I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha

{{short description|Pilot episode of Bewitched}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox television episode

| series = Bewitched

| image = Bewitched cast 1964.jpg

| caption = A promotional photograph for the pilot. Left to right: Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha, Dick York as Darrin, Agnes Moorehead as Endora.

| season = 1

| episode = 1

| writer = Sol Saks

| director = William Asher

| narrator = José Ferrer

| music = Warren Barker

| editor = Michael Luciano
Gerard Wilson

| airdate = {{Start date|1964|09|17}}

| length = 30 minutes

| guests = Gene Blakely as Dave
C. Lindsay Workman as Doctor Koblin
Paul Barselou as Bartender Al
Nancy Kovack as Sheila Sommers

| prev =

| next = Be It Ever So Mortgaged

| episode_list = List of Bewitched episodes

}}

"I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha" (also known simply as "I, Darrin"){{sfn|Moore et al.|2006|p=130}} is the pilot episode of American television series Bewitched.{{sfn|Gibson|2007|p=202}} The episode was produced three weeks after starring actress Elizabeth Montgomery gave birth to her first child with her husband, series director William Asher.{{sfn|Newcomb|2014|p=261}} The episode was written by Sol Saks, the creator of the series, and initially aired September 17, 1964 on ABC.{{sfn|Pilato|2013|p=43}} José Ferrer served as the episode's narrator, starting with the words, "Once upon a time...".{{sfn|Pilato|2012|p=16}} Ferrer was not credited for this role.{{sfn|Metz|2007|p=6}} In the episode, Samantha Stephens promises her new husband Darrin that she will not use magic, a promise that initiates a pattern that continues into each subsequent episode of the series; the conflict in each episode surrounds Samantha's failed attempts to keep her promise.{{sfn|Breuer|2009|p=151}}

The pilot is one of many episodes in the series that demonstrate that Samantha and Darrin have sexual desire for each other; as opposed to being depicted as sleeping in separate beds - as Rob and Laura Petrie are depicted as doing in the concurrently running The Dick Van Dyke Show - Samantha and Darrin are depicted sleeping in the same bed and expressing eagerness to do so.{{sfn|Spangler|2003|p=81}} Julie D. O'Reilly writes in her book Bewitched Again: Supernaturally Powerful Women on Television, 1996-2011 that, in "I, Darrin" when Darrin says, "You're a what?" in response to Samantha's statement that she is a witch, this exchange initiated a narrative that would be regularly repeated in television series into the 21st century. O'Reilly argues that this narrative is one in which a sexualized female character demonstrates to a male character that she has superpowers and the male responds with incredulity and no longer thinks of her as a woman but instead as a freak.{{sfn|O'Reilly|2013|pp=18-19}} In "I, Darrin", Nancy Kovack portrayed Darrin's ex-girlfriend Sheila Sommers, and the episode's popularity resulted in Kovack returning to make Sheila a recurring character in the series.{{sfn|Weaver|2000|p=248}}