Nothing Simple About 'Charmed' Birth
Fri, Feb 14, 2003 00:05 AM PDT
by Kate O'Hare
Zap2it, TV News
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - After half a season or so of fluctuating hormones, pregnant good-witch Piper Halliwell (Holly Marie Combs) of The WB's "Charmed" finally gives birth this Sunday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m. ET, in an episode called "The Day the Magic Died." As always, her husband, mystical White Lighter Leo (Brian Krause), will be on hand, as will her witchy sisters Phoebe and Paige (Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan).
Still, it will hardly be magical business as usual for the San Francisco clan.
"One reason for the title is purely practical," says executive producer Brad Kern. "It's episode 15, the last episode of February sweeps, which is always the tightest turnaround for production for us in any year."
"It was such a tight turnaround that we had to design an episode that had very few magical effects or visual effects. So we came up with an idea -- actually, the writer, Daniel Cerone, came up with it -- where, for reasons that we will explain in the episode, that are tied to the impending birth of the baby, all magic takes the day off."
"Demons and witches, none of them is magical. So the girls have to figure out how to stop the demons that are still coming after them, even though they don't have magical powers any more. Phoebe's got to run up and find that aerosol hairspray to do a flamethrower. They've got to become mini-MacGyvers, all while trying to protect Piper, who suddenly goes into contractions, and the demons are coming after her and the baby."
The next original episode of "Charmed" is tentatively scheduled to air March 9, and according to Kern, the fun continues. "'Baby's First Demon' is a cute episode, where we reveal that this baby has quite a few powers, enough that it makes a certain demon faction want the baby, except it's not going to be very easy to get the baby."
"At the end of the episode, they and all of demon-dom are going to learn that you don't mess with this baby, which will keep the baby from being in jeopardy very often."
"Lucky Charmed," the next episode, is tentatively scheduled for March 16, the night before St. Patrick's Day. Although it concerns leprechauns, Kern swears the timing is just a bit of Irish luck.
"The writer pitched it to me," he says, "and he happened to be up for assignment that episode. The WB moved that episode's airdate to the 16th after we'd already started working on it, before they heard what the content was. It's kismet."
As for the storyline, Kern says, "It's hysterical, especially when Paige is in this dire situation, and this little-person leprechaun is being attacked, and she doesn't know what to do. She calls for him, and he orbs over and lands on her. It doesn't get any better than that. He says, 'It must be love.'"
Mark Povinelli ("Frasier, " The Hughleys") plays Shamus, the leprechaun in question, but he's not the only one. " I guarantee you," says Kern, " that there will be at least 500 leprechauns in one shot. It'll be a lot of extras, a lot of CGI. We know that when 500 leprechauns raise their shillelaghs in the air and yell a collective 'Aye'; it's going to be fun."
They do good and bad, but their purpose in the world will become cleared up for all of mankind once and for all on 'Charmed.'"
"We've done a lot of fun episodes this year, fun not only for the audience but for the crew and cast. We have wood nymphs coming up, too. We've got 'em all. I don't know what we're doing to do in season six. It just challenges us to do better next year."
"Charmed" airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on The WB.
