This page is about the original, 1998-2006 Charmed series. For the 2018 reboot series of the same name, see Charmed. For the chosen sisterhood of three witches, see the Charmed Ones.
Charmed is an American television series that aired on The WB network from 1998 to 2006. The series is about the three Halliwell sisters who are the most powerful good witches in the world. The sisters are known as "the Charmed Ones" in the magical community. Each one of the sisters possess unique magical powers that they use together to fight evil and protect the innocents.
Due to the success of this series, CW ordered a reboot series centered on a new set of Charmed sisters.
Background[]
The lives of Halliwell sisters Prue, Piper and Phoebe really began after the death of their maternal grandmother. After thinking about it, the three girls decide to move back into their family Manor in San Francisco. While snooping around, the youngest sister, Phoebe, discovered an old book the Book of Shadows in the attic. Reading an incantation from it, she unwittingly set in motion events that fulfilled an ancient prophecy. Strange and harrowing occurrences began which eventually led the sisters to realize that they are witches.
The first three seasons focuses on Prue, Piper and Phoebe. However with Prue's death after the Season 3 finale Piper & Phoebe think their days of being Charmed Ones are done until they discover their secret half sister Paige.
Cast and Characters[]
Main[]
- Shannen Doherty as Prue Halliwell (seasons 1 - 3) - the oldest sister
- Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell - the middle sister
- Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell - the youngest sister
- Rose McGowan as Paige Matthews (seasons 4 - 8) - the half-witch, half-Whitelighter half-sister to the Halliwells
Supporting[]
- Dorian Gregory as Darryl Morris (seasons 1-7) - police inspector.
- T.W. King as Andy Trudeau (season 1) - police inspector, Darryl's partner, Prue's ex-boyfriend.
- Greg Vaughan as Dan Gordon (season 2) - Halliwell's neighbor, Piper's temporary boyfriend.
- Karis Paige Bryant as Jenny Gordon (season 2) - Dan's niece.
- Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt (seasons 2-8; recurring season 1) - the sisters' Whitelighter and Piper's husband.
- Julian McMahon as Cole Turner (seasons 3-5; guest season 7) - half demon, Phoebe's first husband.
- Drew Fuller as Chris Halliwell (season 6; guest seasons 5, 7-8) - Leo and Piper's second son from the future.
- Kaley Cuoco as Billie Jenkins (season 8) - Paige's charge, student of the sisters.
Comparison to the Reboot Series[]
- Main article: Similarities and Differences to Original Series
Trivia[]
- The reboot premiered exactly 20 years to the date after the original Charmed aired.
- There is an entry on "Melinda Warren" in the 2018 Book of Shadows as an Easter Egg to the original show. Melinda Warren is the ancestor of the original Charmed Ones and the creator of their witch lineage, the Warren witches.
- Charmed was set in San Francisco. The reboot relocated their setting to the fictional town of Hilltowne, Michigan before the Vera-Vaughn sisters were forcibly moved to Seattle, Washington during the second season and remained there throughout the remainder of the series.
- Charmed was one of The WB's late 1990s-early 2000s hits that did not pass on after the channel merged with UPN, forming The CW. The resulting network that now reboots it had no interest in continuing the series back then. Coincidentally, when the CW was put up for sale, the reboot of Charmed, as well as several additional television programs, were canceled by the network.
- Macy Vaughn's background and storyline mirrors that of Paige Matthews from the original series. Left by their mother when she was a baby, Paige grew up unaware of her true witch lineage, magical origins or the supernatural world, nor that she had sisters. She meets them as a young adult and eventually embraces her Charmed One destiny.
- The Halliwell sisters were all daughters of Patty Halliwell and Victor Bennett while in the reboot, The Vera girls only share their mother Marisol, having different fathers.
- By the start of the original Charmed, Patty is long dead and her background and fate are revealed throughout the series. In the reboot series, Marisol is killed in the pilot episode and the mystery of her death is unraveled throughout the first season.
- The Charmed Ones' respective powers from the original series remain with the exception of the middle and youngest sister. Piper's main gift was manipulating the movement of molecules, until they either froze or caused an explosion, while Mel Vera's initial power was to manipulate the flow of time, before she later gained the power to manipulate molecules similarly to Piper after having her time powers rendered dormant. Phoebe's main gift was receiving premonitions, while Maggie Vera's initial power was telepathy. However, it was later revealed that her telepathic powers were derived from empathy - making her an empath like Phoebe, who later developed empathy in the original series. In the second season of the reboot, Maggie developed the power of premonition after having her other powers rendered dormant.
- Producer Constance M. Burge is properly credited as the creator of Charmed in 2018. Burge left the original series after the third season due to disagreements with co-producer Brad Kern. Burge wanted the series to focus more on the Halliwell sisterhood and less on their romantic life as Kern had planned.
- The very first evil being the Halliwell sisters vanquished in the pilot episode was Jeremy Burns, a woman-hater warlock posing as a normal man who targets Piper, the middle sister. In the reboot, it is a Taydeus, a sexual harasser demon posing as a man who targets Mel, again the middle sister.
- In the reboot, Harry Greenwood immediately identifies as the Whitelighter and guide to the Vera-Vaughn witches when he first appears and is the one who tells them about their true nature and destiny. Leo Wyatt kept his Whitelighter identity a secret when he first appeared on the original Charmed, and the sisters found out about their witch destiny by themselves.
- In the original series, all four leads were heterosexual. In the reboot series, Macy Vaughn and Maggie Vera are heterosexual, while Mel Vera is a lesbian and Kaela Danso is bisexual. Also, Ishani, the youngest of the first Charmed Ones of the rebooted world, is also bisexual.
- In the reboot finale, the Vera-Danso Charmed Ones enter an alternate reality and land on the front door to the Halliwell Manor. They knock on the door, but no one answers. However, Kaela finds that the door is unlocked and the trio make their way inside. Due to this happening in the final moments of the reboot series, it is unclear what happened after they entered the home.
- In Curtis Kheel's opinion, one of the writers and producers of the original Charmed, when the Vera-Danso sisters entered the Halliwell Manor they were vanquished by the Halliwell sisters.