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I Dream of Jeannie was a popular American sitcom with a fantasy premise. Produced by Screen Gems, it aired from 1965 to 1970 on NBC. The show starred Barbara Eden as Jeannie and Larry Hagman as Captain (later Major) Anthony Nelson.
Original run The series was created by Sidney Sheldon in response to the great success of rival network ABC's Bewitched series, which had debuted in 1964 as the second most watched program in the United States. Sheldon, inspired by the movie The Brass Bottle, starring Tony Randall, Barbara Eden, and Burl Ives as the genie Fakrash, came up with the idea for a beautiful female genie who wanted to grant her master's wishes, a stark contrast to the social ideas of what a genie was and what a genie looked like. Many Bewitched fans continue to propagate the rumor that producer William Asher was called upon unofficially to comment on the final script for the pilot episode of Jeannie. NBC was hoping Jeannie would recreate the successful ratings "Bewitched" was pulling at that time. Interestingly, when casting was opened for the role of Jeannie, Sidney Sheldon] could not find an actress who could play the role the way he wrote her. He did have one specific rule... NO BLONDES! Sheldon said that he didn't want a blonde genie because there would be too much similarity with the blonde witch on Bewitched. However, after many unsuccessful auditions he called the agent for Barbara Eden who had costarred in the The Brass Bottle and then had tea with her at the Beverly Hills Hotel and the rest is history. The premise of the program was very simple. The show featured a beautiful woman who possessed magical powers and tried to integrate with the mortal world to please the man she loved. The show's foundation was derived from her "master's" attempts at keeping her existence a secret, while very often needing to use her powers to resolve situations she initially created. The third season featured a rambunctious relative (Jeannie's sister) also played by Barbara Eden, with a black wig to mark her "black hat" status. The major difference between the first season which aired in black and white, and the following four seasons which aired in color, was the manic and fast-paced nature of later seasons in contrast to the more romantic and relaxed nature of the pilot season. Jeannie was a genie awakened from her two thousand year imprisonment when astronaut Anthony Nelson's final stage rocket misfired and forced him to abort a space launch. Captain Nelson washed ashore on a desert island where he found a bottle on the beach. Upon opening the bottle he set Jeannie free. As legend states, he who frees the genie becomes its master. However upon summoning a helicopter for him, rescuing him from being stranded, Tony claims they are even, she is free to go. Having fallen in love with the first man she set eyes on in two thousand years, Jeannie follows Tony home to Cocoa Beach, Florida. Jeannie was initially little more than a pesky, jealous servant, but as the series developed, so did their relationship, and eventually the couple was married in the fifth and final season. Sidney Sheldon and the cast fought against the wedding, feeling it would ruin the sexual tension between the two. Despite the series finishing its fourth season in 26th place, NBC was going to cancel the program if Jeannie and Tony did not wed. For the series' fifth season (1969–70), NBC moved the series to a weak time slot (Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time) where it had done mediocre ratings during its third season (1967–68). Jeannie and Tony wed, NBC got lots of press and then cancelled the series. In most episodes, Barbara Eden wore little more than her revealing "Jeannie" costume. Strangely, the censors allowed her to be depicted living in a house with an unmarried man, but would not permit Eden's navel to be seen. The makers of the series were also presented with the challenge of filming around Eden's real-life pregnancy during the pilot season, without writing it into the storyline. Instead she wore many veils to hide her stomach and as her pregnancy progressed they began to use body doubles and film Eden only above the waist. After the original run
Main cast Plot outline Main story Astronaut Captain Tony Nelson is on a space flight when his one-man capsule comes down far from the planned recovery area, near a deserted island. Tony notices a strange bottle that rolls by itself, and when he rubs it after removing the cork, smoke starts shooting out and Jeannie materializes. "I must have gone further into orbit than I thought!" he says. Eventually, Jeannie, who was locked up in her bottle 2,000 years prior by the Blue Djinn, "blinks" a recovery helicopter into the area to rescue Tony, who is so grateful for her help that he tells her she's free. But Jeannie, who falls in love with Tony at first sight, reenters her bottle and moves it into Tony's duffel bag so she can accompany him back home. Tony at first keeps Jeannie in her bottle most of the time, but finally relents and allows her to develop a life of her own. The first thing Jeannie does is break up Tony's engagement to the general's daughter. Tony's efforts to cover up Jeannie's antics brings him to the attention of NASA's resident psychiatrist Dr. Alfred Bellows. Dr. Bellows tries over and over to prove to his superiors that Tony's either crazy or hiding something, but somehow or other he's always foiled and Tony's job remains secure. Tony's best friend and fellow astronaut Roger Healy doesn't know about Jeannie for several episodes – when he finds out, he steals her so he can become rich and live in luxury. It's not long though before Tony reclaims his status as Jeannie's master. Roger continues to demonstrate his desire to use Jeannie's powers for his own benefit, but for the most part he respects Tony's status as Jeannie's master. Both Tony and Roger are promoted to the rank of major early in the series. Jeannie's sister, mentioned in a second season episode (and also named Jeannie), proves to have a mean streak starting in the third season, repeatedly trying to steal Tony for herself, with her as the master! One of her final efforts comes right after Tony and Jeannie get married. Early in the fifth season, Jeannie is called upon by her Uncle Sully to become queen of Basenji, and she decides, for his birthday gift, to give Tony the country of Basenji and make him its king. However, NASA has assigned Tony to deal with the ambassador from Kajsa, Basenji's neighbour and enemy, to secure finkilium, a mineral needed for the space program. Sully causes Tony to unwittingly and repeatedly threaten Kajsa's ambassador, harming America's friendship with Kajsa. When Roger warns Tony about Sully, Tony tries to trap Sully and tells him he won't marry Jeannie. Jeannie had gotten Sully to leave and she was waiting to talk to Tony, so he alienated her. She leaves to become queen, while Tony and Roger are exiled to a remote post in Alaska. NASA finds another source of finkilium, and sends a dispatch that recalls Tony and Roger to Cocoa Beach. However, the newspaper came with the message, mentioning the new queen of Basenji. The boys fly to Basenji (somewhere near Russia) where Tony reconciles with Jeannie. They arrive back at NASA and Tony introduces Jeannie as his fiancée. The two were wed before the end of the season. Multi-arc stories In a four-part episode, it is established that Jeannie did not know her birthday, and her family members couldn't agree when it was, either (2,000 years being a long time to remember such a thing). Tony and Roger use NASA's powerful new computer, and horoscopic guidance based on Jeannie's traits, to calculate it, but Roger wants to make a game out of revealing it. Jeannie finally forces it out of him in the fourth episode: April 1, 64 B.C. (See Trivia, below) In another four-part episode, Jeannie is locked in a safe bound for the moon, and any attempt to force the safe or use the wrong combination will destroy the safe with an explosive. Jeannie is in there so long, four weeks, that whoever opens the safe will become her master. The episodes spread out over a month, during which a national contest was held to guess the safe's combination. This explains why Larry Hagman is never seen actually saying the combination out loud... his face is turned away from the camera, or the shot is on Jeannie when he says it. The actual combination wasn't decided until right before airing, and Hagman's voice was dubbed in. Over the closing credits, Barbara Eden announced and congratulated the contest winner. The combination: 4-9-7. * The Jeannie Theme The first season Jeannie theme was an instrumental jazz/waltz written by Richard Wess. From the second season on, however, a new theme, titled Jeannie, was written by Hugo Montenegro, with lyrics by Buddy Kaye. The lyrics were never used in the show, but here they are: Jeannie, fresh as a daisy Just love how she obeys me Does things that just amaze me so She smiles, presto, the rain goes She blinks, out pops a rainbow Cars stop, even the train goes slow When she goes by She paints sunshine on every rafter Sprinkles the air with laughter We're close as a quarter after three There's no one like Jeannie I'd introduce her to you But it's no use, sir Cause my Jeannie's in love with me She's in love with me! Songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote a spec theme, called Jeannie, for Sidney Sheldon before the series started, but it was rejected. The Bottle Jeannies Origin Throughout the first season, it is made clear that Jeannie was originally a human who was turned into a genie by the Blue Djinn when she refused to marry him. We meet several members of her family, including her parents, and while some are rather eccentric, none are genies. Her mother describes the family as "just peasants from the old country". Jeannie does mention that she has a sister who is a genie, but the phrasing - "she was a genie when I left Baghdad" - makes it clear that she too was not born a genie. In the second season, this back story was omitted and it is assumed that Jeannie has always been a genie. All her relatives are now genies, including her mother (now played by Barbara Eden). This may have been done to increase the similarity with "Bewitched", or simply to increase the number of possible plotlines. Whatever the reason, this new concept was retained for the rest of the series. Other Inconsistencies Miscellany Comparison to actual NASA astronauts The NASA shown in the series appears to be launching a few more flights than real-life NASA, since Tony makes it into space at least three times during the series. But several real astronauts did make second and third flights. The first season pilot uses footage from an actual launch of a Project Gemini spacecraft (identifiable by its LGM-25 Titan II booster with twin rocket engines), and this footage also appears in the opening title sequence for some early first season episodes. However, the pilot storyline has Tony as the only crewmember of the craft, which would imply it must have been a Project Mercury mission, since all crewed Gemini spacecraft were flown with two crew members. The cartoon spacecraft shown in the opening titles of later seasons appears to be a one-man spacecraft bearing some resemblance to Project Mercury (flown 1961–May 1963), but during the series' run, the two-man Project Gemini (Mar 1965–Nov 1966) and three-man Project Apollo (Feb 1967–Jul 1975) craft were flying, aside from the hiatus between Gemini 12 and Apollo 7. In fact, Tony was shown on the series to fly all three of these craft, as well as the Space Shuttle (if you count the TV movies). NASA has always hired more astronauts than it has seats on flights, and there was an emphasis on rotation, so that other astronauts would get equal opportunity in space. (This is especially true of John Glenn, who was "grounded" after his Mercury flight Friendship 7 in 1961, for fear of anything risky happening to such a celebrity. He finally flew again in Shuttle Discovery flight STS-95 in 1998.) The only real astronaut in history to fly one of each of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft was astronaut Wally Schirra. (Mercury Sigma 7 flight, Gemini 6, and Apollo 7 flights.) Charles Conrad, James Lovell, Thomas Stafford and John Young were the only astronauts to fly two Gemini missions; 15 astronauts made both Gemini and Apollo flights during the series six-year run, and Alan Shepard, finally cleared to fly again after Mercury 3, flew Apollo as well. Since Tony seems to be comparable to James Lovell and Wally Schirra, he is probably, fictionally, one of NASA's earliest-chosen astronauts, healthy and skilled enough to be valuable for several flights. See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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