One of Our Bottles is Missing

[jeanniegirl]

I have to say one of the best episodes ever is One of Our Bottles is Missing. It cracks me up every time. Two of my other favorites are My Master the Spy and My Incredible Shrinking Master. All three have great plots and they're just amazing. ;D


What are your thoughts about these episodes??

[theduck]

Is this the ep where Amanda Bellows wants a copy of the bottle? If so I just watched this ep yesterday and found myself laughing at Roger and Tony as they were breaking into the Bellows. Love when Tony laughs at himself being scared by the mirror, and when he pops up out of the bushes, asking for Roger who pops up behind him. You know they had fun making these scenes.

The Duck

[jeannietonyfan]

One of Our Bottles is Missing and My Incredible Shrinking Master are two of my very favourite episodes. I love the scenes with Tony and Roger when they're trying to break in, and then Tony pretending to sleep walk later on... very funny... and it makes it all the more funny because it's the Bewitched house!

My Incredible Shrinking Master was a tour de force for Larry, and I think he was brilliant in it... I love when the phone rings and he's right beside it and because he's been shrunken he's about to go deaf, and then he thinks he can lift the receiver with the pencil... hee hee!! . And the whole idea of Roger losing the crystal to his watch and telling Dr. Bellows to "tippee toe"... cracks me up every time. I also love the beginning of this episode when Jeannie has the dream that starts it all... and he comforts her... a very cute scene I think.

Season 2 had some great episodes, and those are definitely 2 of the best of the series.

[jeanniegirl]

I totally agree. I absolutley adore the whole "tippie toe" thing. ;D And when Tony takes Jeannie in his arms and tries to calm her down...*sigh* It's very sweet.

[jeannietonyfan]

jeanniegirl said:

I totally agree. I absolutley adore the whole "tippie toe" thing. ;D And when Tony takes Jeannie in his arms and tries to calm her down...*sigh* It's very sweet.

Yeah, that's definitely up there on my favourite scenes list!

[Subspace]

jeannietonyfan said:

One of Our Bottles is Missing and My Incredible Shrinking Master are two of my very favourite episodes. I love the scenes with Tony and Roger when they're trying to break in, and then Tony pretending to sleep walk later on... very funny... and it makes it all the more funny because it's the Bewitched house!

LOL yes... I always loved the 'break in' scenes... like in that Season 1 episode where they broke into the museum to return the slippers... that was really funny and well-acted by Larry and Bill too.

[jeannietonyfan]

Yeah that scene with the slippers is great (I love the part when they're trying to put the slippers back and Jeannie is behind them and is shaking her hands and trying to get them to hurry up even though Tony and Roger don't know she's there. That episode I think is a sign of the more slapstick angle that the show would take in Season 2... you can tell that they were starting to move into a different feeling for the show once Hal Cooper came in. Didn't he direct that episode?

[Subspace]

I may be in the minority but I actually enjoyed the show taking a more slapstick direction. I will agree that the slapstick fun was over-done especially in some episodes in later (i.e. Season 3 onwards) seasons (someone once said the show starting with Season 3 became more of a live action cartoon than a sitcom or a romantic comedy; I feel that's somewhat of an exaggeration but it's not completely wrong).

But yes, while the original early Season 1 romantic comedy was great and very enjoyable to watch, the same old same old does get a bit routine after a while. A bit of good old slapstick comedy was fun and helped lighten up the show... after all it was classified as a sitcom!

[jeannietonyfan]

I love the slapstic turn too. The show at the beginning was very cute, but it lacked a fast pace... it was too slow, but the relationship between Tony and Jeannie was adorable. But I'm glad they changed the feel of the series because it took advantage of the physical talents that they all had as actors, and made it more fun!

[Subspace]

jeannietonyfan said:

I love the slapstic turn too. The show at the beginning was very cute, but it lacked a fast pace... it was too slow, but the relationship between Tony and Jeannie was adorable. But I'm glad they changed the feel of the series because it took advantage of the physical talents that they all had as actors, and made it more fun!

I agree. Physical comedy can indeed be great to watch! People don't usually think of Larry Hagman as a great physical comic, but he was. I think one of the best examples of Larry's physical comedy is in the Season 2 episode My Master, The Author where Tony has his hands over-full with Dr. Bellows' nephew, a real bratty kid, and is trying to get General Peterson's niece (I think it was his niece) to be less shy, at the same time. Tony has a great scene where he crashes, literally, out of the kitchen.

[jeannietonyfan]

Oh yeah, Larry was a wonderful physical comedian, and I remember him saying in an interview that he loved doing the physical slapstick stuff, and creating it on the spot when there was a break on the set, or when they were stuck "freezing". I think he was great at that.

[Subspace]

Oh, I agree with that. But, what did you mean when you say Larry Hagman loved doing or creating physical comedy during the 'freezing'? Could you explain some more?

[jeannietonyfan]

Sure, yeah, sorry I was kind of confusing. So say Larry and Bill were stuck "freezing" while Barbara was making a costume change. If they thought the scene was bland they would think of ways to spruce up the scene they were about to shoot, just by talking it out, and then they would actually do it while they were shooting.

[Subspace]

jeannietonyfan said:

Sure, yeah, sorry I was kind of confusing. So say Larry and Bill were stuck "freezing" while Barbara was making a costume change. If they thought the scene was bland they would think of ways to spruce up the scene they were about to shoot, just by talking it out, and then they would actually do it while they were shooting.

Ah, I see, interesting. Thank you!

By the by, I just re-watched One of Our Bottles is Missing... I found that while it was funny, I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to... for the first time I sort of noticed the... logical fallacies in the plot. I mean, suspicious Dr. Bellows allowing Tony and Roger to get off the hook that easily? (Sleepwalking, sure, but how'd they get into his house?) And they were in his house, too. Bellows acted like it was no big deal at all. (Perhaps because he was always a peeping Tom around Nelson's house? But still, there's a difference between peeping and actually illegally entering...)

I tend to think perhaps there was an unspoken 'gentleman's agreement' initiated by Bellows there... he knows his wife was in the wrong for using his rank to take Tony's bottle... he also knows that he bears part of the responsibility for allowing his wife to use his rank in that inappropriate fashion... he probably figured that if he let Tony and Roger off the hook, when they were caught in his house, that they would return the favor by letting him off the hook for his own indiscretion. After all, he probably realized that Tony and Roger, while weird, were hardly dangerous... so he wasn't that perturbed at their entry. (Perhaps he himself had previously considered such an entry into Tony's house, to find out what makes Tony tick...)

P.S. - I agree about My Master the Spy being one of the 'bestest' episodes ever!

[jeannietonyfan]

About "One of Our Bottles is Missing", I just watched "Jeannie and the Curious Kid" a few days ago, and they break-and-enter into the Bellows' home once again... it's almost the exact same! I wonder if they didn't remember the previous episode, or if they just didn't care... after all it's a funny plotline.