I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete First Season

Who can say whether I Dream of Jeannie set the women's movement back 10 years or galvanized it into action? There had never been a woman like Jeannie (the ravishing Barbara Eden) in primetime: Neither a dutiful housewife like June Cleaver, sophisticated suburban goddess like Laura Petrie, nor even a glamorous witch like Samantha Stevens, Jeannie was—to quote military base psychiatrist Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke)—"a classic fantasy," a beautiful, 2,000-year-old genie dressed in a revealing harem outfit (no navels, please, this was 1965!), dedicated to serving her "master," astronaut Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman). Nelson freed Jeannie from her bottle after being stranded on a deserted island following an aborted space mission, and she came to live with him in his Cocoa Beach, Florida home. To appease the network censors, theirs is, save for a kiss or two, strictly a platonic relationship; although in this first and most magical 30-episode 1965-66 first season, Jeannie takes vivacious delight in getting Nelson into various compromising positions. When he orders her to remove the swimming trunks she has just blinked him into in "Whatever Became of Baby Custer?", for example, she lets out a salacious giggle. The befuddled Dr. Bellows mirrors the Bewitched busybody Mrs. Kravitz—always catching Tony in outrageous situations, but never able to figure out exactly what's behind it all. Tony's best friend and fellow astronaut, Roger (Bill Daily), does figure it out, and in "The Richest Astronaut in the Whole Wide World," he even briefly becomes Jeannie's power-crazed master. I Dream of Jeannie might not pass PC muster these days, but from the original, jazzy, waltz-time theme song to the dream ensemble, this show has the right stuff. DVD extras include audio commentary for the pilot episode (with Eden, Hagman, and Daly), and a featurette. Recommended. (D. Liebenson)