 I
DREAM OF JEANNIE
1 9 6 5 - 1 9 7 0 (USA)
139 x 30 minute episodes
Although this show originally aired in the mid-sixties, many
people equate it with the seventies when they first saw it, and then
watched it over and over in endless re-runs.
In fact, this show has never been off the air thanks to
syndication.
In September 1965, NASA Astronaut Captain Anthony Nelson had an
emergency splash-down landing that would forever change his life. He
rescued a genie named (appropriately) Jeannie, who fell head over
heels for the strong willed good looking Captain.
Major Nelson (he was eventually promoted) and Jeannie were TV
pioneers of the opposite sex, platonic relationship, involving
cohabitation. Tony's neurotic friend Roger Healey supplied the
formulaic "swinger".
 The
first season focused on the secret relationship of an astronaut and
an extra special girl as Major Nelson adjusted to his live in,
supernatural girl friend.
Eventually Tony Nelsons best friend Rog' was added to the
"in crowd", but poor Dr Bellows was always kept safely
away from the secret via a series of "perfectly logical
explanations" from Major Nelson.
When the show went colour (at episode 31) several changes were
made. The first most notable was Jeannie's bottle. It underwent an
unexplained make-over along with the house set, which would continue
to change from season to season until the end of the show. Jeannie's
costume also became a little more revealing (Grrrr!).
In the first season we were shown a tom-boyish, sassy Jeannie,
but in the second season Jeannie became sweet but jealous tempered,
ultra feminine and very, very sexy (with a neat line in micro
mini-skirts!).
In the third season Barbara Eden was granted the opportunity to
play Jeannie's alter-ego in the form of a streetwise, sexy, sneaky
sister (also called Jeannie) who played on her innocence to try and
steal Major Nelson away for herself.
By the fourth season the show began to be sadly formulaic and by
the fifth and final season, ratings reflected the fact that prime
time viewers were tired with the shows gimmicks.
 The
studio executives made the ever-fatal chemistry killer, repeated to
this day in shows like Moonlighting, Who's the Boss?
and Mork and Mindy - they killed the sexual tension!
Major Nelson and Jeannie got married (although the cast and crew
were against it). Ironically, the one thing Jeannie wanted most
eventually ruined the show.
Major Nelson eventually made a fortune in oil and eventually got
shot in Dallas . . . sorry, I'm getting confused!
Although it would seem at this point that I Dream of Jeannie
had run it's course, a strange phenomenon was about to occur that
would make this show an eternal television legend, more popular than
it had ever been during it's original run - Syndication . . .
A Saturday morning animated spin-off called simply Jeannie
screened on CBS from September 1975 to August 1978.
In the cartoon version, surfer dude Corry (voiced by Mark Hamill)
let Jeannie (voiced by Julie McWhirter) out of the bottle and earned
her services. Unfortunately for all involved, the clutzy Babu
(former Stooge and Hanna Barbera fixture Joe Besser), came along
with the package.
With a mere "Yapple dapple," Babu created all sorts of
problems for Jeannie to clean up. Jeannie and Babu were also players
in Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics on ABC from 1977 to 1980.
 Dallas
commitments prevented Larry Hagman from appearing in a single
two-hour TV movie revival (I Dream Of Jeannie: Fifteen Years
Later) screened in the USA on 20 October 1985. Wayne Rogers
(formerly Trapper John in M*A*S*H) took his place.
In this TV movie viewers finally got to see Jeannie's navel:
sensitive producers had kept it hidden by her harem slacks during
the original run - again, one thing that US TV executives were not
in the 1960s was daring.
Six years on, on 20 October 1991, there was a second revival (I
Still Dream Of Jeannie) but this time no one played the part of
Nelson: conveniently, he was away, deep in space.
TRIVIA NOTE
Some episodes of I Dream Of Jeannie featured an
'invisible' dog. The dog's name was Djinn Djinn and he belonged to
Jeannie.
The dog (who was actually only invisible some of the time)
despised all uniformed men, which Jeannie explained was because the
palace guards had been unkind to him in past years.
In his appearances on the show, the vicious little beast shredded
many a pant leg and was once turned into a porcelain statue when one
of Jeannie's spells went awry, as they were wont to do.
He also became a proud father in a story that involved Roger
telling everyone Jeannie was pregnant when it was in fact actually
Mrs Djinn Djinn who was expecting.
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