Original subtitles

It's an unusual thing for a show in success

to lose one of its three leads

and brought in a new character

with which the audience was completely unfamiliar.

| can't imagine losing a sister, but | had to sit and imagine what that would be.

And | had to imagine a reason

why Piper would not be able to sort of forgive Paige for existing.

She's acting nothing like herself.

She's completely dismissive of Paige and...

...| don't know what to do anymore.

Phoebe wanted Piper to embrace Paige,

if for no other reason than to get the power of three back.

It's nice to meet you.

To be able to create the furies,

the sort of external manifestation of Piper's rage

and have her sort of break down

and have to admit that she's furious at Prue for dying.

| need you. Please come back.

Now Piper's character was the oldest and in charge

and having to learn to deal with a new dynamic.

And you are?

I'm her sister.

Paige, the youngest, the newest sister, is just sort of everywhere.

She's flighty and crazy and funny and all over the place.

Certainly, it was a big shock to her

to find out that she actually had two other half sisters

and on top of that, she was magical.

| have a power?

According to the prophecy,

the third sister has the power to move things with her mind.

The first-year Paige, | wanted her to be more colorful, goofy and young.

And again, as she's gotten older, as I've gotten older,

| wanted her to become a little bit more refined

and still colorful, but not every color in the spectrum,

which I really think suited her for the first couple of years.

The chemistry shifted a little bit with Rose.

| think with Shannen, it was a bit more dramatic show

and when Rose came in, she has quite the zany sense of humor

and she added a lightness to it,

a quirkiness that was very much appreciated

and it was definitely a shot in the arm for us.

- What happened? - | don't know, they just grew!

Oh, right, and you had nothing to do with that?

Did you cast any spells?

One.

In the early episodes of Charmed,

we didn't really have an overarching conspiratorial plan for the bad guys.

But as we started to get our story feet,

as we started to realise what we were doing and what we could do,

we realised that we needed to come up with some kind of organization.

Brad brilliantly enlarged upon the rules of this supernatural universe.

The Source, the Avatars, these are all organizational demons.

If we had a corporate or a demon chart, they would all be the CEOs,

so the audience can feel like the characters were working their way up,

almost like a video game, from level one to level two to level three.

The first bad-- The first big bad, | should say.

--Was The Source,

who we didn't actually meet until the end of year three.

Brad wanted him crafted in such a way that you'd be very frightened of him,

because you didn't really know what he looked like.

And we didn't see his face

until the episode where they vanquished him, in year four.

The demonic hierarchy would actually be headed by the Triad.

The Triad really were characters that we brought in

to help bring out the Cole character.

They were then working with Cole, in year three, to get rid of the girls.

Ladies, my name's Cole Turner.

I'm the assistant district attorney assigned to this case.

| was wondering if either of you saw what happened here.

| did!

The challenge became, what character can we come up with

that can both be strong and powerful,

but at the same time, not disempower the power of the girls?

What the hell?

Thanks, I'll take it from here.

And so coming up with a half-demon, half-human character

was key to answering that problem.

The network narrowed it down to two or three names

and Julian McMahon was who everybody wanted.

The moment he walked in the door, | knew that was the guy | wanted.

He was a seven-episode or a ten-episode commitment at first.

Two and a half years later, he was still on the show.

Cole was always an easy way for us to shake Phoebe up.

| think we wanted to play the bad-boy metaphor,

that sometimes, girls fall for the bad boy.

Why? Why didn't you just kill me?

Why did you have to put me through all this?

Was it some sick, twisted demonic thrill? Was that what it was?

- No. It's not it. - Then what was it?

| couldn't kill you.

The closer he got to Alyssa's character,

the more he fell in love with her, and then she fell in love with him.

| think we got a really epic love story going there early on.

You know, | don't know if Brad wrote that purposely,

because he knows far too much about me,

but her quest for love,

| think that's a theme that a lot of women, including myself, can relate to,

having a solid, secure foundation.

Season four was such a heart-wrenching season

because of that, because of what she went through,

and then Cole became The Source of All Evil and betrayed her.

So that created a split between her and her sisters--

Phoebe and her sisters.

--Which was also something we tried to organically play.

Phoebe, you can't be queen of the underworld and a Charmed One.

You can't have it both ways.

Why not? Just because it's different doesn't mean that it can't work.

They loved each other. They were meant for each other,

but they had something that was absolutely insurmountable.

And they tried every which way to overcome that,

because love is supposed to conquer all.

And at the end of the day,

we wanted to make the point that love doesn't always conquer all.

Sometimes, there are things that are insurmountable.

I'm sorry too.

Phoebe, no.

No!

Sorry, baby. I'm so sorry.

Prudence, Penelope Patricia, Melinda

Astrid, Helena Laura and Grace

I'll always love you.

Halliwell witches Stand strong beside us

Vanquish this evil From time and space

Leo, how do you feel about women who make the first move?

| don't know. I'm still waiting for it to happen.

Goodness.

| think, if there's probably one relationship that defines Charmed,

it is the Piper-Leo story, which began very early in season one,

where Leo arrived at the house posing as a handyman.

Hi. You must be Mr. Wyatt.

The handyman?

- Call me Leo. - Gladly.

Originally, | came in for a different role.

Came in a couple of times, came in for this handyman.

It was kind of strange, because at the time,

| was actually doing construction in between jobs and stuff.

And | think | came straight from retrofitting a house.

Leo's character was just brought in

to be kind of a romantic love interest for Piper.

I'm late for work. Bye.

At the time, there was a dictate from above Spelling Production Company

and the network that we didn't have any recurring characters.

It was early in the run of the series.

They knew fans would be cycling into the show

and testing it out, then going away for a couple of weeks, coming back.

They didn't want to lose any fans

by having them not being able to follow a relationship.

It was originally a three-episode, possible recurring

and wasn't sure if it was gonna pan out into anything or not.

- You're leaving, aren't you? - Yeah, I'm afraid so.

Do you really have to go?

Well, | fixed everything | came here to fix.

But I'll be back, promise.

He just was such a great contrast to the craziness that was the girls’ world.

Nothing can keep me away from you too long.

He just seemed so solid and so nice.

He was just a nice guy.

We wanted more for Leo and Piper and we didn't tell the network

and we didn't tell the studio that we were going to use him repeatedly.

Brian and Leo definitely wormed their way into the hearts of the millions.

You know, | still have little girls come up to me in the mall and go,

"Leo's so hot!"

That's the soap opera relationship story

that kept fans coming back week after week.

The problem with Piper and Leo is,

like, everyone wants them to be together and happy,

but if they're together and happy, it's a boring show.

Of course | don't wanna lose Leo. That's why I'm here.

It's just, | don't know,

sometimes it seems like our entire relationship has been one big fight.

- Really? - And | don't mean arguing fighting.

- | mean-- - The obstacles we had to overcome?

Through it all, we kept really trying to prove, in this case,

that love could conquer all, because they were meant to be together

and the reward was out there for them

that ultimately, if they could just find a way,

that the reward for them would be happily ever after.

It was very important to us that the girls kind of grow up

and go through normal life changes, despite being witches.

My character's gone from being a very hyperactive, self-conscious,

kind of neurotic character,

to being very self-possessed and very confident.

And she's become a mom and a wife and a business owner.

- Don't you get it? She's pregnant! - Who's pregnant?

- You are! - I'm pregnant?!

The network and the studio were very concerned

about bringing a baby into the show,

because they said, "Babies kill a series.”

And | said, "But it's a story about sisters.

They find love, they get married.

They've got to have babies, if the show is to evolve naturally."

Hi, little guy! What are you doing? Look what we did!

I see.

It's a miracle.

A little miracle.

There was the concern about, well, how do you have a baby in the house,

with all the demons attacking all the time?

And that won't be funny anymore, it won't be comedic.

It will be too serious, too dangerous.

And | said, "Yes, but we'll take care of that too,

because we'll give him all these great powers.

We'll give him a bubble, a force field to shield himself from it all.

We'll make him ultimately the most powerful being there is."

We evolved that story and revealed that the Elders foresaw

what would happen if Piper and Leo came together,

Which is what beget Wyatt,

we said and prophesied would be

one of the most powerful creatures of all time.

Ultimately, demons and even the good magical characters

would try to corrupt him and win him over, steal him,

and create nothing but problems for the sisters.

Wyatt is kind of the chosen one of the Halliwell line.

He's born out of the combination of one of the Charmed Ones

and a whitelighter, which makes him super special and super powerful.

Chris is certainly powerful and special in his own way,

but was not the Prince William of the family.

Chris' character came into the show really as a way to--

Again, we're in season six now, we're trying to find new story material,

not just all about demons and witches fighting,

but how can we expand the sisters' world?

Don't look into her eyes.

So we brought Chris’ character in from the future

to try to save the family, basically, Save his big brother.

He's from the future and so he has to come back to the past

and try to fix things and change things without telling people too much,

because it'll change the future.

It was the idea of all of the writers at the time

that he might turn out to be Wyatt, you know, from the future.

And over the summer, we talked about it and we thought:

"It's too much of a given that he's Wyatt from the future.

It's sort of what you would expect.

But why don't we make him Wyatt's brother?"

--Creepy registered sex offender from the future.

- Oh, my God! You're so gross! - No, no, I'm Piper and Leo's son.

What?

They're my parents. | came back to save my family.

Holly was nice enough to get pregnant that year

in exactly the right time for us,

so that we could actually explain where Chris came from,

because he hadn't been born yet

and we weren't sure how we were gonna explain that.

But then | got the call from, actually, Alyssa that Holly was pregnant

and | thought, "Terrific! That works out perfectly with the story."

In order to come back for the eighth season,

the network slashed our budget by several hundred thousand dollars.

And at the same time, they insisted upon us hiring new, fresh faces.

They were hoping to try to get new viewers to watch the show

that hadn't watched the show before.

Doesn't that burn your hand?

Damn, | was hoping for such a better fight with my first demon.

You are a demon, aren't you?

We wanted to explore some different avenues

and sort of, like, see the Charmed Ones in a position

where they were basically having to, you know, train a new Charmed One.

It was one little mistake. You heard of the learning curve?

They wanted to kind of teach her the ways of witchcraft

and how to, kind of, fight evil.

| wanna learn how to do that!

The Charmed Ones were able to help her dig deeper into her past.

She discovered, you know, this pain of hers,

that was that her sister was taken by a demon.

She was gonna do anything she could to find her sister.

And then, when she did, it wasn't what she expected.

Phoebe, come on. Wake up, wake up. Come on.

It's okay. Look at me. Look at me.

Breathe, sweetie. Come on, kiddo, wake up.

Well, my favourite episode is the last episode.

Absolutely. | love that episode.

It's something that | wanted to do last year,

when | thought that it was gonna be the end of the series.

| wanted to do a valentine to the fans, to the cast and the crew.

And that's an important thing for me personally,

because | knew that, for the rest of my life,

| would have to reflect upon how | ended the series.

| love Charmed.

| wouldn't have been part of it for eight years if | didn't love it.

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.

After you.

Having a show end is like seeing your family go away.

So being a part of the end of a show is never really a lot of fun.

You're saying goodbye to a family

you've been with for a very, very long time.

Now, you may run into these people again in the business.

Sooner or later, the actors, the actresses, the crew.

It may happen.

But it won't happen exactly the same way ever again and that's sad.

I'd rather look at it in a positive way,

at what an extraordinary achievement it is

to have a show last for eight years.

Ferociously clawed a space for itself,

endured a couple of schedule changes

and remained a staple of the WB for eight seasons.

I'm incredibly proud of that, of all the incredible labor that went into it.

And in this market, in this day and age in television,

where long-running shows are almost unheard of, especially genre shows,

| only felt pride and | only feel pride for everybody concerned.

And | know that, for the rest of my life

for the rest of the lives of everybody who has been part of the show,

whenever they mention that they did Charmed,

whenever somebody asks them, "What show did you do?"

Someone's gonna-- Their eyes are gonna get real big

and they're gonna say, "Oh, you did Charmed? | love that show."

We weren't the best show on television,

we didn't win any awards,

we didn't have the largest numbers,

but | always believed we were the most imaginative show on television.

If you're going to carry that mantle, you really have to reach for the stars.

It's a very weird thing. It's...

You know, | think change is scary, no matter what.

We spend as much time, if not more time, here

than with our own families and friends.

The habit of being here

and the daily aspect of what that entails is gonna be hard to break.

I think our fans are definitely sad that it's ending

and | hope they just remember us

for giving them some sort of levity and fun and escapism in their life.

It's gonna be weird. | can't imagine not coming here every day.

We've done it for such a long time,

and it's gonna be... It's gonna be a great hole in my heart.