's like it.

And "Hocus Pocus" is one, "The Craft" was one.

There weren't a lot.

| mean, it was a rich area that hadn't really

been explored on television.

People had tried and failed with pilots,

but Connie hit it just right. WB, its network was,

who they went after, their audience was young women,

young teenage girls, young girls in their 20s.

That's exactly who "Charmed" was aimed for.

Cool parlor trick, bitch.

Yeah, you were always the tough one, weren't you, Prue?

| think everybody was happy with Shannen as the star.

| mean, | think one star in the network's mind was going to be enough.

They never raised the idea of a bigger star.

| mean, they never pushed for

either Holly or for Lori's role to be a bigger star.

Our powers are growing.

Let's put as many things against the door as we can.

You can't keep me out, Prue. My powers are stronger than yours.

- Okay. - You got to look out.

Shannen was nice to almost everybody.

She would have some script problems sometimes, and she could be difficult,

but everybody could be sometimes.

She always delivered performance-wise, and she was always nice to the cast.

Yeah. | mean, she was the heart and soul of "Charmed"

when we first started, that's for sure.

Nothing can keep me away.

What do we do? We're trapped.

Alyssa was always sweet, always friendly to everybody.

She was a pleasure to be around, as was Holly, as was Rose.

| mean, but Alyssa was really one of the warmest, most welcoming people.

At one point, | remember she said to the producer,

this was year six or seven, and she said,

"I've given you the best years of my life."

But it's true, as an actress, that sweet spot from 25 until 32,

she was on the same show for eight years.

So it's tough, they get paid a lot of money for that, but | mean,

frankly, what's tough about a show like that for these actresses

is you get tired of dodging fireballs.

| mean, after four or five, six, seven, eight years of that kind of stuff,

you yearn for something more. And | get that.

Why?

It was the only way to get their powers.

And now | want yours.

Holly came into the show because when Shannen was the first person

we brought in and cast, and she had been fired from "90210",

same company, but she was perfect for this.

So she came in, and she sat down with Aaron and Duke,

and said, "I learned my lesson.

I'll be a good girl. | love the script.

And | think that the character, the perfect actress for Piper

is my best friend, Holly Marie Combs."

Holly Marie had a reputation, a good one.

| mean, she had been on David Kelley's show before that.

And so we brought her in, and we auditioned her, and we loved her.

So we brought her to the network, she gets cast.

And then Lori Rom, we told you that story.

So Holly became very popular right away.

And in fact, and this was in the days of fan mail, we would get fan mail,

and the mail would go either to the studio or to the network,

and then get shipped over to us.

And Holly always got more fan mail than either Shannen or Alyssa.

And it's because, | think, she was

the most relatable, she was the most

like the audience, the person, and her character

also had a baby, and was married, and so there's a lot of things about her

that made her more normal, but she was,

in terms of a lot of the fans, in my opinion, the most popular of the people.

Dear god.

No.

Shannen left after three seasons.

There was tension between some of the actors on set,

and it was time for Shannen to go off and try some other things.

So Shannen had started directing, and wanted to explore other avenues

for her directing, so that was one of the reasons she left.

It was a shock to everybody, but it worked out

because Rose did a fantastic job.

What is this thing?

We'll explain later.

Okay. Just say this spell out loud with us. Okay?

Spell? what are you guys, witches?

And so are you, we hope.

Well, we're about to find out.

The show stayed the same.

With Rose, | think there was probably a little more humor put in,

her character was a little funnier than Shannen's character was.

So the show lightened up a little bit, maybe,

but solid episodes and solid writing with both casts.

So | don't know that it was much difference.

| know there's a huge amount of people

who love Shannen from the show,

and a lot of people love Rose from the show.

So it would be fun if we could ever...

They keep talking about trying to do a union.

It'd be fun to do a reunion where all four are there.

We have tried every magical way to bring her back,

but we can't.

She's gone.

| just...

| thank God that | didn't lose you too.

Shannen never returned to the show. It would have been complicated,

though not on "Charmed", but at the end of season three,

her character was killed.

It was a cliffhanger, and all three of the actresses theoretically

were dead at the end of act three, the end of season three,

and then we brought our way out of it beginning of season four.

And you could have found a way to bring her back,

either as a ghost, or as a this, or as a that,

because it was "Charmed". So nobody ever really died on "Charmed",

but so they could have brought her back, but it never came up.

The door was open.

I'm sorry, | shouldn't be here.

No, no, no, no. No, no. We were just coming to look for you.

You were?

Yep. Come on in. Welcome.

When we brought Rose McGowan into "Charmed", from the time she arrived,

she was a breath of fresh air because she was excited to be there,

she had a new comic element, and she was just a delight

to be around.

But the one thing about her past

that sort of you knew

just by being with her is

she had this huge tattoo on her back.

It was a wonderful tattoo, but it's something

that she became uncomfortable with.

So over, | think it was either the first year of the show or the second year,

she had the tattoo removed, but it took time

to have it taken off, because it was such a

large tattoo, but that was kind of interesting.

From her past life, and that kind of tattoo, and she took it off.

But all the actresses on the show actually had a lot of tattoos.

In the beginning we covered them with makeup,

because Aaron didn't want to see that.

And by the third season they just said, "Screw you.

We're going to wear our tattoos." And they did.

And you, you're getting so caught up with this magical kick.

| mean, look at your hair, it's still red from the potion

you blew up last night.

Do you have any idea how much this would cost in a salon?

| love your do, honey.

| think you look beautiful. Okay, bye.

Thank you.

And then a funny thing, Alyssa, beginning of season three, | think,

or season four, suddenly shows up and she had her hair

cut into a pixie. She'd had really long hair,

and she just shows up, and she has a pixie cut.

She decided on her own.

Aaron had a heart attack and freaked out, but nothing we could do,

and it looked great. So we just went with it.

But the actresses can sort of,

at some point when the show is successful,

the actors will drive the ship.

The certain things that they want, they'll get.

It's time to send your groupies away. Now.

But serving me makes them so happy. Thank you.

Thank you, bachelor number three.

All right. All of you, show is over, move along.

We live to serve Phoebe.

Oh, you do, don't you? That's so sweet.

Piper, you need to get some followers of your own.

It's really a great confidence builder.

If I'm looking back at the actors who were on the show as guest stars

that later became stars, for example, Amy Adams.

| read that, | went, "Amy Adams was on 'Charmed'?"

| didn't remember.

So | went back, and | looked at the

episode, and there she is being Amy Adams.

| mean, there's absolutely nothing different about her

wonderful performance on "Charmed"

than there was when she blows up into these great big movies now,

but she hadn't gotten that role

that made her a big star.

Jon Hamm was another one. Jon Hamm was a guest star just before "Mad Men",

and he did a great job, and he's a wonderful actor,

but you never think about these people who become big stars

having been on your television show as guest stars.

Who are you?

The Supremes.

She wields the powers of the gods.

Just kill the elder.

We would always start the season with bigger episodes,

and we'd spend the money, but it's all a 22 or 24 season balancing act.

Some episodes are bigger than others, and so you try

to save money on some, and you go bigger on another.

Actually to save money, it was one of my favorite episodes, what we did is,

this is year six or seven, and we ended up using

green screen, which was really just coming along at that point,

to put the girls back in scenes from earlier episodes

in the first and second year. So they were crouching in a scene

that they were already in. So it was really fun,

because we were trying to save money by doing that.

We actually instead of had to shoot a four page scene,

it's the four page scene was shot, we were just shooting

the inserts of the people watching it on green screen.

So we shot a what's normally an eight day episode

in six days or five days, so it would save money,

but it became a very clever show because the girls were inserted

into old episodes with a new spin of what's happening now.

So it was very smart and clever.

Hey!

Sorry, | couldn't hold you.

Phoebe, you can't stand. You don't have legs.

Okay, well why me? Why did | get the tail?

We all read that spell together.

We did a lot of two-parters to start seasons.

So we did these bigger episodes, and | really enjoyed doing that.

Like the mermaid episode | really enjoyed,

and then there was one where they were Greek goddesses,

which is silly, but fun. They loved dressing up, especially Alyssa.

We always came up with these crazy characters for Alyssa,

and she embraced it. She loved putting on those crazy costumes.

And | was very emotional when | directed the finale, the last episode,

and we literally blew the house up, and we destroyed

the sets in the making of it.

And it really breaks your heart a little bit,

just for eight years we've been on the air in those sets,

though we ended up moving them.

We first started shooting out in Glendale,

there was a problem with the air,

so then we moved the sets to Woodland Hills to a warehouse,

which was only three miles from my house, | loved that.

And we were there for four or five years,

and then we finished the last three years at Paramount Studios,

which | also loved because I'd spent so many years there doing "MacGyver",

and doing "Star Trek". So it was like a second home to me.

The contract was up on all the actresses.

At the end of eight years, we had them for six, we re-negotiated,

got two more years, eight year it was up.

If they wanted to continue the show, they had to renegotiate

the actresses for more, and | think Rose was done, and | think

Alyssa was done. So it would have been Holly who would've stayed,

but they didn't pitch anything, the network, | mean.

They just decided to let the show go.

If they had, we could have crafted a show with just Holly,

and the others visiting every so often

if we wanted to, but the network was ready to let it go.

| don't understand. How could this happen?

| think now the network would like to have kept it on longer.

| Know that Holly would have stayed. I'm not sure Alyssa.

| think Alyssa was ready to go at that point,

but "Supernatural", which | did, was on 15 years.

So that reset what you can do with a supernatural show

on network television.

Don't tell me we have to go fight a demon?

No, | don't think we'll have to do that anytime soon.

Then what's with the book?

Well, | think we should write everything down, everything that happened,

everything we want future generations to know, so that we can pass it down.

Just like it was passed down to us.

"Charmed", it's almost as popular now as when we were doing it.

It's got a huge following on the internet.

It's got a huge following on Twitter.

It's been watched all the time. The crew was very close.

We've had two big reunions,

both at Alyssa's house.

We had a reunion about three years ago,

and we had a reunion after 10 years.

So it was a ten-year and a 15 year reunion, | think.

The cast and crew always still talking, very close.

It was a great show in that regard.

So a lot of us have great memories.

| mean, eight years ona series is a long, long time

with pretty much the same crew, and that's great.

And I'm still friends with all those people.

We're still in touch, and because of Facebook and Twitter,

everyone is reaching out all the time.

So you're knowing what everyone is doing, and that's fun. So in terms of the shows

that I've worked on for a long time, it's one of my

most emotionally touchstones, because | was there a long time,

and I've got so many good friends from it.