Roger Healey

''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series created by Sidney Sheldon and starring Barbara Eden as a beautiful but guileless 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman as an astronaut with whom she falls in love and eventually marries. Produced by Screen Gems, the show originally aired for 139 episodes over five seasons, from September 18, 1965, to May 26, 1970, on NBC.

Plot

In the pilot episode, "The Lady in the Bottle", astronaut Captain Tony Nelson, United States Air Force, is on a space flight when his one-man capsule ''Stardust One'' comes down far from the planned recovery area, near a deserted island in the South Pacific. On the beach, Tony notices a strange bottle that rolls by itself. When he rubs it after removing the stopper, smoke spews out and a beautiful Persian-speaking female genie materializes and surprises Tony by kissing him.

They cannot understand each other until Tony expresses his wish that "Jeannie" could speak English, which she then does. Then, per his instructions, she "blinks" and causes a recovery helicopter to show up to rescue Tony, who is so grateful he tells her she is free. But Jeannie, who has already fallen in love with Tony after being trapped for 2,000 years, re-enters her bottle and rolls it into Tony's duffel bag so she can accompany him back home.

In one of the early episodes Jeannie helps to break up Tony's engagement to his commanding general's daughter, Melissa, who, along with the general, is never seen or mentioned again. Producer Sidney Sheldon believed the romantic triangle between Jeannie, Tony, and Melissa would not play out well.

At first Tony keeps Jeannie in her bottle most of the time, but he finally relents and allows her to enjoy a life of her own. However, her life is devoted mostly to his, and most of their problems stem from either Jeannie's love for him or her often-misguided efforts to please him. She continues in her attempts, unbothered by Tony's obvious preference to do things for himself. Jeannie's magical mischief—and Tony's efforts to cover it up—constantly put him under the scrutiny of NASA's resident psychiatrist (and Tony's commanding officer), Colonel Dr. Alfred Bellows. A running theme throughout the series has Bellows as the only eyewitness to Jeannie's antics while Tony (and sometimes his best friend and fellow astronaut, United States Army captain and later major, Roger Healey) are also present. Tony offers far-fetched explanations to Bellows, who then tries to prove to his superior officers that Tony is either crazy or hiding something. But his efforts typically backfire and in the end his superiors never buy them. And, after Bellows is invariably foiled, he proclaims, "He's done it to me again!"

Another frequently used plot device is Jeannie's loss of her powers when she is confined in a closed space. For example, she's unable to leave her bottle when it's corked, and under certain circumstances the next person who removes the cork becomes her new master.

For the first 16 episodes, Roger is unaware of Jeannie's role in Tony's life, although they meet in episode 12. When Roger finds out she's a genie, he steals her bottle, thereby becoming her new master. Roger is good-natured but also girl-crazy, and often schemes to achieve a vain or selfish gain. He occasionally has hopes of becoming Jeannie's master so he can exploit her powers for selfish ends, but he's generally respectful of the relationship between Tony and Jeannie. Tony and Roger are both promoted to the rank of major late in the first season. In later seasons, Roger's role is retconned to portray him as having known about Jeannie from the beginning (i.e., as his having been with Tony on the space flight whose touch down led to their discovering Jeannie).

Jeannie's evil twin sister, mentioned in a second-season episode (and also named Jeannie—since, as Barbara Eden's character explains it, all female genies are named "Jeannie"—and also portrayed by Barbara Eden in a brunette wig), proves to be scheming and underhanded starting in the third season (as in her initial appearance in "Jeannie or the Tiger?"), repeatedly trying to steal Tony for herself and to make herself Tony's real "master". Her final attempt in the series comes shortly after Tony and Jeannie are married, with a ploy involving a man played by Barbara Eden's real-life husband at the time, Michael Ansara. (In a kind of in-joke, while Jeannie's sister pretends to be attracted to him, she privately scoffs at him.)

Early in the fifth season, Jeannie is called upon by her uncle Sully (Jackie Coogan) to become queen of their family's native country, Basenji. Tony inadvertently gives grave offense to Basenji national pride regarding their feud with neighboring Kasja. To regain favor, Tony is required by Sully to marry Jeannie and to avenge Basenji's honor by killing the ambassador from Kasja when he visits NASA. After Sully manages to put suspicion on Tony for various assassination attempts on the ambassador, Tony responds in a fit of anger that he is fed up with Sully and his cohorts and that he would not marry Jeannie even if she were "the last genie on earth". Hearing this, Jeannie despairs, leaves Tony and returns to Basenji. With Jeannie gone, Tony realizes how deeply he loves her. He flies to Basenji to win Jeannie back. Upon their return, Tony introduces Jeannie as his fiancée. She dresses as a modern American woman in public (as she had in multiple previous episodes). This changed the show's premise: now the object is to hide Jeannie's magical abilities rather than her existence.

Cast and characters

Main

* Barbara Eden as Jeannie, a beautiful, loyal, and powerful but mischief-prone genie from the fictional nation of Basenji, who becomes a servant to whoever unseals her bottle, which can severely limit her powers when she is trapped inside.
* Larry Hagman as Captain/Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson, an astronaut and U.S. Air Force officer who discovers and ultimately marries Jeannie.
* Bill Daily as Captain/Major Roger Healey, Tony's best friend and fellow astronaut, and a U.S. Army officer, whom Tony entrusts with Jeannie's secret.
* Hayden Rorke as Colonel Alfred Bellows, MD, a psychiatrist and Tony's suspicious superior.

Recurring

* Barton MacLane as General Martin Peterson (seasons 1–4, 35 episodes)
* Emmaline Henry as Amanda Bellows (seasons 2–5, 34 episodes)
* Vinton Hayworth as General Winfield Schaeffer (seasons 4-5, 20 episodes)
* Philip Ober as Brigadier General Wingard Stone (season 1, episodes 1 and 4)
* Karen Sharpe as Melissa Stone (season 1, episodes 1 and 4)
* Abraham Sofaer as Haji, master of all the genies (seasons 2–3)
* Michael Ansara as The Blue Djinn (season 2, episode 1), also as King Kamehameha (season 3, episode 19), last as Major Biff Jellico (season 5 episode 12) and directed "One Jeannie Beats Four of a Kind" (season 5 episode 25)
* Barbara Eden as Jeannie's evil sister, Jeannie II (seasons 3–5), who schemes to steal Tony from Jeannie
* Jackie Coogan as Sully, Jeannie's uncle, who calls upon her to become the queen of Basenji during an armed conflict

The role of Jeannie's mother is played by several actresses:
* Florence Sundstrom (season 1, episode 2)
* Lurene Tuttle (season 1, episode 14)
* Barbara Eden (season 4, episodes 2 and 18)

Episodes

Production

Background

The series was created and produced 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 1964 film '' The Brass Bottle'', conceived of the idea for a beautiful female genie. Both ''I Dream of Jeannie'' and ''Bewitched'' were Screen Gems productions.

When casting was opened for the role of Jeannie, producer Sidney Sheldon couldn't find an actress who could play the role the way he'd written it. He had one specific rule: he didn't want a blonde genie because that would make the character too similar the ''Bewitched'' lead character. However, after many unsuccessful auditions, he called Barbara Eden's agent. (Coincidentally, Eden had co-starred in ''The Brass Bottle'' as Sylvia Kenton.)

The show debuted on Saturday, September 18, 1965, at 8 pm on NBC. NBC began broadcasting most of its prime-time television lineup in color in the fall of 1965, which made ''Jeannie'' one of two programs that remained in black and white; in ''Jeannies case, it was to facilitate the special photographic effects on magic sequences. By the second season visual effects in color were possible. By 1966, all prime-time series in the United States were shot in color.

Sheldon originally wanted to film season one in color, but NBC did not want to pay the extra expense; the network (and Screen Gems) believed the series would not make it to a second season. Sheldon offered to pay the extra $400 an episode needed for color filming at the beginning of the series, but Screen Gems executive Jerry Hyams advised him: "Sidney, don't throw your money away."

Opening sequence

The first few episodes after the pilot (episodes two through eight) used a nonanimated, expository opening narrated by Paul Frees; the narration mentions that Nelson lived in "a mythical town" named "Cocoa Beach" in "a mythical state called 'Florida'". The remaining episodes of the first season featured an animated sequence that was redone and expanded in season two, at which point the show switched from black and white to color. This new sequence, used in seasons 2–5, featured an animated depiction of the initial meeting in the pilot episode, with Captain Nelson's space capsule splashing down on the beach, and Jeannie dancing out of her bottle (modified to reflect its new decoration) and then kissing Nelson before the bottle sucks her back in at the end. Both original versions of the show's animated opening sequence were created by animator Friz Freleng.

Setting

Although the series was set in and around what was then known as ''Cape Kennedy'', Florida, and Major Nelson lived at 1020 Palm Drive in nearby Cocoa Beach, filming took place in California. The exterior of the building where Nelson and Major Healey had offices was actually the main building at the NASA Flight Research Center (renamed as the "NASA Dryden Flight Research Center" in March 1976 and as the "Armstrong Flight Research Center" in 2014) at Edwards Air Force Base, north of Los Angeles. "If you look at some of those old episodes, it's supposed to be shot in Cocoa Beach, but in the background you have mountains—the Hollywood Hills," Bill Daily said. In fact, the home used as Major Nelson's (also used as the Anderson house in ''Father Knows Best'', and then the home of Mr. Wilson in ''Dennis the Menace'') was located at the Warner Bros. Ranch, in Burbank (on Blondie Street). Many exteriors were filmed at this facility. Interior filming was done at the Sunset Gower Studios (the original Columbia Pictures studio lot) in Hollywood.

The cast and crew only made two visits to Florida's Space Coast, both in 1969. On June 27, a parade in Cocoa Beach escorted Eden and the rest of the cast to Cocoa Beach City Hall, where she was greeted by fans and city officials. They were then taken to LC-43 at Cape Canaveral where Eden pressed a button to launch a Loki-Dart weather rocket. They had dinner at Bernard's Surf, where Eden was given the state of Florida's Commodore Award for outstanding acting. Later, the entourage went to Lee Caron's Carnival Club, where Eden was showered with gifts and kissed astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the cheek, just two weeks before the Apollo 11 launch.

The cast and crew returned on November 25, 1969 for three days for a mock wedding of Eden and Hagman staged for television writers from around the nation (timed to coincide with the airing of the nuptials episode on December 2) at the Patrick Air Force Base Officers Club. Then-Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr., attended and cut the cake for the couple.Osborne, Ray ''I Dream of Jeannie Days''

Eden returned 27 years later, in July 1996, as a featured speaker for Space Days at the Kennedy Space Center. Cocoa Beach Mayor Joe Morgan presented her an "I Dream of Jeannie Lane" street sign, which was later installed on a short street off Florida State Road A1A near Lori Wilson Park.

On September 15, 2005, the area held a "We Dream of Jeannie" festival, which included a Jeannie look-alike contest. Plans for one in 2004 were interrupted by Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne. However, a Jeannie look-alike contest was held in 2004, with Bill Daily attending.

On August 24, 2012, Cocoa Beach City leaders honored the show with a roadside plaque outside Lori Wilson Park.

Jeannie's origin

In the first season the audience learns that Jeannie was originally a mortal human and that she was turned into a genie by "The Blue Djinn," and that her family are "just peasants from the old country". The topic is re-visited in season two in the episode "How to be a Genie in 10 Easy Lessons", though nothing is made clear concerning her origin.

In the third season, Jeannie's origin is retconned, and the dialog implies she'd always been a genie. All her relatives are also depicted as genies, including, by the fourth season, her mother (also played by Barbara Eden beginning in Season 4, Episode 2 "Jeannie and the Wild Pipchicks"). This new narrative concerning her origins was retained for the rest of the series.

Theme music

The first-season theme music was an instrumental jazz waltz written by Richard Wess. Sidney Sheldon became dissatisfied with Wess's theme and musical score. From the second season on, it was replaced by a new theme titled "Jeannie", composed by Hugo Montenegro with lyrics by Buddy Kaye. Episodes 20 and 25 used a rerecorded ending of "Jeannie" for the closing credits with new, longer drum breaks and a different closing riff. The lyrics were never used in the show.

Songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote a theme, called "Jeannie", for Sidney Sheldon before the series started, but it was not used.

In the third and fourth seasons of the show, another instrumental theme by Hugo Montenegro was introduced that was played during the show's campy scenes. Simply titled "Mischief", the theme was heard mainly on outdoor locations, showing the characters attempting to do something such as Jeannie learning to drive, Major Nelson arriving up the driveway, a monkey walking around, or reactions to Doctor Bellows. This theme featured the accompaniment of a sideshow organ, a trombone, and electric bass. It was introduced in the first episode of season 3, "Fly Me to the Moon".

A popular cover version of the ''Jeannie'' theme was released in 1985 in the compilation '' Television's Greatest Hits: 65 TV Themes! From the 50's and 60's'' by TVT Records. This recording was later sampled in several songs, such as DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's debut single " Girls Ain't Nothing but Trouble" (from their 1987 debut album '' Rock the House''), and also for the Ben Liebrand 1990 re-release of American hip-hop artist Dimples D.'s single, " Sucker DJ".

DNA featuring Suzanne Vega released "Tom's Diner" in 1990. A compilation album called ''Tom's Album'' the following year included variations on the song; one of these was "Jeannie's Diner" by Mark Jonathan Davis, which mashes up the Vega/DNA song with the Montenegro theme. This track was used by Nick at Nite for promos of its ''I Dream of Jeannie'' reruns.

The bottle

Jeannie's iconic bottle was not created for the show. The actual bottle was a special Christmas 1964 Jim Beam liquor decanter containing "Beam's Choice" bourbon whiskey. It was designed by Roy Kramer for the Wheaton Bottle Company. For years, Sidney Sheldon was said to have received one as a gift and thought it would be a perfect design for the series. Several people in the Screen Gems art department also take credit for finding the bottle. There's strong evidence, however, that first season director Gene Nelson saw one in a liquor store, bought it and brought it to Sheldon.

Jeannie's bottle was a dark, smoke-green color, with a painted gold-leaf pattern (to make it look like an antique) during the first season. The plot description of the pilot episode in ''TV Guide'' in September 1965 referred to it as a "green bottle". In that first episode, it also looked quite rough and weathered. Since the show was originally filmed in black and white, a lot of colors and patterns were not necessary. When the show switched to color, the show's art director came up with a brightly colored purple bottle to replace the original. The later-colorized version of the show's first season tried to make the smoked glass look of the original bottle look purple to match the look of the bottle used in the second through fifth seasons.

The first-season bottle had a clear glass stopper that Tony took from a 1956 Old Grand-Dad Bourbon bottle in his home since the original stopper was left behind on the beach where Tony found Jeannie. In the first color episode, Jeannie returns to the beach, and her bottle is seen to have its original stopper (painted to match the bottle), presumably retrieved by her upon her return there. The rest of the TV series (and the films) used the original bottle stopper. (During some close-ups, one can still see the plastic rings that hold the cork part of the stopper in place.)

During the first (black and white) season, the smoke effect was usually a screen overlay of billowing smoke, sometimes combined with animation. Early color episodes used a purely animated smoke effect. Sometime later, a live smoke pack, lifted out of the bottle on a wire, was used.

Jeannie's color-episodes bottle was painted mainly in pinks and purples, while the bottle for the Blue Djinn was a first-season design with a heavy green wash; Jeannie's sister's bottle was simply a plain, unpainted Jim Beam bottle.

No one knows exactly how many bottles were used during the show, but members of the production crew have estimated that around 12 bottles in all were painted and used. The stunt bottle used mostly for the smoke effect was broken frequently by the heat and chemicals used to produce Jeannie's smoke. In the pilot episode, several bottles were used for the opening scene on the beach; one was drilled through the bottom for smoke, and another was used to roll across the sand and slip into Tony's pack. Two bottles were used from promotional tours to kick off the first season, and one bottle was used for the first-season production.

Barbara Eden got to keep the color stunt bottle used on the last day of filming the final episode of the series. It was given to her by her make-up woman after the show was canceled and while it was on hiatus. According to the DVD release of the first season, Bill Daily owned an original bottle, and according to the ''Donny & Marie'' talk show, Larry Hagman also owned an original bottle.

In the antepenultimate episode, "Hurricane Jeannie", Nelson dreams that Dr. Bellows discovers Jeannie's secret, and that Jeannie's bottle is broken when dropped. A broken bottle is shown on camera. This was intended to be the series' final episode and is often shown that way in syndication.

Multi-part story arcs

On several occasions, multipart story arcs were created to serve as backgrounds for national contests. During the second season, in a story that is the focus of a two-part episode and a peripheral plot of two further episodes (the "Guess Jeannie's Birthday" contest began with the opening two-part episode on November 14, 1966, concluding with the name of the winner revealed after the end of the fourth episode, "My Master, the Great Caruso", on December 5), it was established that Jeannie did not know her birthday, and her family members could not agree when it was, either. Tony and Roger use NASA's powerful new computer and horoscopic guidance based on Jeannie's traits to calculate it. The year is quickly established as 64 BC, but only Roger is privy to the exact date and he decides to make a game out of revealing it. This date became the basis of the contest. Jeannie finally forces it out of him at the end of the fourth episode: April 1.

In a third-season four-part episode ("Genie, Genie, Who's Got the Genie?" January 16 – February 6, 1968), Jeannie is locked in a safe bound for the Moon. Any attempt to force the safe or use the wrong combination will destroy it with an explosive. Jeannie is in there so long that whoever opens the safe will become her master. The episodes spread out over four weeks, during which a contest was held to guess the safe's combination. This explains why Larry Hagman is never seen saying the combination out loud: His mouth is hidden behind the safe or the shot is on Jeannie when he says it. The combination was not decided until just before the episode aired, with Hagman's voice dubbed in. Over the closing credits, Barbara Eden announced and congratulated the contest winner, with 4–9–7 as the winning combination.

In the fourth season, a two-part episode, "The Case of My Vanishing Master" (January 6–13, 1969), concerned Tony being taken to a secret location somewhere in the world, while a perfect double took his place at home. A contest was held to guess the location where Tony had been taken. Unlike earlier contests, the answer was not revealed within the story. At the end of "Invisible House For Sale" (February 3, 1969), a special "contest epilogue" had Jeannie and Tony reveal to the audience the "secret location", Puerto Rico, followed by the name of the "Grand Prize Winner".

Release

Syndication

When reruns debuted on New York's WPIX, ''Jeannie'' won its time period with a 13 rating and a 23 share of the audience. The series averaged a 14 share and 32 share of the audience when WTTG in Washington, DC began airing the series. It was the first off-network series to best network competition in the ratings: "The big switch no doubt representing the first time in rating history that indies (local stations) have knocked over the network stations in a primetime slot was promoted by WPIX's premiere of the off-web ''Jeannie'' reruns back to back from 7 to 8 pm."

It currently airs on Antenna TV weekdays at 1:00pm & 1:30pm ET and weeknights at 3:00am & 3:30am ET.

In India, Sony Entertainment Television showed the series dubbed in Hindi in the late 1990s.
It started airing again on Zee Cafe in India in 2020.

In Italy, the series aired on Rai 1 under the name '' Strega per amore'' (''Witch for Love'') from 1977 until 1980, then repeated on Paramount Channel from 2020 until 2021.

In France, TF1 aired the series dubbed in French from 1993 to 1998.

Home media

DVD/Blu-ray

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released all 5 seasons of ''I Dream of Jeannie'' on DVD in regions 1, 2 & 4 in individual season releases and complete series box sets (there were two different packaging versions for the complete series of 20 discs). The first season was made available in both the original black & white and colorized editions — only the colorized version was included in the complete series releases from Sony.

On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the R1 rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including ''I Dream of Jeannie''. They rereleased the first two seasons on DVD on April 1, 2014; Mill Creek released season one in its original black-and-white format only as they currently do not have the rights to Sony’s colorized version. On October 6, 2015, Mill Creek Entertainment rereleased ''I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Series'' on DVD in region 1, though it did not port over both of the special features found on the first season of the Sony releases.
Mill Creek Entertainment released the entire series on Blu-ray, after several delays, on November 30, 2021. However, most consumers and reviewers complained that rather than true remastered HD, Mill Creek simply used an SD master upscaled to 1080i. The company has yet to admit this publicly to fans regardless of many inquires. Fortunately, the series streams in actual HD online, proving that such prints exist in the Sony vaults.

In Australia, a repackaged complete series collection was released on November 23, 2010. On November 4, 2015, a 50th anniversary edition of the complete series was released. On July 6, 2016, all five individual seasons were rereleased as well as another complete series collection, now distributed through Shock Entertainment.

VHS

Some episodes were released on VHS. This is a complete list.

Reception

Nielsen ratings

While never a major ratings hit, the show did receive its highest Nielsen ranking during the fourth season (26th).

Other media

Reunion films

Barbara Eden starred in two made-for-television reunion films that portrayed Jeannie and Tony in the successive years. Larry Hagman did not reprise his role as Tony Nelson in either film. Bill Daily returned as Roger Healey for both films, while Hayden Rorke made a brief appearance in the first film. In 1985, Wayne Rogers played the role of retiring Colonel Anthony Nelson in '' I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later''. In 1991, '' I Still Dream of Jeannie'' was broadcast with Hagman's ''Dallas'' co-star Ken Kercheval essentially playing the role of Jeannie's "master". A third film was planned but never finalized.

Comics

Dell Comics published two issues of a comic book in 1966. ''I Dream of Jeannie'' returned to comics in 2001-2002 when Airwave published three stand alones.

Games

In 1965, Milton Bradley Company published a tie-in board game.

A series of ''I Dream of Jeannie'' video games released by Trendmasters for Microsoft Windows in 1995 and 1996.

A slot machine game based on the series was introduced in 2015.I Dream of Jeannie
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Animated series

Hanna-Barbera Productions produced an animated series, '' Jeannie''. ''Jeannie'' was originally broadcast from September 1973 to 1975, and featured Jeannie (voiced by Julie McWhirter) and genie-in-training Babu (voiced by former Three Stooges star Joe Besser) as the servants of Corey Anders, a high-school student and surfer (voiced by Mark Hamill).

Notes

References

Further reading

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External links

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Anthony (Tony) Nelson, fictitious astronaut
– Encyclopedia Astronautica


– Encyclopedia Astronautica

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1960s American single-camera sitcoms
1965 American television series debuts
1970 American television series endings
1970s American single-camera sitcoms
American English-language television shows
American fantasy comedy television series
Black-and-white American television shows
NBC sitcoms
Romantic fantasy television series
Television series about astronauts
Television series about couples
Television series about NASA
Television series about the United States Air Force
Television series by Screen Gems
Television series by Sony Pictures Television
Television series created by Sidney Sheldon
Television shows about genies
Television shows adapted into films
Television shows set in Florida
Cultural depictions of Kamehameha I