Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Debuting about the time that our space program started catching up with the Soviets, this series had astronaut Larry Hagman crash landing somewhere in the Arabian sea and finding on a deserted island an old bottle. Inside said bottle was a genie named Jeannie and she was delightfully and naively played by Barbara Eden.Somehow Hagman got the bottle back home to Florida where he lived the better to be near his work at Cape Kennedy. Eden lived in the bottle which was now in Hagman's home.It was when she was trying to do something to please her Master and was seen doing same that questions of morality and propriety soon emerged. In the case of fellow astronaut and neighbor Bill Daily it was curiosity turning to envy.But when the chief physician of NASA Hayden Rorke was asking them it became sticky just about every episode. He was relentlessly curious about the strange doings in the Hagman household, remained so for the entire series run.Larry Hagman's astronaut Tony Nelson was about as different as J.R. Ewing you can get. He was an All American hero type, nice guy, could be a bit of a klutz. Bill Daily was goofy and fun as fellow astronaut Roger Healey. No one was ever more officious than Hayden Rorke as Dr. Bellows.Still the red blooded American male always hoped that he would find a bottle with a genie and it would look like Barbara Eden. Answering his every beck and call.

Of course this belongs to an era when producers took the silliest of ideas and treated them like the lost works of Shakespeare (a premise that could arguably be made for today's shows as well). But in fact this entry is not "typical" for the era, to the contrary, it set the bar and defined how this formula could be done (then) and would be done (now). First, if you want to have some fun, follow the IMDb link for Sidney Sheldon, the creator. His body of work is so prolific and contains so many well-know names, you will for a moment think you are in someone's Playlist of classic hits. This was a man who knew how to work a concept. Next, the casting. Larry Hagman became known as one of the most bankable TV stars of all time and -- get this -- here he was playing straight man to the real star, Barbara Eden. TV historians will tell you that Eden was considered too "old" for the part (indeed, too old to play a sexy temptress) and keep in mind that this was an era in Hollywood when, generally, actresses were considered over the hill at 35 (Look how old Anne Bancroft was in the Graduate -- not old at all, yet cast as the "mother" role). Eden got the part anyway and the rest is history. The chemistry between Hagman and Eden was so strong (not to mention the subliminal pitch to millions of male viewers that it was possible to control the fairer sex by, er, rubbing a lamp) that the series was not only a hit, but Eden (like Elizabeth Montgomery) became a TV icon, and would continue doing popular "movies of the week" for decades to come.

This television show (1965-1970) was one of the best TV shows to my opinion. The premise of the show based on an astronaut Tony (Larry Hagman)who's space mission was aborted due to malfunction. His capsule lands on a small island beach in South Pacific. He comes in contact of a bottle and rubs it and out came a genie named Jeannie (Barbara Eden), she has been imprisoned in the bottle for 2000 years because a wicked Genie put her there for not marrying her. Tony try let her go but she followed him back to Cocoa Beach Florida and turned his life upside down. Later Roger (Bill Daily) helps Tony from letting Dr Bellows (Hayden Rorke) know and NASA. Being an astronaut is all what Tony dreamed of doing. 1st season was in black and white but later in syndication was in colour. The reason why this show is the best is Comparing it to sitcom today and then (NOT IDOJ and Bewitched, I am not that biased), is easily comparable. They don't make shows like this anymore. The reason this show works is 2 things.1, CAST: *Barbara Eden easily one of the sexiest women in television. *Larry Hagman, this is one of 2 iconic characters he made, he and Barbara had chemistry and a cute on-screen couple. *Bill Daily, played the lovable and loyal and trusting Tony's best friend. *Hayden Rorke, suspicious and a fun character, the running gag of the show. A great Dr.2. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.Cocoa Beach Florida, in a time of aerospace era when NASA was the forerunner of technology. The house in 1st 2 season was my favourite, nice colour bachelor's house, in season 3 and on they changed the interior to ugly panelling and then season 5, a new house. By then it wasn't the same.Closing: the only flaw is the continuity. For a genie locked up for 2000 years in a bottle, how does she know figures of modern era? And for Tony being a smart and wise character, doesn't question this. Nevertheless, I will watch this show 10000 times before Jersey Shore. With having a beautiful sexy genie at Tony's disposal, they kept it clean and pure. Unlike today's shows.

Much as "The Addams Family" had to be compared to "The Munsters," "I Dream of Jeannie" will perpetually be held up to scrutiny against "Bewitched" as two 1960s sitcoms with similar appearing concepts. In this case, a magical woman complicates the life of a mortal man, even as she tries to help him through his problems.But let's stay on topic. NASA Astronaut Captain Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman), on a space mission, went up, but something went wrong and they had to bring him down. His capsule came to earth on a tiny desert island where he discovers a bottle; he opens it and in a puff of smoke a genie (Barbara Eden) appears. She explains that because he freed her, she is his, forever, then blinks and a rescue helicopter appears.When she follows him home, things instantly become complicated. His best friend, Captain Roger Healey (Bill Daily) gets in on the secret in short order, and helps Tony with his fiancé, who happens to be the General's daughter! Eventually, that engagement got broken off, leaving Tony free to play the field, and Jeannie to get angry about his other women. And the two buddies get promotions from Captains to Majors.Lots more complications, like Jeannie's Sister, an evil, raven haired twin who was out to enslave Nelson for her boy toy, The Blue Djinn turns up (played by Eden's husband at the time, Michael Ansara), who first put Jeannie into the bottle, and even her dog Djinn Djinn (didn't the writers know any other Arabic words?) who had a pension for disappearing and then tearing any uniform he saw to shreds... not a good thing on an Air Force Base! The charm of the show was in Hagman's incredible ability to go from deadpan to fully reactionary on a dime (something he was required to do in nearly every episode), and Eden's brilliance at playing the petulant brat still learning about the 20th Century World, and with whom no one could be angry for very long. Daily was a great foil for both of them, (though I never understood why his uniform was GREEN) and of course, there was Dr. Bellows (the incomparable Hayden Roarke), intrepid base psychiatrist, who always knew something funny was going on, but could never quite prove it to anyone. Certainly part of the show's success was in his slow burns after whatever he was going to prove to whichever General was in command didn't pan out! Though one has to wonder how they managed to do a contemporary mid 1960s program on and around a Military installation without so much as a passing reference to Vietnam! Yes, it's NASA, but still! Air Force Generals were on duty! Of course, in the end, it turned out to be for the best, as not referencing the war was likely part of the reason a diversionary program like this was on the air in the first place: all part of the magical, mystical lineup of comedy programs all of the networks were airing during the 1960s through the 1970s, designed to divert audiences from the newscasts of the day.The irony of the censors not permitting Eden's belly button to be shown was that on the same network (NBC) and during the same hour (8pm, before "Jeannie" moved to 7:30 in its final seasons), "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" had Bikini clad Goldie Hawn fully exposed and dancing in body paint!Despite the stock footage of Atlas rockets and Gemini missions, there is a certain timeless quality to the series and an obvious charm and sweetness that won't soon wane. It's certainly one of the best "special effects" sitcoms of all time, and is genuinely one of the funniest.