Oh, the innocent days when the sexiest thing on television was Barbara Eden's hidden navel! In the classic 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, an astronaut stranded on a desert island discovered a bottle containing a genie--a shapely blond genie in scarves and diaphanous pantaloons! He sets her free, but she follows him back to Cocoa Beach, Florida, where her efforts to serve him only cause mischief and threaten his career in the space program. I Dream of Jeannie depicted the male fantasy of a beautiful but subservient girl--but this subservient girl was all-powerful and oddly willful in her attempts to serve. It all worked because of the leads: Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman went on to lengthy careers (later starring in Harper Valley PTA and Dallas, respectively), but arguably never matched the chemistry they had as Jeannie and Captain (soon to be Major) Tony Nelson. Jeannie, though naive and eager to please, always had Eden's intelligence and steely resolve lurking under her bubbly blonde surface, while Hagman projected a genuine decency that somehow made the potentially salacious situation seem innocent. Still, the show would never have been more than a knockoff of the similar Bewitched (basically, the battle of the sexes with a magic twist) if Tony's secret hadn't been discovered midseason by his best friend, fellow astronaut Roger (the wonderful Bill Daily, later on The Bob Newhart Show). Unburdened by the need for decency, Roger could be the show's insatiable id, eager to use Jeannie for no end of self-serving purposes. Meanwhile, psychiatrist Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke) served as the show's perpetually flabbergasted superego, constantly demanding a rational explanation for all the madcap events around him. All at once the show's storylines--which had previously been dominated by Jeannie's desire for marriage--could wander in any daffy direction the writers chose. The result was deeply silly and utterly charming.
Cast & Characters
- Barbara Eden as Jeannie
- Larry Hagman as Capt. Tony Nelson
- Bill Daily as Capt. Roger Healey
- Hayden Rorke as Dr. Alfred Bellows
- Barton MacLane as Gen. Martin Peterson (1965-1969)
- Emmaline Henry as Amanda Bellows (1966-1970)
- Vinton Hayworth as Gen. Winfield Schaeffer (1969-1970)
Broadcast History
First Telecast: September 18, 1965Last Telecast: September 1, 1970
Original Network:
NBC Seasons: 5
Episodes: 139
View list of all I Dream of Jeannie episodes
Original Primetime TV Schedule:
- September 1965- September 1966, Saturday 8:00-8:30pm
- September 1966- August 1967, Monday 8:00-8:30pm
- September 1967- August 1968, Tuesday 7:30-8:00pm
- September 1968- August 1969, Monday 7:30-8:00pm
- September 1969- August 1970, Tuesday 7:30-8:00pm
Theme Song & Opening Intro
"Jeannie" by Hugo Montenegro.Watch opening intro:
Listen to theme song:
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I Dream of Jeannie Trivia
Jeannie's bottle was made from a Jim Beam liquor decanter which was simply painted with gold leaf.Jeannie was born on April 1st of the year 64 B.C.
Several performers played themselves on the TV show. Some of them were Groucho Marx (You Bet Your Life), Sammy Davis Jr., Milton Berle, Don Ho, & Judy Carne and Arte Johnson of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
Although they were both Astronauts, Anthony Nelson was in the Air Force and Roger Healey was in the Army.
Barbara Eden played dual roles (as Jeannie and as Jeannie's sister) in nine episodes.
Actor Michael Ansara (Barbara Eden's husband) guest-starred in three episodes and directed one.
