Original subtitles

We were looking to follow up on our success with 7th Heaven.

Warner Bros. was anxious for another high-concept show.

So we were literally sitting in a room going through books of mythology,

seeing what, if any, kind of mythic characters

we might, you know, bring to contemporary storytelling

and we settled on witchcraft.

Connie Burge, who we had done two seasons of Savannah with,

was still under contract and we pitched the notion of witchcraft to her.

The only thing | knew about witches was mostly preconceived ideas.

| thought that witches had warts on their nose,

black cats in their yard and brooms in their closet.

When | started to do the research,

| realized that it was nothing like what | thought.

She thought about it.

Came back with a version, originally,

of three best friends and roommates who were witches.

And my first impression was:

"Why would anybody wanna watch three witches?"

| really didn't think-- | thought the script was fine,

but | didn't have a lot of real confidence in the concept.

But Aaron liked it a lot.

And he said, "No, no."

He said, "It'll be fine. Weill cast it right and we'll do it."

| said, "Okay, fine."

We had to figure out was not doing a show

about three witches per se.

Because | didn't think that was gonna work.

| said, "What we have to do,

is we have to do a show about three sisters

who happen to be witches."

We revised the idea to three sisters,

and pitched it to Susanne Daniels, who liked it right away.

And the development process started.

Connie started writing a script about these three mismatched sisters.

- Prue? - In here, working on the chandelier.

- Sorry, I'm late. - Well, what else is new?

| would have been here to meet the electrician

but you know | can't leave the museum until 6.

Shannen Doherty wanted her best friend,

Holly Marie Combs, to play one of the sisters.

An idea that we embraced.

Aaron Spelling was very enthused about hiring Holly.

Not only because we thought she was very good,

but we thought there might be some value

in having two good friends working together.

So we had the network session.

Shannen read beautifully

and was immediately and universally embraced.

Holly read for the WB.

The WB, in this crowded room,

suggested that they were not enamored of Holly,

and were not ready to sign off for her to do the pilot and series.

Aaron became very upset

and turned to me and basically said, "Fix it.”

And then drove away,

which was disconcerting to me because he was my ride.

We had a meeting with Susanne Daniels

and Jordan Levin and head of casting,

in which | told them that we were absolutely convinced

that Holly was the right person for this job.

And moreover, | promised that if they did not share our view

after the pilot was shot,

that we would, at our own expense, reshoot her part.

An agreement which luckily never came into play

because she was, in fact, very good in the pilot.

Exactly.

Al right.

Thanks for sharing. When does she arrive?

Now. Surprise. Found the hide-a-key.

Phoebe.

Welcome home, it's so good to see you.

Isn't it, Prue?

I'm speechless.

Connie wrote the script.

They shot a 28-minute version of that script, took it back to New York,

and that's what they decided to pick up the series off of.

| do not have special powers.

When | was hired, it was to start to figure out what the series was.

But also to flesh out the unaired presentation

and turn it to a first episode

which would have been about 45 minutes long.

There were some struggles between the network and the studio

and myself and Connie about what exactly the series was.

It was left to Connie and | to figure out what we thought it was,

and then we would present it and then there was like:

"We don't know about that."

And we said, "What do you want?"

And they weren't sure what they wanted.

Hello, ladies.

Piper, Phoebe, get out of here now!

They liked the idea of Shannen Doherty

being one of the three witches.

| don't think they thought beyond that.

At least that was my sense, because they didn't seem to have an idea

about what they really wanted for the next hundred episodes.

There was a lot of back-and-forth.

And in the middle of that is when Lori Rom bowed out of the pilot.

Bowed out of the series, rather.

And then we had to reshoot everything anyway.

Through a set of circumstances beyond of anybody's control,

she did not play the part.

And we, of course, wound up with Alyssa Milano.

That was a very good way to wind up.

Mark.

Surprise.

| found the hide-a-key.

Phoebe, welcome home.

- Hello, Phoebe. - It's so good to see you.

- Hi. - Isn't it, Prue?

I'm speechless.

About a week or two before we were to go on air,

Warner Bros. developed enormous concerns

about the entire series

and suggested that they would like to pull the show from the air.

We said, "Forget it. We're not doing that.

We think the show is great.

We think the audience will agree

and we think you've overthought and overanalyzed this show.”

Come on, we'll face him together. Do you remember the spirit board?

- The inscription on the back. - "The power of three will set us free."

The pilot did air.

Not only did, relative to the WB universe, really strong ratings,

but generated enormous attention in the Internet.

There were, overnight, tons and tons of sites.

And that's when we knew we had struck on gold.

The power of three will set us free

We landed on a mantra,

which is a show about three sisters who happen to be witches,

not three witches who happen to be sisters.

And we kind of-- Once we found that mantra,

we Stuck with that and realized this is a family show first.

This is a show about women who are in their early 20s,

who have all the real issues that any other woman has

in their early 20s.

She's always been more like a mother.

That's not her fault. She practically had to sacrifice

- her own childhood to help raise us. - "Her own childhood to help raise us."

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we were really lucky she was so responsible.

You and | had it easy. All we had to do was be there.

Yeah, well, | don't need a mom anymore, you know. | need a sister.

Hey.

This was always the coldest room in the house.

Prue was the oldest sister and she was the kick-ass sister.

She was the tough one.

And she was probably the most sceptical about the magic up top

but ultimately became the most powerful of them.

- Do you see any aspirin? - | see chamomile tea.

Look, | have just found out that | am a witch.

That my sisters are witches.

And that we have powers that will apparently unleash all forms of evil.

Evil that is apparently going to come looking for us.

So excuse me, Phoebe,

but I'm not exactly in a homeopathic mood right now.

Piper was always the middle sister.

So she was always, like, trying to, like, get Prue and Phoebe

to be on the same page and get Prue to understand Phoebe.

| have a great idea. Why don't | make a fabulous reunion dinner?

I'm not hungry.

| ate on the bus.

Okay, we'll try the group hug later.

She was the middle sister just trying to keep the peace,

trying to find love, trying to find her career

and trying to keep Prue and Phoebe from killing each other.

How are you gonna pay? You're broke.

- Not for long. - What does that mean?

You didn't use your powers again.

Maybe. Are you telling me you haven't?

No, I'm not telling you that, but we're not talking about me, are we?

- What are you guys doing in here? - The same thing we do at home.

And Phoebe was the classic youngest sister who was--

Younger sibling, who was just the kind of joie-de-vivre character

that was trying to find her own identity by living life large

and not really having a care in the world.

What? Did you go to the track? Play the market? What?

- The lottery. - Phoebe.

What did you want me to do, ignore the premonition?

We are not supposed to use our powers for our own personal gain.

That is what it says in the Book of Shadows.

Prue realized it was a serious thing and Holly, Piper's character,

knew that this was kind of a dangerous thing,

something she really resisted.

Piper, talk to me.

| don't know.

It's just, our whole lives we've been like everybody else.

Rushing off to work,

going out on bad dates, buying shoes.

Then suddenly, we wake up one day and everything is different.

We talked a lot in the early days

about metaphors for female empowerment

and female relationships.

The way the girls came together having been separated.

The power that they drew from each other

on a more emotional level.

It was about the magic of being sisters and the magic of being strong women

expressed through the metaphor of their magical powers.

They had to work in unison in order for the power of three to work.

| have to put everything in terms of family where Charmed is concerned

because it was such an important part of the whole show.

Even though they had different personalities,

different aspirations--

They'd have their tiffs, they'd have their fights.

--When it came right down to it,

they were always there for each other.

And the power of three was that unity.

It was the bright beginning of a show

that never pretended to be more than it was.

And we knew why we were here.

We knew that, you know, despite how many people would call it a silly show,

or that it was fluff, we had a sense of purpose.

- What are we gonna do? - What can't we do?

We are going to be careful.

We are going to be wise and we're gonna stick together.

This should be interesting.

We soon realized that in order to expand the universe

and be able to do more with the show,

we were gonna have to expand the mythology.

What we tried to make the show, was to have the demonic stories,

or have the magical stories, resonate, reflect,

bring out what was happening in the sisters' lives.

So they were more metaphorical than they were literal.

You had a really wonderful relationship show

wrapped up in this cool mythology that let us talk about anything.

Sorry, scared me.

We used to sit and design demons

based on themes that we were interested in tackling.

What would he be after? What would he be looking for?

What would he want from our girls? How could our girls stop him?

And then, sort of back into stories that way.

Early on, we were struggling with, "Well, what are the bad guys?

Who are the demons?"

Because I'd worked with Billy Drago on a prior series,

| had suggested to the casting director that | call Billy

and see if he would be interested in being the Demon of Fear.

He had the look, he had the attitude.

It was very different from what Spelling was used to doing.

He created, as an actor, as a character,

really the demonic template.

Amulets don't work

with this demon.

Greatest fear is being buried alive

in an earthquake.

And he kind of established

the demonic attitude, the demonic look,

In that role as the Demon of Fear,

which is why | kept bringing him back as often as possible.

Even though I think we killed him 15 times.

Your greatest fear is drowning.

A lot of these shows, genre shows, can be about mumbo jumbo.

A lot of the stuff we make up, when the audience hears it,

it doesn't have any meaning unless it's connected in some way

to humanity, to characters, to people's lives.

Prue.

Prue.

You must face your fears, Prue.

You must trust in the greatest of all powers:

- Love. - Mom?

Save yourself.

The most compelling episodes of the show

were about the girls and their lives and them dealing with things

that young women deal with, that sisters deal with.

And how we could reflect that

in what was going on with them and the demons.

Your fear.

I'm not afraid anymore.

No!

Oh, my God, | was so scared.

| know, I'm just glad you're safe.

| don't know what would happen if | ever lost you.

The smartest thing we did,

in the course of a sort of high-concept show,

was, again, to ground it with a sense of family.

I'm just glad you're all right.

To say on some level that--

| love you.

--Stay true to your family, stay close to your family.

- What did you just say? - | love you.

And you always have some protection against the outside world.

That's the first time you've ever said that to me.

Yeah, | know.

| wish | would have said it a long time ago.

Ever since Mom died, I've been afraid to say it.

| didn't wanna lose anybody else.

Well, we're not going anywhere.

Phoebe, where are you?

- Dear God. - No.

When Prue died, as hard that was for everybody,

it was sort of this, "Okay, okay, we're losing Shannen."

It changes everything.

Having a major character die

and then the show continues for another five years,

that was phenomenal.

As messed up as the family is that is part of the show,

it's a family.

And it's like anybody else's family.

It's a running soap opera behind the scenes,

but it's probably the kind of thing

that belongs just within the memories of the people involved.

They would be taken out of context

and blown out of proportion if they were shared.

But suffice to say,

you could have filmed another series on the making of Charmed

and it probably would have been just as successful.