Bewitched: Sisters at Heart

"Sisters at Heart" is the thirteenth episode of the seventh season, and 213th episode overall, of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) fantasy television sitcom Bewitched. This Christmas episode aired on ABC on December 24, 1970, and again the following December. The narrative follows Lisa Wilson (Venetta Rogers), an African-American girl, as she visits her friend Tabitha Stephens (Erin Murphy), a white girl. Meanwhile, Tabitha's father Darrin Stephens (Dick Sargent), who works at an advertising agency, fails to land a million-dollar account with toy company owner Mr. Brockway (Parley Baer) because Mr. Brockway is racist and incorrectly believes Darrin to be married to Lisa's mother Dorothy (Janee Michelle). In an attempt to convince Mr. Brockway to overcome his bigotry, Darrin's wife Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery), who is a witch, casts a spell on Mr. Brockway so he sees everyone, including himself, as having black skin. The story of "Sisters at Heart" was written by 22 African-American students from a tenth grade English class at Jefferson High School after Montgomery and her husband William Asher, the director of the episode, had the students visit the set of Bewitched. Most students at the school were unable to read, write, or comprehend at a high school level, with 44% reading at a third grade level and very few students reading at a level much higher than that. Sargent said that the students, "who might have been stuck in the ghetto for the rest of their lives, loved Bewitched, and with just a little approval and motivation, came alive on the set." Montgomery considered "Sisters at Heart" her favorite episode of the series, and said that it "was created in the true spirit of Christmas ... conceived in the image of innocence and filled with truth." The episode received the Governors Award at the 23rd Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony in 1971. Montgomery's biographer Herbie Pilato wrote that "no episode of the series more clearly represented [the] cry against prejudice" than "Sisters at Heart". Critic Walter Metz praised Asher's choice of camera angles, but denounced the episode's liberalism as excessively sentimental and simplistic.