Sabrina The Teenaged Witch!
By Kurt Kuersteiner (© 2003 Monsterwax Monster Trading Cards) for The Wrapper Magazine
Here's a recent arrival that readers might find interesting: Dart Flipcards has just released "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" cards. The TV series is a big hit with new-agers and Wicca wanna-bees (not to mention kids who wished they were able to turn the school bully into a frog with the twitch of the nose). The set consists of 72 full color cards, six prismatic cards (1:18 packs) and six autograph cards (1:360 packs). The stars who signed were Melissa Joan Hart, Martin Mull, Beth Broderick, Caroline Rhea, Nate Richert and Jenna Leigh Green.
Not surprisingly, this is a well executed set. Anyone who enjoys the show will probably enjoy collecting the cards. What is a surprise is the amount of various "also availables". Dart offers a Prismatic Collector Binder, a Sabrina Key Chain, a Sabrina plush teddy bear and Salem plush cat. Packs of Sabrina are sold in the standard 36 pack display box, but they are also available in J-packs (a six card pack within a J-pack).
There are also 576 of the printing plates available for sale at $24.95 each. That probably means each of the 72 regular card images will be cut of out of the full sized sheet and sold separately. A standard sheet is 144 images (72 regular images ganged up twice on one sheet). A four color process requires four separate printing sheets (one for each primary color). Multiply 144 by 4 and presto! 576 separate images for sale if they are cut out of the metal off-set master sheets. Each card would be available twice in four different colors.
Does anyone out there remember Martin Mull in Fernwood Tonight? It was a 1980s spoof on late night TV talk shows and was really hilarious. The only problem was that real TV talk shows kept getting more and more stupid, until the typical viewer couldn't tell Fermwood was a spoof anymore! (Come to think of it, the series was very similar to David Letterman.)
Let us also remember Sabrina the 1970s cartoon. It was a cross between Archie and the Munsters. Broom Hilda was my favorite witch, and I believe Jose and the Pussycats were included somewhere in the plot lines as well. They probably sung the musical interludes. Remember those? A cartoon rock bad would perform a "music video" long before MTV. We've come a long way baby...
Kids today are lucky. They get card sets to immortalize EVERYTHING they see on TV. The rest of us have to rack our brains to dredge up those child hood memories. But who am I to complain? My father called my generation slackers for using calculators! (I wonder what his grandfather complained to him about?)