One of the most famous cats to grace our screens, he may have looked like your regular black moggy, but, in reality, he was a year-old witch sentenced to spend years as a cat as punishment for an attempt to take over the world. He was portrayed by an animatronic and four cats in scenes with no dialogue. A talking cat, he regularly schemed to get his way, but he also had a soft side and he was often very funny. There was much anticipation regarding the first season, which aired in October One major concern for lovers of the 90s show was Salem.
Would he be back, and would he talk? The new Netflix show is brilliant and binge-worthy, and of course, Salem is back. At least not yet. He is introduced as a familiar spirit, belonging to a uniquely British folkloric tradition. Familiar animal spirits describe the animal companions who witches and cunning-folk used to work with from the medieval through to the early modern period.
They were said to help the individual practice magic. In the new television series, Sabrina, on her 16th birthday, called out to a familiar spirit and Salem showed up. Roberto Aguirra-Sacassa made the call on hiring real cats to portray Salem. This meant bringing in trainers to work with the new animal talent. Black cats generally stay longer in animal shelters, partly due to superstitions associated with them, but Ian and Grace had a harder time than anticipated when scouting the perfect feline actors.
They eventually found Bobby, Boomer, Trevor, and Shaq. Each cat was recruited for its own unique talent. His talent is his ability to work outdoors and even at night. Most cats would find this too scary. Boomer is a rescue cat the trainers adopted. His part-time gig is helping us by raising kittens we have for other shows. He both enjoys and is good at that. I drove on a hour round-trip to get him from a rescue in Alberta.
He loves it. Trevor may be the most popular, but the most devoted to his role is Shaq. He works outside too, as long as he just sits. He is stone-cold serious about his work and rules the roost at home with the other cats. His owner comes to visit him often. The Salem cats went through six weeks of training pre-filming and had additional training dictated by the script requirements. Grace is the head trainer and trains Salem, often with an assistant.
