Subspace
02-03-2007, 11:18 PM
Having just watched the 1991 I Dream of Jeannie reunion made-for-TV movie (titled I Still Dream of Jeannie), I have some comments to offer on the movie. I am posting them here because I'm curious to know if my viewpoints are unique to, well, moi or if many others agree with me as well (which I hope to be the case!). Here goes:
1) Barbara Eden still looks great in the harem outfit! It's hard to believe, but she doesn't really look any worse in the harem outfit in 1991 than she did in the harem outfit in the 1960's (during the original series).
2) Barbara looks a lot older (i.e. her age shows) when she's wearing anything else, though. The hair was especially obvious - I thought they might have considered using a wig, to make Barbara's age less obvious.
3) During the original series, it was apparent that I Dream of Jeannie was not a series that was particularly concerned with maintaining continuity. An obvious example is Jeannie's Season 1 and Season 5 inability to be photographed, yet getting photographed multiple times in various episodes in the intervening seasons. Another example is a Season 1 episode where Tony Nelson's car, at the beginning of the episode, is unavailable since it's "in the shop, being repaired". At the end of the episode, his car is still unavailable since it's still "in the shop". Yet, in the middle of the episode, Tony drives his car home from NASA - apparently the writers had temporarily forgotten that Tony's car was in the shop!
But the original series' continuity errors were never that bad, and at least the premise and plot of each episode was, mostly, logical. In the movie, however...
CONTINUITY ERROR:In I Still Dream of Jeannie, T.J. has no powers at all - even though he had powers in the earlier made-for-TV reunion movie (I Dream of Jeannie - 15 Years Later), and even though he is still stated as being "half-djinn" in I Still Dream of Jeannie.
CONTINUITY/LOGIC ERROR:The sacred scroll 'three moons' clause. Are we to assume that Tony Nelson, one of NASA's premier astronauts as per the original series, has never remained in space for over 3 months before? One would assume that even on a non-secret/non-classified extended space mission, he wouldn't have wanted Jeannie to visit him up in space, or blink him back to Earth. Wouldn't the issue of the clause have come up then?
LOGIC ERROR: Besides - even if for some reason the issue of the clause never had reason to come up before, why couldn't Jeannie try looking for Tony after learning about the rule from Haji? Roger could have helped her with that - there's only a finite amount of places Tony could be in, after all, last I heard real-life NASA (and IDOJ NASA as well) hadn't developed FTL drives in 1991, or developed a means of sending live people (i.e. astronauts) beyond the Moon. Tony's either on the Moon, or he's on the space station, in orbit. And based on the type of rocket that was used to launch Tony (and Roger saw the rocket lift-off so he'd know what class it was), it should be easy for Roger to determine where Tony was headed.
LOGIC ERROR: Why did Jeannie never simply blink into General Westcott's office? She knows where his office is located. Why did she have to physically walk up to the outer door, blink through, and physically open the inner door and then enter? Seems like it'd be easier if she simply blinked in, in miniature. If she would have tried blinking in, she wouldn't have had to find all sorts of ridiculous methods and excuses for being in Westcott's office, and getting Westcott out - she could have simply blinked in during the night. And she wouldn't have had to worry about leaving behind a train of witnesses who might remember seeing her walk up to the General's office, either. How about surveillance cameras, you ask? Well, what's the difference between an unauthorized entry during the daytime - which Jeannie tried multiple times, without getting caught - and an unauthorized blink-in entry during the nighttime? Obviously, surveillance cameras weren't an issue.
Oh, and the ridiculous methods were themselves illogical, too. I mean, come on, telling the other ladies that there was tape in General Westcott's office, which she could get? Wouldn't it make more sense for any of them to ask a secretary for some tape? Even more illogically, the other ladies thought - or seemed to think - that Jeannie's idea was a good one.
LOGIC ERROR: Why did Jeannie blink more cigars for Westcott? Westcott wasn't nice to her, for one thing, and her action might get her in trouble, for another thing, and if Tony knew, he'd be mad too, for a third thing, because it would be yet another suspicious thing around NASA. For a fourth thing, giving Westcott those cigars didn't benefit Jeannie in any way. For a fifth thing, it isn't like Jeannie to do free favors for someone she's mad at.
LOGIC ERROR: The lack of security. If all those top-secret files were in General Westcott's office, from the Xenon file to Tony Nelson's file, then there's no way Westcott's wife would be allowed to carry a key to her husband's office. I mean, her having a key would allow her access to those top-secret classified documents. I just don't see the government - or Westcott - allowing Westcott's wife to have a key to the office. Moreover, if perchance Westcott did give his wife a key (through unauthorized means), Westcott's wife would certainly know better than to give/lend the key to anyone else - or even let anyone else know she had the key.
LOGIC ERROR: The lack of security. Westcott has an alarm button under his desk that's wired to set off alarms all over NASA, but when the alarm is actually triggered, no security forces respond? I would have thought that there would be ample security staff 24/7 at the Space Center, ready to respond in just the event that an alarm like Westcott's was triggered. But instead, we have to wait until the regular cops get in. If the cops hadn't already been heading toward the Space Center, it would have taken them so long to get there that any thief would have been long gone. As it was, by the time the cops had gotten there, Jeannie and T.J. had already gotten out of the complex, *after* solving a stand-off with the bad guys. This seems to be ****-poor security.
CONTINUITY ERROR: Since when did Mesopotamia become the place where genies that are 'abandoned' by their Masters go? In the series, whenever there was a problem with Jeannie staying with Tony, she was always going to be pulled back into 'limbo'. She never mentioned that 'limbo' was actually 'Mesopotamia'.
LOGIC ERROR: If, as Haji says, even he cannot go against the sacred scrolls, how come he can give Jeannie an extension of a fortnight?
LOGIC ERROR: Taping private stuff like passwords and keys under the desk is the oldest trick in the book. I can't believe General Westcott would rely on such a device to provide security for all of those top-secret files in his office.
LOGIC ERROR: The lack of security. There's so little security around and in Westcott's office, he'd be court-martialed for not adequately safeguarding top-secret documents. Even those two inept crooks were able to get in and remove a file and get out, without being caught.
LOGIC ERROR: Jeannie II not being able to go to the 'plane of reality' unless Jeannie I returns to Mesopotamia/Limbo forever. Since when did that become a rule? Not only is it arguably against continuity, it certainly doesn't make any logical sense.
Wow - long post. :lol: Your thoughts?
1) Barbara Eden still looks great in the harem outfit! It's hard to believe, but she doesn't really look any worse in the harem outfit in 1991 than she did in the harem outfit in the 1960's (during the original series).
2) Barbara looks a lot older (i.e. her age shows) when she's wearing anything else, though. The hair was especially obvious - I thought they might have considered using a wig, to make Barbara's age less obvious.
3) During the original series, it was apparent that I Dream of Jeannie was not a series that was particularly concerned with maintaining continuity. An obvious example is Jeannie's Season 1 and Season 5 inability to be photographed, yet getting photographed multiple times in various episodes in the intervening seasons. Another example is a Season 1 episode where Tony Nelson's car, at the beginning of the episode, is unavailable since it's "in the shop, being repaired". At the end of the episode, his car is still unavailable since it's still "in the shop". Yet, in the middle of the episode, Tony drives his car home from NASA - apparently the writers had temporarily forgotten that Tony's car was in the shop!
But the original series' continuity errors were never that bad, and at least the premise and plot of each episode was, mostly, logical. In the movie, however...
CONTINUITY ERROR:In I Still Dream of Jeannie, T.J. has no powers at all - even though he had powers in the earlier made-for-TV reunion movie (I Dream of Jeannie - 15 Years Later), and even though he is still stated as being "half-djinn" in I Still Dream of Jeannie.
CONTINUITY/LOGIC ERROR:The sacred scroll 'three moons' clause. Are we to assume that Tony Nelson, one of NASA's premier astronauts as per the original series, has never remained in space for over 3 months before? One would assume that even on a non-secret/non-classified extended space mission, he wouldn't have wanted Jeannie to visit him up in space, or blink him back to Earth. Wouldn't the issue of the clause have come up then?
LOGIC ERROR: Besides - even if for some reason the issue of the clause never had reason to come up before, why couldn't Jeannie try looking for Tony after learning about the rule from Haji? Roger could have helped her with that - there's only a finite amount of places Tony could be in, after all, last I heard real-life NASA (and IDOJ NASA as well) hadn't developed FTL drives in 1991, or developed a means of sending live people (i.e. astronauts) beyond the Moon. Tony's either on the Moon, or he's on the space station, in orbit. And based on the type of rocket that was used to launch Tony (and Roger saw the rocket lift-off so he'd know what class it was), it should be easy for Roger to determine where Tony was headed.
LOGIC ERROR: Why did Jeannie never simply blink into General Westcott's office? She knows where his office is located. Why did she have to physically walk up to the outer door, blink through, and physically open the inner door and then enter? Seems like it'd be easier if she simply blinked in, in miniature. If she would have tried blinking in, she wouldn't have had to find all sorts of ridiculous methods and excuses for being in Westcott's office, and getting Westcott out - she could have simply blinked in during the night. And she wouldn't have had to worry about leaving behind a train of witnesses who might remember seeing her walk up to the General's office, either. How about surveillance cameras, you ask? Well, what's the difference between an unauthorized entry during the daytime - which Jeannie tried multiple times, without getting caught - and an unauthorized blink-in entry during the nighttime? Obviously, surveillance cameras weren't an issue.
Oh, and the ridiculous methods were themselves illogical, too. I mean, come on, telling the other ladies that there was tape in General Westcott's office, which she could get? Wouldn't it make more sense for any of them to ask a secretary for some tape? Even more illogically, the other ladies thought - or seemed to think - that Jeannie's idea was a good one.
LOGIC ERROR: Why did Jeannie blink more cigars for Westcott? Westcott wasn't nice to her, for one thing, and her action might get her in trouble, for another thing, and if Tony knew, he'd be mad too, for a third thing, because it would be yet another suspicious thing around NASA. For a fourth thing, giving Westcott those cigars didn't benefit Jeannie in any way. For a fifth thing, it isn't like Jeannie to do free favors for someone she's mad at.
LOGIC ERROR: The lack of security. If all those top-secret files were in General Westcott's office, from the Xenon file to Tony Nelson's file, then there's no way Westcott's wife would be allowed to carry a key to her husband's office. I mean, her having a key would allow her access to those top-secret classified documents. I just don't see the government - or Westcott - allowing Westcott's wife to have a key to the office. Moreover, if perchance Westcott did give his wife a key (through unauthorized means), Westcott's wife would certainly know better than to give/lend the key to anyone else - or even let anyone else know she had the key.
LOGIC ERROR: The lack of security. Westcott has an alarm button under his desk that's wired to set off alarms all over NASA, but when the alarm is actually triggered, no security forces respond? I would have thought that there would be ample security staff 24/7 at the Space Center, ready to respond in just the event that an alarm like Westcott's was triggered. But instead, we have to wait until the regular cops get in. If the cops hadn't already been heading toward the Space Center, it would have taken them so long to get there that any thief would have been long gone. As it was, by the time the cops had gotten there, Jeannie and T.J. had already gotten out of the complex, *after* solving a stand-off with the bad guys. This seems to be ****-poor security.
CONTINUITY ERROR: Since when did Mesopotamia become the place where genies that are 'abandoned' by their Masters go? In the series, whenever there was a problem with Jeannie staying with Tony, she was always going to be pulled back into 'limbo'. She never mentioned that 'limbo' was actually 'Mesopotamia'.
LOGIC ERROR: If, as Haji says, even he cannot go against the sacred scrolls, how come he can give Jeannie an extension of a fortnight?
LOGIC ERROR: Taping private stuff like passwords and keys under the desk is the oldest trick in the book. I can't believe General Westcott would rely on such a device to provide security for all of those top-secret files in his office.
LOGIC ERROR: The lack of security. There's so little security around and in Westcott's office, he'd be court-martialed for not adequately safeguarding top-secret documents. Even those two inept crooks were able to get in and remove a file and get out, without being caught.
LOGIC ERROR: Jeannie II not being able to go to the 'plane of reality' unless Jeannie I returns to Mesopotamia/Limbo forever. Since when did that become a rule? Not only is it arguably against continuity, it certainly doesn't make any logical sense.
Wow - long post. :lol: Your thoughts?