Salem Saberhagen

Salem Saberhagen
Sabrina the Teenage Witchcharacter
Salem inArchie#636 (August 2012). Art by Gisele "Gil" (pencils), Rich "Richele" Koslowski (inks)
First appearance	Archie's Mad House#22 (October 1962)
Created by	Dan DeCarlo George Gladir
Voiced by	Dallas McKennon(Filmation series) Brian Steele (TV film;uncredited) Nick Bakay(Sitcom series,Sabrina: The Animated Series) Maurice LaMarche(Sabrina's Secret Life) Ian James Corlett(Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch) Luke Cook (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)
In-universe information
Species	American Shorthaircat(currently) Wizard(formerly)
Gender	Male
Family	Comics None Sitcom Morty Saberhagen (uncle) Goliath Saberhagen (uncle) Humphrey Saberhagen (grandfather) Julia Trumfull (grandmother)
Significantother	Comics Stephanie Saberhagen Gingrich Sitcom Shelley (ex-girlfriend)
Children	Comics None Sitcom Annabelle Saberhagen (daughter)
Relatives	Comics None Sitcom Morty Saberhagen (uncle) Goliath Saberhagen (uncle) Gummo Saberhagen (father) Humphrey Saberhagen (grandfather) Julia Trumfull (grandmother) France Trumfull Saberhagen (mother) Cheryl (cousin)
Nationality	American
Other Information
Abilities	(As a cat): Occultknowledge (As a wizard): Magic
Hair Color	Comics Black and White Sitcom Black
Eye Color	Comics Blue Sitcom Yellowish/Gold

Salem Saberhagenis a character from the AmericanArchie Comicscomic seriesSabrina the Teenage Witch.Salem is anAmerican Shorthaircat who lives withSabrina Spellman,Hilda SpellmanandZelda Spellmanin the fictional town of Greendale, located nearRiverdale.A formerly humanwitch,Salem was sentenced by the Witch's Council to spend 100 years as a cat, as punishment for trying to take over the world. Salem first appeared alongside Sabrina inArchie's Mad House#22 in 1962, and was created byGeorge GladirandDan DeCarlo.

Earlier comics portray Salem as a normalorange-colored felinewho does not speak. With the debut and success of the 1990s live-actionSabrina the Teenage Witchsitcom, Salem's backstory and character underwent severalretconsto bring it more in line with the sitcom's version. A late 1990s story initially revealed Salem was turned into a cat for jilting Enchantra, the Head Witch, at the altar. A similar version of events was presented in a 1990slive-action television film,where he was imprisoned in the form of a cat for attempting to use his magic to make a mortal love him. However, the comics eventually gave Salem a similar backstory that was shown in the sitcom and its spinoff,Sabrina: The Animated Series.Further details about Salem's past before his transformation into a cat were revealed in the 2000smanga-inspired version of the comic, written and drawn byTania del Rio.

In the graphic novelChilling Adventures of Sabrina,Salem is given a more serious role to fit with the series' darker tone.In this version, Salem often acts as aconscienceto Sabrina, questioning her hot-headed or more daring ideas.

In other media

Sabrina the Teenage Witch(sitcom)

See also:List of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996 TV series) characters § Salem Saberhagen

Personality

Salem has a rapier wit and is often the first character to come up with theone-linersor obvious puns in a scene. In addition to world domination, his ambitious plotting often includes attempts to becomewealthy,achievecelebritystatus, regain his magical powers, and return to his human form. He consistently gives bad advice to Sabrina, often involving using magic to solve a problem, which always ends up leaving Sabrina with even more problems than with which she began. His favorite pastimes include playing with yarn, lint spotting, surfing the internet, and reading Sabrina's diary. He loves Lizard Flakes, a snack for cats which is said to befatteningand full ofcholesterol.In the show's pilot, he made the remark to Sabrina that he misses being able to dance. In some episodes, Salem acts more like a cat than a human, as if he was really one all along.

Despite his arrogance, greed, andsarcasm,he is shown in many episodes to genuinely care about the Spellmans, especially Sabrina. He also has a soft-spot for Harvey, to the point that he once expressed a wish that he would bebest manat Harvey and Sabrina's wedding. Harvey learned Salem's true identity sometime around the end of high school, but prior to this Sabrina would occasionally use a 'Doctor Dolittle' spell that would allow Harvey to talk with Salem and believe there was nothing unusual about it when circumstances prompted Sabrina and her aunts to go away and Harvey was left in charge of Salem's care.

History

Salem was awitch,sentenced by the Witch's Council to spend 100 years as acatwith no magical powers. In the original comic (depending on the story), he retains limited powers via incantations, but requires Sabrina's magic finger to enact them. In the series, he retains no powers and was sentenced as punishment for his attempt to take over the world. In the film, he was cursed to spend a century as a cat because he had used his powers to impress a mortal. At the beginning of thetelevision series,he had already served 25 years. Salem generally serves as some of the show'scomic relief,with his quick-witted quips anddeadpandelivery. Despite hismegalomaniacaldesires for world domination, he is genuinely a good person and protective guardian to Sabrina. In the series he would generally serve two roles: one as a mentor /"familiar"- commonly an animal that helps a young witch, for Sabrina, as she found it easier to talk with him about her problems, or the mischievousanti-heroin the episode, such as finding an illegal way to become human again without being punished. He has shown on multiple occasions to be very emotionally attached to Sabrina; in the fourth season, when Sabrina left to live with her father inParis,Salem missed her so much he started a civil war on Pluto, in order to get her back to Westbridge.

The leaders of his attempted revolution were also turned into house pets.Newt,the pet of Hilda and Zelda's cousin Monty, was heavily involved with the scheme, for the promised reward ofDenmark.Another follower, Duke (played byDick Van Dyke), had a reduced sentence and was set free during the series, though Salem tried to use him to take over the world again. A talkingguinea pignamed Stonehenge ( "Stony" for short) was introduced in thefirst made-for-television film,but whether or not he was ever human is unknown. Hilda was also one of Salem's followers; her punishment was to keep Salem free ofwormsduring his period as a feline, although she was pardoned at the end of season five. During season one, Salem was visited by his parole officer, to whom he insisted that his transformation is under way, but he accidentally lets it slip that he still yearns for control of the planet. By the end of the series, Salem never did turn back into his human form, and a brief period where he was transferred into the body of one of Sabrina's classmates resulted in an extra fifty years being added to his sentence, even after he confessed to his mistakes when he realized that Sabrina was to be punished for his actions.

Family

Members of Salem's blood family include his daughter, Annabelle, whom Salem cares deeply for but is estranged from due to his shame about being a cat. Salem managed to make it to her wedding and performed all the duties of father of the bride. Salem is visited by his mother and initially dreads the impending visit as she is highly critical. Upon her learning he is a cat, she cannot help but be delighted by how cute his new form is and pampered him to the point Sabrina missed her own mother and went to visit her. It is revealed later in the episode that Salem's mother was unknowinglyallergic to cats.Another member is Salem's grandfather, who is ahobo.According to Salem, Salem's grandmother claims he (Salem's grandfather) was lost at sea. He also mentioned having an uncle Goliath and Morty. In one episode, Salem mentions that his father's name was Gummo, implying that he died.

Salem often usesYiddishwords and mentioned his cousin Cheryl'sBat Mitzvahin "Sabrina in Wonderland".

Relatives

• Mrs. Saberhagen,Salem's mother. She was strict but well-meaning and did not know that Salem was a cat until she came to visit him. She pampered him and he loved it. But she found out that she was allergic to cats and had to leave early.
• Uncle Mortyis Salem's uncle. He is rude and has no manners.
• Gummois Salem's father. Mentioned.
• Annabelleis Salem's daughter.
• Punit Mistryis Salem's first cousin, twice removed.
• Uncle Goliath,Salem's uncle. Mentioned.
• Grandpa,Salem's grandfather, works the trains.
• Cheryl,Salem's cousin. Mentioned.
• Grandma,Salem's grandmother.

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Result
1998	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Animal Star	Won
1999
2000

The sitcom model

Salem in the 1996Sabrina the Teenage Witchsitcom.

The sitcom's creators were very supportive ofanimal rights,so Salem was often played by ananimatronicmodel rather than one of the 4 actual cats who are used for the non-dialogue scenes (or at least used for scenes where Salem is moving and it was not required for the audience to actually see his lips move). The four trained cats portraying the character were named Elvis, Lucy, Salem, and Witch.This part was performed by three puppeteers and two different animatronic puppets. The mechanical Salems were originally made by Animal Makers,but in early 1998 they were fired, and their puppets were replaced with ones made byThe Chiodo Brothers.The new mechanical Salem(s) were controlled by 3 puppeteers, who could manipulate Salem's body in more than 30 ways via rod, cables, and radio control.Animal Makers posted a video of some of the puppets highlights on its website.

In a few instances where his human form is shown in flashbacks, he is portrayed with his face in shadows, but with a body shape and military uniform similar toFidel Castro(Castro himself is depicted as being a friend of Salem).

In the sitcom andSabrina: The Animated Series,Salem was voiced by actorNick BakayIn one sitcom episode titled "Jealousy", Salem says he needs to make a phone call to Bakay, saying, "I need to call in to Nick Bakay's sports show onESPN radio.All he ever talks about is theBuffalo Bills,and his voice? LORD, is it annoying! "

Other appearances

The sitcom version of Salem also made a guest appearance on theDisney-ABCowned showsBoy Meets World,You Wish,andTeen Angelon November 7, 1997 andDisney's One Saturday Morning on Friday NightwithValarie Rae Milleron September 11, 1998.

Filmation animated series

In the Filmation series, Salem (similar to the comics) was portrayed as an ordinary orange-colored cat who could only meow. Salem's meows were provided byDallas McKennon.In these appearances, Salem possessed limited magical abilities, including the ability toteleporthimself. Arunning gagin this series was Salem's recurring feud withJughead's dog Hot Dog.

DIC animated series

Salem was a main character inSabrina: The Animated Seriesand its follow-up seriesSabrina: Friends ForeverandSabrina's Secret Life.Salem here retains his backstory from the live-action sitcom, including his last name being "Saberhagen", being black colored, and having been a former witch turned into a cat as punishment by the Witch's Council. Unlike the live-action sitcom, but similar to the previous Filmation series, Salem possesses a limited range of magical powers.

Nick Bakay reprised Salem forSabrina, the Animated Series.Louis Chirilloprovided Salem's voice inSabrina: Friends Forever,whileMaurice LaMarchetook over forSabrina's Secret Life.An animated spin-off focusing on him was also slated to debut in the 2001-02 seasonbefore it was scrapped for unknown reasons.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch(television film)

Salem appeared in theSabrina the Teenage Witchlive-action TV movie.He was voiced by Brian Steele in an uncredited role.

Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch

Salem appeared in the 2013 seriesSabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch.Ian James Corlettvoices Salem. His voice in this series was an imitation of actorPaul Lynde.Unlike in previous incarnations, Salem is aspyfor Enchantra the head witch, and the Spellman family are unaware of his human form.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina(TV series)

Salem appears in theNetflixtelevisionseries,which is an adaptation of theChilling Adventures of Sabrinacomics. Instead of being a human originally like in previous iterations of the character, Salem is afamiliar.This version of the character also doesn't speak though it was hinted that he might in the future by series creatorRoberto Aguirre-Sacasa.Although, he currently only communicates via telepathy, represented in the form of a meow or a hiss. He also has very little physical communication with Sabrina due toKiernan Shipka,the actress who portrays Sabrina, being allergic to cats.

Salem is voiced by Luke Cook, who also playsLucifer Morningstar,in the episode "Chapter Thirty-Five: The Endless" from part 4 where Sabrina is transported into a sitcom version of the series.