Captain Tony Nelson returns from a one-man space flight only to find himself far from the things of man, save for one little bottle.  He rubs said bottle and becomes the master of Jeannie, a beautiful blonde genie who has been trapped for ages.  Wackiness ensues.  Eventually Tony’s friend Captain Roger Healey learns of Jeannie’s origins.  All Jeannie wants to do is make her master happy, but her lack of knowledge of the modern world yields some pretty interesting results.  Dr. Alfred Bellows desperately tries to catch a clue as to what’s going on (and if Tony is insane) but always falls a step short.

The cast of I Dream of Jeannie is top notch.  Larry Hagman (Dallas’ JR Ewing) fills the shoes of Tony Nelson.  Tony is relatable, even when cranky.  Barbara Eden’s (The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Flaming Star) Jeannie is a beautiful blend of sweet and sexy.  Bill Daily’s Roger Healey (The Bob Newhart Show) is the archetypal friend, on your side, but very much hopeful he can borrow the genie for some wishes of his own.  The glue that holds this show together, however, has to be Hayden Rorke’s performance as Dr. Bellows whose persistence brings about the vast majority of the shows conflict.  As a psychologist, his character is particularly motivated to discern Tony’s level of sanity and seeing as having a genie proves pretty crazy, it’s definitely in question.

I’m going to go out on a ledge here and say that I enjoyed this show more than that which led to its birth Bewitched, but that probably has a lot to do with Jeannie’s costume.  Actually, the key to any good show is a quality villain and I liked Dr. Bellows more than Gladys Kravitz.  The magic involved allowed for a lot of goofy conventions such as the evil twin.  These two shows will probably always come up in the same conversation.

AUDIO/VIDEO/EXTRAS

The 20 DVDs (four per each of the five seasons) containing all 139 episodes come packaged accordion style.  (Be delicate in your handling as five minutes in, I’d already begun destroying mine).  The seasons themselves are separated by color.  Speaking of color, season 1 appears in this set in colorized form.  When production started on the series, they didn't have the budget to shoot it on color, so in a way this is as it was intended.  The presentation of the DVDs comes in the form of a cute cardboard replica of Jeannie's bottle.

The video is in full frame format.  Audio options are English, Spanish and Portuguese.  Spanish and Portuguese subtitles are also available.  Episodes can be selected as well as Play All functionality on each disc.

In addition to the bottle packaging, there is also a set of cards included featuring pictures, facts and character descriptions.

Disc 1
Commentary on the Pilot with Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman and Bill Daily.  Spanish and Portuguese subtitles are also available on the commentary.

Disc 4
Previews -- Bewitched TV, The Partridge Family, Classic TV Comedy, Classic Urban TV Series, Newsradio, Capra DVD Box Set, Bewitched, Fun with Dick & Jane.

I Dream of Jeannie: Out of the Bottle -- a fourteen minute discussion of the first season.  Creator Sidney Sheldon, Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman and Bill Daily are interviewed.  If you want to see what the episodes looked like prior to colorization, the clips that are intercut with the interview footage are in their original black & white format.

Disc 5
Previews -- I Dream of Jeannie, Gidget and The Flying Nun, Ladies' Night, '80s Hits, Bewitched, Bewitched TV.

Disc 9
Previews -- Ladies' Night (TV), Bewitched (TV)

Disc 13
Previews -- Great TV Families, The King of Queens (TV), Bewitched

Disc 19
Minisodes -- Fantasy Island: "Rogues & Ritches"; Bewitched: "Junior Executive" -- episodes truncated down to about five minutes.

Disc 20
Previews -- Kabluey, My Mom's New Boyfriend, '80s Hits.

FINAL WORD

I was too young to appreciate how sexy Barbara Eden was when I watched this as a kid on Nick at Nite, even if censors wouldn’t let her show her belly button.  This show launched many an adolescent fantasy (and perhaps some more adult ones as well).  Would I have liked more special features?  Yes, I always do.  A more complete collection would also have the two movies produced after the series ended or maybe even one of the cartoon spinoff episodes.  Ultimately, the packaging will look good on your shelf and this gives you a chance to pull together all the episodes of a fun show. 

Final Grade – B (but I want a Jeannie of my own)