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| Charmed | |
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| Genre | Supernatural Drama |
| Created by | Constance M. Burge |
| Starring | Holly Marie Combs Alyssa Milano Rose McGowan (2001-2006) Shannen Doherty (1998-2001) Brian Krause Dorian Gregory (1998-2005) Julian McMahon (2000-2003; guest star 2005) |
| Opening theme | "How Soon Is Now?" by Love Spit Love |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 178 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Brad Kern Constance M. Burge Aaron Spelling E. Duke Vincent |
| Running time | 40-45 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | The WB |
| Original run | October 7, 1998 – May 21, 2006 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Charmed is an American television series that ran for eight seasons on the now defunct WB. It was produced by Aaron Spelling and is about three sisters who are the world's most powerful good witches, known throughout the supernatural community as "The Charmed Ones", but known to everyone else as the Halliwells. Each sister possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve over the course of their lives. The Charmed Ones live together in a house they call the manor and use their supernatural abilities to battle the warlocks, demons and other evil forces that populate San Francisco, California.
The show was the longest lasting of its generation of supernatural-themed shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Roswell. It is also noted for its mixture of multiple genres (from horror and fantasy to comedy and even soap), as well as continuing after a number of archetypal jump the shark moments, most famously the departure of one of the leading actresses (Shannen Doherty) at the end of season three. It also had (at the time) the highest rated debut for the WB Television Network with 7.70 million viewers tuning in for the series premiere "Something Wicca This Way Comes" in 1998 (this was later surpassed with the 2001 debut of Smallville which rated at 8.40 million viewers).
The theme song for Charmed, "How Soon Is Now?" is a cover version performed by Love Spit Love. The same version was previously used in the film The Craft. The original version was written and recorded by The Smiths.
The series ended its run on May 21, 2006 in the US.[1][2] The Charmed series finale, "Forever Charmed", pulled in a season high of 4.49 million viewers.
Charmed is currently in syndication at TNT.[1]
Contents |
Charmed is the story of the three Halliwell sisters, Prudence, Piper and Phoebe, discovering that they are the world's most powerful good witches, The Charmed Ones; each gifted with innate magical powers they must collectively use to defend the "innocents" of San Francisco from demons, warlocks and other evil beings. During their fight against the forces of evil, eldest sister Prue is killed, breaking the united Power of Three. However, the Charmed triple-destiny is restored with the introduction of a long-lost fourth half-sister, Paige Matthews, who is half-witch and half-whitelighter. During Seasons One to Four, the sisters' combined destiny was to vanquish the Source of All Evil, the ruler of the Underworld, and his demonic minions. Upon fulfilling their primary destiny, the Charmed Ones were fated to destroy the Nexus; engage in the Ultimate Battle; and usher in the next generation of good witches. On top of their supernatural lives, the four sisters must also contend with serious issues in the real world (such as relationships, careers, marriage, childbirth, illness and death), as well as preventing the exposure of magic, the subject of several police investigations throughout the series.
| "Before Melinda was burned at the stake, she vowed that each generation of Warren witches would become stronger and stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters [...] the most powerful witches the world has ever known." Phoebe Halliwell, "Something Wicca This Way Comes" (Written by Constance M. Burge) |
The story of Charmed begins with the three Halliwell sisters — Prudence, Piper and Phoebe — coming together six months after the death of their grandmother, Grams. Moving back into the family Manor in San Francisco, the youngest sister, Phoebe, discovers an old book — the Book of Shadows — in the attic. Reading an incantation from it, she unwittingly sets in motion events that fulfill an ancient prophecy. Strange and harrowing occurrences begin which eventually lead the sisters to realise that they are witches.
They discover that they not only possess supernatural powers, but also come from a long line of powerful witches. The first in the line, Melinda Warren, possessed three powers: the power to move things with her mind, to freeze time, and to see into the future. Melinda was burned at the stake in the Salem Witch Trials. However, before she died, Melinda prophesied that each coming generation of Warren (later Halliwell) witches would grow stronger and stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters -- the strongest good witches the world had ever seen; the three sisters would form The Power of Three, the most powerful magical force ever.
Prue Halliwell, the eldest, most over-protective sister, develops the power of telekinesis and can move things with her mind. Her telekinesis is usually triggered by anger, and is first channeled through her eyes. But she can soon channel her telekinesis through her hands, like her ancestor Brianna and her Grams. She later gains the power of astral projection, where she can make a "copy" of herself appear wherever she desires by projecting her consciousness, while her physical body is left standing there unconscious. Her power of astral projection develops from her power of telekinesis, when she feels an overwhelming need to be in two places at once, in the season two episode "Ms. Hellfire". While in that status, she is unable to use her power of telekinesis. In the season three episode, "Primrose Empath", one of the last times she is shown using her astral projection power, she is able to project her "clone", while her physical body stays conscious.
Piper, at first the middle child and mediator, and later eldest, receives the power to freeze objects therefore essentially "stop time". At first, Piper's control of her powers is weak. Her range is not very far, and she cannot keep people or objects frozen for very long. As her powers grow, she is able to expand her range. She can freeze entire rooms, or direct her freezing powers only at certain objects or people without freezing everyone and everything. By season three, she can also keep demons or people frozen while unfreezing only certain body parts, such as demon heads, which comes in handy when she questions them. Piper can also keep people frozen for very long periods of time without her having to be in the room to "hold the freeze". It is only late in season three when it is revealed that her power to freeze works at a molecular level; they work by slowing molecules down to the point where they appear frozen in time. This power later evolves so that instead of slowing molecules down to freeze them, she is able to speed molecules up, causing objects (and demons) to explode. Her freezing power is triggered by fear, panic, or surprise, while her explosion power (before she gains full control of it) is triggered by anger.
Phoebe, the youngest sister receives the power of premonition, which allows her to see future events. Her power is triggered through touching people or objects (or, if the psychic residue of an area is strong enough, simply being in the room). While her premonitions are initially passive, she eventually gains control to the point that the power is considered an active one. Over time, her power of premonition evolves in several ways. She begins having visions of past events in season one's episode, "The Witch Is Back", making her the first of the sisters whose powers advance. Her powers of premonition later grow stronger, so that she is able to feel the emotions in her premonition; for example, she feels her mother drowning when she receives a vision of the past in season two's episode, "P3 H2O". This ability to feel the emotions within her premonitions may serve as a foretelling of her soon-to-come empathic powers. In season five's episode, "The Eyes Have It", after not having had any premonitions in months due to overwork and overstress, she seeks the help of Gypsies to unblock her powers. She gets a "super premonition", in which she astral projects into the future within her premonition; her ability to feel what happens grows so that when she is hurt in her vision, her present self is also physically harmed. Though this type of premonition occurs very rarely, she is also able to astral project into the future and converse with her future self in season eight. Phoebe also has the power to share premonitions with others who have the gift of foresight. Phoebe eventually obtains the active power to levitate, which is useful in combination with her martial arts skills. Her power of levitation is first seen in season three's premiere episode, "The Honeymoon's Over". Her empathic powers, which develop in season six, allow her to read others' emotions and affect the supernatural powers of other beings (whose powers are tied to their emotions). She can channel the powers and reflect the attacks of demons and other magical beings, such as the Valkyries seen in "Valhalley of the Dolls". In season six she has her powers removed for misuse, but is re-awarded her premonition power in the seventh season of the show.
After the tragic and unexpected death of Prue, Piper and Phoebe learn that they have a half-sister named Paige, born to their mother Patty and Sam, her Whitelighter, a sort of guardian angel for witches and future whitelighters. As this type of relationship was forbidden and unheard of at the time, Patty and Sam gave the baby to Sister Agnes, a nun, and the Matthews family later adopted her. Her birth parents requested only that her first name begin with 'P', to continue the tradition. From her Whitelighter father, Paige inherits the power to "orb". At first, Paige can only orb out momentarily and reappear in the same spot; this is triggered by fear and surprise. She quickly develops the power to orb wherever she wants. According to the prophecy of the three Charmed Ones with three distinct powers, the third sister has the power of telekinesis. Being half witch and half whitelighter affects the powers Paige inherits from Patty: instead of telekinesis like Prue's, Paige is able to move an object by calling for it; the object then orbs to her, or to any location she wishes. This power is called telekinetic orbing. Though this power requires the use of verbal commands, she can sometimes use it silently, such as when in a state of enhanced power. In Season 5, Paige reveals that she also has other Whitelighter powers, such as glamouring. Halfway through Season 8, Paige's Whitelighter side develops more fully when she becomes able to magically heal others and to locate charges by sensing them.
A central theme throughout the show's run is the sisters' struggle to balance their normal lives with their supernatural responsibilities. The burden of keeping their destinies a secret from the outside world repeatedly creates tensions in their friendships, workplaces, and romantic relationships. Only a few know their secret and help them on a regular basis. The most important is Leo Wyatt, a Whitelighter assigned by the Elders to guide and protect the sisters. Leo means a great deal to the sisters both professionally and personally: he heals their wounds, advises them collectively and individually, and mediates between them and the enigmatic Elders. He also becomes the love of Piper's life, her husband and the father of her children. Others who keep the Charmed Ones' secret over the years include police inspectors Andy Trudeau and Darryl Morris, tormented half-demon Cole Turner, the mysterious time-traveler Chris Perry, sisters Christy and Billie Jenkins, Paige's husband Henry Mitchell, and the many other creatures in the magical community.
| The Charmed Ones | |
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 The Charmed Ones from Seasons 4 - 8. (From left) Alyssa Milano as Phoebe, Holly Marie Combs as Piper, and Rose McGowan as Paige. |
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| First appearance | "Something Wicca This Way Comes" |
| Last appearance | "Forever Charmed" |
| Created by | Constance M. Burge |
| Statistics | |
| Name | The Charmed Ones |
| Purpose | Protecting the innocent from evil. |
| Powers | "The Power of Three", a prophesised collective magic of great strength. Each member also inherited a magical power from their ancestor Melinda Warren — telekinesis, molecular immobilization, or seeing the future. |
| Membership | Current members Deceased members Allies
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Notes
^a Only officially credited in one Season 7 episode, "Imaginary Fiends", and from the Season 8 episode "12 Angry Zen" onwards.
The initial five episodes list the actors as follows: Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, T.W. King, Dorian Gregory, and Alyssa Milano. Beginning with episode six, the actresses playing the Charmed Ones are always listed first, beginning with the leading role of Shannen Doherty. The leads are then followed by whichever supporting actors are contracted for that particular season. If one of the supporting players does not appear in a particular episode, his/her name also does not appear in the opening credits. The second episode of season two, "Morality Bites", is the only episode in which only the sisters appear in the opening credits.
In seasons one through three, the lead actresses are listed by character age: Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Milano. After Shannen Doherty's departure, the veteran leading actresses receive the coveted first and last billing with their new co-star in the middle: Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, and Holly Marie Combs as "Piper". Brian Krause, who became a main cast member halfway through the second season, is listed fourth in the credits from season three to season seven. During season eight, however, Kaley Cuoco took the fourth spot.
The series began its first season on October 7, 1998 and aired for seven years until its finale on May 21, 2006. During its eight seasons, 178 episodes were aired, making Charmed the longest running hour-long television series with all female leads.[4] The series ended when its American network, The WB, was shut down in order for it to merge into a new network station. Each season consists of 22 episodes with the exclusion of the fifth and sixth seasons which contain 23 episodes including their double-episode premiers and double-episode finales. In the United Kingdom, the entire series aired on the digital network Living TV and on the terrestrial channel Five from 1998 until 2006, when Channel 4 purchased the rights to air the final season on its T4 scheduling slot.[5] Currently, all eight seasons of the series are available on DVD, including two all-season collections (The Book of Shadows for Region 4, and The Magic Chest for Region 2). Following the series finale, the show continued in its non-canon series of novels revolving around the principal characters.
Charmed proved to be a success early on, the shows' premiere episode "Something Wicca This Way Comes" pulled in more than 7.7 million viewers; and the show was ranked the #2 rated show on The WB network (tied with Dawson's Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) with a average of 5.4 million viewers per episode. The show also was extremely successful during its second season with a average of 4.7 million per episode and again tying with Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the #2 slot; during the shows 3rd season again placed 3rd with a average of 4.8 million per episode.
| Season | Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | Viewer Rank (#) | Network Rank (#) | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | October 10, 1998 | May 26, 1999 | 1998-1999 | 118[6] | 2 | 5.4 |
| 2nd | September 30, 1999 | May 18, 2000 | 1999-2000 | 120[7] | 2 | 4.7 |
| 3rd | October 05, 2000 | May 17, 2001 | 2000-2001 | 117[8] | 2 | 4.8 |
| 4th | October 04, 2001 | May 16, 2002 | 2001-2002 | 129[9] | 6 | 4.2 |
| 5th | September 22, 2002 | May 11, 2003 | 2002-2003 | 128[10] | 6 | 4.5 |
| 6th | September 28, 2003 | May 16, 2004 | 2003-2004 | 154[11] | 5 | 4.3 |
| 7th | September 12, 2004 | May 22, 2005 | 2004-2005 | 132[12] | 7 | 3.5 |
| 8th | September 25, 2005 | May 21, 2006 | 2005-2006 | 132[13] | 7 | 3.5 |
Prue initially had one of the three powers passed on from their ancestor, Melinda Warren, the power of telekinesis, the ability to move objects with her mind. Activated by stress initially she channeled it through her eyes fooling many demons. She was later able to direct the power with her hands with great force. In Season 2 she received the power of astral projection, the ability to be in two places at once. However the power had limitation: she could move only in one body at a time and her astral self could not use telekinetic powers. This power was an extension of her telekinesis, where she had previously moved objects, she could now move her body. Prue later develeoped her telekinetic skills further in that she could move herself in the air, similar to Phoebe's levitation power, except the limit and height is unknown. Because of a spell a demon placed on her that gave her the gift of empathy, which channeled into her powers, giving her a power advance, she also developed her astral self in that she could become flacid and later learned to awaken her physical body as well as her astral self, but never tended to use both waking states after this point.[14]
Future Powers:
Prue may have developed the ability to telekinetically move things so fast that they would explode (as demonstrated in "Morality Bites" when she traveled to the future) similar to Piper's power of molecular combustion, except the strength of this power was unlimited. Piper stated in "The Devil's Music" that Prue should blow a demon up using the power that she used in the future, but didn't need to and never tried after that, although sometimes she would accidentally blow things up unwillingly, as in "Primrose Empath".
Past Life Powers:
In her past life, Prue had the power of cryokinesis, the abiltiy to reduce temperature to create ice. Prue used this power by blowing on her hand and shooting out a cloud of mist that turns whatever it touches to ice.[15]
Piper initially had the second of the three powers passed on from their ancestor, Melinda Warren, the power of temporal statis, the ability to freeze time. She generally channeled her power through her hands. It was later explained by Leo in Season 3 that her power slows down molecules so they become motionless.[16] The limitation of Piper's power appears to be area. Initially Piper could freeze things but had no control over how long it lasted; her power trigger was fear or shock. She gradually mastered her power and was able to unfreeze things, selectively freeze and unfreeze and even unfreeze certain body parts. Some demons or warlocks are also unaffected by her freezing power, and sometimes they are resistant and can 'fight' through the freezing power.[17] As time went on she learned to channel this power so strongly that she can freeze most upper level demons and warlocks and was even able to freeze some good witches at will, however during this period, Billie was no longer a witch, but a magical beast. Her power grew into its opposite in Season 3, allowing her to be able to blow things up: molecular combustion, meaning molecules are sped up to the point that they combust.[16] She uses this power mainly to wound or vanquish demons without a spell or potion. It is thought that since good witches are resistant to Piper's freezing power, then they would be immune to her explosive power also.This also suggests that demons and warlocks who are resistant to Piper's freezing power are also resistant to her blowing up power.
When evil:
In Season 3 when turned evil she was given a cryokinetic-type power, where she could literally freeze things.Freezing in a way where things became frozen over like ice.
Past life power:
Pipers past life power was molecular immobilisation, because Pipers past life was her Gram's mother. Which meant that Piper was always destined to have the freezing power.
Phoebe was blessed with the passive power of premonition. She was able to see into the future and the past. This power was initially a passive one, and sometimes it was considered to be active because Phoebe could get a premonition by trying to request one. Her power enabled her to save innocents by preventing what was going to happen to them. Sometimes Phoebe's premonition power was strong enough to enable her to astral project into the future shown.[18] In Season 3 Phoebe received the power of levitation which gradully grew stronger so she could jump higher, however this was not the ability to fly, like Phoebe experienced in the season two finale, "Be careful what you witch for". Season 6 saw the development of the power of empathy where she could feel the emotions of those around her. She also used this power to channel other's powers, if their powers were linked to their emotions.[19] The power of empathy was thought to be an extension of her power of premonition, where she was able to feel emotions within her premonitions. In season 6, Phoebe's powers were stripped by the tribunal, a council made up of demons and elders.[20] It was a punishment for using her powers carelessly and sometimes for personal gain. She later earned back her power of premonition in season 7.[20]
Future Powers: In Season 2 , Phoebe's future power is shown.[21] She is given a power which allows her to shoot electicity through her hands. We also see Phoebe levitate, which she receives in season 3.
Past Powers:
In her past life, Phoebe had the power of pyrokinesis, the ability to create and control fire.[15] Phoebe appears to have this power in the present when she is pregnant with her demonic baby, however it is revealed that the baby is the one who has and controls the power.[22]
Paige's powers were a combination of her whitelighter and witch heritage. Her telekinesis takes the form of telekinetic orbing, where she has to call for an object and it will move with orbs. This can sometimes take the form of psychokinetic orbing, where she can sometimes move objects to and from places she cannot see, She first had a glimpse at willing things with her mind in Season 4 when she went to limbo and in Season 6 when she moves King Arthur's sword and stone up to the attic in "Sword in the City".[23] As a whitelighter, she could also orb, initially a response to fear. Paige later mastered this ability and could orb to places willingly and take people with her if necessary. Paige could also glamour, which was the ability to change one's appearance, which was a whitelighter ability.[24] Paige also has the power to sense witches and whitelighters, as well as innocents in danger due to her half-whitelighter genes. In Season 8, Paige develops the power to heal, which was triggered by love. She later used this ability to heal at will.[25]
Future Powers:
As a half-witch, half-whitelighter, Paige could receive a number of different powers. It is believed that Paige will gain more whitelighter abilities, leading her to become a full-time whitelighter, yet continuing on with her witch duties.[26]
Past Powers:
In her past life, Paige had the power of Elemental Generation, the ability to conjure and control the elements of earth, fire, wind and water, and even lighting.
Penelope "Grams" Halliwell had the power of telekinesis which she controlled through her hands.[27]
Patricia "Patty" Halliwell had the power to freeze time.[27]
Chris Halliwell, Piper's second son has the power of telekinesis, like Prue,[19] as well as the ability to orb like his whitelighter father.[28]
Wyatt Matthew Halliwell was Piper's first son. Chris came back from the future trying to save Wyatt from becoming evil. Wyatt was the first charmed boy, therefore had the most power and was able to use it in the womb, which Chris was not. He had many powers, he could heal wounds, orb, he could bring up a force feild which he used to protect him and occasionally others. He also could telekinetically orb and bring objects to life like he did with the dragon and his toys.
Other Known Powers
Deflection - the ability to deflect or negate the tangible and active powers of others
Force Fields - the ability to create solid barriers of magical force, capable of blocking both physical and magical attacks
Transmogrification - the ability to alter one's own shape
Transfiguration - the ability to alter the shape of objects and other people
Cloning - the ability to duplicate oneself but it cannot be sustained for long periods of time
Invisbility - the ability to render oneself completely invisible to the visul detection of others
Celerity - the ability to move at accelerated speeds, also called Hyper-speed
Conjuring - the ability to instantly conjuring objects from nothing
Phasing - the ability to pass through solid objects
Blitzing - the ability to psychically "overload" another's mind, causing pain, unconsciousness or even death
Projection - the ability to alter objects and people in any way without the need for a spell or potion
Psychokinesis - the ability to move objects that are not in one's line of sight, much stronger than conventional telekinesis
Telepathy - the ability to hear and broadcast the thoughts of oneself and others
Pyrokinesis - the ability to create and/or manipulate fire, such notable abilities are firethrowing, fire balls and fire-starting
Cryokinesis - the ability to create and/or mannipulate ice and extremely low temperatures, such as ice-like breath and casting objects and people in solid ice.
Acid Secretion - Ability to generate acid from your hands.
Energy Balls - the ability to throw balls of electricity.
Blinking - instant transportation in the blink of an eye, used only by warlocks.
Shimmering - A form of teleportation.
Flaming - A form of teleportation by flames.
Smoking - the ability to teleport in smoke.
Healing - the ability to heal wounded humans.
Glamouring - the ability to change ones appearance.
Memory dust -whitelighters use it to erase people short term memories in emergencies
The series always focuses on the constant development of its main characters; and each of the main characters has recurring problem points in their lives. As women in their late twenties and early thirties, the sisters constantly have to cope with balancing their magical lives with their everyday, professional lives (Prue's professional career, Phoebe's studies and afterwards her job, Piper's ownership of her club and then her role as a mother, and Paige's accepting magic as a general part of her life). Another returning source of personal conflict is the sisters' love lives, and the problems that arise from hiding a part of their lives from their human relationships; and hiding their forbidden relationships with members of the magical community from the rest of the magical community: Leo and Piper's conflict with the Elders, and Phoebe loving a half-demon Cole.
As the sisters have to struggle with many forces of darkness, death is a common event in their lives. Each of the sisters die at several points in the series, with Piper dying nine times, Phoebe dying eleven times, Paige dying seven times, and Prue dying three times. Except for Prue's death in the third season finale, the protagonists always find a way to return the respective Halliwells back to life through the Cleaners, Leo's Avatar powers, changing time, soul trading etc.
However, not every death on Charmed has been so easily reversed; as several important supporting characters have died without being revived, such as Andy,[29] Cole (2nd vanquish)[30] , Kyle Brody, and adult Chris[31] . Although Chris, Kyle, and Cole appear in episodes after their deaths, none are revived: Kyle reveals to Paige that he became a Whitelighter, Cole is in limbo, and Chris's first appearance is as a personification of Leo's guilt, his second is a Chris from a different future.
In the world of Charmed, the existence of magic as well as benevolent and malevolent forces remains hidden from human society. A recurring problem for the protagonists during the series is finding a way to fight the forces of evil without exposing themselves as magical beings. Spanning the series run, the show's writers featured episodes that detail the dangerous consequences of magic being exposed to human society. Notably in the second season episode "Morality Bites", which sees Phoebe's execution in an alternate future; the third season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose", which leads to the death of Prue; and the seventh season finale "Something Wicca This Way Goes", in which events lead the three witches and Leo to fake their deaths and assume new identities.
The sixth season episode "Forget Me...Not" introduced the Cleaners, a pair of magical beings capable of warping reality in order to maintain magic's secret. While occasionally tasked with cleaning up after the Charmed Ones, the sisters generally covered their own tracks. It is never explained why these characters did not intervene during the events of "All Hell Breaks Loose." Some fans claim the events (i.e. Prue's death) was destiny having its way and the Cleaners most likely would not have been allowed to intervene.
Throughout the show, the powers of the sisters are constantly being either swapped or stolen by demons.
In Season One's "Wicca Envy", Prue is framed by her boss Rex for stealing a tiara. In order to keep from going to jail, the sisters are forced to recite an incantation that will remove all of their powers and put them into a jar. When they were about to hand it over to Rex, Leo "healed" the Book of Shadows which gave the sisters their powers back. Later in the episode, the sisters decided to burn the spell and agree to always keep their powers. In Season One's episode "Love Hurts", Piper casts a spell to switch her power to freeze time with Leo's power to heal in order to save him from the arrow of a Darklighter. The spell was meant to switch only their powers, but it also caused Phoebe to obtain the power of Telekinesis whereas Prue developed the power of Premonition. The spell used to do this was as follows:
What's mine is yours
What's yours is mine
Let our powers cross the line
I offer up my gift to share
Switch our powers through the air
It took Piper a while to figure out that the "trigger" for Leo's Healing power was love.
In Season Two's "How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans", the sisters' grandmother's old friend, Gail Altman, and her two friends chanted to summon the spirit of a demon named Cryto. The reason for this was that they wanted to be young and healthy again(Gail was in fact dying of cancer). Cryto however wanted something in return and the offer of a body was not enough, he wanted the powers of the Charmed ones. So Gail made a potion that would allow the Charmed ones powers to be stolen and then tricked them into drinking it. When Cryto got what he wanted he killed the other two women that had helped Gail gain youth and health, and threatened Gail with death if she did not obey him. When the Charmed ones realized that they had lost their powers they had to make Cryto use the power he did not know he had which was astral projection. When he was forced to astral project upstairs to try and stop Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), the body that was left motionless was force fed the potion and the Charmed ones read out a spell which returned their powers.
In Season Four's "Charmed and Dangerous", the Source used the Hollow to obtain the sisters' powers. He managed to steal Piper's and Paige's, but was not interested in obtaining Phoebe's because her powers were too weak. But Cole used the Hollow against him, and with some help from the Seer, their powers were returned and Cole, unknowing to the charmed ones, obtained the sources powers, and a piece of the Source's essence with them that proceeded to possess Cole over the next several episodes until Cole's first true vanquish.
In Season Five's "Siren's Song", Piper and Leo were having couple-problems. Piper was upset that her husband did not understand the burden of being pregnant while Leo was frustrated that his wife did not understand the importance of being a whitelighter. In order to make them understand each other's burdens, unborn baby Wyatt swapped his parent's powers, making Piper the whitelighter and Leo feel the nausea of Piper's pregnancy symptoms. In the end, Piper and Leo learned to understand each other better and unborn Wyatt switched their powers back.
In Season Six's "The Power of Three Blondes", three evil sisters, Mabel, Mitzy and Margo Stillman, used a spell to steal the sisters' identities in order to steal their lives. After they obtained their identities, they used a spell in the Book of Shadows to steal their powers. However, since it's a spell to call a witch's powers, Paige's whitelighter powers were kept and she orbed out with Piper and Phoebe. Paige then went received help from two gremlins to help find Chris. By provoking Mabel in front of Chris, he realized that their identities were stolen and made the three sisters use their powers against each other which in turn made the fake sisters lose their powers (as did the real Charmed Ones in an earlier season when Cole recruited a demon to anger the girls). With their identities returned, Piper, Phoebe and Paige used a spell from the Book of Shadows to take back their powers and strip Mabel, Mitzy and Margo Stillman of their own powers. They were then arrested for the murder of the neighbors who live opposite the Halliwells.
In Season Seven's "Ordinary Witches", Phoebe is convinced that Piper must see this demon-free world the avatars promised, so she casts the same spell to switch her and Piper's powers. During the transaction, Zankou appears and causes their powers to fly out the window, into ordinary people. These two people are freaked out at first, but then decide to keep the powers and use them for personal gain. After showing the man with Phoebe's power what the future without demons holds, and the good they can do, they are convinced that the girls must get their powers back. In Season Seven's "Something Wicca This Way Goes", Zankou throws a potion to steal Piper's powers, a potion for Phoebe's, but luckily Paige is able to keep her powers as Zankou uses his potion on her astral self. They later vanquish Zankou along with the Nexus, and, knowing that everyone thinks they are dead, assume the identity of three normal women to lead a demon-free life, away from magic.
These issues also raise other questions. In "How to Make a Quilt Out of Americans", the demon Cryto's attempt to freeze a disempowered Prue, Piper, and Phoebe, to no avail, establishes early on in the series that good witches do not freeze. However, in certain episodes, the Charmed Ones, even though they have lost their powers and remain good witches, do get frozen.
In its eight-year course, Charmed underwent many changes, including departure of cast and crew members, some of which had a large impact on the series as a whole. While in the case of some of the newer changes executive producer, Brad Kern, openly referred to budget cuts as the reason, most of the changes happened without the reasons being released into public, giving rise to much speculation and debates among fans.
Between the second and the third season, creator and executive producer Constance M. Burge left the crew of the show, leaving her former position to executive producer Brad Kern. Burge continued to produce other shows, but remained as creative consultant until season four.[29] Burge's departure resulted in changes in the story structure of the show, from a "demon of the week" system to using third- or half- season-long story arcs. In addition, more importance is given to the protagonists' personal lives.
The serial connection of episodes culminated in the second half of season four. Despite the ratings increasing during season four's final story arc from 4.19 to 4.21, the WB asked Brad Kern to abandon the serial system in the future. This led to the largely episodic structure of season five, and resulted in the two systems being balanced from the sixth season onwards.
At the end of the third season, Shannen Doherty left the show, resulting in her character's death, and the introduction of Rose McGowan's character Paige. While in the episode, "Death Takes a Halliwell" the Angel of Death foreshadowed Prue's death, "All Hell Breaks Loose" (the season three finale) remained as a cliffhanger. Prue's death is only established in the season four premiere episode, due to the show being cancelled after season three; but brought back due to fan and viewers demand. Shannon Doherty refused to return to her lead character, causing the new storyline with Rose McGowan.
The show witnessed multiple changes in its timeslot. From its initial Wednesday night, Charmed moved to Thursday nights in Season Two, and starting with Season Five it moved again, this time to Sunday nights, to anchor "The WB's Big Sunday" event. The change in broadcast day played a central role in the show's change of ratings, as from the moment Charmed moved to Sunday, its episodes had to continually compete with other strong-rated shows such as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and The Simpsons, as well as events such as the Golden Globes.
In the first three seasons, the magical world of Charmed introduces original concepts such as the spiritual nexus and the workings of the show's witchcraft, and involves creatures such as Whitelighters and Darklighters, and also a number of mythological creatures not frequently adapted to television, such as the Woogyman, the Wendigo or the Banshee. This is probably attributable to Constance M. Burge, as well as story editor Robert Masello, introduced as the show's mythology expert (as seen in the 1999 documentary Women of Charmed).
In the third season, it was revealed in order for adults to see fairies, they must cast a spell or believe in fairies and be sprinkled with fairy dust. However, after this point, the Charmed Ones were able to see fairies without the aid of the spell or the dust, including Paige, who never had the spell cast on her (at least, not on-screen).
Gradually from the fourth season, besides keeping the dominance of creatures with attributes explicitly created to conform to the storylines, Charmed started to rely more heavily on using creatures from classical (i.e., Greek and Roman) mythology as well as from miscellaneous folklore items well-known in contemporary culture, such as leprechauns and dwarves.
Budget cuts in the last few seasons led to many minor, and a few major changes in the show.
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