From "Television Without Pity: The Book!"

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Below is the I Dream of Jeannie article in Television Without Pity: The Book!. I see that people are still dreaming of Jeannie but unfortunately their dreams are still colored with the same old misconceptions...

However it is at least worth a laugh

I DREAM OF JEANNIE

When people talk about the golden age of television—presumably when competitive eating wasn't broadcast as a sport—are they really talking about shows like I Dream of Jeannie? Like Bewitched, Jeannie kicked off with adorable animated credits (and, granted, the Jeannie theme song still rocks); like Bewitched, it featured a woman with magical powers in the service of a generally befuddled and un-fun mortal dude. However, at least on Bewitched, the couple was married, and therefore nominally equals; Jeannie's Major Nelson (Larry Hagman) had freed her from her bottle, and therefore she was in his service and called him nothing but "Master." Um, ew. Worse yet, the series eventually had them getting married, despite the power imbalance of their relationship from its very start. We just hope Jeannie had her own savings account in case she ever had to flee a drunken "Master" in the night. See also Bewitched.

[jeannietonyfan]

subspace said:

Below is the I Dream of Jeannie article in Television Without Pity: The Book!. I see that people are still dreaming of Jeannie but unfortunately their dreams are still colored with the same old misconceptions...

However it is at least worth a laugh

I DREAM OF JEANNIE

When people talk about the golden age of television—presumably when competitive eating wasn't broadcast as a sport—are they really talking about shows like I Dream of Jeannie? Like Bewitched, Jeannie kicked off with adorable animated credits (and, granted, the Jeannie theme song still rocks); like Bewitched, it featured a woman with magical powers in the service of a generally befuddled and un-fun mortal dude. However, at least on Bewitched, the couple was married, and therefore nominally equals; Jeannie's Major Nelson (Larry Hagman) had freed her from her bottle, and therefore she was in his service and called him nothing but "Master." Um, ew. Worse yet, the series eventually had them getting married, despite the power imbalance of their relationship from its very start. We just hope Jeannie had her own savings account in case she ever had to flee a drunken "Master" in the night. See also Bewitched.

Oh boy, again a case of someone who has no idea of what IDOJ is about... fans of IDOJ know that even though Jeannie called Tony "Master" it meant absolutely nothing and had no connection to the Master-Slave relationship, because it didn't exist! And power imbalance of their relationship? Well, we've said this a million times but even though on the surface it was a power imbalance they were truly equals. As for Bewitched, she was ORDERED, actually ordered not to use her powers by her husband... that is what I call a power imbalance and to quote the author of this book, "Um, ew!"

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jeannietonyfan said:

Oh boy, again a case of someone who has no idea of what IDOJ is about...

I know... it's annoying, isn't it?!? One would think that a person should research thoroughly and understand thoroughly a subject, in this case a television show, IDOJ, before writing on that subject. Unfortunately many people tend to think they know it all when they really don't understand it at all.

fans of IDOJ know that even though Jeannie called Tony "Master" it meant absolutely nothing and had no connection to the Master-Slave relationship, because it didn't exist!

Exactly! She called him "Master" because she was a genie and it was a genie tradition. Not because she was a slave.

And power imbalance of their relationship? Well, we've said this a million times but even though on the surface it was a power imbalance they were truly equals. As for Bewitched, she was ORDERED, actually ordered not to use her powers by her husband... that is what I call a power imbalance and to quote the author of this book, "Um, ew!"

Yup. Jeannie and Tony on the surface appeared to have a power imbalance but in actual practice as anyone who'll watch the show will see over and over again, Jeannie and Tony were quite equal and Jeannie had her own free will - hardly Tony's 'slave'. The author of the article, above, is correct when he says that Darrin and Samantha are 'nominally' equal, because they should be equal - but the problem is they are actually not. As you said - the Darrin/Samantha relationship illustrates nicely what a real power imbalance is and "Um, ew!" describes it nicely.

[jeannietonyfan]

"Exactly! She called him "Master" because she was a genie and it was a genie tradition. Not because she was a slave."
Precisely! And as Barbara Eden has said, "It was her job!".

"the problem is they are actually not"
Exactly!!

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jeannietonyfan said:

Precisely! And as Barbara Eden has said, "It was her job!".

Yup. Precisely!.

Exactly!!

Yup. Something I wish those people would realize.

[jeannietonyfan]

subspace said:

jeannietonyfan said:

Precisely! And as Barbara Eden has said, "It was her job!".

Yup. Precisely!.

Exactly!!

Yup. Something I wish those people would realize.

Yeah, I know. People seem to have an awfully hard time getting that into their heads.

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jeannietonyfan said:

Yeah, I know. People seem to have an awfully hard time getting that into their heads.

I know. It's amazing how many people misunderstand Jeannie, isn't it? I think it might have something to do with Bewitched... these people look at Bewitched and see Darrin always ordering Samantha around and Samantha usually obeying whatever Darrin says... then, they see Jeannie, and see Jeannie call Tony 'Master', and say, well, Jeannie must be Bewitched taken to the extreme!

[jeannietonyfan]

subspace said:

jeannietonyfan said:

Yeah, I know. People seem to have an awfully hard time getting that into their heads.

I know. It's amazing how many people misunderstand Jeannie, isn't it? I think it might have something to do with Bewitched... these people look at Bewitched and see Darrin always ordering Samantha around and Samantha usually obeying whatever Darrin says... then, they see Jeannie, and see Jeannie call Tony 'Master', and say, well, Jeannie must be Bewitched taken to the extreme!

Yes, I think you could think that way if you don't watch a whole episode... but I remember one of the very first episodes I saw... the one with Abdullah... and I knew the premise of the show, so I was expecting Jeannie to be a slave to her "Master" but I immediately found out from just watching that episode that that was certainly not the case. I thought it was adorable and very cute from the very beginning... and that same morning that that episode was on, the one where Jeannie turns Roger into a poodle dog was on, and I was like, this is a pretty funny show! Why the heck haven't I watched it before? I was hooked from then on...

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jeannietonyfan said:

Yes, I think you could think that way if you don't watch a whole episode... but I remember one of the very first episodes I saw... the one with Abdullah... and I knew the premise of the show, so I was expecting Jeannie to be a slave to her "Master" but I immediately found out from just watching that episode that that was certainly not the case. I thought it was adorable and very cute from the very beginning... and that same morning that that episode was on, the one where Jeannie turns Roger into a poodle dog was on, and I was like, this is a pretty funny show! Why the heck haven't I watched it before? I was hooked from then on...

Well, to be fair, there are episodes which seem to reflect the wrong viewpoint... especially the earlier episodes... in many Season 1 episodes, Tony is seen ordering Jeannie to get back in the bottle, where he then corks her up. In Episode #17 Richest Astronaut in the Whole Wide World, Roger is seen treating Jeannie like a slave... people could infer that Tony would treat Jeannie similarly, albeit with the exception that he doesn't make her blink up villas etc. In Episode #18 Is There an Extra Genie in the House? Tony behaves in a very Darrin-esque manner (the way he is suspecting Jeannie of 'defying' him). In Episode #19 Never Try to Outsmart a Genie Tony is seen to have the final say as to how Jeannie can go along with him. In Episode #21 Jeannie and the Kidnap Caper Tony is seen ordering Jeannie to, effectively, give up her magic (he orders her never to use her magic to help him again, and since the only other person who knows of Jeannie is Roger, and Tony has also forbidden Jeannie to help Roger out, he's effectively ordering her to act as a 'normal' human woman, with the sole exception perhaps that Jeannie could still smoke into her bottle). In Episode #36 What's New, Poodle Dog? Jeannie has been secretly deceiving Tony and in the end, Tony decides to punish Jeannie - he didn't quite succeed, but he did have the attitude that he could/was entitled to tell Jeannie what to do and what not to do. Of course there's then the infamous Episode #38 How to Be a Genie in Ten Easy Lessons... And Episode #52 There Goes the Best Genie I Ever Had.

So if you either never watched the show... or only watched a few of the 'wrong' episodes, you might get the wrong idea. I agree though - if you did watch a typical episode in its entirety, you should quickly see the real premise of Jeannie.

[jeannietonyfan]

Yeah, that's true... the Season 1 episodes do have a different kind of a vibe... I hate the cork in the bottle thing, and am so glad they got rid of that by Season 2... but even in those I think you can see that Jeannie still has the power and ability over Tony... it's just not as obvious.
I was trying to avoid talking about the end of "What's New Poodle Dog" because I like to think that scene never happened... hee hee... it's just so un-Tony-like and unlike the show... it's like what were you thinking Sidney? I don't think I watched the end of that episode when I first saw it on TV or else, you're right I may have had a more different feeling about the show... I think Sidney himself sometimes saw the Jeannie-Tony relationship as "Master-Slave", because he always described the show as "a beautiful half-naked woman prancing around saying "what can I do for you Master?" and I always sort of cringed when he described it that way... because as I've said many times before, I've never seen it that way, and when you describe the show that way it immediately puts it in a different, more negative light. And it always surprised me that Sheldon, as the creator, saw the show that way because most of his scripts that he wrote don't follow that (some do, but most don't) and I'm surprised that that's how he primarily viewed the show.

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jeannietonyfan said:

Yeah, that's true... the Season 1 episodes do have a different kind of a vibe... I hate the cork in the bottle thing, and am so glad they got rid of that by Season 2... but even in those I think you can see that Jeannie still has the power and ability over Tony... it's just not as obvious.

I agree. I always hated it in the Season 1 episodes when Tony would cork Jeannie up in her bottle. And you are correct about many Season 1 episodes having a different 'kind of vibe'... But you are also correct when you say that Jeannie still has power over Tony even in the Season 1 episodes. I think we can explain the 'different kind of vibe' by reasoning that in the first year after he found Jeannie, Tony had not yet realized who had the power in the relationship, and he also saw and treated Jeannie more like just a genie, than like a fellow person with rights and free will. By Season 2 (i.e. the second year) Tony had been more 'enlightened' hence how he doesn't regularly cork Jeannie up anymore, gives orders less, etc.

I was trying to avoid talking about the end of "What's New Poodle Dog" because I like to think that scene never happened... hee hee... it's just so un-Tony-like and unlike the show... it's like what were you thinking Sidney? I don't think I watched the end of that episode when I first saw it on TV or else, you're right I may have had a more different feeling about the show...

I know what you mean and I agree...

I think Sidney himself sometimes saw the Jeannie-Tony relationship as "Master-Slave", because he always described the show as "a beautiful half-naked woman prancing around saying "what can I do for you Master?" and I always sort of cringed when he described it that way... because as I've said many times before, I've never seen it that way, and when you describe the show that way it immediately puts it in a different, more negative light.

Exactly! I always cringed when I heard him describe it like that too... because describing it like that lends credence to the school of thinking that Jeannie is Bewitched taken to the extreme - which is actually not true going from the content of the shows.

And it always surprised me that Sheldon, as the creator, saw the show that way because most of his scripts that he wrote don't follow that (some do, but most don't) and I'm surprised that that's how he primarily viewed the show.

I know - surprising and a bit disturbing, isn't it? Even though he may have viewed the show that way, I guess most of his scripts didn't follow that because who wants to watch a show featuring an all-powerful Master and a pitiable, deprived Slave? So out of necessity perhaps, and because Tony as a character was depicted as being a basically nice guy, most of Sheldon's scripts did not follow how he thought of the show...

[jeannietonyfan]

"But you are also correct when you say that Jeannie still has power over Tony even in the Season 1 episodes. I think we can explain the 'different kind of vibe' by reasoning that in the first year after he found Jeannie, Tony had not yet realized who had the power in the relationship, and he also saw and treated Jeannie more like just a genie, than like a fellow person with rights and free will. By Season 2 (i.e. the second year) Tony had been more 'enlightened' hence how he doesn't regularly cork Jeannie up anymore, gives orders less, etc."

Yep, exactly. He realized that this wasn't gonna be the kind of genie who would take being corked up in her bottle all the time; and realized that just because she was a genie didn't give him the right to be constantly ordering her around. Plus, you're right, I think he realized the power of Jeannie, and realized that maybe it wouldn't be the smartest thing to treat her as a genie, but treat her like a human being.
And another thing that I just thought about... I don't think Tony himself was comfortable as being a Master in a relationship, and I don't think he agreed with it. For example, even an a very early Season 1 episode (Djinn and Water I think,) Tony doesn't want Jeannie calling him "Master"- he doesn't like it.
I think that Tony really felt that this whole "Master" thing was backward and so he decided (almost from the very beginning) not to act that way... and as a result, we get the comedy for the show, and the romance of the show because the show couldn't be romantic if Tony hadn't felt otherwise.

"Exactly! I always cringed when I heard him describe it like that too... because describing it like that lends credence to the school of thinking that Jeannie is Bewitched taken to the extreme - which is actually not true going from the content of the shows."

Yes! And the fact that it's coming from the creator of the show of all people certainly doesn't help the situation!


"I know - surprising and a bit disturbing, isn't it?"

Yes, it is disturbing.

"Even though he may have viewed the show that way, I guess most of his scripts didn't follow that because who wants to watch a show featuring an all-powerful Master and a pitiable, deprived Slave? So out of necessity perhaps, and because Tony as a character was depicted as being a basically nice guy, most of Sheldon's scripts did not follow how he thought of the show..."

Yes, I think so too. There wouldn't be a show if the Jeannie-Tony relationship were that way... and it wouldn't be a comedy, it would just be ridiculous... so I wonder how Sidney thought he was going to write the show when he first had the idea... where did he think the comedy would comd from?

[jeannietonyfan]

Just thought I'd add here regarding Sidney: I think he always had some kind of a fascination with genies and Middle East harem girls.
His film "Dream Wife", which he scripted and directed and starred Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, featured Grant as a man who goes on vacation in the Middle East and meets a beautiful Middle Eastern girl (dressed in a harem outfit) and is immediately awestruck by this woman and the fact that her culture states that she should do anything for her husband... meanwhile Grant's fiancee (Kerr) is an independent workaholic woman and so Grant decides to dump Kerr in favour of the Middle Eastern girl... he ends up going back to Kerr in the end, but the "comedy" is all about Grant envisioning having a slave, in effect, for a wife.
So maybe this was the wavelength that Sidney was going for originally for IDOJ? Thank goodness it didn't or I doubt it would have even lasted past the pilot...

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jeannietonyfan said:

Yep, exactly. He realized that this wasn't gonna be the kind of genie who would take being corked up in her bottle all the time; and realized that just because she was a genie didn't give him the right to be constantly ordering her around. Plus, you're right, I think he realized the power of Jeannie, and realized that maybe it wouldn't be the smartest thing to treat her as a genie, but treat her like a human being.

Yeah - thanks for summing it up! That's exactly what I was trying to say. But you said it much better than I did.

And another thing that I just thought about... I don't think Tony himself was comfortable as being a Master in a relationship, and I don't think he agreed with it. For example, even an a very early Season 1 episode (Djinn and Water I think,) Tony doesn't want Jeannie calling him "Master"- he doesn't like it.

You're right, he wasn't. He never liked the concept but in a few of the earlier episodes I think he ended up acting as a "Master" anyway... fortunately as time went on he realized the problems with some of his past behavior, and corrected it.

I think that Tony really felt that this whole "Master" thing was backward and so he decided (almost from the very beginning) not to act that way... and as a result, we get the comedy for the show, and the romance of the show because the show couldn't be romantic if Tony hadn't felt otherwise.

Definitely. If Jeannie had been a true 'Slave' so to speak, there wouldn't be any romance. Or even if there was, it wouldn't have been funny at all.

Yes! And the fact that it's coming from the creator of the show of all people certainly doesn't help the situation!

Duh, no, it makes the situation 100X worse.

Yes, it is disturbing.

Most definitely so.

Yes, I think so too. There wouldn't be a show if the Jeannie-Tony relationship were that way... and it wouldn't be a comedy, it would just be ridiculous... so I wonder how Sidney thought he was going to write the show when he first had the idea... where did he think the comedy would comd from?

I know. He probably wanted to do the show that way, started writing the pilot episode, then realized there was no way in heaven that anyone could get comedy out of such a setup... so he was forced to write the scripts differently.

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jeannietonyfan said:

Just thought I'd add here regarding Sidney: I think he always had some kind of a fascination with genies and Middle East harem girls.
His film "Dream Wife", which he scripted and directed and starred Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, featured Grant as a man who goes on vacation in the Middle East and meets a beautiful Middle Eastern girl (dressed in a harem outfit) and is immediately awestruck by this woman and the fact that her culture states that she should do anything for her husband... meanwhile Grant's fiancee (Kerr) is an independent workaholic woman and so Grant decides to dump Kerr in favour of the Middle Eastern girl... he ends up going back to Kerr in the end, but the "comedy" is all about Grant envisioning having a slave, in effect, for a wife.
So maybe this was the wavelength that Sidney was going for originally for IDOJ? Thank goodness it didn't or I doubt it would have even lasted past the pilot...

Ewww... thank goodness indeed! If he'd written it that way, I highly doubt even the Pilot would have been approved and aired...