I Dream Of Jeannie Season 2 Episode 1

[Alma Wass]

IDream of Jeannie is an American fantasy sitcom television series, created by Sidney Sheldon that starred Barbara Eden as a sultry, 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.

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 starts shooting out and a beautiful Persian-speaking female genie materializes and kisses Tony on the lips, shocking him.

They cannot understand each other until Tony expresses his wish that Jeannie (a homophone of genie) 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 fallen in love with Tony at first sight 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. One of the first things Jeannie does in a subsequent episode is break up Tony's engagement to his commanding general's daughter, Melissa, who, along with that particular general, is never seen or mentioned again. Producer Sidney Sheldon realized the romantic triangle between Jeannie, Tony, and Melissa would not pan out in the long run.

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 both from Jeannie's love for him and her often-misguided efforts to please Tony, even when he does not want her assistance. Tony's efforts to cover up Jeannie's antics, because of his fear that he would be dismissed from the space program if her existence were publicly known, brings him to the attention of NASA's resident psychiatrist, U.S. Air Force Colonel Dr. Alfred Bellows. A running gag throughout the series has Bellows being the only eyewitness to many of Jeannie's antics with Tony (and sometimes including his best friend and fellow astronaut, United States Army Captain, later Major, Roger Healey) also being present and trying to offer the doctor far-fetched explanations as Bellows then tries over and over to prove to his superior officers, General Martin Peterson, then General Winfield Schaeffer, that Tony is either crazy or is hiding something. But both Peterson and Schaeffer each refuse to believe him and, after he is always foiled, Bellows repeatedly proclaims, "He's done it to me again!", and Tony's job remains secure. A frequently used plot device is that Jeannie loses her powers when she is confined in a closed space. She is unable to leave her bottle when it is corked, and under certain circumstances, the next person who removes the cork becomes her new master. A multiple-episode story arc involves Jeannie (in miniature) becoming trapped in a NASA safe when it is accidentally locked.

At first Roger does not know about both Jeannie's existence and magic for the first 16 episodes, although they meet in episode 12. When Roger finds out she is a genie, he steals her bottle, temporarily becoming her master. Roger is often shown as girl-crazy or scheming to make a quick buck. He occasionally has hopes of claiming Jeannie so he can use her to have a lavish lifestyle or gain beautiful girlfriends, but overall he is respectful that Tony is Jeannie's master. Both Tony and Roger are promoted to the rank of major late in the first season. In later seasons, Roger's role is retconned to portray him knowing about Jeannie from the beginning (i.e., to him having been with Tony on the space flight that touched down, and thus having seen Jeannie introduce herself to Tony).

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 in 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 puts Tony through an ordeal of nearly killing the ambassador, Tony responds in a fit of anger that he is fed up with Sully and his cohorts and he would not marry Jeannie even if she were "the last genie on earth". Hearing this, Jeannie bitterly 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 fiance. She dresses as a modern American woman in public. This changed the show's premise: hiding Jeannie's magical abilities rather than her existence. This, however, contradicts what is revealed in "The Birds and Bees Bit", in which it is claimed that upon marriage a genie loses all of her magical powers.

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 could not find an actress who could play the role the way that he had written it. He did have one specific rule: he did not want a blonde genie, because the similarity with the blonde witch on Bewitched would be too much. However, after many unsuccessful auditions, he called Barbara Eden's agent. Eden had coincidently co-starred in The Brass Bottle as mortal Sylvia Kenton.

The show debuted on Saturday, September 18, 1965, at 8 pm on NBC. When NBC began broadcasting most of its prime-time television line-up in color in the fall of 1965, Jeannie was one of two programs that remained in black and white, in its case because of the special photographic effects employed to achieve Jeannie's magic. By the second season, however, further work had been done on techniques to create the visual effects in color, which was necessary because by 1966, all prime-time series in the United States were being made in color.

Sheldon originally wanted to film season one in color, but NBC did not want to pay for the extra expenses, as the network (and Screen Gems) believed the series would not make it to a second season.[1] 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."[2]

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 she 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.[7]

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 the airing of the nuptials episode on December 2) at the Patrick Air Force Base Officers Club.[6] Then-Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr., attended and cut the cake for the couple.[7]

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, later installed on a short street off Florida State Road A1A near Lori Wilson Park.[7]

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

In the first season, Jeannie clearly was originally a human who was turned into a genie by (as later revealed Season 1, Episode 2: "My Hero?") the Blue Djinn when she refused to marry him (the term "djinn" is synonymous with "genie"). Several members of Jeannie's family, including her parents, are rather eccentric, but none is a genie. Her mother describes the family as "just peasants from the old country" (Season 1, Episode 14, "What House Across the Street?"). The Blue Djinn was played by Barbara Eden's first husband, Michael Ansara. In later seasons, he also played King Kamehameha (Season 3, Episode 15 "The Battle of Waikiki"), and Biff Jellico (Season 5, Episode 12 "My Sister, the Homewrecker").

In the third season, this continuity was changed retroactively and the dialog imply Jeannie had 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"). Whatever the reason for the shift in the narrative concerning her origins, this new narrative was retained for the rest of the series.

The television film I Dream of Jeannie... Fifteen Years Later (1985) has Jeannie re-stating most of her first-season origin when she tells her son, Tony Jr., that she was trapped in her bottle by an evil djinn after she refused to marry him. (No specific statement is given about whether he turned her into a genie at that time or if she had been born one.)

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