MovieChat Forums > I Dream of Jeannie (1965) Discussion > Season 1

Season 1

posted 7 years ago by adamdurrance
4 replies | jump to latest

Been rewatching the first season and noticed at least in the early episodes the laugh track is played down. There are scenes without it which a welcomed thing.

In the pilot, I've never noticed before, but when Tony hands a handkerchief into the bottle it's an insert of a future scene as she's in costume and not the man's shirt. Wearing the scarves to hide her pregnancy. When she pops out she's in the shirt again.

After seeing the colorized version and their screwing up some of the color choices I actually prefer the original monochrome version. Just bought that version and it's prompted me to watch again. Hagman was so gifted. He took what could have failed and breathed life in it. Eden was as well. The others played their parts well too.

[–] gppressingon 7 years ago

Great post (and photo of John Steed!). Like you, I'm rewatching the first season in its original black-and-white and am thoroughly enjoying it. I bought the Mill Creek complete series collection and the episodes look great and are proving a lot of fun. I DREAM OF JEANNIE certainly has what TV Land long ago called "rewatchability."

The actors are what makes it such a wonderful show. They're like old friends. I'm glad you mentioned Hagman because I think his less-glamorous contribution is often overlooked. He played the romantic leading man as well as the straight man to all of Jeannie's antics. His reactions are perfect. I was sad to read he wasn't happy on the series and created a lot of on-set tension. One would never know it by what shows up on screen.

I'm 15 episodes in, just having watched a longtime first season favorite--"What House Across the Street"--and the also very enjoyable "Too Many Tonys" that introduced Barton MacLane as General Peterson. I plan to press through all 139 episodes, most of which I haven't seen since the late '70s/early '80s when they'd be on in reruns.

[–] adamdurrance 7 years ago

Looks like we're on the same path )

[–] tinkerbell_jonna 7 years ago

I thought Jeannie was always in her Genie outfit when she entered the bottle, though sometimes while in the bottle she changes clothes.

And yeah sometimes in the b&w ones she wears the green outfit but they've colorized it PINK.

[–] Gryneos (37) 4 years ago

For the entirety of the 1st season, that's correct. They only time that rule was ignored was when she wore her 'djinni-pajamas' which only happened a couple of times (episodes #13 "Russian Roulette", and #27 "My Master, the Thief"). They began changing that 'rule' in later seasons.

Episode #23, "Watch the Birdie", is good example of this rule. When Tony drops a golf-tee into her bottle and asks her to get it for him, she's in her 'civvies' (a skirt, shirt, and sweater) and 'modern' hairstyle. But when she's inside of the bottle (with the over-sized golf-tee in her hands) she's back in her harem clothing and djinni-hairstyle.

Maybe it was also the act of turning into smoke which changed her clothing and hairstyle. Because in looking through the episodes, I remembered in #09 "The Moving Finger" that Jeannie is wearing a dress and matching coat she had blinked on before she smokes into her bottle at Tony's command. When she then smokes into the envelope to mail herself to his hotel in Hollywood, she smokes out of it in her harem clothing again.

While I generally like the colorized episodes (I watch both versions) they didn't do very good research into the colors of the various outfits. The pilot episode has her in the regular red & pink set, as well as a used-once-only orange outfit (there are images of it online if you search). Episode #02, My Hero, introduced the green open-vest outfit, and the colorizing company had their artists color both sets pink. They aren't even red & pink like the original outfit, just light-pink and more pink in darker shades.