Charmed is an American television series that originally aired from October 7, 1998 until May 21, 2006, when its network, The WB, ceased operation. The series was created in 1998 by writer Constance M. Burge and was produced by Aaron Spelling and his Spelling Television company, with the show runner being writer-director Brad Kern.

The series narrative follows the four Halliwell sisters, Prue, Piper, Phoebe and, later, Paige, the culmination of the long Warren line of powerful, good witches. The sisters, despite being perceived as normal by the non-supernatural community, are known as The Charmed Ones, whose prophesized destiny is to battle against evil beings, such as demons and warlocks, in order to protect innocent lives from being endangered. Each sister possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve, while they also attempt to hold normal working lives in San Francisco. Keeping their paranormal identities separate and secret from their ordinary lives forms part of the series' tension and challenges, with the exposure of magic having far-reaching consequences on relationships and has resulted in a number of police and FBI investigations throughout the series.

The premiere episode, "Something Wicca This Way Comes", pulled in 7.70 million viewers, breaking the record for the highest rated debut for the WB network. This went unchallenged until the series premiere of Smallville in 2001, when it premiered with an audience of 8.40 million viewers. In January 2006, producer Brad Kern declared that Charmed was the longest running hour-long series featuring all female leads (The Facts of Life being a 30 minute sitcom). The series finale, "Forever Charmed", ended with a season high of 4.49 million viewers.

Development

In 1998, the Warner Brothers Television Network began searching for a new high concept drama series, and looked to Spelling Television, which had already produced the network's most successful series 7th Heaven, to create it and follow up with their success. Expanding on the popularity of supernatural themed dramas, the production company explored different forms of mythology in order to find mythological characters they could realise with contemporary storytelling. "Genesis" Documentary, Charmed: The Complete Final Season Region 1 DVD Their chosen theme was witchcraft, which had become popular during the decade with films such as The Craft.

In order to begin creating the series, Constance M. Burge was hired as the creator as she was under contract with Spelling Television after having conceived the drama Savannah. When the theme of witchcraft was first pitched to her, she was aware only of the preconceived stereotypes of witches (flying brooms, black cats, and warts). After heavy research into Wicca, she discovered that the reality differed immensely from her notionsGross, Edward, "Interview with Constance M. Burge," TV Zone Magazine, Issue #126, 2000 and instead, she aimed at telling a story of witches who were both good, and looked and acted like ordinary people. With this, her initial concept was a series set in Boston, Massachusetts about three friends and roommates who were all witches. However, executive producer E. Duke Vincent lacked confidence in the idea and asked "why would anybody want to watch a show about three witches?" He proposed that the series focus on family values and developed the series-long mantra of it being about "three sisters who happen to be witches, not three witches who happen to be sisters." Aaron Spelling warmed to Burge's ideas and, after the concept was revised to a series about three sisters (now living in San Francisco) descended from a long line of witches, it was pitched to the WB's Susanne Daniels, who liked it immediately, allowing the series to begin development.