Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, Bill Daily, Hayden Rorke, Philip Ober, Karen Sharpe,
Barton MacLane, Richard Kiel, Billy Mumy, Dabney Coleman, Maureen McCormick | Written by Sidney Sheldon
UK certification PG | UK RRP £29.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 733 minutes | Directed by Gene Nelson & others
Here we have one of the best American sitcoms of the 1960s (and one of my favourite shows from my childhood). In fact, I'll go so far as to say it's one of the best American sitcoms ever. And that's mainly down to its excellent cast.
First the two leads — Barbara Eden and Jeannie the genie, and Larry Hagman as astronaut Tony Nelson. Has there ever been a more beautiful blonde on television than Barbara Eden? No. And the character of Jeannie may be blonde and bubbly, but she's certainly no brainless bimbo — just a naive, girly fish-out-of-water, in this "modern" world of the 1960s. And Hagman went on to play one of TVs best villains — the evil JR Ewing in super-soap Dallas — but here he's young, handsome and smart, yet totally flummoxed by this beautiful, magical girl who suddenly came into his life. Together, the pair just ooze chemistry, and have perfect comic timing. Add the two main supports — Daily as Tony's best mate Roger Healy, and Rourke as NASA psychiatrist Dr Bellows — and you have an onscreen team that has rarely been bettered. And also keep in mind that the premise was incredibly racy for its time (the first season began in 1965) — a sexy, half-naked young blonde living in the same house as her single "master". You can almost hear Mary Whitehouse spinning in her grave.
For the two or three of you who've never come across this show before, I guess I had better explain what it's all about. Well basically, it's every man's fantasy ... finding a bottle, inside of which is a beautiful, half-naked blonde genie who will grant you any wish. NASA astronaut Tony Nelson has crash-landed on a deserted island in the South Pacific, after a mission into orbit went wrong (this is in the days before we went to the moon) and he finds such a bottle. Inside is the afore-mentioned beautiful blonde genie — who, after 2000 years stuck inside the bottle, is simply gagging for it and throws herself at the handsome young American hero. Now any normal bloke would take advantage but Nelson is a decent, upstanding sort of chap. Who's also engaged (to the general's daughter, no less). So he keeps his hands to himself, but sets her free. Jeannie, however, doesn't want to be free; she's decided she's in love, so she follows him back to Florida and becomes his live-in "slave". But being sitcom-land, things never go to plan. Jeannie's well-meant attempts to help Tony usually get him in some kind of trouble, often threatening his career in the space programme.
That's it in a nutshell. I Dream of Jeannie ran for five seasons, but never found real success until it had ended and went into syndication. Jeannie and Tony did eventually fall in love and get married (season five, if I remember correctly), and it's fun to see how it all started again. And this is the first time I've seen these particular 30 episodes in colour — the first series was actually made in black-and-white, but it has been colourised for this DVD release. I'd also forgotten that the first season theme music was different to the well-known, Emmy award-winning theme that everyone remembers and loves so well. Although the special effects are pretty naff by today's standards, the fun and laughs are still there.
EXTRAS ** Just an audio commentary with Eden, Hagman and Daily on the pilot (in which Hagman carries on about how gorgeous they all looked back then, while Daily constantly reminds us that he's never seen the pilot before) and a featurette, on the fourth disc, called I Dream of Jeannie: Out of the Bottle, in which the cast and creator Sidney Sheldon reminisce about the show. Some deleted scenes or even a blooper reel would have been nice.