Sabrina Review Hollywood Reporter 2002 August 2

Changes brewin' at WB's Sabrina
By Nellie Andreeva

As the title character of the WB Network's Sabrina the Teenage Witch makes the transition from adolescence to adulthood, the 6-year-old show is also going through a major transition in front of and behind the camera.

Bumper Robinson (Fox's Living Single), Diana-Maria Riva (ABC's Philly), John Ducey (ABC's Oh Grow Up) and Andrew W. Walker (The WB's Maybe It's Me) have been cast as regulars on the Hartbreak Films/Viacom Prods. show, which will feature Sabrina (Melissa Joan Hart) as a new college graduate starting her first job at a music magazine.

"It was time for her to grow up, it was time to get her on her own two feet, and yes, it was time to reinvent the show," executive producer Paula Hart said. "It's hard to keep generating stories year after year after year if it stays the same."

The series' stories this season will be generated by a new writing staff as 12 of the show's 13 writers have been replaced.

The new behind-the-scenes additions include David Babcock, who recently joined the show as an executive producer and showrunner, and writers Mike Larsen (The WB's Reba), Trisha Baker (MTV's The Osbournes), Bill Rosenthal (NBC's Working) and Adam & David Hamburger (ABC's My Wife and Kids).

Also changing is the look of the show, Hart said. "We're gonna go back to the faster-pace scenes that we had in the beginning, where there were many more scenes than normal sitcoms and that worked well for us," she said.

What is bound to stay the same is the name of the series. While it has been outgrown by the character's age, the name will not be changed because of contractual and legal reasons.

The show's producers are taking full advantage of Sabrina's new workplace at a music magazine by lining up high-profile music acts as guest stars next season, including Ashanti, Goo Goo Dolls, Course of Nature and Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth.

Corporate Viacom synergy is also put to use in the Viacom Prods. series with the season opener set to take place on the set of MTV's Total Request Live and one of Nickelodeon's biggest stars, SpongeBob SquarePants, set to appear in a sweep episode.

With the departure of Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick, who played Sabrina's aunts for six years, their house will be refurbished into a young women's pad, shared by Sabrina and her college roommates, played by Elisa Donovan and Soleil Moon Frye.

Robinson, repped by Writers & Artists, will play a photographer at the magazine, Riva will play the magazine's senior editor, Ducey will play an associate publisher, while Walker, repped by the Gersh Agency, is a musician-turned-writer.