View Full Version : I Dream of Jeannie - The Complete Fifth and Final Season DVD Review


TJ
06-25-2008, 01:36 AM
With the blink of an eye, Jeannie pops out of her bottle one last time for the fifth season of I Dream of Jeannie! The four disc set contains the final 26 episodes of the NBC series about the lady in a bottle that astronaut Tony Nelson found during a fortunate accident. No longer is she that mystery woman in Major Nelson’s house, she is about to become Mrs. Nelson and start her brand new life as a “normal” housewife. But don’t be fooled--just because it is the last season doesn’t mean there aren’t many great episodes left. In fact, this is really one of the best seasons of the series.

Read our review by Skees53 here:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/idreamofjeannieseason5dvdreview.html

Please post any questions or comments about this set.

TV Knowledge Fan
06-25-2008, 03:45 PM
...there are some great moments in the fifth season {"The Wedding", naturally- and some tender moments when Tony is trying to comfort Jeannie in her bottle (as in "The Wedding" and "An Astronaut In Sheep's Clothing"), and Jeannie 's "with-it" wardrobe by unsung [and uncredited] costume designer Joie Hutchinson, and the change in the living room}...but when you realize that NBC practically held the show "hostage" until they forced Sidney Sheldon and James Henerson to write the storyline where Tony finally marries Jeannie (the network's attitude was, "If they don't get married this coming season, there's NO 'coming season'"}, it's a bit disappointing. Viewers got tired of the series very fast after "The Wedding", and Henerson and Larry seemed to be "tired" as well {Sidney was already moving on toward his next projects; his first novel, "The Naked Face", and his short-lived series, "NANCY"}. "Hurricane Jeannie" was originally intended to be the last episode of the series (and was the final one filmed, in January 1970), but NBC's erratic schedule changes during the last half of the season caused it to appear BEFORE the other two episodes it was supposed to follow, in reverse order....as many fans often wonder, "What would the SIXTH season have been like?".

:tv:

catlover79
06-25-2008, 04:00 PM
Cool review...thanks for posting it!! :cool:

CAJeannieFan57
06-27-2008, 11:07 PM
. "Hurricane Jeannie" was originally intended to be the last episode of the series (and was the final one filmed, in January 1970), but NBC's erratic schedule changes during the last half of the season caused it to appear BEFORE the other two episodes it was supposed to follow, in reverse order....as many fans often wonder, "What would the SIXTH season have been like?".

:tv:

Just a clarification here - NBC wasn't the only one causing the scheduling changes in the late part of the 1969-1970 season. The problems with Apollo 13 preempted a show.

BTW, that blip of IDOJ in the movie Apollo 13 was a fallacy, unless a local channel was showing a rerun. See above - IDOJ was preempted by the problems during the spaceflight!

As far as "what would the SIXTH season have been like?" ... well, that's what fan-fiction has been all about.

CAJeannieFan57
07-07-2008, 09:30 AM
Just a reminder to anyone that checks in here - TOMORROW is the release day for season 5!

So far - prices advertised are $27.99 at Target, and $29.99 at Best Buy, locally in my area (SoCal). From what a friend of mine on the East coast reports, she's got the same prices advertised. No other stores appear to be advertising it, so it's your local guess as to whether Circuit City or any other audio-visual store will be carrying it. (Our local Wal-Mart is hit and miss when it comes to TV DVD's hitting the store on the release date.)

TeeVeeCloset
07-07-2008, 11:12 AM
Just a clarification here - NBC wasn't the only one causing the scheduling changes in the late part of the 1969-1970 season. The problems with Apollo 13 preempted a show.

BTW, that blip of IDOJ in the movie Apollo 13 was a fallacy, unless a local channel was showing a rerun. See above - IDOJ was preempted by the problems during the spaceflight!

As far as "what would the SIXTH season have been like?" ... well, that's what fan-fiction has been all about.

IDOJ may have been preempted by the problems of Apollo 13, BUT to clairify accurately the scene in the movie in which a clip of Jeannie is shown is actually before any problems begin with Apollo 13....The astronaunt's mother is shown looking for their message/demonstrations to earth but the networks choose not to show it because it wasn't considered news anymore since we had already successfully been to the moon. The real mistake in the scene is that a clip of laugh-in & Jeannie are shown while the channels are changing on the TV, both of those shows were originally shown on NBC making it impossible for them to be both on at the same time!

storrs19
07-07-2008, 11:54 AM
"Our local Wal-Mart is hit and miss when it comes to TV DVD's hitting the store on the release date." Same here and if they do get it they will only get about 6 copies so you better be there on Tuesday as they always sell out the day of release. You think they would order more since they always seem to sell out on release day. Either way Season Five has some great shows in it. I always liked Season Four the best of all and Season Five was my second favorite.

CAJeannieFan57
07-08-2008, 04:43 PM
My Target didn't appear to be much better. I got there an hour after opening this morning and there were only 3 in the bin - I almost missed them! I hope they had more in the back someplace, as this was an advertised item.

TeeVeeCloset
07-08-2008, 06:00 PM
Had no luck at my local Target, went three hours after opening, saw the space where their were advertised, but no jeannies..(must have gone up in pink smoke) ..Target in the NY area at least is notorious for not even putting stuff out on street day until maybe wednesday. I asked and they claimed they sold out...went to the FYE across the street and got ripped off at 39.99 but I didn't care..my time is too limited and I would spend more in gas driving to best buy.

CAJeannieFan57
07-10-2008, 08:58 AM
FYE and Best Buy are both a drive for me. I was crossing my fingers that Target would have it - Circuit City is closer but that's a cr**shoot as to whether THEY will have it or not (probably NOT).

Anyone watched any, yet? I've watched the first 4 episodes -


Donna

Lee G
07-11-2008, 10:27 AM
LOL what's up with the fake picture on season five, disc two? It looks like Major Nelson's bride is a mannequin or blow up doll, it does not resemble Barbara Eden at all. Shame on Sony for approving that, it looks totally unprofessional. One of the DVD cases in season three has some questionable artwork also.

Now that all five seasons are out, I can say the DVD's are OK but could be better. The main problem is these sneaky little cuts/edits in some of the episodes. Meet My Masters Mother, Bootsie Nightingale, and The Mod Party are a few examples where they cut out a few seconds from the episodes. I don't know what happened there, but it sure is annoying. Otherwise the episodes look nice, crisp picture and rich colors, decent sound quality.

TeeVeeCloset
07-11-2008, 11:02 AM
LOL what's up with the fake picture on season five, disc two? It looks like Major Nelson's bride is a mannequin or blow up doll, it does not resemble Barbara Eden at all. Shame on Sony for approving that, it looks totally unprofessional. One of the DVD cases in season three has some questionable artwork also.

Now that all five seasons are out, I can say the DVD's are OK but could be better. The main problem is these sneaky little cuts/edits in some of the episodes. Meet My Masters Mother, Bootsie Nightingale, and The Mod Party are a few examples where they cut out a few seconds from the episodes. I don't know what happened there, but it sure is annoying. Otherwise the episodes look nice, crisp picture and rich colors, decent sound quality.

Funny...regarding the picture, I haven't even opened my season 5 yet, but don't forget that Jeannie had to be a mannequin during parts of the actual walk down the aisle during the wedding because "jeannie's" couldn't be photographed as far as I remember..some expert correct me if I'm wrong....lol.....

Lee G
07-11-2008, 12:06 PM
Funny...regarding the picture, I haven't even opened my season 5 yet, but don't forget that Jeannie had to be a mannequin during parts of the actual walk down the aisle during the wedding because "jeannie's" couldn't be photographed as far as I remember..some expert correct me if I'm wrong....lol.....

You may be correct about that, that would explain then the picture on the 2nd disc. I haven't seen the wedding episode in years and my memory is a tad foggy. I'll have to watch it on the DVD.

CAJeannieFan57
07-11-2008, 12:27 PM
I was going to comment that in all 4 disks' cases, the artwork was wonderful. Yes, Jeannie turned herself into a mannequin for the walk down the aisle so that photographers could take pictures of her. (Remember: Jeannie is not able to be photographed in most of the show, however, there were times when the story-writers forgot that piece of trivia.) So on Disk 2, the picture on the disk is Tony with the mannequin - but lift it up and the mannequin has become Jeannie in the "blink of an eye". Look at all 4 disks for stuff like that.

Also - here's another piece of trivia - if anyone is familiar with The Monkees - when Roger turns on a tape for the music at the Bachelor Party, it's an instrumental version of "Auntie Griselda". No, that's not a Boyce & Hart composition - it was written by Keller and Hildebrand. So there's a tie-in between IDOJ and The Monkees.

Lee G
07-11-2008, 01:01 PM
Yep, the genies can not be photographed angle was not consistent thruout the series. Sometimes she could be photographed, other times she could not. I believe the original premise was she could not be photographed, that's what they should have stuck with.

I Dream Of Jeannie and The Monkees have similarities, both shows are from the late 60's psychedelic era and they both contain episodes with wild and crazy visual gags. But The Monkees episodes are often incoherent and make no sense at all. At least I Dream Of Jeannie has some sense of saneness and despite the craziness the episodes actually have a storyline and plot.

MickeyMac
07-12-2008, 02:26 PM
Also both Jeannie and The Monkees were on the same network, NBC.

CAJeannieFan57
07-13-2008, 12:13 AM
Another piece of trivia - at the time, Bill Daily's daughter Kimberley, LOVED The Monkees. So it was probably music that HE heard a lot at home.

TeeVeeCloset
07-13-2008, 03:15 PM
Another piece of trivia - at the time, Bill Daily's daughter Kimberley, LOVED The Monkees. So it was probably music that HE heard a lot at home.

All true facts I'm sure, but in the realistic world of $$$, Screen Gems produced and owned both shows, so the music just came free from the Screen Gems stock library. The instrumental version was part of it and lyrics were added later, hence the lyrics to "Auntie" which were techinically awful were created by the Don Kirschner team since the instrumental version was already in the catalog, it was probably considered a throw away song since it was given to Peter, it was just like giving a song to Ringo!....lol...

CAJeannieFan57
07-14-2008, 12:26 PM
Thanks for verifying that the song was sung by Peter Tork. I thought that was the case, but wasn't sure. But one of the Beatles' songs given to Ringo is a favorite of a lot of kids ("Yellow Submarine"), then and now, so it's not a given that it would be a throw-away song. (big grin)

No, I didn't think Daily would have had the choice - that was just trivia in an article that I have dated back in the 60s, about he and his family.

Lee G
07-14-2008, 01:24 PM
Now that all five seasons are out, I can say the DVD's are OK but could be better. The main problem is these sneaky little cuts/edits in some of the episodes. Meet My Masters Mother, Bootsie Nightingale, and The Mod Party are a few examples where they cut out a few seconds from the episodes. I don't know what happened there, but it sure is annoying. Otherwise the episodes look nice, crisp picture and rich colors, decent sound quality.

Along with the sneaky edits in some episodes, have DVD owners noticed the flaw in the opening theme in seasons 2 thru 5? If you listen close, it skips a note during the part where the title I Dream Of Jeannie appears on the screen. A few episodes are OK, but this defect is present in most of the episodes.