Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina Spellman is the title character—a half-mortal and a half-witch—from the comic book Sabrina, the Teenage Witch which was later adapted in 1969 by Filmation as a segment from The Archie Comedy Hour (later becoming its own series in 1971). The character was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo. The comic was later made into a live action film and television situation comedy, with an alternate younger version appearing in the animated TV series by DIC Entertainment.
In both the comic and the Filmation version, she has no other name except Sabrina, and other than living in the fictional town of Greendale, her background is never really explored. This article will focus mainly on the television situation comedy version of the character.
Background[]
Sabrina's story takes place in the fictional town of Westbridge, Massachusetts, where she grew up with her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda Spellman, and the talking cat, Salem Saberhagen. Her father's name was Edward Spellman, a warlock, and her mother's name is Diana. Diana is a mortal. Her father has at the least four sisters: Vesta, seen only once in the first-season episode "Third Aunt from the Sun" (played by Raquel Welch) but mentioned many times and Hilda and Zelda, both of whom Sabrina lives with, and Sophia, a witch who lived in Rome and looked identical to Sabrina. Sabrina's evil twin Katrina is not considered one of Sabrina's sisters as the evil twin has different parents from the good twin. Her stepmother, also a witch, is named Gail Kippling Spellman. Sabrina was an only child, but had one evil twin (by different parents) and a stepbrother. Sabrina's evil twin's name is Katrina Spellman (also a witch) and her younger stepbrother's name is Donald (a warlock and the son of Sabrina's stepmother). Her grandmother, who is nice to Sabrina but overbearing to her aunts, visited once or twice, as did her great-aunt Irma, the Spellman family matriarch. Though not evil, Irma is domineeringly powerful (much more powerful than Sabrina, Zelda, or Hilda). Sabrina also has many other relatives such as Cousin Larry, Aunt Beulah, Cousin Zsa Zsa, Aunt Vesta and Cousin Marigold. Marigold's daughter Amanda is known to torment Sabrina throughout the show.
Life in the Series[]
Sabrina was the protagonist of the series. On her sixteenth birthday, she learned that she was a half-witch (through her father's side) and had magical powers. She also learned that her two aunts were witches themselves and that their black cat Salem was a warlock who had been turned into a talking household pet as a punishment for attempting worldwide domination. At Westbridge High, she befriended Jenny Kelly (and later Valerie Birkhead in future seasons) and had an on-again, off-again relationship with Harvey Kinkle. She also had to deal with the snobby and headstrong cheerleader, Libby Chessler, who became Sabrina's rival for school activities as well as Harvey's affections. In later seasons, Sabrina was enrolled at the fictional Adams College in Boston. After getting her degree in journalism she moved back to her aunts' house with Morgan and Roxie. She took a job with the fictitious Scorch Magazine, a music theme magazine for which she interviewed famous artists. Later on, she met a man named Aaron, who also worked in the music industry and the two began dating. Before long, Aaron proposed and in the finale, the two were set to wed when unforeseen events took place. She started to suspect that Aaron was not the one and after Sabrina had tried to connect her soul stone with his, she was sure of it. While it mostly fit, it was not a perfect fit. She tried to ignore it, but followed her heart and canceled the marriage at the altar. When she ran out of the church, she found Harvey waiting for her outside on his motorcycle, holding his soulstone that Amanda, her cousin, had left him. After both Harvey's and Sabrina's soul stones were tossed to the side and fit together perfectly (something they did not see at the time), it proved that those two were destined to be together and they rode off together into the distance in true finale fashion.
For most of the series, Sabrina would regularly cast a spell that landed her in trouble, and she had to turn to her aunts for help. In Season Five, after moving out of her aunts house, Sabrina started thinking she was independent, and whenever something went wrong, she would try to solve the problem herself. However, she could not help but get herself into a situation that was beyond her control (like in the episode Heart of the Matter when she used a dating spell to attract boys, but the spell went wrong when Sabrina's head became misaligned as a result of her head and heart becoming conflicted. She was forced to go to Zelda for help).
During her time at Adams College, as revealed in the episode "The Whole Ball of Wax", Sabrina was finally able to meet her mother. However, it is revealed that the Witches' Council set a decree that if the two were ever to meet face to face, her mother would turn into a ball of wax. While the decree was never repealed, Sabrina accidentally frees her mother by crying into the ball of wax. However, they could not ever see each other face to face again.
In the TV movie Sabrina Goes to Rome, Sabrina, accompanied by Salem, travels to Rome, Italy in order to discover the secret of a mysterious antique locket and save her Aunt Sophia. While there, she befriends Gwen, an inexperienced British witch, who helps her to solve the mystery of the locket. The sequel, Sabrina, Down Under, depicts Sabrina and Gwen going on vacation in Australia's Great Barrier Reef to save a hidden colony of merpeople from water pollution and a scheming marine biologist.