IDOJ in book on "Boomer TV"

[rythmicjea]

jeannietonyfan said:

Actually, to go along with the bottle theory I believe it's if Jeannie's bottle breaks then she loses her powers.

Well, that theory doesn't really work because in the episode "Hurricane Jeannie", her bottle breaks, and she still has her powers.

Ah, but "Hurricane Jeannie" is supposed to be the series finale, so anything can happen in that show really. But most importantly there was an episode earlier in the series that discussed how fragile her bottle could be. I think it was a "sister" episode. I remember that no mortal could break it but a genie could and that was the goal of Jeannie II's plot that episode. It's been forever since I saw it, but it always stuck in my head.

[jeannietonyfan]

I don't remember that Jeannie II episode at all... it must be a Season 4 one... I haven't seen that season in a very long time.
As for "Hurricane Jeannie" being the series finale, it was meant to be the last episode aired of Season 5, but there was a chance they would be picked up for a sixth season, so I don't think the breaking of the bottle was just a special thing for the final Season 5 episode.

[Subspace]

rythmicjea said:

Actually, to go along with the bottle theory I believe it's if Jeannie's bottle breaks then she loses her powers.

Maybe, but I don't think so. In One of Our Bottles Is Missing, Tony initially asks Jeannie to blink up a new bottle for herself. Her response is that she doesn't want to - "But I want my bottle!" - bu she doesn't say that she can't. (If she couldn't, she'd have said that instead of what she actually did say.) This seems to imply that, while there may be something special about genie bottles, there is no particular/unique/untransferable connection between Jeannie and her bottle that is essential to Jeannie as a Genie.

But I believe Jeannie is more powerful than Samantha because if you watch Samantha's aunt (I can't remember her name) you'll see why. Samantha's aunt has lost a lot of her power and can't do anything right (it's comic relief in the show) and it's because she doesn't use her power all that often. Now, if Darren doesn't want Samantha to use her powers, then the less Samantha uses them the less she's able to control them. However as long as Jeannie has her bottle, her powers are strong and fresh as a daisy!

Actually, I'm sorry, but I don't really get your argument. (Although I do agree with your conclusion - that Jeannie's more powerful than Samantha.)

Samantha's Aunt Clara was an old witch that had lost a lot of her power, but I think Bewitched makes it pretty clear that Aunt Clara lost her power because she's old and has forgotten a lot of spells (also, her age has made it so it's harder for her to focus properly when using witchcraft). I don't think Aunt Clara lost her powers through not using them enough. I think the implication is that as long as Samantha is able to focus, and as long as she remembers all the spells, her powers won't atrophy away due to not being used. (Besides, she never really stops using her powers - she merely tries not to let Darrin catch her using her powers. )

[Subspace]

rythmicjea said:

Ah, but "Hurricane Jeannie" is supposed to be the series finale, so anything can happen in that show really.

Well, I agree that we can't take stuff from Hurricane Jeannie literally - but not because of rythmicjea's reason. The reason we can't take things from that episode as fact, is because it was a dream sequence - the stuff in that episode, technically, never actually happened at all in IDOJ canon. It was just stuff in a dream.

[Subspace]

jeannietonyfan said:

I don't remember that Jeannie II episode at all... it must be a Season 4 one... I haven't seen that season in a very long time.
As for "Hurricane Jeannie" being the series finale, it was meant to be the last episode aired of Season 5, but there was a chance they would be picked up for a sixth season, so I don't think the breaking of the bottle was just a special thing for the final Season 5 episode.

I also do not remember that one. Could you refresh our memories on which episode it was?

As far as Jeannie and her bottle - since the events in Hurricane Jeannie were originally supposed to "actually happen" (then they later converted the whole thing into a dream sequence), it's pretty clear that the writing and production staff had intended Jeannie to retain her powers even if her bottle got broken in some storyline or another.

[jeannietonyfan]

it's pretty clear that the writing and production staff had intended Jeannie to retain her powers even if her bottle got broken in some storyline or another.

Yep, that's what I think too.

[Subspace]

jeannietonyfan said:

it's pretty clear that the writing and production staff had intended Jeannie to retain her powers even if her bottle got broken in some storyline or another.

Yep, that's what I think too.

Yeah - that's the logical thing to conclude. Kinda makes sense, too... otherwise, they should have kept Jeannie's bottle locked up in some ultra-secure space-age-foam-padded vault buried under Tony's house, or something! Just to prevent the bottle getting broken.

[jeannietonyfan]

subspace said:

Yeah - that's the logical thing to conclude. Kinda makes sense, too... otherwise, they should have kept Jeannie's bottle locked up in some ultra-secure space-age-foam-padded vault buried under Tony's house, or something! Just to prevent the bottle getting broken.

hee hee! Yeah, I guess they wouldn't have it out in the open like they always did if the bottle meant so much to her powers.

[Subspace]

jeannietonyfan said:

hee hee! Yeah, I guess they wouldn't have it out in the open like they always did if the bottle meant so much to her powers.

Yup. Jeannie's not a stupid Genie, she'd have brought that little fact up, and Tony would've found some way of safeguarding the bottle - or at least making it so it'd be more secure than just randomly lying around the house.

[jeannietonyfan]

subspace said:

Yup. Jeannie's not a stupid Genie, she'd have brought that little fact up, and Tony would've found some way of safeguarding the bottle - or at least making it so it'd be more secure than just randomly lying around the house.

Yep, agreed!

[rythmicjea]

I don't know...there's quite a bit that Jeannie doesn't tell Tony for whatever reason. Like "Hagi's Day" for one. But that's kind of a different story. But if she thinks it will upset Tony she won't tell him, that and she thinks that he's "So responsible" that he doesn't need to know. Her bottle is hers, it's her responsible.