History YMMV / SabrinaTheTeenageWitch

* UncannyValley: Salem's animatronic puppet for some, especially if you're not a fan of eerie puppetry like that. More so the one in the earlier seasons where the puppet itself was stiffer and slightly different in appearance due to different puppet producers between Season 1 (Jim Boulden and his company Animal Makers) and the rest of the show ([[Film/KillerKlownsFromOuterSpace The Chiodo Brothers]]).

** Season 4 ends with [[spoiler: Harvey now knowing Sabrina's secret after becoming immune to her magic]]. However Season 5 doesn't pick this up until months later [[spoiler: saying that Sabrina and Harvey just split up]]. Many fans thought there was a MissingEpisode as a result.
*** What makes this sad is Harvey gets a brief cameo in Season 5 when Hilda zaps him into her coffee house, both Harvey and Sabrina are happy to see each other and they want to talk but Hilda zaps him away before they can.

* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHerBack: The reasons why Harvey broke up with Sabrina were because he caught her kissing another guy, found out she was a witch, and she cast so many spells on him that he would no longer forget them or the effects of her magic. These are all very valid reasons, especially the whole "You've been casting spells on me since high school without my consent?!" issue. Sabrina sadly accepts all these reasons, despite the giant hole in her heart that is still there years after the break-up. Harvey is the one who initiates getting back together with Sabrina, and makes no bones of his feelings when he arrives at her engagement party and openly flirts with her. Sabrina in the meantime wants to move on and be fair to her fiancé; Aaron, since she thinks she loves him. It's implied Harvey realizes that the way Sabrina's acting is normal for witches, and now that there are no more secrets between them he can forgive her.
** Sabrina has decent taste in boys (Harvey, Dashiell, Arron) but she spends Season 5 wanting to be with Josh and when she’s dating him in Season 6 he basically proves not to be good boyfriend and yet HE dumps her (granted that was one mean thing he didn’t have control over).

* StrangledByTheRedString: A straight example in the final season that ultimately evolves into a Deconstruction. Sabrina falls for Aaron in his debut episode so much that she uses magic to find out what his flaws are. They hook up at the end of the episode and for the rest of the season simply act as a couple that's been together for years, rather than developing slowly. It's never explained why Sabrina literally makes room for him in her heart. However cracks start to appear as Sabrina initially thinks his proposal is a trick caused by the MonsterOfTheWeek and accepts reluctantly. The rest of her actions during their engagement come across as straight-up denial more than anything else. Finally when her wedding day comes, she gets cold feet and dithers between that and denial. [[spoiler: She and Aaron ultimately agree to call off the wedding, and she ends up eloping with her true soul mate Harvey]].

* [[WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack Why Would Anyone Take Her Back?]]: The reasons why Harvey broke up with Sabrina were because he caught her kissing another guy, found out she was a witch, and she cast so many spells on him that he would no longer forget them or the effects of her magic. These are all very valid reasons, especially the whole "You've been casting spells on me since high school without my consent?!" issue. Sabrina sadly accepts all these reasons, despite the giant hole in her heart that is still there years after the break-up. Harvey is the one who initiates getting back together with Sabrina, and makes no bones of his feelings when he arrives at her engagement party and openly flirts with her. Sabrina in the meantime wants to move on and be fair to her fiancé; Aaron, since she thinks she loves him. It's implied Harvey realizes that the way Sabrina's acting is normal for witches, and now that there are no more secrets between them he can forgive her.

** Roxie is introduced as an aggressive bully who tears down Sabrina at every turn. Soon her HiddenDepths are revealed, as is her miserable home life. She undergoes genuine CharacterDevelopment, developed a fun SoapboxSadie persona and ended the series as probably Sabrina's closest friend.

* StrangledByTheRedString: A straight example in the final season that ultimately evolves into a Deconstruction. Sabrina falls for Aaron in his debut episode so much that she uses magic to find out what his flaws are. They hook up at the end of the episode and for the rest of the season simply act as a couple that's been together for years, rather than developing slowly. It's never explained why Sabrina literally makes room for him in her heart. However cracks start to appear as Sabrina initially thinks his proposal is a trick caused by the MonsterOfTheWeek and accepts reluctantly. The rest of her actions during their engagement come across as straight-up denial more than anything else. Finally when her wedding day comes, she gets cold feet and dithers between that and denial. [[spoiler: She and Aaron ultimately agree to call off the wedding, and she ends up eloping with her true soul mate Harvey]]. It makes more sense when you learn that the character of [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Aaron]] was supposed to actually be Josh, but David Lascher refused to return to the show, and the storyline had already been planned out.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: While Sabrina usually gets LaserGuidedKarma for being too quick to use magic to solve her problems, sometimes issues come from her doing something without her aunts having warned her or told her in advance (the pancake addiction, Aunt Dorma, her pen pal Martha). She'll also sometimes get detention just because Mr Kraft is feeling particularly evil. Likewise is "The Great Mistake" where Sabrina confesses that she bought the tomorrow ball and half-assed her homework without having to be probed, and fully intends to improve it at the weekend - but the aunts still make her miss the concert she had tickets for. Seems unnecessarily harsh since she'd clearly learned her lesson already.

* UnnecessaryMakeover: Sabrina decides to give herself a new makeover for college, she starts dying her hair. She starts slowly enough going from blond to a light red and it actually looks cute but in the middle of Season 5 she begins an episode with ghastly dark red hair and very thin eyebrows and she keeps the look for the rest of Season 5. She's back to being a blonde by Season 6 though.

** In "The Competition", Sabrina learns that being competitive makes her "ugly" and so she has to apologize to Josh for standing up to his sexist father - after he patronized Sabrina and his wife, then threw a temper-tantrum because they beat him at tennis. Josh's father learns nothing, and Sabrina somehow ends up apologizing for standing up for herself. Apparently women should be expected to roll over and accept sexism, or else they will stop being attractive to men. As women have become progressively more aware of benign sexism, this lesson hasn't aged well at all.

** Harvey despite being a football player is a very nice guy, if a little dumb which qualifies him for this trope, especially when he’s romantic with Sabrina.

** Sabrina has many cute and bumbling moments that, combined with her bubbly nature, makes her this so much.

* EscapistCharacter: Sabrina is a beautiful young woman, who does very well in school, and always gets one up on the AlphaBitch and SadistTeacher. She has a great boyfriend throughout most of the first four season and other cute guys into her while she’s single and great friends too. Oh and she also has amazing powers that can alter the laws of the universe if she wants to.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Some fans choose to pretend the series ends with "The Good, the Bad and the Luau" - the Season 3 finale. It's the last episode of what's widely considered the sitcom's strongest season and has a somewhat triumphant ending with Sabrina getting her Witch's License and affirming that she's staying in the Mortal Realm with Harvey. Ending it there also means fan favourite characters Valerie and Libby don't get PutOnABus and the much-maligned Josh isn't introduced.

** Morgan can be a superficial RichBitch from time to time, but Season 5's ChristmasEpisode shows how miserable her home life is - with parents that constantly fight and criticise her, as well as a creepy older brother. For whatever her flaws, she genuinely did like Josh and was devastated when they nearly broke up at Valentine's Day.

** There's also Sabrina's next boyfriend Josh - one of the most despised characters in the show. Some of this is admittedly due to him not aging well (particularly the fact that he's a college student pursuing a high schooler) but he's rather unpleasant in a lot of situations; sending Sabrina secret admirer cards when he knows she has a boyfriend, intending to move to Prague without considering her feelings, often assuming she's cheating on him over misunderstandings (which is hypocritical of him considering how easily Sabrina's EvilTwin got him to cheat on ''his'' girlfriend, and how he tried to get Sabrina to cheat on Harvey). This puts him in contrast to aforementioned evil twin and other antagonists like Sabrina's BrattyHalfPint of a cousin Amanda (who does at least mellow out as she gets older) - who caused far more intentional trouble for the characters.

** Ironically Aaron, the RomanticFalseLead created to replace Josh, is seen in a much better light. Mostly because he lacked the qualities that made Josh so annoying, and was played sympathetically. The only issue people tend to have with him is that he looks a bit too much older than Sabrina (Dylan Neal was already in his mid-thirties, while Melissa Joan Hart was twenty-seven).

** Season 5 likewise relocated the show from high school to college, dropped most of the supporting cast and introduced a load of new characters. The storylines also got more 'mature', which clashed with the earlier fun feeling of Seasons 1-3. Dropping Harvey resulted in fan outrage too. Seasons 6 and 7 were noted to be a little better than 5, though not as close to the quality of earlier seasons.

* TestosteroneBrigade: Melissa Joan Hart is gorgeous, as are her two aunts. Starting in Season 2, more attention was paid to their wardrobes and plenty of episodes liked to get them into nice evening wear or sexy costumes. This was more notable in Seasons 5-7, which added more beautiful female supporting characters (Roxie, Morgan) and plenty of guest stars. In her autobiography, Melissa referred to the show as "a geek's wet dream".

* ToughActToFollow: ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'', despite being adapted from the comics and having virtual no relation to this show, unfortunately got a lot of comparisons - even when it was established it was a horror series and its own entity. Netflix tried to do damage control by having the original cast record good luck messages for the ''Chilling'' cast, later having reaction videos and getting Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick to guest star.

* UnnecessaryMakeover: Sabrina gives herself some ghastly red hair in Season 5. She's back to blonde by Season 6 though.

** The Season 2 HalloweenEpisode has a gag where Valerie is the only one to go to the party in costume. This looks extremely odd to modern viewers. In the 90s dressing up for Halloween was seen as something only kids would do, but there was a strong revival in costume parties and dressing up for the holiday - especially with the trend of [[SexyWhateverOutfit slutty Halloween costumes for girls]] - that it looks odd that teenagers wouldn't show up to the party in costume. Likewise the Season 5 and 6 episodes also have Sabrina's college friends not being fans of Halloween - which looks weird to college students in the 2010s.

* [[WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack Why Would Anyone Take Her Back?]]: The reasons why Harvey broke up with Sabrina were because he caught her kissing another guy, found out she was a witch, and she cast so many spells on him that he would no longer forget them or the effects of her magic. These are all very valid reasons, especially the whole "You've been casting spells on me since high school without my consent?!" issue. Sabrina sadly accepts all these reasons, despite the giant hole in her heart that is still there years after the break-up. Harvey is the one who initiates getting back together with Sabrina, and makes no bones of his feelings when he arrives at her engagement party and openly flirts with her. Sabrina in the meantime wants to move on and be fair to her fiancé Aaron, since she thinks she loves him. It's implied Harvey realizes that the way Sabrina's acting is normal for witches, and now that there are no more secrets between them he can forgive her.

* GirlShowGhetto: Inverted. To cash in on Sabrina's popularity, ABC produced two further UrbanFantasy series, ''Series/TeenAngel'' and ''You Wish'', though with male protagonists. Both shows ended after a season, while Sabrina lasted for years and even had a few spin-offs. There in fact seem to be more male fans than female of the sitcom. Unsurprising, since Creator/MelissaJoanHart's previous sitcom ''Series/ClarissaExplainsItAll'' had broken out of the ghetto and gotten her a big male fanbase.

* EscapistCharacter: Sabrina is a beautiful young woman, who does very well in school, and always gets one up on the AlphaBitch and SadistTeacher. Oh and she has amazing powers that can alter the laws of the universe if she wants to.
* FanFicFuel: Due to the decree that the mortal parent of half-witch children get turned into wax, this does leave options open as to what may happen to [[spoiler: Sabrina and Harvey if they ever have kids]]. Fortunately, nothing. It only happens if [[spoiler:Harvey and Sabrina ever divorced, like Sabrina's parents did. If they stay together, things are fine.]]

* AdaptationDisplacement: Salem was not originally a human in the comics, and the aunts' personalities were reversed (Hilda as the responsible one, Zelda as the ditzy one). These details were also used in the AnimatedAdaptation, making some newer fans convinced they are comic canon.

* LoveToHate: Libby of course! Despite being a rotten person, she's so entertainingly mean she's hysterical to watch. Helped by her getting the occasional PetTheDog moment.

** Ironically Aaron, the RomanticFalseLead created to replace Josh, is seen in a much better light. Mostly because he lacked the qualities that made Josh so annoying, and was played sympathetically.

** In season 4, Dreama for Valerie. Dreama's status as an IneptMage makes her an even more incompetent version of Gwen from the TV movies - and without Tara Strong's {{Adorkable}} charm. Rather a lot of Season 4 episodes involve Dreama screwing things up for Sabrina, and never improving her magic. Her arc as Sabrina's student abruptly ends, making her a rather pointless character.

** A young Creator/RyanReynolds plays a bleach-blonde bad boy in the original movie/unaired pilot.

** Season 7 is definitely its worst; while many felt like the show isn't the same without Harvey, people were downright pissed for dropping Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda. Many agreed that you can't do the show without them.[[note]]In this case Beth Broderick quit the show, feeling Zelda was going nowhere, while Caroline Rhea wanted to focus on her talk show.[[/note]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The aunts in Season 5's "Beach Blanket Bizarro". Despite learning AnAesop back in Season 1 to trust Sabrina to have good judgment when she's out with friends, they essentially MindRape everyone into having "good clean fun" - because they're worried about Sabrina's spring break.

* ValuesResonance: The episode where Sabrina tries to find a paying journalism job and fails because she doesn't want to accept the entry level positions that later vanish because she didn't accept them soon enough. It's highly relatable to graduates in the 2010s.

--> '''Sabrina:''' Why don't you surprise us all by changing and doing something nice for once!
--> '''Libby:''' Why mess with success?

* FansPreferTheNewHer: Both Hilda and Sabrina give themselves RapunzelHair for the sake of a gag but say the upkeep is too much. Doesn't stop them from both looking gorgeous with it.

** Early [[{{TheNoughties}} 2000s]] kids may be more familiar with Caroline Rhea as Ilsa from ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody''.
*** Late 2000s through mid-[[{{TheNewTens}} 2010s]] kids will recognize her as the voice of Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher on ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''.

* ShockingSwerve: The first couple of minutes of the first episode of Season 7, which very clumsily explained the resolution to the cliff hanger ending of Season 6.

* VindicatedByHistory: The show had a sizeable Hatedom in the 2000s, mocking it for all the [[BrotherChuck cast changes]] and the shift in tone when it moved networks. These days it's nostalgically seen as a smart, funny show that was a hallmark of 90s television.

** One episode has Libby fall for a boy made of Man Dough, who expires (and explodes) at the end of the night without her knowledge. Concerned, she tries calling the police - who hang up on her after she gets distracted gushing over his looks. The audience is expected to laugh at a girl reporting a missing person.[[note]]Although there is a bit where the person on the other end reminds Libby that someone has to have been missing for at least twenty-four hours to be reported, and Libby's snotty attitude and gushing about his looks might have made her come across as an airhead too idiotic to realise that her date probably just ditched her, especially when she wouldn't be able to provide an address or phone number.[[/note]]

** Libby is most definitely nastier than her successor Brad, but she was so over-the-top mean that she was beloved - and of course she got plenty of comeuppance. Brad however was just a jerk, and Sabrina was often made to be in the wrong for not accepting him - when he was just rude to her repeatedly.
** Josh is disliked more than actual villains like Amanda, Libby, Drell etc - because of his jerkish behavior and the CharacterShilling he got in spite of it.
* LGBTFanbase: Beth Broderick talks about [=RuPaul=] telling her that the show had a significant following of LGBT viewers, many of whom watched it as a Friday night ritual before going out. Zelda in particular became a queer icon.

** In "The Competition", Sabrina learns that being competitive makes her "ugly" and so she has to apologize to Josh for standing up to his misogynistic father - after he patronized Sabrina and his wife, then threw a temper-tantrum because they beat him at tennis. Josh's father learns nothing, and Sabrina somehow ends up apologizing for standing up for herself. Apparently women should be expected to roll over and accept sexism, or else they will stop being attractive to men. As women have become progressively more aware of benign sexism, this lesson hasn't aged well at all.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Any episode that features Sabrina trying and failing to do something rebellious - like sneaking into a club. Creator/MelissaJoanHart admitted in her autobiography that when the show was airing, she was going through a drug-taking phase and her infamous Maxim photoshoot happened while she was on drugs.

** One episode has Libby fall for a boy made of Man Dough, who expires (and explodes) at the end of the night without her knowledge. Concerned, she tries calling the police - who hang up on her after she gets distracted gushing over his looks. The audience is expected to laugh at a girl reporting a missing person.

** Season 7 is definitely its worst; while many felt like the show isn't the same without Harvey, people were downright pissed for dropping Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda. Many agreed that you can't do the show without them.[[note]]In this case Beth Broderick quit the show, feeling Zelda was going nowhere, while Caroline Rhea wanted to focus on her talk show.

** Josh has not aged well as a character. He's four years older than Sabrina when first introduced (she's eighteen and he's twenty-two) and freely makes advances on her when he knows she has a boyfriend. The narrative has no problem shaming Sabrina for cheating when she's with Harvey, but Josh is never demonised when he asks Sabrina out, initiates a kiss and still sends her secret Valentine cards ''while he knows she's in a relationship''. He openly acts antagonistic to Harvey because he's Sabrina's boyfriend and is never called out for essentially petty jealousy. And in the college seasons, he happily goes on a date with what he thinks is Sabrina while he'd committed to going out with Morgan[[note]]Sabrina's EvilTwin Katrina was impersonating her and lied to say Morgan was sick.[[/note]] - and again the narrative doesn't criticise him for cheating [[DoubleStandard like it did for Sabrina in Season 4]]. And when Sabrina dates the witch Derek, Josh acts jealous even though he has a girlfriend, and looks smugly satisfied when he hears they've split up.
** In "The Competition", Sabrina learns that being competitive makes her "ugly" and so she has to apologize to Josh for standing up to his misogynistic father - after he patronized Sabrina and his wife, then threw a temper-tantrum because they beat him at tennis. Josh's father learns nothing, and Sabrina somehow ends up apologizing for standing up for herself. Apparently women should be expected to roll over and accept sexism, or else they will stop being attractive to men. As women have become progressively more aware of benign sexism, this lesson hasn’t aged well at all.

** Season 7 is definitely its worst; while many felt like the show isn't the same without Harvey, people were downright pissed for dropping Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda. Many agreed that you can't do the show without them.[[note]]In this case Beth Broderick quit the show, feeling Zelda was going nowhere, although there's no word on why Hilda was dropped too.

* UncannyValley: Salem's animatronic puppet for some, especially if you're not a fan of eerie puppetry like that. More so the one in the earlier seasons where the puppet itself was stiffer and slightly different in appearance.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** Any episode that features Sabrina trying and failing to do something rebellious - like sneaking into a club. Creator/MelissaJoanHart admitted in her autobiography that when the show was airing, she was going through a drug-taking phase and her infamous Maxim photoshoot happened while she was on drugs.
** Season 4's "Spoiled Rotten" has a gag about Mr Kraft hoarding a gold brick because he expects a recession coming soon. This episode aired in 2001 - seven years before one of the worst recessions the world would see.

** Season 7 is definitely its worst; while many felt like the show isn't the same without Harvey, people were downright pissed for dropping Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda. Many agreed that you can't do the show without them.[[note]]In this case Beth Broderick quit the show, feeling Zelda was going nowhere, although there's no word on why Hilda was dropped too.[[/note]] There are some who like the season for the relocation to Scorch Magazine, allowing for a more colorful supporting cast in the employees there (especially in comparison to the dullness of the Boston Globe). And the RomanticFalseLead is swapped from the insufferable Josh to the more sympathetic Aaron.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Just look at this Wiki and how it favors the [[Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch show]]. Not only do many people not know the show was based on a [[ComicBook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch comic]], or even that Sabrina is from the same comic family as the main ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'', many elements and characters from the show were used in later versions of the comics (such as Salem originally being human). There was also a 70s Saturday morning cartoon (WesternAnimation/SabrinaAndTheGroovieGoolies) that older audiences may recall, and a TV-movie before the show that no one remembers. This has been slowly changing with Sabrina's appearances in popular ''Archie ''spinoffs and her appearances in the main ''Archie'' comics themselves. This may change with the new ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina''.
* DorkAge: The era from the early 1990s to late 2000s. The first noticeable thing was Sabrina temporarily being changed from being a witch amongst humans to a witch living amongst supernatural creatures. They also changed her hair from having white bobbed hair to it being long and blond. Next were the [[RetCanon changes]] made due to the popularity of the TV series: Sabrina got a last name, her aunts look more normal, and Salem got a complete overhaul (he could talk, his fur changed from red to black, and he WasOnceAMan). Not soon after that the comic was given an ugly, "[[{{animesque}} manga]]" redesign that turned off fans, even though the storyline is arguably one of the best the comic has had and they returned Sabrina to having short hair. After its cancellation Sabrina has only appeared in ComicBook/ArchieComics cameos within the last few years. With ''ComicBook/AfterlifeWithArchie'' and ''ComicBook/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'' it seems this age has completely passed.