Sabrina: The Animated Series is an American animated television series based on the Archie Comics series Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Produced by Savage Studios Ltd. and Hartbreak Films in association with DIC Productions, L.P. (owned by Disney at the time), the series is an animated prequel of the 1996–2003 live-action series Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
The series aired on both ABC and UPN from September 6 to November 19, 1999. 65 episodes were produced.
Premise Unlike past incarnations, Sabrina Spellman in this series is depicted as younger. As in the original comic series, Sabrina lives with her two paternal witch aunts, Hilda Spellman and Zelda Spellman, and her loud-mouthed black cat Salem Saberhagen, all of whom advise Sabrina on the use of several magics. Most episodes center on the typical issues of middle school, along with those that emanated from Sabrina's inexperience with or misuse of several magic, witchcraft and extremely powerful and complex spells. Sabrina and her best friend Chloe Flan would often use magic (often from the "Spooky Jar": a cookie jar containing a green djinn-like being in the family's kitchen) for all types of perceived emergencies, ranging from trying to fit into skinny new clothes to turning Harvey into a superhero. By the end of every episode, Sabrina's innate magical abilities would unintentionally backfire and she would learn that using magic usually is not the solution to her everyday issues.
Characters Main Sabrina Spellman (voiced by Emily Hart) is a witch-mortal hybrid who, lives in a comfortable house, with her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, and her black pet cat, Salem, in the town of Greendale. Sabrina will not become magically empowered, until she turns 16, but she is still able to borrow spells from Hilda and Zelda using a magical "Spooky Jar", which she often does. But she usually finds that her meddling turns situations from bad to worse. Sabrina's friend Chloe is aware of her magic, but Harvey Kinkle, another friend, is not. Whenever she casts a spell, the magic is made in pink and yellow. Emily Hart is Melissa Joan Hart's real-life sister, who played Sabrina's cousin Amanda in several episodes of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series. Hilda Spellman and Zelda Spellman (both voiced by Melissa Joan Hart): While Hilda suggests they bend the rules sometime, and use magic to get ahead, Zelda is determined to say "No" right up until the moment she gives up. Hilda is more carefree and mindless than her cautious sister, Zelda, and, although they do argue sometimes, they are still sisters. In this series and Sabrina's Secret Life, Hilda and Zelda both have the appearance of teenagers, as this was the punishment they received from Enchantra for "abusing magic" in the past. Whenever Zelda casts a spell, the magic is always made in blue and yellow. When Hilda casts a spell, the magic is made in purple and yellow. Melissa Joan Hart is best known for playing Sabrina in the Showtime film adaptation and the ABC/WB series. Salem Saberhagen (voiced by Nick Bakay) knows the right keys to push to talk Sabrina into just about anything, and he does it guiltlessly, until he is caught. Salem was once a powerful wizard, but he was locked into a cat-form because he was constantly trying to take over the world. But he makes up for his predicament with magical charms that help Sabrina in some situations. Whenever Salem casts a spell, the magic is made in purple and blue. Nick Bakay is the only cast member to reprise his role from the 1996 Sabrina, the Teenage Witch TV series. Uncle Quigley (voiced by Jay Brazeau) is an original character created for the animated series, he is Sabrina's maternal great-uncle and the household's adult guardian, often behaving as a father figure to Sabrina. Despite all his eccentricities, Uncle Quigley does not have any magic powers; like Sabrina's mother, he is a mortal. Chloe Flan (voiced by Cree Summer) is Sabrina's best friend, who, other than Uncle Quigley, is the only mortal, who, knows Sabrina's secret. Harvey Kinkle (voiced by Bill Switzer) is Sabrina's male friend and crush, who is handsome with a pleasant personality. Well he only admits to Sabrina that, she is his "best pal", he likes her very much. But Harvey is unaware that Sabrina is a witch, although he often sees the results of the magic himself. Gemini “Gem” Stone (voiced by Chantal Strand) is a snobby, popular, mean and spoiled girl who lives in a mansion with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Stone, down the street. Gem occasionally sees Sabrina as her main competitor for Harvey's attention, who Gem is interested in, although Harvey likes Sabrina instead. She is inspired, by Libby Chesler (Jenna Leigh Green) in the TV series.
Supporting The Spooky Jar is a djinn who resides in a purple cookie jar in Sabrina's kitchen. Whenever Sabrina needs a special spell, she can get one from the Spooky Jar, but they rarely turn out the way she expects. Spooky Jar speaks entirely in rhymes. Perry "Pi" McDonald is Harvey's best friend and Sabrina and Chloe's friend, too. He is very smart and quite unusual in his own special way. His eyes are never seen due to his pork pie hat obscuring them. He has been described by Sabrina as "totally out of it and really smart at the same time". According to the episode "Upside Down Town", it is implied that, he is of Chinese descent. Horace Slugloafe is a bully to Harvey, Bernard, and a bunch of other kids, and calls them by their surnames. Bernard is a small, bald, nerdy boy with glasses who is friends with Sabrina, Pi, Chloe and Harvey. He is often bullied by Slugloafe and easily bossed around by Gem. Tim is a witch hunter who appears in "Most Dangerous Witch", "Documagicary" and "Enchanted Vacation". He was previously bullied by witches as a child, due to his lack of magical powers, except for his immortality, even though his mother was a witch. For this reason, he viewed witches as evil and so he collects them as trophies for revenge along with his sidekick, aardvark, named Elton, named after a British musician. Tim wears a hat with a witch cauldron marked with a prohibition sign on it. Queen Enchantra is the ruler of all witches and head of the Witches' Council. When she casts spells, the magic is made in red and purple. Mr. and Mrs. Stone are Gem's parents and the richest people in town. They first appeared in "Witch Switch"; when Sabrina wishes herself to be rich, they almost sent Sabrina to Cambridge when they found out she got a C in her class report, but later changed their mind after Sabrina never wished herself as being rich. They also appeared in "Stone Broke" when they lost their money and had Gem move into Sabrina's house until their dog struck oil. Edward Spellman is Sabrina's long-lost father who is a very strong warlock and Zelda and Hilda's older brother. Some years after he and his mortal wife, Diana, unitedly separated, he ended up falling for another human named Futura, whom he intended to got married before a jealous Sabrina tried to break them up. Diana Spellman is Sabrina's human mother and Quigley's sister who is an archeologist and works at a dig site in Egypt. She is heard in the episode "Picture Perfect".
Production Sabrina had previously appeared in an animated format on The Archie Show (animated by Filmation), but the popularity of the live-action Sabrina the Teenage Witch sitcom formed part of the basis for this spin-off series. The series was developed by Savage Steve Holland and Kat Likkel and Holland served as showrunner and executive producer of the series. As such, the series reflected some of the irreverent style of humor seen in Eek! The Cat. Celebrity voice cameos in this series included Downtown Julie Brown, Mr. T, Long John Baldry and "Weird Al" Yankovic (one episode only). Melissa Joan Hart, who starred as Sabrina in the live-action sitcom, served as producer of this series, but her younger sister, Emily Hart (who played the recurring character Amanda on the sitcom), voiced Sabrina. Melissa instead voiced Sabrina's two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, originally played on the live-action series by Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea, respectively. Nick Bakay reprises his role as Salem from the live-action series. The theme music is performed by the Irish girl group B*Witched.
The series was announced to be in production in November 1998, where 65 episodes were commissioned by Disney to air on UPN's then-upcoming Disney block, and would also air on ABC. Disney's Buena Vista Television was announced as the television distributor for the series while DIC Entertainment and Viacom Consumer Products would share merchandising rights. In January 1999, it was announced that Buena Vista International Television would handle international television sale rights.
Episodes
Broadcast United States The series aired in syndication on UPN (on Disney's One Too weekday morning-afternoon and Sunday block) and on ABC (on Disney's One Saturday Morning block) from September 6 to November 19, 1999; it remained on ABC until October 13, 2001 (replaced by another DIC program Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action!) and UPN until September 6, 2002 (replaced by Digimon: Digital Monsters). Around the same time the show was pulled from UPN, the series moved to both Disney Channel (from September 9, 2002 to September 2, 2004) and Toon Disney (from September 3, 2002 to September 5, 2004 before it was replaced by Sabrina's Secret Life). Sabrina: The Animated Series returned to syndication as one of the launch programs broadcast on the Syndicated DIC Kids Network E/I block on September 1, 2003, followed by the spinoff series Sabrina's Secret Life which premiered the following November.
On September 16, 2006, the series returned as part of CBS' new KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS and was briefly part of the KEWLopolis cartoon lineup until October 27, 2007, when the series along with Trollz were replaced with Sushi Pack and DinoSquad the following Saturday. On September 19, 2009, the series returned to CBS, this time as part of the network's Cookie Jar TV cartoon lineup, later joined by the sequel series, Sabrina's Secret Life on September 18, 2010, before both shows were replaced with Horseland and Trollz on February 5, 2011. Reruns aired on This TV through the "This Is for Kids" block, from September 24, 2012, to October 25, 2013.
From 2017 to 2020, reruns of the series started airing on the Starz channel, Starz Kids & Family; the series is also available on Starz Play. As of 2024, the series is also available on Pluto TV's Rainbow Squad channel.
International In Canada, the series aired on Teletoon from October 5, 1999 until December 19, 2003. However, only 51 out of the 65 episodes (the network claimed there was no 23rd episode) aired during the series' first run on the network before being replaced by the sequel series, Sabrina's Secret Life on January 5, 2004. When the series eventually returned to the network on September 6, 2004, the remaining 14 episodes premiered. Reruns of the series would continue until March 4, 2005. The French version of the series Sabrina Apprentie Sorcière, aired on Télétoon in Québec. But unlike the English version, the French version continued to air on the network as late as around 2006 or 2007. The sequel series never aired on the French network. The series also aired on many Disney Channel networks internationally.
Beginning in 2004, many broadcasters who already aired the series began to air it as part of a package with Sabrina's Secret Life titled "Totally Sabrina." The package was pre-sold to TF1 in France, RTÉ in Ireland, Mediaset in Italy, ORF in Austria, Alter Channel in Greece, FORTA in Spain, SBT in Brazil, Super RTL in Germany, Arutz Hayeladim in Israel and Saran in Turkey, in addition to Disney Channel and Toon Disney networks in the United Kingdom, Asia, Taiwan, Australia, France, Latin America, Brazil, the Middle East and Spain.