DRIVING IS THE ONLY WAY TO FLY was a first-season episode in the long-running comedy series Bewitched, first airing in March, 1965. My family regularly watched this series, which at least in the first few years really clicked on a comedic level, with many great acting performances. Darrin and Samantha Stevens (played by Dick York and Elizabeth Montgomery) are the young married couple...Samantha reveals to Darrin in the first episode that she is a witch and Darrin in turn insists that she squelch all the nose-twitching magic power that she is accustomed to using. In this episode, since Samantha isn't supposed to fly, she insists to her hubby the need for her to learn how to drive. Enrolling in a driving school, she gets the world's most nervous driving instructor, Harold Harold...portrayed by Paul Lynde, who would later play the hilarious role of Samantha's jokester Uncle Arthur. Samantha's mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead), who makes no secret of her scorn for Darrin, makes a brief appearance in this one. But some of the other funny characters are missing, like Darrin's fickle boss Larry Tate (David White) and the Stevens' nosy next-door neighbor Alice Kravitz (Alice Pearce). But Lynde was hilarious, and I always discerned a sweet spirit that Samantha radiated throughout the series. As a kid I always looked forward to the special episodes that featured either Lynde as Uncle Arthur or Marion Lorne as Aunt Clara, whose spells invariably backfired. Later on, Alice Pearce died from cancer and while her character endured with another actress (Sandra Gould) it just wasn't the same. And Dick York, whose comedic portrayal of Darrin was a classic in the history of comedy on TV, had to bow out due to back trouble, ably replaced by Dick Sargent...but it wasn't the same, either. By the time Bewitched ended in 1972 I don't think anyone in my family was watching it anymore. But the first few seasons...including this great episode from the first one...were special...
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