.: 'Charmed' life: Holly Marie Combs talks about 'reunion' that will occur at Tulsa's Wizard World convention :.

The “Charmed” reunion at Tulsa’s Wizard World pop culture convention will be bigger than you might suspect.

The guest list for the con, scheduled Friday through Sunday at Cox Business Center, includes Holly Marie Combs, who played one of three lead characters, plus supporting cast members Brian Krause and Drew Fuller.

Combs digs the comradeship with former cast members, but is there anyone from another series she enjoys seeing on the convention circuit?

The question led to Combs explaining how the “Charmed” reunion in Tulsa will be larger than a three-person get-together.

For instance: Charisma Carpenter is on the Wizard World Tulsa guest list. Carpenter is best known for her work in “Angel” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but she also appeared in multiple episodes of “Charmed.”

Ron Perlman is on the guest list. Perlman starred in “Hellboy” and “Sons of Anarchy” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Care to guess what else he was in? “Charmed.” Combs pointed out that Perlman guest-starred in an episode as a wrestling coach.

In the midst of providing this intel, Combs confirmed that Carpenter is her favorite person from another series to see on the con circuit.

“Oh my god! She just texted me!” Combs said, laughing during a recent phone interview. “That’s so rude. She’s listening! But we use these weekends kind of as an excuse to get together and have reunions and we go out to dinner and celebrate ... birthdays and things like that. It’s definitely a good time for us.”

“Charmed,” which aired from 1998 to 2006, was a TV series about three sisters who were “good” witches. Combs played one of the sisters — Piper. Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty played her sisters. Doherty’s character died at the end of season three, and the show lasted five more seasons with Rose McGowan coming on board as a new sister.

“Charmed” became the longest-running hourlong series featuring all-female leads in TV history — until being overtaken by “Desperate Housewives” in 2012. (The witch sisters should’ve put a spell on the gals from Wisteria Lane.) “Charmed” bloomed anew in syndication and has attracted binge-watchers during the streaming era.

Combs was the only cast member to appear in every episode. She tackled questions before making her first trip to Oklahoma. Selected excerpts:

What’s a past convention experience that made you emotional for all the right reasons?

With our show, there are so many of them. I didn’t anticipate this when I started the show or was doing the show. To me, in the beginning, it was very much entertainment, and I tried to make it realistic in regards to family and tried to ground it in sort of reality so that people would believe all the fantastical things that we were doing.

There was a person recently that came from Australia and his mom had passed away from cancer, and she had left one of her rings to me in her will, so he brought it to me, which was very, very touching and highly emotional for me.

(Conventions are) fun and it’s a great time to meet people and hang out, but I do have those moments where people come up to me and say how much the show meant to them and that they used to watch it with their mom and it reminds them of their mom or another family member or a sister and how it is really something that helped them get through tough times, and I never anticipated that happening. It’s really nice to hear that it still means so much to the people even now.

This may tap into what you just said, but “Charmed” ended 12 years ago. What’s your best theory on why fans continue to love it so much?

It’s that family aspect. I have had three sisters come into the convention centers and say, “We never got along, but we always sat down as a family to watch the show,” which is amazing. It brought families together that couldn’t agree on anything else, but they could agree that they wanted to watch the show, which is kind of something that doesn’t happen in this day and age because kids can watch it on their phones or other devices and their families don’t really get together around the TV anymore. It makes me feel old to hear that, but it’s amazing to hear that. It was a bonding moment for families.

One of the early lines about “Charmed” was that it was a show about sisters who happened to be witches instead of witches who happened to be sisters. Maybe that’s what we’re talking about?

Exactly. That human element was really, really important to me and really important to (producer) Aaron Spelling to make sure we represented good girls, which was always nice.

The original pilot was never aired. Was there anything in it that would break the internet?

Gosh, I don’t think so. I think we’re typically boring that way. I think we re-did it word for word, scene by scene, but Alyssa just brought such a different comedic element to it than Lori (Rom, originally cast as the youngest sister) did. Lori, she was classically trained and very, very serious. It would have been a much different, darker, more serious show had Alyssa not brought the comedy element into it, which made us all kind of loosen up actually — which my character needed.

What’s the story of how you came to be a cast member? You had been friends with Shannen for years. Was it a case where she lobbied for you to be her TV sister or is that not accurate?

I was in the process of auditioning. (A Spelling) audition process and getting to the WB Network in those days was a series of like four or five auditions. First, you start with the casting director and then you go to producers and then you go to producers again and then, if you’re lucky, you go to network.

And in that process, I had noticed the script for “Charmed” in the back of Shannen’s car since we were friends and hanging out at the time. I said, “Oh, did you read that?” And she said, “No, it’s a Spelling show. I can’t.” I said, “Well, you can. If they sent it to you, you can.” She said, “No, I can’t do it.” I said, “You should read it. It’s actually pretty good.” ...

So she did read it and I had gotten a couple of call-backs at that point and she went in and had a meeting with Spelling, and they sort of worked out any remaining issues they had from their “90210” days and, by that time, I had gotten to the point where I was supposed to test at network and Shannen had mentioned my name to him.

I had actually auditioned for Phoebe, and they wanted Shannen to play Piper. So we went in together to meet Aaron. We actually put our drivers licenses on his desk and said we are old enough to play the “other” characters. (Shannen) is old enough to play the older sister, and I am old enough to play the middle sister. He was like “No, no.” He had someone else in mind for the older sister, and we had to sort of campaign and convince him that it was in fact going to be OK, and we weren’t as young as he wanted to believe we were.

So he brought in a girl that he liked for Phoebe and he said, “I have never done this before. I have never gone to a network before and said this is my cast.” But he did. So we went into the network and I tested as usual and the other girl tested as well and we came out of the room and, at that point, Shannen had already got the job. But the network didn’t want (me or the other actor who tested).

So they were shooting us down and Aaron Spelling at the same time. And, granted, he had “7th Heaven” on at that time, so that wasn’t a great idea. So Shannen and Aaron actually went back into the room and had sort of a Jimmy Stewart moment for me and, unfortunately, the compromise was they would allow me to stay, but they wanted to recast the youngest sister. It was quite dramatic and was a very different way of getting a job.

About our third or fourth episode, after (the series) got picked up, I called one of our producers and said, “I’m just so tired. Why do I have all the dialogue in all the scenes?” And he said to me, he goes, “I want to prove to the network how good you are and I’m going to (do that), so you are going to get a lot of material right now. Just hang in there.” I was like, damn. I probably carried that chip on my shoulder a little too long, but that’s OK.

It was an immediate hit for the WB. Never mind ratings, when did you know, “Hey, we’ve got something here?”

They didn’t anticipate that. We were kind of on their back burner, for sure. But that was kind of the typical publicity style of the WB back then. They would pick their one go-to show and promote it and then see whatever else made it through the gauntlet.

So, (what convinced me) wasn’t any one thing. Because we were working so many hours and so many days in the beginning of the show, we never really got out to see its impact and actually it didn’t have such a global impact until it went on to cable and syndication and TNT was playing it so much. The WB moved us around a lot. ... Even though it was a big audience for them at the time, we weren’t really capturing a big audience.

But it was actually when I saw the opening credits put together and I heard the music and the song, which I hear, sadly, Netflix no longer uses because the licensing ran out, which is horrifying to me. They changed all the music, which is super weird. But it was when I saw the opening credits, I was like, wow. It interested me. It garnered my interest. I had known what it all would look like, but with the special effects, which were really good for its time, I was impressed and it all kind of came together in one moment. Shannen and I were watching the trailer together and I just had a moment where I was like maybe this will be good? The struggle was real for me all the time, for sure.

Aaron Spelling was responsible for a zillion other hit shows. Just for fun, can you give me an Aaron Spelling series from any era you would have loved to have been in?

Well, of course, the first thing that pops into my mind is “Charlie’s Angels” because why not? But he did so many fun shows. I mean, “Melrose Place,” my goodness. “Love Boat.” C’mon. All of his shows were fun and great. He has an amazing legacy to live up to, that’s for sure. And I was really touched that he decided to become a champion for me in that room (during auditions). ... It’s amazing to have a producer that is so behind actors and supports them and has their back and sees that certain sparkle in someone that he wants to foster. That’s a very rare and amazing thing to have been a part of.

It’s interesting that you mentioned “Charlie’s Angels.” Until doing some research, I didn’t realize people used to make a comparison between “Charmed” and “Charlie’s Angels” because of three female leads.

Aaron Spelling did have a formula and we sort of adhered to that formula — my hairstyle, for instance, from that show. From “Charlie’s Angels,” you know Farrah Fawcett’s hair was such a big deal and Kate Jackson’s look was such a big deal. He felt that people really identified with the actresses’ appearances. So when I tried to grow out my hair or change my hairstyle, I would get a phone call at home. “No, no, no Holly. You are not allowed to do that.” And it’s from Aaron Spelling, and when you get a phone call from Aaron Spelling, you think you are fired. But then for it to just be about my hair, I was like, oh my gosh, absolutely. My hairstyle is staying forever.

This question is from a diehard ‘Charmed’ watcher: Did they originally intend Chris to be an evil character but changed him to be your future son after you got pregnant in real life? And, if so, did you know how season six was originally supposed to play out?

“That’s a great question. Gosh, it’s completely possible because obviously my pregnancy wasn’t planned. When I called the producer and said, ‘Oh I have some news’ and told them I was pregnant in real life, they said ‘Well, you’re a year too late’ because my character was pregnant the year before. And I said, ‘No, you guys were just a year too early.’ So there is that. So it’s quite possible that they didn’t anticipate it, but I do believe he was always supposed to be my son, but there was some wonky business in there that I know confuses people.”

Speaking of “Charmed,” has Holly Marie Combs lived a charmed life?

I really have. I’m pretty lucky. I have three healthy boys that are keeping me very busy and a teenage stepdaughter, and I’ve got lots of animals and a ranch in Texas. I couldn’t really ask for more. My career panned out pretty well with me not always giving it my all, so I have been pretty lucky.