I Dream of Jeannie had a nice five year run in the '60s on NBC, and even after it was canceled, it was one of those shows that fans still enjoyed and wanted to see more of. So, in 1985, NBC decided to bring back that magic of Jeannie one more time in a special reunion movie, set to air and take place in a time where NBC was airing series such as The A-Team, Night Court, Gimme a Break, The Cosby Show, Miami Vice, The Golden Girls, and 227 (with the last two, in fact, debuting only about a month before the movie aired). So it wasn't that NBC was desperate to do something to get ratings. They already had the top-rated series on TV, and airing this movie was just a little something extra.

Read our review here:
http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2013/03/digital-digest-new-george-lopez-show.html

I bought the movie, too. Most of the comments made in the blog are "right on". Larry Hagman was completely missed. The reunion movie would have been a LOT better with him in it.

The biggest problem was at the end -- and it did not lead very well into the 1991 reunion movie. Or maybe I should say, the 1991 movie ignored the 1985 movie.


Donna

yeah, i actually think larry hagman being in this movie would have made all the difference in the world. it's not nearly as bad as the next one, you can still feel some connection to the show. in fact, i kept imagining larry as tony when i was watching it, trying to think of him saying the lines, and i could totally see it.

but having someone else as tony just isn't right, it's not him. it's a shame, because had it been two of them again i would have loved to see them together one last time, and this movie probably would have had some of that same charm in it had he been there.

roger seems exactly the same, and jeannie is basically herself (even though her leaving tony like that is kind of a stretch). i think having larry there would have been perfect, even though the ending would have made it even more sad. i really wish he'd done it

yeah, i actually think larry hagman being in this movie would have made all the difference in the world. it's not nearly as bad as the next one, you can still feel some connection to the show. in fact, i kept imagining larry as tony when i was watching it, trying to think of him saying the lines, and i could totally see it.

but having someone else as tony just isn't right, it's not him. it's a shame, because had it been two of them again i would have loved to see them together one last time, and this movie probably would have had some of that same charm in it had he been there.

roger seems exactly the same, and jeannie is basically herself (even though her leaving tony like that is kind of a stretch). i think having larry there would have been perfect, even though the ending would have made it even more sad. i really wish he'd done it
Me too. It would have made much better. Also, they never explained what happened to Amanda Bellows. The actress who played her died in 1979. They could have let Dr.Bellows tell everybody that he was a widower and let him get back into the dating game. Dallas was ending in 1991 and Larry could have done the 3rd Jeannie movie.

Part of the problem with both reunion movies is that there really was no "story consultant". We fans know the show better than the authors of either reunion movie. Probably the writers did not really know that Dr Bellows was married.

LATER EDIT: From the beginning of the marriage, Jeannie called her husband "Anthony", not "Tony". So there was a boo-boo there...once again, because the writers weren't as familiar with the show as we fans are, years later.