Tucker's Witch

The show's pilot was originally filmed in early 1982 as The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon, and starred Art Hindle and Kim Cattrall. In May 1982, CBS announced the series had been picked up with that title and cast.

However, over the summer of 1982 the film Porky's debuted in the United States. The film contained a notably racy scene with Cattrall, and received negative critical attention overall, despite its box office success. CBS suddenly demanded that Cattrall be let go from the series, and that the pilot be reshot with a new female lead.[2][3] Catherine Hicks replaced Kim Cattrall, and the whole cast and even the show's title changed: Tim Matheson came in for Art Hindle (Hindle had also played a small role in Porky's), and the show was retitled Tucker's Witch. The original pilot was never aired, however it is now available on Amazon Prime along with the rest of the short lived series.

In a 1986 interview with the Toronto Star, Hindle told reporter Rita Zekas the following regarding his and Cattrall's departures from the series:

All the networks show these pilots to members of the public they pick up on the street and they put push-button responses in their hands. They respond to whether they like the character, don't like the character; or they like the story, don't like the story; like the scene, don't like the scene. She (Cattrall) she didn't do too well with these reponses [sic] so they replaced her. And then I just walked. I had other things to do and I didn't really want to get involved with something they were going to start pulling strings all the time.[4]

Tucker's Witch aired at 10 p.m. Eastern on Wednesdays in its first run, and proved unable to compete with ABC's Dynasty and NBC's Quincy, M.E.. The show was placed on hiatus after six episodes had aired; months later, it was brought back to burn off the remaining episodes. The program was switched to Thursday for the second half of its run.[5]

In later rebroadcasts on the USA Network, the program was retitled The Good Witch of Laurel Canyon—the series' originally-intended title.[6]

The show was produced by Hill-Mandelker Films.

• Tim Matheson as Rick Tucker
• Catherine Hicks as Amanda Tucker
• Bill Morey as Lt. Sean Fisk
• Alfre Woodard as Marcia Fulbright
• Barbara Barrie as Ellen Hobbes

The series pilot, in which Art Hindle and Kim Cattrall played Rick and Amanda, was never broadcast.

Ted Danson played an elevator killer in the 1982 premiere episode during the same season he began playing bartender Sam Malone on Cheers.[8][9] Danson first was seen as Sam Malone on the September 30th premiere episode of Cheers and then seen on Tucker's Witch on October 6, six days later.[10] The better known guest stars in Tucker's Witch included Barry Corbin, Simon Oakland, Joe Penny and Noble Willingham.[11]

The entire series, including the unaired first pilot, is available for purchase through the Amazon Prime streaming service.

• Tucker's Witch at IMDb