Beth Broderick Recalls Wild Set Stories from Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Beth Broderick had a surprising experience while filming Sabrina the Teenage Witch. "I was like okay, that could be my leg," she said. Her encounter with a live alligator happened during a scene. "Okay, let's not poke the alligator anymore," she told PEOPLE.

Broderick played Zelda Spellman on the show, airing from 1996 for seven seasons. She worked alongside Melissa Joan Hart and Caroline Rhea. During an interview, Broderick recalled one memorable scene featuring "an alligator on a leash." The alligator initially seemed inactive.

However, the crew decided to poke the alligator, thinking it was not lively enough. "It was very real," Broderick noted. The alligator retaliated, missing her by just an inch and instead biting the sofa.

Broderick pointed out that such bizarre moments were commonplace on set. One incident involved a lion that walked through an electric fence and escaped. "He just walked through it and didn’t care," Broderick recalled, sharing the unexpected happenings during their filming.

Among her favorite stories was one involving a tuxedo-clad chicken. She described walking from her trailer to the set when she faced a chaotic scene in the costume room. Their costumer, Diane, was trying to measure a resistant chicken for a tuxedo.

"It was just the funniest thing I've ever seen," she recounted. Broderick mused on the uniqueness of such experiences at work. Not many people witness a chicken refusing to wear a tuxedo.

The chicken eventually wore the tuxedo, but Broderick observed the chicken didn’t seem to enjoy it. Reflecting on the show's essence, she explained that relying on real-life elements to create magic made for an unforgettable experience.

"It was a wild show," she stated. "You had to shoot everything in real time." Producing practical effects created incredible moments that highlighted the magic among all the chaos.