Was it revealed that Dr.Bellows was married?In the first season black and white episodes he was single.So what gives?

...when the series began, we didn't know anything about Dr. Bellows' personal or home life. All we know, from the start, is that he's highly suspicious of anything Tony is involved in because of the events that happened in the pilot episode, and what Jeannie does to him whenever Bellows is nearby. After the first dozen episodes, Sidney Sheldon decided to "flesh" out Bellows' character. The first time he mentions he's married is in "What House Across the Street?" [12/18/65], when he informs Tony that he just bought the vacant lot across the street from his house, and that he and his wife will be building a house on it and "moving in shortly" (of course, it's left unsaid that the good doctor, after having gone home to "lie down", changed his mind after seeing a house already constructed on his lot!). The next time Bellows is associated with marriage is when we actually meet Mrs. Bellows {Emmaline Henry} for the first time in "The World's Greatest Lover" [12/12/66]. Aparently, Sheldon thought she and Hayden Rorke worked so well together in that episode, he brought Amanda back in "One Of Our Bottles Is Missing" [1/30/67], and several more times during the second season, eventually becoming a semi-regular character for the duration of the series.

However, because the author of the 1966 Pocket Books "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" paperback novel was working from a "character guide" circa November 1965, he assumed Dr. Bellows had "never married". So, he paired him with Jeannie's mother when she moves in next door to Tony's house in Cocoa Beach. Interesting, but not really a true reflection of the actual series (as the entire novel ultimately was)- it's rather like a professional version of "fan fiction".


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Interesting, but not really a true reflection of the actual series (as the entire novel ultimately was)- it's rather like a professional version of "fan fiction".

However, that speaks badly of all the great fan-fiction out there, as if we don't care as much about the series when we write, as happened with that book.

Read some of our works and you'll see the difference ;)

http://www.fanfiction.net/tv/I_Dream_of_Jeannie/

...in fact, I've read several concerning "I DREAM OF JEANNIE", and some of them are better than most of the original TV scripts. However, when a professional writer is assigned to write an original novel based on a popular TV series, you'd think they'd be expected to follow some semblance of the "framework", story lines and characters as close to the original source. In the case of Pocket Books' 1966 "JEANNIE" novel, "Dennis Brewster" (whom I believe was actually Al Hine) never bothered to see ONE episode of the show before he wrote his version of what he thought it was all about. He obviously relied on a list of characters, descriptions of them and some "backstory" as his "template", creating his own "backstory" and events surrounding the novel. He obviously didn't care what liberties he was taking, so long as the book was finished on time for publication in early '66.

For instance, we all know that Jeannie resides in a bottle, and is able to make herself small enough to exist quite comfortably in it. In Brewster's story, he can't decide whether she lives in a bottle, jug or vase [he refers to all three throughout the novel], and she exists solely as smoke while inside of it! Then, there's the matter of her origin- she supposedly lived in Iraq before her affair with the Blue Djinn (although various scripts had her claim she came from Bagdad, Babylon or Constantinople {in Turkey!}). In the novel, it's made clear she and her family originally resided in Teheran, Iran {"Persia"} (she declares at one point, "I am a patriotic Irani with the blood of princes running through my veins"). And the island where Tony discovered her bottle after splashdown was not in the South Pacific, as the TV series established, but somewhere in the Persian Gulf! And Brewster even revealed her "real" ancient name- "Fawzia el Abbas". Now that's a bit of a stretch! Sidney Sheldon hardly revealed anything in detail about her ancient heritage, much less her given name {Tony simply calls her "Jeannie", and that's that}. There are more examples [Brewster insists on referring to Roger's last name as "Healy", minus the "e"], but you get the idea....


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(other than for a paycheck.) I only wanted you to clarify your words, because your original quote reads like Brewster's version of things is how professional fan-fiction should be. Thank you for doing that. Considering all of the (often) high-quality sanctioned fan-fiction out there (look at all the books written within the Star Wars reality for an example) I'm really surprised Brewster's version was ever approved, much less sanctioned at all.

It's too bad Sony/Paramount doesn't seek out some of us writers. We could fuel whole series of books for fans :)

It's too bad Sony/Paramount doesn't seek out some of us writers. We could fuel whole series of books for fans :)

And we'd get the storyline correct (as well as the spelling of various names like Healey).

Djinnitaur knows this, but the rest of you may not - - a whole bunch of IDOJ fan-fiction resides on our website. Some of ours is on fan-fiction.net as well.

...the copyright owner or studio has more control over the characters and format in media other than television {i.e. paperback novels}, and use writers either directly connected with the series, or those "hand-picked" and/or personally approved by the creator(s) and/or staff.

In the case of "I DREAM OF JEANNIE", Pocket Books was obviously trying to "cash in" on the show's sudden popularity in early 1966 by publishing an original novel based on the series. But did you notice- those of you who've read the book, that is- that Sidney Sheldon's name is NOWHERE to be found on or in the book, either as creator or copyright owner [he originally owned the series as well as produced it]? What Pocket Books obviously didn't want was a direct "tie-in" to Sheldon or Screen Gems/Columbia {that would have meant paying a licensing fee to them to "officially" adapt the show into a paperback novel}.

The novel is actually copyrighted in "Dennis Brewster"'s name. And he created a slightly different version of events surrounding Tony & Jeannie's relationship-- and he just wasn't concerned about the variations in his story, and those on TV. Maybe he was in it for a "quick buck", I don't know. The way he paid attention to detail describing Tony and Jeannie's visit to Teheran, and the coast-to-coast "goodwill tour" they, Roger, Colonel Bellows (never once is he referred to as "Dr. Bellows" in the novel) and Jeannie's mother and sister undertake, is admirable {that's why I believe Al Hine was the author, as he was once editor of HOLIDAY, the popular travel magazine}. But his insistance on Jeannie acquiescing to Tony's suggestion he call her "Tony" instead of "Master" is a bit disappointing. It doesn't sound right...and the way things are somewhat neatly "wrapped up" at the end [exactly what kind of future are Jeannie and Tony (and Roger & Nunz) going to have after they return from "moon shot"? Is Fatima really going to try to marry Colonel Bellows? Will Roger ever find out what Jeannie and Nunz really are? And what about "General Buster"?]...it just doesn't have any relation to the TV series. Of course, one could write fan fiction to see where this "alternate universe" leads to....

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Fortunately, in the case of some current series the copyright owner or studio has more control over the characters and format in media other than television {i.e. paperback novels}, and use writers either directly connected with the series, or those "hand-picked" and/or personally approved by the creator(s) and/or staff.
It all depends on whom you talk to about whether these facts are fortunate or not. And then there's the fact that copyright-owners and/or the studios like to exert undue control and influence over what gets written. Just set up some hard-fast rules and let the creative types be as creative as possible.

Consider, too, that we're talking about writing new material for a show that's almost half a century old, that you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone (other than the actors) directly connected with the show, much less those that wrote for it. Sheldon is gone, so that's a dead end. With the advent of the Internet, anyone associated with either the studios or the creators that is serious about seeing new stories from the show in print, they don't have far to look. If the studios are going to ignore the fan-fiction out there on their products, then they're missing out on potential profits.

...it just doesn't have any relation to the TV series. Of course, one could write fan fiction to see where this "alternate universe" leads to...
No, it doesn't have any relation to the series other than the names of the characters. And that's why you aren't seeing any fan-fiction written around and after that book. We've read it too, and know what it's like. Honestly, I mostly read it and skimmed the rest. I really did not enjoy his writing style and ended up skipping over the overly descriptive wording of much of it. Not to mention getting so much just plain wrong. It's not a universe I would want to continue, without first rewriting it to fit what we know from the series. It could still keep the same plot, taken into a different universe, but I won't be writing it. I have publishable stories to work on ;)

...one could write fan fiction concerning a follow-up to the "Jeannie" paperback novel- I didn't say anyone WOULD, 'djinnitaur'.

There was a "Jeannie" graphic novel issued in 2001, with the blessing of Sony Pictures Television, that was as close to the original TV series as one could get.

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As is typical of popular comic book series, the graphic novel came after the several comics were produced. I never bought the TPB (trade paperback) because I already had the comics. I did talk with one of the artists on it and how many hoops they had to go through with Sony just to produce what little they did. They also brought the series up to the present day, instead of keeping it in the 1960s.

Sure, it was sanctioned by Sony, but personally, I wouldn't call it "as close to the original TV series as one could get." I reserve that for the fanfic that's been written over the last decade or so, by CAJeannieFan, myself, the late Carrie (Carpet) and many others. We've kept to the rules and the time period and produced enough to fuel many new seasons after the show (as well as a few within the existing seasons.) We'll keep doing so, too, because we enjoy writing within those boundaries and that genre. It just would be nice to be noticed by the big guys and published. Considering how Sony has handled this particular piece of their properties, I don't see them ever sanctioning anything other than the movie they may produce.

...the graphic novel was closer in spirit to the original series than "Dennis Brewster's" 1966 paperback novel was (at least the writers and artists watched the show!). I KNOW your ongoing "fanfic" stories are even closer to the original series, 'djinnitaur'...

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