Season 1 airing order vs. production and writing order?

[Granny Charmed]

Something that I had noticed dears was the airing order and production order on season 1's first episodes were incorrect. 

Airing Order

1 "Something Wicca This Way Comes"  1498704 
2 "I've Got You Under My Skin"  4398001 
3 "Thank You for Not Morphing" 4398003 
4 "Dead Man Dating"  4398005 
5 "Dream Sorcerer"  4398002 
6 "The Wedding from Hell" 398004
7 "The Fourth Sister" 4398006 

Production Order

1 "Something Wicca This Way Comes" 1498704
2 "I've Got You Under My Skin" 4398001
3 "Dream Sorcerer" 4398002
4 "Thank You for Not Morphing" 4398003
5 "The Wedding from Hell" 398004
6 "Dead Man Dating" 4398005
7 "The Fourth Sister" 4398006

Now had it been placed in the correct production order. Do you feel the experience of those episodes would change if viewed in this order?

Now I am curious why they aired them in this order - I believe because of how well received Dead Man Dating was they wanted to make sure that episode aired as earliest as possible to hook viewers. However does this mean Prue's birthday was not suppose to be in late October - had this aired as the sixth episode. Also interesting to note how close Prue and Phoebe's birthdays are. Sometimes I truly don't feel the star signs match up. Phoebe being the same star sign as Prue might explain why they clash so much dears.

[Deleted]

Perhaps they wanted to get Piper and Mark's little romance 'out of the way' before Leo came along. Note that if you watched the season in its production order Piper would be with Mark in 'Dead Man Dating' then suddenly over him and drooling over Leo in the next episode 'The Fourth Sister'.

[Esmeralda]

I always thought it had to do with them giving Piper some time for her test to show if she was pregnant with Jeremy's baby. Imagine if she had been the first to carry a demon baby...

But, Deano, I think you might have hit the actual reason. Although that sure doesn't prevent the obvious mixup in Season Two, where Piper drools over Dan in the 2x01 with no signs of Leo while they talk about "doing what we always do - talk about it later" in 2x02. I so often find myself wishing my favorite episode, "Morality Bites" had never been aired...

[Granny Charmed]

Sept 19, 2016 20:28:51 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

I always thought it had to do with them giving Piper some time for her test to show if she was pregnant with Jeremy's baby. Imagine if she had been the first to carry a demon baby...

But, Deano, I think you might have hit the actual reason. Although that sure doesn't prevent the obvious mixup in Season Two, where Piper drools over Dan in the 2x01 with no signs of Leo while they talk about "doing what we always do - talk about it later" in 2x02. I so often find myself wishing my favorite episode, "Morality Bites" had never been aired...

Very good spot Es - looking over the wiki episode list and production codes dear it appears Morality Bites *was* the fourth produced episode. So Piper and Dan's growing bond dear was through "Witch Trial", "The Painted World" and then "The Devil's Music". So Morality Bites feels so out of place. It is like the writers didn't even plan to bring Leo back in season 2 - and suddenly decided to throw him back in.



Maybe the writers went through major rewrites in these episodes dear - and changed some of the scripts and order to have Leo back *as if he never left*. Then dear he leaves yet again in P3H20. It seem's like dear the writers were fighting over keeping him gone - but someone kept wanting him brought back. 

Now Leo was suppose to stay gone after season 1 as has been mentioned many times - but if the production order was this way originally. Then somebody must of done major rewrites to the script The Devils Music and Morality Bites to suddenly have Leo in it as if he was never gone. Then changing the order to make it feel so out of place. 

Makes me wonder dears - if Morality Bites *was* originally intended to have even happened, *could* this script have actually been planned in late season 1 or thought about before they knew Andy was leaving. Hence why it feels so out of place - for all we know Andy's scenes became Leo's and they were rewritten. It just doesn't flow right with how Piper/Leo's relationship was handled and how out of sync it was with those early episode's being written.

[unakite]

My father works in the tv sector and told me that the episodes are shot according to the commitments of the actors and the structures to be used, not in the order in writing

[erikamarie]

Indeed I remember a Shannen 's interview in which she he denied that she had a fight on the set with Alyssa stating that exatly that day on set there was only Holly,having the two of them other tasks
I think filming a series is quite complex

[Esmeralda]

Something that we're not shown and that I wish we were was the *writing order* - which order were the episodes originally supposed to be aired, because doing it the way they did it, especially in Season One doesn't make a lot of sense.

Season Two does only if they were originally written with Prue and Andy in mind (with Piper the one who would've had problems with her powers in 'Witch Trial' and Prue both drooling over Dan and then finding that she and Andy had a daughter in the future, but they couldn't make her a witch and him a cop work, the same way we can see how Season Four without 'Charmed Again' and 'Hell Hath No Fury' and other "Paige-centric" episodes could easily have been written for Prue and Piper rather than Piper and Paige.

[erikamarie]

Writing seasons is not linear, maybe it happens to think and write episodes that will be used later

I believe that Prue appears in several episodes throughout the fourth season, and partly also the fifth, and this is the reason why Paige's personality for long remained undefined

[Astral Echo]

Having only just rewatched it, I'd need to again to make sure this works but this would've been the order I'd have aired the episodes:

1 "Something Wicca This Way Comes" 1498704
2 "I've Got You Under My Skin" 4398001
3 "The Wedding from Hell" 398004
4 "Dream Sorcerer" 4398002
5 "Dead Man Dating" 4398005
6 "Thank You for Not Morphing" 4398003
7 "The Fourth Sister" 4398006

Few reasons, one being Leo. This way his appearances happen in consecutive episodes. It also means the appearance of their father, which seems like a pretty big deal to me, occurs a little later after the sisters have settled in a little bit. Also, in TYFNM the sisters seem a little more prepared at handling threats. In TWFH for example, they don't seem at all prepared to take on Hecate but in TUFNM they've got a vanquishing spell, Prue and Piper have a better command over their powers and they seem to be working well as a trio.

The other element is Prue and Andy. And this is where I'd need to watch AGAIN to make sure it works. But from memory, I think it works.

[rebooted]

Sept 19, 2016 0:13:27 GMT -5 Granny Charmed said:

Something that I had noticed dears was the airing order and production order on season 1's first episodes were incorrect. 

Airing Order

1 "Something Wicca This Way Comes"  1498704 
2 "I've Got You Under My Skin"  4398001 
3 "Thank You for Not Morphing" 4398003 
4 "Dead Man Dating"  4398005 
5 "Dream Sorcerer"  4398002 
6 "The Wedding from Hell" 398004
7 "The Fourth Sister" 4398006 

Production Order

1 "Something Wicca This Way Comes" 1498704
2 "I've Got You Under My Skin" 4398001
3 "Dream Sorcerer" 4398002
4 "Thank You for Not Morphing" 4398003
5 "The Wedding from Hell" 398004
6 "Dead Man Dating" 4398005
7 "The Fourth Sister" 4398006

There is something about I've Got You Under My Skin and Dream Sorcerer that have the same storyline. (Originally Back to Back).
- They both focus on sometimes sexual-like predators and that all men are evil and want to exploit women. 
- So its nice to have Victor come back and reemerge as a nicer guy in Thank You for not Morphing as the third episode.

Also am I right in saying that TYFNMorphing was shot with exterior footage of the original house which was away from the set. I think they only did that for SWTWComes maybe which would have been filmed a long time before all these episodes. 

Also I think that the writers saw that there needed to be a grieving process after Jeremey before Piper got involved or fell in love again? so Dead Man Dating was postponed?

Dead Man Dating would have been the episode before Halloween which is the most ghostly I assume.

Season 1



1. 1-1 07 Oct 98 Something Wicca This Way Comes

2. 1-2 14 Oct 98 I've Got You Under My Skin

3. 1-3 21 Oct 98 Thank You for Not Morphing

4. 1-4 28 Oct 98 Dead Man Dating

5. 1-5 04 Nov 98 Dream Sorcerer

6. 1-6 11 Nov 98 The Wedding from Hell

7. 1-7 18 Nov 98 The Fourth Sister

8. 1-8 25 Nov 98 The Truth Is Out There... and It Hurts

9. 1-9 16 Dec 98 The Witch Is Back

10. 1-10 13 Jan 99 Wicca Envy

Also Leo only appears for a small first scene in Thank You For Not Morphing. It also makes me think that the ending scene of TYFNM was filmed later as well - as Alyssa Milano had to have been filmed as Patty in the home video. No when I think about it - that scene does seem really special - like it was made in isolation to the episode.

But it does seem strange that Leo is inserted into episode 3 but appears in Episode 7 - 10.

Original Script - end of 1x03 - it feels that Leo's character is cut into this episode right at the very end. Like they are thinking - Oh we are going to introduce this character later, so let's slip in in here in this part of the episode that is made after the actual production of the episode? I feel like the end of this episode was supposed to be different - like Victor was going to be reoccurring but they didn't want that to happen so they changed it at the very end?

(The shape shifters melt and disappear. Prue, Piper and Phoebe run over to Victor. Prue helps him up.)



Victor: For a moment there I wasn't sure what you would do.



Prue: For a moment there neither did I.



Phoebe: I thought you didn't want us to use our magic.



Victor: I didn't. Not as long as I still thought of you as my little girls. But you're obviously not anymore.



Piper: We're still you're little girls, we're just...



Prue: Witches.



Victor: Yeah, witches. Well, obviously you don't need your old man to protect you from anything.



Commercial Break



[Scene: Manor. Living room. Prue, Piper and Phoebe are there. Prue's on the phone.]



Prue: No, Andy, I'm fine really. Dad's gonna be here any minute, so can I take a rain check on dinner? Okay, thanks for the good advice.



(She hangs up.)



Phoebe: So he's dad now?



Prue: Yes, Phoebe, and by the way my dress looks good on you.



Phoebe: I don't have any nice clothes, Prue.



Prue: Dad said it was casual.



Phoebe: I don't care. I wanna look nice for him. Who knows how long it'll be before we see him again.



Piper: You don't think he's gonna stay around?



Phoebe: Well, let's just say I no longer have a romanticised image of him. And I'm glad about that actually. At least dad is real now.



Prue: And at least he's not a monster which is very reassuring considering we share his genes.



Piper: I'm just glad he came back no matter how long he stays. Kind of nice feeling like a normal family again. Whatever that means. (Phoebe nods. The doorbell rings.) Speak of the devil.



(Piper answers the door. Piper and Leo walk back in the living room.)



Prue: Uh, hi, you must be Mr. Wyatt.



Phoebe: The handyman?



Leo: Call me Leo.



Phoebe: Gladly.



Leo: This was on the steps. (He holds up a yellow large envelope. Prue takes it off him.) This place is, uh, you don't find many like this around anymore.



Piper: Yeah, it's kind of falling apart.



(Prue opens the envelope.)



Leo: The problem isn't the manor, it's the manner in which it was treated. I'd love to see more.



Phoebe: I would love to show it to you. The attic is right this way.



(She pushes Piper out of the way and Phoebe and Leo head towards the stairs.)



Prue: Guys.



(Phoebe turns back around.)



Phoebe: Uh, I'll be right up.



Prue: He's not coming.



Piper: Who's not coming?



Prue: Dad. He sent this. Um, (she reads the note) girls, something's come up, I hate to leave town. Can't make it to dinner. Probably best if we let the dust settle anyway. I know there's a lot you would like to forget but here's what I remember. Love dad.



(She holds up a video tape.)



[Time lapse. Prue, Piper and Phoebe are watching the video. On the video it's Christmas. Prue, Piper and Phoebe are there as kids. They are opening their presents. Victor kisses Prue on the cheek and then grabs Piper and lifts her in the air. He then asks what Phoebe got and she holds up a Barbie.]



End

[Silas]

Feb 7, 2021 19:59:30 GMT -5 rebooted said:

Sept 19, 2016 0:13:27 GMT -5 Granny Charmed said:

Something that I had noticed dears was the airing order and production order on season 1's first episodes were incorrect. 

There is something about I've Got You Under My Skin and Dream Sorcerer that have the same storyline. (Originally Back to Back).
- They both focus on sometimes sexual-like predators and that all men are evil and want to exploit women. 
- So its nice to have Victor come back and reemerge as a nicer guy in Thank You for not Morphing as the third episode.

Also am I right in saying that TYFNMorphing was shot with exterior footage of the original house which was away from the set. I think they only did that for SWTWComes maybe which would have been filmed a long time before all these episodes. 

Also I think that the writers saw that there needed to be a grieving process after Jeremey before Piper got involved or fell in love again? so Dead Man Dating was postponed?

Dead Man Dating would have been the episode before Halloween which is the most ghostly I assume.

Season 1



1. 1-1 07 Oct 98 Something Wicca This Way Comes

2. 1-2 14 Oct 98 I've Got You Under My Skin

3. 1-3 21 Oct 98 Thank You for Not Morphing

4. 1-4 28 Oct 98 Dead Man Dating

5. 1-5 04 Nov 98 Dream Sorcerer

6. 1-6 11 Nov 98 The Wedding from Hell

7. 1-7 18 Nov 98 The Fourth Sister

8. 1-8 25 Nov 98 The Truth Is Out There... and It Hurts

9. 1-9 16 Dec 98 The Witch Is Back

10. 1-10 13 Jan 99 Wicca Envy

Also Leo only appears for a small first scene in Thank You For Not Morphing. It also makes me think that the ending scene of TYFNM was filmed later as well - as Alyssa Milano had to have been filmed as Patty in the home video. No when I think about it - that scene does seem really special - like it was made in isolation to the episode.

But it does seem strange that Leo is inserted into episode 3 but appears in Episode 7 - 10.

Original Script - end of 1x03 - it feels that Leo's character is cut into this episode right at the very end. Like they are thinking - Oh we are going to introduce this character later, so let's slip in in here in this part of the episode that is made after the actual production of the episode? I feel like the end of this episode was supposed to be different - like Victor was going to be reoccurring but they didn't want that to happen so they changed it at the very end?

(The shape shifters melt and disappear. Prue, Piper and Phoebe run over to Victor. Prue helps him up.)



Victor: For a moment there I wasn't sure what you would do.



Prue: For a moment there neither did I.



Phoebe: I thought you didn't want us to use our magic.



Victor: I didn't. Not as long as I still thought of you as my little girls. But you're obviously not anymore.



Piper: We're still you're little girls, we're just...



Prue: Witches.



Victor: Yeah, witches. Well, obviously you don't need your old man to protect you from anything.



Commercial Break



[Scene: Manor. Living room. Prue, Piper and Phoebe are there. Prue's on the phone.]



Prue: No, Andy, I'm fine really. Dad's gonna be here any minute, so can I take a rain check on dinner? Okay, thanks for the good advice.



(She hangs up.)



Phoebe: So he's dad now?



Prue: Yes, Phoebe, and by the way my dress looks good on you.



Phoebe: I don't have any nice clothes, Prue.



Prue: Dad said it was casual.



Phoebe: I don't care. I wanna look nice for him. Who knows how long it'll be before we see him again.



Piper: You don't think he's gonna stay around?



Phoebe: Well, let's just say I no longer have a romanticised image of him. And I'm glad about that actually. At least dad is real now.



Prue: And at least he's not a monster which is very reassuring considering we share his genes.



Piper: I'm just glad he came back no matter how long he stays. Kind of nice feeling like a normal family again. Whatever that means. (Phoebe nods. The doorbell rings.) Speak of the devil.



(Piper answers the door. Piper and Leo walk back in the living room.)



Prue: Uh, hi, you must be Mr. Wyatt.



Phoebe: The handyman?



Leo: Call me Leo.



Phoebe: Gladly.



Leo: This was on the steps. (He holds up a yellow large envelope. Prue takes it off him.) This place is, uh, you don't find many like this around anymore.



Piper: Yeah, it's kind of falling apart.



(Prue opens the envelope.)



Leo: The problem isn't the manor, it's the manner in which it was treated. I'd love to see more.



Phoebe: I would love to show it to you. The attic is right this way.



(She pushes Piper out of the way and Phoebe and Leo head towards the stairs.)



Prue: Guys.



(Phoebe turns back around.)



Phoebe: Uh, I'll be right up.



Prue: He's not coming.



Piper: Who's not coming?



Prue: Dad. He sent this. Um, (she reads the note) girls, something's come up, I hate to leave town. Can't make it to dinner. Probably best if we let the dust settle anyway. I know there's a lot you would like to forget but here's what I remember. Love dad.



(She holds up a video tape.)



[Time lapse. Prue, Piper and Phoebe are watching the video. On the video it's Christmas. Prue, Piper and Phoebe are there as kids. They are opening their presents. Victor kisses Prue on the cheek and then grabs Piper and lifts her in the air. He then asks what Phoebe got and she holds up a Barbie.]



End

Very interesting, I'm currently watching S1 in production order this way. Although this is my first watch of S1-S3, so I can't tell the differences between production verses airing order.

But, the way I watched, I do think the order fits, since Dead Man Dating aired before Dream Sorcerer (in DS - Prue is 27, but in DMD, she turns 28). Prue and Andy are dating in DMD, but in DS, they are not. 

So the production order seems to work for Prue and Andy's arcs.

Very cool observation with  Thank You For Not Morphing. Yeah, Leo suddenly showing up, felt so random and out of place, you could just take him out, and it doesn't change a thing to the story. I have only watch through Dead Man Dating in production order. So not up to 'The Fourth Sister' yet, which is next in my watch. 

There's a chance, that the episode ran too short for runtime, so they had to quickly think of something to add to the episode, and wrote the Leo scene in later and put it in, after already having shoot the episode. 

I'd love to know what the written script order was. Not all scripts are written in chronological order to production I believe. Some get rewrites or set aside, to get more work done on them, so scripts that are finished get shoot first before ones that were started.  

The Wedding From Hell, felt like the first script written after the pilot, due to all the references to Chef Moore and Jeremy. The Spencer's were even shocked that Chef Moore was not doing the wedding no more, and Piper was assigned and she said there had been a change. I'd think they would have known this long before the wedding happened that Piper was assigned. But, perhaps Chef Moore quit, and never cared what he left behind. 

[Astral Echo]

I think you're right Silas. Piper says Chef Moore has quit in I've Got You Under My Skin but then in Wedding From Hell, it seems like he's just working away.

So does Wedding From Hell work as episode 2? Would explain why they're not quick to save the stripper as they're still unsure exactly what they're supposed to do. But then they have Piper's church scenes in IGYUMS that work really well as an episode 2 plot line. And obviously Prue has to settle in at Bucklands. I guess it doesn't really work that way round.

Still, I you could be right about the episode itself being written first but Prue being at Bucklands is an issue. In the first draft, would Andy still have gone to her anyway considering her expertise?

[Silas]

Feb 8, 2021 11:05:49 GMT -5 Astral Echo said:

I think you're right Silas . Piper says Chef Moore has quit in I've Got You Under My Skin but then in Wedding From Hell, it seems like he's just working away.

So does Wedding From Hell work as episode 2? Would explain why they're not quick to save the stripper as they're still unsure exactly what they're supposed to do. But then they have Piper's church scenes in IGYUMS that work really well as an episode 2 plot line. And obviously Prue has to settle in at Bucklands. I guess it doesn't really work that way round.

Still, I you could be right about the episode itself being written first but Prue being at Bucklands is an issue. In the first draft, would Andy still have gone to her anyway considering her expertise?

That is the impression I got from the episode, he was just working away. Perhaps the writers didn't proof read the script of Wedding From Hell, and it did go through rewrites, and didn't fix continuity better, with this being the first script written after the pilot. 

Astral Echo, that is a good observation about Prue being settled at Bucklands and why Andy would go to her for her expertise. Perhaps this one fits as episode 3.