View Full Version : Slight difference in pilots on DVD Set


TeeVeeCloset
03-20-2006, 02:32 PM
I haven't really gotten through much of the DVD set but did notice this while watching the pilot, in the colorized version an original credit appears in the opening sequence for Hayden Rorke and two others while this does not appear on the black & white set.....strange???

also speaking of the pilot, can anyone shed some light on why the original 31 minute unaired pilot did not appear on the set, same episode with 5 additional minutes.....this is routinely traded by collectors and seems it would have made a wonderful addition to the set.

treky
03-22-2006, 02:47 AM
I never knew there's also an unaired version of the pilot!!!

You're right, that would have made a GREAT extra. Maybe it'll be on one of the other season sets.

Maybe someone can contact Sony and ask them about it.

TV Knowledge Fan
03-31-2006, 04:47 PM
Yes, there is a 31 minute version of the pilot episode floating around in collectors' circles...that was a 16mm print that was shown to potential advertisers and NBC executives in the winter of 1965. (I was lucky enough to have a friend show it to me a long time ago!) The title sequence is different (with Hayden Rorke, Philip Ober and Karen Sharpe getting co-star
credit) as are the closing credits (Sidney Sheldon and Gene Nelson's credits
appearing there instead of the beginning of the "first act") with the complete closing theme....and a number of extra scenes that concur with Sidney's original script (and some unexpected ones--when Tony asks Jeannie for a helicopter to rescue him, she mouthes the syllables "hel-i-cop-ter" before blinking one up from nowhere...this bit of business is not in the written script, and not seen in the final version shown to this day....still, it proved that Jeannie THINKS before she blinks!!). And, of course, only in the "unaired" version do WE get to see what Jeannie is saying to "Master" in Farsi {Persian}, because the translations appear at the bottom of the screen.
The "official" version of the pilot had none.

I don't even know if SONY has a copy of the unaired version....

treky
04-01-2006, 03:13 AM
are you sure it's an unaired version? Because, I seem to remember, YEARS ago, in the 70s watching "IDOJ" weekday mornings on channel 11 in New York and seeing the pilot once, and every time Jeannie said something, the english translastion appeared at the bottom of the screen. I DISTINCTLY remember that.

This was about 74 or 75 I saw it.

TV Knowledge Fan
04-03-2006, 02:01 PM
...I vaguely remember seeing the pilot episode WITH the English translations
for Jeannie's Farsi on Channel 11 in the early '70s (they eventually chopped the original opening title off the episode, too)......but the one shown on WTBS in the '80s DIDN'T have them!!!

treky
04-04-2006, 05:32 PM
YES!!!! Someone else remembers too!! I thought I was just imagining it.

I remember Tony said "Oh, I wish you could speak english!" And suddenly she could.

TeeVeeCloset
04-11-2006, 02:03 PM
I too remembered seeing the english sub-titles in the pilot, in fact they are on the columbia house VHS release from about 10 years ago.....very strange that they would be eliminated on the DVD set and from syndication....

Joeytrom
07-11-2006, 06:57 PM
I also remember the English subtitles. And when Tony asks for a helicopter, she blinked him at first a strange looking ship that isn't on the later reruns.

That pilot episode when aired on Channel 11 in NYC never had an opening title sequence. When Nick at Nite first reran that episode, they used the original opening with Hayden Rorke and the others.

Channel 11 used both the original filmed opening sequence (after the teaser) and the color episode opening sequence (after the first commercial break) for the second episode thru halfway of the first season.

TV Knowledge Fan
07-12-2006, 04:36 PM
.....WPIX-TV DID show an opening title for the first episode in the early '70s...but it was eventually cut away for some unknown reason, I don't know why. I know that, in [W]TBS' print shown in the '80s, the opening title used in the pilot episode was the "color" title in black & white...not so channel 11's.

See, because "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" had an "alternate sponsor" in its first season {Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. for L&M, Lark, and Chesterfield King cigarettes}, the opening title ended on alternate weeks with Paul Frees' voice-over, "'I DREAM OF JEANNIE'...brought to you by-". For some reason, Screen Gems/Columbia didn't make their first season titles "uniform" in syndication- they kept most of those voice-over titles intact in syndicated prints (leaving it up to local stations to cut Frees' voice off the end) or substituted the "color" title instead. Sometimes, when the "recap" title, with Frees' narration, was used during episodes 2 through 8, they'd stick the "color" title in as well!! TWO openings in syndication, how about that!!

By the way, the opening title in the pilot that 'Nick At Nite' showed, with Hayden Rorke's, Philip Ober's and Karen Sharpe's names prominently featured, was originally the one used in the UNAIRED version of the show's pilot episode. By the time regular production began, Sidney Sheldon decided not to have Ober and Sharpe appear as regular characters, and had the opening titles refilmed to eliminate their credits- that's the one shown in the first episode and the first half of that season. Beginning with the episode "Is There An Extra Jeannie In the House?" [1/22/66], Sidney Sheldon was credited in the opening titles as creator AND producer, and that's how the title stayed for the rest of that season.

:crazy:

treky
07-14-2006, 01:12 AM
yes, I remember seeing that in the pilot; YEARS ago when channel 11 in New York showed it.

BSDDomi
07-14-2006, 06:03 AM
Does anyone remember when Jeannie is on the beach with Tony, she blinks up a slave ship [ before she can speak english ]?

Yes, very well actually because that scene is in the pilot of the colorized season one DVD set :D and it sure was a funny looking ship...would have been fun had Tony Nelson used that one to get home..

TV Knowledge Fan
07-17-2006, 11:55 AM
...and I suspect the reason why is because, in the 2003-'06 'TV LAND' edition of the pilot, the sequence with the "galley (slave) ship" was missing. Believe me, that scene- and everything else in the "broadcast version"- is in the DVD set.
If you traded for the "unaired version", 'munsters100'...you're very lucky, indeed!!

:tv:

TV Knowledge Fan
07-17-2006, 07:36 PM
...'munsters100', has a running time of about 31 minutes {"30:49"}, so you've got it! I've never come across a "35 minute version"....and you're one up on those people who haven't seen it yet! Including the "leader countdown" at the very beginning......

[Oh yes, because the original pilot episode was prepared and completed by February of 1965, the "Screen Gems" logo at the end was the one used in the 1964-'65 season. Not until the following season was the "abstract S" logo used in every SG pilot and series.]

:tv:

brgmgb
07-29-2006, 10:24 PM
WGN in Chicago used to broadcast the original pilot, with Jeannie not speaking English and the slave ship. For years, the afterschool lineup included Gilligan's Island, I Dream of Jeannie, Hogan's Heros, Andy Griffith, and the Dick Van Dyke Show.