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(More customer reviews)A few years ago I started watching IDOJ for the first time since I was a kid on cable TV reruns. As an adult, I was able to perceive many things that simply went over my head as a child. This was actually quite an edgy show by mid 1960's standards. Oh how I wished this show would be released on DVD, and lo and behold it my wish was granted!
(And, I bought the B&W version because I prize historical accuracy. I want to see exactly what was shown on TV back then, without the lousy TV's we had back then.)
You've got a blond bombshell, who is eager to please in every way a man could imagine, living out of wedlock with an astronaut, who represented the most heroic all-american roll models we had back in the 1960's. And somehow, for years, this show provided good clean TV fun for millions of viewers.
Part of why it worked I suppose is that Jeannie really wanted to marry Tony, and slowly but surely she broke down his resolve not to marry her until toward the end of the series, when they actually do get married. The meta-narrative of the show is that
Jeannie got her wish. (Oh yeah, and she slept in her bottle until she did!)
Is IDOJ really a "knockoff" of Bewitched? Yes and no. I rather think of IDOJ as an improvement.
For example, the last scene in the pilot has Tony walking into his bedroom and closing the door, Jeannie turning to smoke and entering his bedroom under the door, Tony yelling "Knock it off!!" or something like that, and Jeannie coming back out from under the door and reappearing with a wink to the camera. It's all left to the imagination what happened in there and it's funny!
And that's where IDOJ is very different from Bewitched. In IDOJ, the hottie with the supernatural powers gets to be sexual, whereas in Bewitched she does not.
In Bewitched, Samantha is the sane one with a world of lunacy around her in which she tries to maintain order and survive the crisis of the week. She is usually uptight and in crisis mode and after a while I just start to wonder what she ever saw in Darrin in the first place. Also, this formula gets repetitve. I doubt that I'll ever order the Bewitched series for that very reason: it's much the same story every week.
In IDOJ, Tony is the sane one in a world of lunatics, and Jeannie is often part of the chaos. Jeannie gets to be beautiful, sexual, smart, mischevious, and most importantly, unpredictable. Will she be part of the problem or the solution this week? Or, will she try to be part of the solution and instead bring on more chaos? You really don't know whats coming.
Also, I really appreciate the work that went into some of the props and stunts that often only provided a gag lasting a few seconds. In particular when Jeannie makes herself small and has to hide in items like coffee cups, pencil holders, and things like that. Those kind of scenes take a lot of work to set up. There's some genuine special effects work in this series beyond just objects dissappearing and reappearing.
Oh, and one more thing. The DVDs are single sided!! I can actually look at them and see what disc I'm holding! I can handle them without going into "brain surgeon" mode in order to avoid damaging them! They actually did the packaging correctly! WOW!
So, here you've got a properly packaged example of the best that 1960's sitcoms had to offer, and for under $30. Stop wishing and start buying!
Postscript: My one dissappointment with this DVD set is the commentary on the pilot episode. I expected great things since the commentators would be the main three actors in the cast, but it's like they didn't understand the purpose of a commentary or didn't prepare. Don't expect a lot of additional insights into the series. I tried to watch this with my wife and got so embarrassed for them that we turned it off and just watched the pilot episode without the commentary.
Click Here to see more reviews about: I Dream of Jeannie - The Complete First Season (Black & White) (1965)
I DREAM OF JEANNIE:COMPLETE FIRST SEA - DVD Movie
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