History YMMV / SabrinaTheTeenageWitch

** 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''.

* GeniusBonus: The emotionally needy talking car that constantly demands Sabrina's attention "My Nightmare the Car" is a MG, cars that are notoriously unreliable and in need to constant service to keep running.

* 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 had a few spin-off opportunities (which sadly weren’t picked up). 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 got her a big male fanbase.
* FriendlyFandoms: The sitcom is popular among the ''Anime/SailorMoon'' fandom given their similarities in tone and premise, all the way up to the main characters having talking black cats as sidekicks. Interestingly, Melissa Joan Hart could have portrayed Sailor Moon in a live action Disney film that got shelved early in development.

** "The Crucible" ends with a CharacterFilibuster from the teachers running the mock Salem Witch Trials. (For context, the kids in Sabrina's class were asked to find out who was a witch after being given cards that said either "WITCH" or "TOWNSPEOPLE".) Libby accused Jenny out of spite and Sabrina for defending Jenny, so they were put on trial. Jenny's sticking to her convictions gets her condemned and Sabrina is cleared for her honesty about being a witch because no one believes her confession; Sabrina has to do some magic to get Libby to admit she was committing perjury. The teachers then reveal that ''no one'' had a witch card; it was an idea planted in the students' heads, and they condemned one of their classmates. They created the witches, with classic mob psychology. The kids understandably walk onto the bus with some shame about how they egged on Jenny's conviction, with the exception of Harvey and Sabrina. Sabrina says with annoyance that [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot that if she hadn't lost her card]], she wouldn't have been so worried. Harvey in the meantime is relieved his friend and girlfriend weren't convicted.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Harvey was axed after Season 4 because producers felt Sabrina needed to leave "that high school baggage behind". After numerous fan protests, he was made a regular again in Season 6.
** [[spoiler: Sabrina ends up with Harvey in the finale]] after three seasons of CharacterShilling other guys like Josh and Aaron.
** [[spoiler: WordOfGod confirms that Zelda's sacrifice in the series finale restores her adult years and removes the curse on Diana]].

** The Quizmaster is {{Brother Chuck}}ed in between Seasons 2 and 3, with Sabrina just being told she's about to be awarded her Witch's License in the premiere.

* PopularityPolynomial: 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.

** Similar to Dreama, Brad was generally disliked by fans for being an inferior replacement to Libby as he has a very clumsy introduction(with him being Harvey's best friend [[RememberTheNewGuy who was never once mentioned before]])and didn't have much characterization outside of him having the "witch-hunter gene", which many fans thought was a clumsy and unnecessary plot device(especially as it ate up time that could've better spent actually resolving the Dreama-mentor subplot)he's by far the forgettable character on the entire show. While Dreama had some fans despite her criticisms, Brad had very few defenders and was never mentioned again after season 4.

** 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. Also considering that many fans prefer Aaron to Josh, quite a few don’t mind the new love interest.

** Dreama for a number of fans due to them seeing her as a poor substitute for Jenny and Valerie, with many feeling she lacked the chemistry with Sabrina and as such wasn't convincing as a best friend and far too many season 4 plots revolved around her accidentally screwing something up with her magic and Sabrina having to fix it. The fact that her mentor storyline was [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse abruptly dropped and never resolved]] made her inclusion on the show feel especially pointless and only intensified fans overall dislike of her. Plus there's the UnfortunateImplications of the only major supporting black actor being inept at magic.

** Dreama for a number of fans due to them seeing her as a poor substitute for Jenny and Valerie, with many feeling she lacked the chemistry with Sabrina and as such wasn't convincing as a best friend and far too many season 4 plots revolved around her accidentally screwing something up with her magic and Sabrina having to fix it. The fact that her mentor storyline was [[WhatHappenedToTheHouse abruptly dropped and never resolved]] made her inclusion on the show feel especially pointless and only intensified fans overall dislike of her. Plus there's the UnfortunateImplications of the only major supporting black actor being inept at magic.

** The episode where Sabrina tries to convince Harvey to go to college by slipping him an ambition potion, only to realize she accidentally gave him a "Blind Ambition" potion that makes him a ruthless corporate tycoon who scales back environmental protections and turns America into a polluted Industrial wasteland; and the stinger involves Salem accidentally drinking the same potion and making the call, "Remember: Greed is Good! Get Trump on the phone!" Given how much the cost of college and student loan debt has skyrocketed since the episode's premiere, and Trump has since become president with a platform of rolling back environmental protections and giving ''huge'' Big Corporate and Big Oil tax handouts... the episode has become a ''lot'' less harmlessly funny to watch, to say the least.

** Josh is arguably the most despised character on the show, for many reasons such as flirting with Sabrina while she has a boyfriend and therefore treating Harvey with hostility because he feels entitled to have Sabrina. Then in Season 5, he tries to pressure Sabrina into going out with him, friendzones her after going on a date with her EvilTwin and then gets jealous whenever she dates someone else. He treats Morgan horribly too, even intending to break up with her on Valentine's Day because ''he'' finds ''her'' [[{{Hypocrite}} controlling]]. And when he and Sabrina get together, he's rarely supportive of her and is very quick to assume she's cheating in multiple episodes. Few were sad when he was PutOnABus in the seventh season.

** 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 was noted to be a little better than 5, though not as close to the quality of earlier seasons.
** 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]] The finale however is regarded as a good one.

** The later seasons update the technology by having Sabrina's magic book be accessible via computer - but it's now a CD Rom. Sabrina now has a laptop that's slightly more up to date than Zelda's, but it would look dated by the end of the decade. Morgan is a budding fashion designer, and all her outfits and designs are the bold, colorful 2000s fashion (though they came back into style at the end of TheNewTens). There's also a few episodes that hinge on the characters not having cellphones and being invited to parties via flyers or anonymous landline calls. Sabrina gets a job at the coffee house and Boston Globe extremely easy, showing it was made pre-2008 recession. The Season 6 premiere likewise has an obvious ShoutOut to ''Film/TheMatrix''. Season 7 in particular features Music/AvrilLavigne when she was a pop culture sensation. Daniel Bedingfield plays a big role in an episode, performing his debut single "Gotta Get Thru This", and Ashanti likewise with "Happy".

** 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.

* CliffHangerCopout:
** 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.
** Season 6 likewise ends with [[spoiler: Sabrina turning to stone and shattering because her soulmates have broken it off with her. She's suddenly fixed by Zelda apparently giving up her adult years in an AssPull of a way to write Beth Broderick out]]. This makes a little more sense with the planned resolution that had to be scrapped when Creator/BethBroderick quit the show - [[spoiler: Season 7 would have involved the aunts giving up their magic to save Sabrina]].

* TheScrappy: Morgan for some, due to how '''unlikable''' she started becoming as the show progressed.

** In late season one, Sabrina unwittingly enters into an AndNowYouMustMarryMe contract with a troll named Roland. Said troll is very clearly an adult, while Sabrina is '''16 years old'''. This would be bad enough, but it's not just a contractual thing--Roland is portrayed as having feelings for Sabrina and becomes a ''recurring character,'' at times treated (PlayedForLaughs) as a romantic rival for Harvey. Sabrina is uncomfortable, but this is treated as a funny annoyance, and not one adult in her life comments on it or tries to make him stop.

** In "What Price Harvey", Sabrina learns that Harvey doesn't want to go to college and become a mechanic instead, so she spends the rest of the episode trying to get him to go in order to get a decent job for his future. It ends with him still wanting to be a mechanic but deciding to go to college as a failsafe. It was made back in the 1990's before the rising college tuitions, cost of living, and wage gap became so great that obscenely high student debt and struggling college graduates became the norm by the 2010s. [[PopularityPolynomial Vocational education has also increased in popularity in the 2010s]] due to people discovering the benefits of learning a trade (steady income, excellent job security, non-sedentary work, employment guarantee, no risk of trade jobs being outsourced), it doesn’t cost as much as getting a four-year-college degree. As a result, most viewers today would probably see Harvey's plan to forgo college in favor of learning a trade and gaining career success that way to be a smart financial decision.

* 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-off opportunities (which sadly weren’t picked up). 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 got her a big male fanbase.

** Also Valerie's desire to join the cheerleading squad becomes absolutely hilarious - bordering on CastingGag - if one watches ''Film/BringItOn'' where Valerie's actress Creator/LindsaySloane plays head cheerleader and AlphaBitch Big Red. Not to mention "The Pom Pom Incident" has Sabrina hypnotising Valerie into thinking she'll become an AlphaBitch if she joins the squad.

** Libby of all people becomes one in "Rumor Mill" where she literally gets evicted from her home thanks to the rumor Sabrina started. She gets evicted because of how mean she is, but the parents apparently told her they never even loved her. It's not played for comedy at all.

** 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.

* StrangledByTheRedString: 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]].

** Jenny also vanishes after Season 1, gradually featuring less and less as the season went on. Of course since the fan-favourite Valerie replaced her, it's not as glaring. Part of the problem seems to be the dynamic that was presented - Sabrina was the shy one, Jenny the confident non conformist. Melissa Joan Hart had better affinity for playing Sabrina as a PluckyGirl than ShrinkingViolet, so Jenny became redundant.

*** "Witch Way Did She Go?" is about Sabrina and Salem getting stuck in a maze in the Other Realm. It's full of {{Continuity Nod}}s - with fantasy versions of Jenny, Dreama, Libby, Valerie, Mr Kraft, Quizmaster and even Skippy - appearing. Granted this one would probably require far more special effects outside the show's budget (one sequence has Sabrina and Salem outrunning a giant metal ball).

** The later seasons update the technology by having Sabrina's magic book be accessible via computer - but it's now a CD Rom. Sabrina now has a laptop that's slightly more up to date than Zelda's, but it would look dated by the end of the decade. Morgan is a budding fashion designer, and of course all her outfits and designs are the bold, colorful 2000s fashion (though they came back into style at the end of TheNewTens). There's also a few episodes that hinge on the characters not having cellphones and being invited to parties via flyers or anonymous landline calls. Sabrina gets a job at the coffee house and Boston Globe extremely easy, showing it was made pre-2008 recession. The Season 6 premiere likewise has an obvious ShoutOut to ''Film/TheMatrix''. Season 7 in particular features Music/AvrilLavigne when she was a pop culture sensation. Daniel Bedingfield plays a big role in an episode, performing his debut single "Gotta Get Thru This", and Ashanti likewise with "Happy".

** In "What Price Harvey", Sabrina learns that Harvey doesn't want to go to college and become a mechanic instead, so she spends the rest of the episode trying to get him to go in order to get a decent job for his future. It ends with him still wanting to be a mechanic but deciding to go to college as a failsafe. It was made back in the 1990's before the rising college tuitions, cost of living, and wage gap became so great that obscenely high student debt and struggling college graduates became the norm by the 2010s. [[PopularityPolynomial Vocational education has also increased in popularity in the 2010s]] due to people discovering the benefits of learning a trade (steady income, excellent job security, non-sedentary work, employment guarantee, no risk of trade jobs being outsourced), not to mention it doesn’t cost as much as getting a four-year-college degree. As a result, most viewers today would probably see Harvey's plan to forgo college in favor of learning a trade and gaining career success that way to be a smart financial decision.

** Sabrina has decent taste in boys (Harvey, Dashiell, Aaron) 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).

* CrazyIsCool: Mrs Quick is rather CuteAndPsycho, with many episodes showing that she has some HiddenDepths - where she's able to argue with Mr Kraft to get his pet Libby to do cafeteria duty, her competitive nature gets amped UpToEleven by a medal, she has an addiction to game shows and she is rather easily convinced that she's dreaming whenever something magic happens.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Just look at Wiki/ThisVeryWiki 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''.

* FriendlyFandoms: The sitcom is popular among the ''Anime/SailorMoon'' fandom given their similarities in tone and premise, all the way up to the main characters having talking black cats as sidekicks.

* FriendlyFandoms: The sitcom is popular among the ''Series/SailorMoon'' fandom given their similarities in tone and premise, all the way up to the main characters having talking black cats as sidekicks.

* 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 (as in the aforementioned live-action series). Next were the other [[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.

** After the first season, Sabrina's best friend Jenny disappears [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome without explanation]] and is replaced by new girl Valerie. Thankfully, Valerie becomes far more popular and remembered than Jenny, for being funnier and more {{Adorkable}}.