The Show
I Dream of Jeannie is a sitcom starring Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, and Bill Daily. For most of the first season, Hagman stars as Captain Tony Nelson, Air Force, who is also an astronaut (he eventually gets a promotion to Major). In the first episode, Nelson is prepping for a single-man shuttle launch. Immediately after launch, one of the thrusters fails to fire and his craft lands on a deserted island. As the Air Force prep a search and rescue team, Nelson stumbles across a bottle on the island that moves by itself. After tinkering with it, it releases the famous purple smoke and then of course Barbara’s character, Jeannie.
Jeannie’s 2,000 year stay in the bottle is finally over and she is very grateful. She tells Nelson that he is her master, although despite being bewildered, Nelson tells her that he is engaged (which was true) and does not want to ‘keep’ her. However, her persistence pays off and he takes her with him to his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida. After she successfully sabotages Nelson’s engagement, Nelson decides that she can stay with him and forge an entirely new life. The fact that the two were living together and not married was cause for plenty of controversy in the 60s, but the show pushed on.
For one hundred and thirty-nine episodes, Nelson and Jeannie kept the laughs coming. Throughout the entire series, Nelson is put in countless awkward situations with colleagues and friends and is constantly being watched by Air Force doctor Dr. Alfred Bellows, played by Hayden Rorke, who is sure that Nelson is crazy or hiding something. During the final season, the ‘secret’ finally comes out when Nelson presents Jeannie to his colleagues and friends as his fiancée.
For a complete episode listing, there are several resources online like tv.com that provide a synopsis of most or even all episodes. The box set also includes all of this information on some neat collector’s cards that I will elaborate on more soon. That said, most episodes are self contained shows running about twenty-four minutes that feature the two stars involved in some kind of adventure. Stories include the arrival of Jeannie’s sister, Jeannie’s jealousy and push for marriage, keeping Dr. Bellows at bay, various assignments at home and abroad for Nelson from the Air Force, Jeannie’s first birthday celebration – the list goes on but throughout it all, the pace is quick and the comedy is lighthearted. The stories are simple yet fun, yet also suspenseful lots of times in how Nelson must hide Jeannie and her antics from everyone (except Roger). The combination of these elements and each episodes brevity make watching I Dream of Jeannie an easy choice for winding down an evening.
The DVD Release
The I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Series DVD release comes in some of the most unique packaging you may ever see. The twenty discs containing all five seasons are stored in a cardboard box that has the same design as the bottle Jeannie lived in for 2,000 years. There is even a removable cardboard cap that you can attach to the top of this packaging to complete the look.
Obviously shipping something so unusually shaped would be difficult, so a clear plastic, rectangular box is used to store the bottle, the collector’s cards, and the bottle cap. This clear plastic box also features some nice color art on it, depicting a plume of pinkish smoke and an animated Nelson and Jeannie kissing, just like in the opening credits. The plume of smoke is more than just for looks, it’s position on the box help you put the contents back in the box the way they’re meant to fit, so keep that in mind when you remove and replace the box contents.
So, out of the box you have the bottle, a small clear plastic box with the bottle cap, and a third clear plastic box containing a decorative box with fifty-five cards in it. The cards are full color, two sided cards that feature stills from the episodes, including ones never yet before seen, trivia facts, and summaries of all of the episodes in the series. The box containing these cards matches the purple and gold encrusted design of the bottle.
At the base of the bottle, you’ll find the stack of twenty DVDs. This removable box of DVDs can slide out very easily if you tip the bottle in one direction too far, and your discs can fall out of the box with ease too, so just be careful there. That said, the box is kind of like an accordion in that it contains twenty disc sized sleeves in a design that flexible and expandable enough to allow you to flip through and remove the disc you’re looking for. When left closed, this box maintains a condensed form factor that is just a bit thicker than what twenty discs would be if they were stacked on top of one another.
Each disc has colorful artwork imprinted on it as well as the disc number, season, and which episodes are on said disc. When loaded up, each disc maintains a consistent menu throughout, which is what you’re looking for in a box set like this one. Viewers have the choice to play all episodes on the disc, choose an episode, or customize audio and subtitle options. I was however surprised that the only subtitles available were Spanish and Portuguese, no English subtitles are included. The only disc that strays from this consistency is the final disc of season 1, which includes a fourteen minute feature. This feature includes relatively recent interviews with show creator Sidney Sheldon, Larry Hagman, Barbara Eden, and Bill Daily. While the interviews intertwine, Sheldon’s is filmed in a separate location, while the acting trio are all sitting in one room doing the interview together. Listening to some behind the scene’s tidbits and their memories is well worth the watch.
As far as the video and audio presentation go, they’re perfectly acceptable if not very good given the show’s age. Each episode was remastered, and it shows. Also, it’s worth noting that season one is presented in color, as opposed to black and white as it was originally. This may irk collector’s, but I don’t find any fault in the decision to use the colored episodes personally. Anyway, from a technical point of view the show on DVD looks and sounds more than fine, and I have no problems with the job done here.
Wish Granted?
There’s nothing like a great box set. This I Dream of Jeannie complete set is a must have for fans of the show. For a very reasonable price online you’ll get packaging that’s as charming as it is creative, the entire series on twenty discs (nearly 3200 minutes), and an interesting deck of collector’s cards. This makes for a great gift this holiday season.