I was wondering what the first episode in color was? Thanks!!

The first episode of I Dream of Jeannie filmed in color was which was also the first episode of the second season was; #31 "Happy Anniversary."

Yep! That is one of my favorite episodes. I watch it all the time on my tape and I bet I know each line! :D

The first episode flimed in color was "Fastest Gun in the East" (I think is was that one, I'll have to double check)

Though "Happy Anniversary" was the first colored episode aired in 1966.

Do you know the actual production order of all the episodes?
I know several episodes were shown out of order.
Like Hurricane Jeannie.
I’ve been looking around but can’t find this information.

Thanks!

Sorry I don't know anything about the production order. I only know about that one and that "Hurricane Jeannie" was the last episode filmed.

Try www.idojweb.com it might have something there :D

No, "My Master, the Chilli King" was the last episode filmed.

The first episode filmed in color was "Happy Aniverssary" (one of my favs...the Blue Djinn was cool)

..."The Fastest Gun In the East", which was filmed near the tail-end of the first season {production #30} in January 1966 ; then, after "I'll Never Forget What's-Her-Name" (the last black-and white episode filmed), the second color episode, "Jeannie Breaks the Bank" {#32}, was produced in February [shown on December 19th]. Sidney Sheldon was denied permission to film the show in color during its first season (even though [B]he offered to pay the extra $400 an episode needed to film the special effects in color, Screen Gems executive Jerry Hyams told him, "Sidney, don't throw your money away"); he later claimed the studio and NBC didn't believe "JEANNIE" would last a full season to justify the cost. When it did (more than proving itself a success), Sheldon was finally able to film two color episodes at the end of the season as a "test" (to see how the show would look in color). The first color episode to be filmed specifically for season two, I believe, was "My Master the Pirate" (followed by "My Master, Napoleon's Buddy", then "Happy Anniversary"). "Happy Anniversary" was the first color episode to be telecast on September 12, 1966.

:tv:

We've got an episode production list on our website. We had to piece it together from about 4 different sources:

http://www.jeanniesisters.com/factfiles/epiprod.html

I'm very pleased someone went to the trouble to assemble a complete production schedule for the series, in the order they were filmed (the final episode was indeed "Hurricane Jeannie", filmed in January 1970, 'DickYork'; it was intended to be the last first-run episode on April 28, 1970, but the two episodes that were supposed to appear before it, "My Master the Chili King" on April 14th, and "One Jeannie Beats Four Of A Kind" on April 21st, were pre-empted by the network at the last minute- and those were rescheduled on May 19th {"One Jeannie.."} and 26th {""Chili King"} as the last first-run episodes instead.

Thanks, 'CAJeannie' and your "Sisters"!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

:read:

Were these pre-empted due to the Apollo 13 situation?

TV Knowledge Fan,

I have always wondered WHY the NBC executives had such little faith in Jeannie due to the fact that Sidney Sheldon was ultimately asked by Screen Gems executives to come up with a supernatural show in response to the enormous success of ABC's Bewitched. Though I MUST point out Jeannie was NOT a rip off of Bewitched but was INSPIRED by "The Brass bottle"
(1964) in which Berle Ives played a male genie and in which also starred Tony Randall and Barbara Eden.

Also, what were Jeannie's ratings? I believe it came in around # 27 for it's first overall season so when you say - regarding to the show's ratings " When it did (more than proving itself a success)," in essence are you speaking of the overall # 27 yearly rating?

Thanks:)

One more question - was it simply a "goof" that the season 3 episode with Milton Berle in Hawaii was not shown in sequence with the other two Hawaii episodes? It isn't even listed next to them in the order of episode productions.

Yes, at least one episode was pre-empted due to special coverage of "Apollo 13" on April 14th. There was another "news special" the following week as well....

The three-part "Hawaii" story arc was supposed to kick off the third season on September 12th, 1967- but for some reason, NBC changed their mind about the order of episodes shortly before the season began, and "Fly Me to the Moon" (with Larry Storch) was the first episode seen that season. The second episode of the "Hawaiian trilogy", "The Second Greatest Con Artist in the World", appeared on September 26th, out of sequence [viewers must have wondered how Jeannie and Tony suddenly wound up in Hawaii after narrowly escaping the clutches of Jeannie's rotten sister the week before]. Finally, the first of the three episodes, "Jeannie Goes To Honolulu", aired on December 19th, exactly three months after its planned appearance! Then, "Con Artist" was repeated on the 26th, as it should have followed the previous episode that September. And the third and final Hawaiian episode, "The Battle Of Waikiki", aired on January 2, 1968. This scheduling suggests that NBC had started to lose interest in the series {they moved it off Monday nights after primary sponsor Colgate-Palmolive dropped their alternate week support after season two; with no other primary sponsors in sight, the network shifted the show to Tuesdays, just before "THE JERRY LEWIS SHOW"; obviously, they needed something to "fill" that 7:30pm(et) time period, and basically renewed "JEANNIE" for that purpose}. If it hadn't been for the tremendous viewer response for that four-part episode (and the contest that was promoted within it, "Guess the Secret Combination That Will Free Jeannie From the NASA Safe") in mid-season, I'm certain the network would have cancelled the show instead of renewing it for a fourth season....


And yes, Sidney Sheldon indirectly admitted that "JEANNIE" was inspired by the 1964 movie version of "The Brass Bottle" (based on F. Anstey's 1900 English novel; a silent version was previously filmed in 1923)- he often retold how he got the idea for "JEANNIE" over the years, often using Burl Ives as an example- this is how he described the genesis of his idea in his autobiography, "The Other Side Of Me" (2005):

"I'd had an idea about doing a show with a genie. I knew that genie projects had been done, but they always consisted of a giant man, like Burl Ives, coming out of a bottle, saying, 'What can I do for you, Master?'. I thought it would be intriguing to make the genie a beautiful young girl, saying, "What can I do for you, Master?'. That was the project I decided to create for Screen Gems."

him one wish...appearing as 'Frank Sinatra', right down to the bow tie and microphone, crooning "All Or Nothing At All" {using Frank's singing voice!} to swooning harem girls suddenly sporting bobby socks and saddle shoes (Shelley Winters was one of them)].

Screen Gems fought as hard as they could to avoid filming the majority of their TV shows in color in 1965- especially those that involved special effects. "BEWITCHED", they could get away with on black and white film during its first two seasons, because ABC barely telecast color shows until late 1965. Frankly, Screen Gems simply didn't want to pay the extra cost of filming special effects in color, and told Sidney Sheldon this when he wanted to film "JEANNIE" in color from the start. Again, from Sidney's autobiography:

"I asked Jerry Hyams {Screen Gems executive} why 'Jeannie' was not going to be shot in color.
'Because each show would cost an additional four hundred dollars.'
'Jerry, this show has to be in color. I'll pay the difference out of my own pocket.'
He looked at me and said, 'Sidney, don't throw your money away.'
What he was really saying was that no one expected 'Jeannie' to go into a second year."

NBC didn't push the idea for filming "JEANNIE" in color that first season, either, even though almost 100% of their prime-time schedule was going to be telecast in color in the fall of 1965 (the first for a major network). Apparently, they felt that "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" was a "fringe show"- either it was going to be a success, or they could easily replace it with something else in mid-season if the audience wasn't there [they did this with MCA/Universal's "CONVOY", their last black and white drama series, in December, after 13 episodes, replacing it with the color "SAMMY DAVIS JR. SHOW" in January]. They wanted their own "fantasy sitcom", like "BEWITCHED" (what network didn't, after that became THE #1 comedy of the 1964-'65 season?), and thought it belonged on Saturdays inbetween "FLIPPER" [family-oriented adventure featuring the dolphin equivalent of "Lassie"] and "GET SMART" [the spy parody that topped all spy parodies]. Let's face it, NBC had "thrown" several series opposite "THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW" on Saturday nights from 1962 through '65, and none of them were successful...except for "FLIPPER". That went on in the fall of '64, and appeared to be building an audience. So NBC decided to "chip away" at Gleason's second half-hour, after "KENTUCKY JONES" (Dennis Weaver's unsuccessful comedy-drama after leaving "GUNSMOKE") and "THE FAMOUS ADVENTURES OF MR. MAGOO" had failed in the '64-'65 season, by offering "JEANNIE" at 8pm(et). 'Who knows?', the network brass probably thought, 'the magic might keep the kids tuned in, and Barbara Eden in that harem outfit will pull the fathers in after them'....even though they objected to Barbara's navel being shown, and that Jeannie and "Master" were living under the same roof without benefit of marriage (oh, the arguments Sidney had with the network over their relationship! "There's NOTHING going on", he'd basically say, "This is a comedy! I'm writing 'boy meets girl'- no overt sex is involved").

Anyway, NBC scheduled the show at 8pm on Saturdays, and it starts in September 1965. By the middle of October, the Nielsen ratings service reports that it's the 9th most watched show of the week. For the first time, Jackie Gleason is losing his audience halfway through his show! ABC's "THE KING FAMILY SHOW", which had been sliced in half that fall, directly opposite "JEANNIE", also loses most of its core audience, and is cancelled in January- "THE DONNA REED SHOW", another Screen Gems series (and a "crown jewel" of ABC's schedule since the fall of 1958), is moved from Thursdays, to Saturdays at 8...and its ratings pale in comparison with "JEANNIE", and Jackie Gleason...and because "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" is an unexpected hit, this is why he brought "The Honeymooners" back with Audrey Meadows on January 8th, 1966 in a new hour-long version of his "live" 1955 sketch, "The Adoption". It gets a bigger audience than Barbara and Donna that week, and figures in his decision to bring "The Honeymooners" back as a regular feature of his variety show the following season...

..but "JEANNIE" usually finishes a close second, or gets more viewers than Jackie does on certain weeks. NBC is surprised...as is Screen Gems. Naturally, they've already "pencilled in" a second season by January...and that's when Sidney Sheldon finally gets the okay to film two episodes in color, as a "test" to see how the show will look in full color the following fall [those episodes will be "held" until season two].....primarily because all three networks are scheduling 100% color series in prime-time the following fall, and Screen Gems HAS to convert its remaining black and white shows to full color as a result...guess which two?


:tv:

Thanks TV Knowledge Fan!

Sorry to bombard you with questions but if Jeannie was a ratings success on Sat. night why did they move it to Mondays? Also, why do you think Colgate Palmolive dropped Jeannie after its 2nd season? Didn't it do at least FAIRLY well that year? I know ratings are ratings (and the end all be all to network execs) but wasn't Sidney Sheldon nominated for an Emmy for writing for Jeannie during the 1966-67 season? ...and did it do well the 3rd season and that's why they renewed it for a 4th? Just a few more questions! 1) Why do you think NBC was losing interest after the 3rd season? It almost seems like they used Jeannie when needed but never gave it much respect or consideration (like putting it up against Jackie Gleason when needed but then moving it EVERY SEASON IT RAN). I recently acquired some vintage NBC fall previews and promos and it's interesting how in several ads or fall previews (2nd and 3rd seasons) more time is spent on the show preceeding and the show following Jeannie and Jeannie is quickly mentioned as "next is Jeannie" or "moving to a new day and time is Jeannie," etc. but that's about it where as with the other shows the ads for them go into much more detail. I wonder if Jeannie had been given the "respect" Bewitched was and kept on one day and the same time slot for several seasons how much higher its ratings would have been?

2) My second question is WHY NBC was so insistant on the marriage. I mean, Jeannie's ratings went UP it's 4th season when Laugh In followed it. Perhaps that's the only reason NBC renewed it then. Any thoughts?

Last question! Larry Hagman has given two different scenerios about how he found out the series was canceled - 1) that he had been in Mexico (I believe) and read it in the paper and 2) that he showed up on the Screen Gems lot and was told it was canceled. Though I thought Hurricane Jeannie was filmed (with 2 endings??? in case it was picked up) because they all thought it was going to be canceled.

Thanks for your patience and you can send me a bill for your answers... :)

You ask why "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" moved to Mondays. Well, Colgate-Palmolive "controlled" the 8-8:30pm(et) time period on NBC's Monday night schedule in the fall of 1965, but "THE JOHN FORSYTHE SHOW" (an ill-advised comedy mixing "girls school" and "spy" formats) was a ratings and critical disappointment to Colgate- they wanted to sponsor something more successful for 1966-'67. At the same time, "JEANNIE"'s original primary sponsor, Liggett & Myers [L&M, Lark, Chesterfield King], had to abandon their sponsorship at the end of the first season because the audience had shifted from "adult smokers" to a "family audience"; the tobacco industry had started to "police itself" about sustaining certain sitcoms that had a majority of kids watching...if they did, the cigarette company involved had to pull out, as R.J. Reynolds {Winston} did on "THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES" after the 1966-'67 season, because they didn't want to appear to be pitching cigarettes to kids. Even though "JEANNIE" was an unqualified success on Saturdays, Liggett & Myers' withdrawal left the series without a primary sponsor, as NBC wondered what to do with it. The network HAD intended to replace "JEANNIE" on Saturdays with a new Danny Thomas-produced comedy, "MY SIX BLOCKS" (starring Dean Jones as a "cop on the beat") for the fall of '66, but Thomas didn't like the time period, and the deal fell though; "PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES", a "bubble" show barely surviving on Tuesdays during 1965-'66, was renewed for Saturdays at 8 instead, under the primary sponsorship of Lever Brothers (it was cancelled in the summer of '67).

NOW, Colgate was interested in sponsoring "JEANNIE", moving it to its Monday time slot for the fall of 1966, and Screen Gems saw an advantage in its being back-to-back with their new "youth-oriented" sitcom, "THE MONKEES" [yet it would be directly opposite another new Screen Gems western, "THE IRON HORSE", on ABC]. And NBC was perfectly happy with finding a solution to its problems concerning the show. I've seen the NBC Fall '66 "Monday night promo" you refer to; the one where NBC staff announcer Fred Collins intones, "Next, the most curvaceous commodity ever dispensed from a bottle, materializes at 8, 7 Central Time...it's 'I DREAM OF JEANNIE'! The comedy with the magical difference..", and ending with "THE ROGER MILLER SHOW": "Enjoy refereshingly different entertainment with the 'King Of the Road'...MONDAY, on NBC!" You wanna know something? Country singer Roger Miller was a better variety show guest than a host....his half-hour ended that December.

And so, "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" moved to Mondays in September 1966. It was a good season- the color (and Barbara's "new and improved" harem outfit and various costumes!) was impressive, Hugo Montenegro's new theme and music score really helped the show, Sidney Sheldon never wrote better scripts in his life {at least the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences thought so, nominating him for an Emmy for "Best Comedy Writing", even though he lost}, and Colgate got some good "integrated commercials" featuring Barbara pitching Baggies and other Colgate-Palmolive products at the end of their episodes [where ARE examples of them???], and the ratings were...pretty good ["JEANNIE" got much better ratings against CBS' "RUN, BUDDY, RUN" and "MR. TERRIFIC" that season]. But, for some reason, Colgate decided it was doing much better co-sponsoring "THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW" on NBC's Thursday night schedule, and "relinquished" their Monday time period to NBC at the end of the season (they went on to co-sponsor "THE FLYING NUN" on ABC in the fall of '67), leaving "JEANNIE" with no "primary sponsor" for the fall. That's when NBC decided to shift it to Tuesdays {"'I DREAM OF JEANNIE' moves to Tuesdays this fall..."} in September 1967.


By the summer of '69, however, the show's ratings were "drooping" against CBS' "GUNSMOKE" , which had staged a "comeback" on Monday nights in the fall of '67 (after almost being cancelled in the summer of '67), and got better ratings than "JEANNIE" did, being #1 at 7:30 on Mondays {time for another contest..."Guess Major Nelson's Secret Location", in January, again "saved" the series from certain cancellation}.

And NBC program executive Mort Werner wondered, how do we generate more "buzz" for the series this fall- providing we renew it? 'I know- Jeannie and Tony should be married!'. Sidney Sheldon, of course, objected (again, from his autobiography): "The fun of 'Jeannie' is the sexual tension between Jeannie and her master. Once you marry them, that's gone. You have nothing to work with." But Werner insisted, "I want them to get married...do you want the show picked up for a fifth year?". "Can we discuss this?". "No." "I'll get them married". "Good. You'll be on the air next year." Later, Werner admitted it was a mistake to have them married (as CBS programming executive Fred Silverman similarly admitted when he got "RHODA" and her boyfriend married six weeks after her series' debut in 1974- that killed the entire momentum of Valerie Harper's show, but more [I]slowly). Head writer James Henerson remembered several meetings between Werner and the NBC brass and Barbara, Larry, producer Claudio Guzman and Henerson protesting the decision, but he recalled, "The network was adamant. 'You gotta do it'". Once the series' ratings peaked after the wedding, Sheldon was proven right. ABC's "THE MOD SQUAD" was #1 in its time period on Tuesdays, directly opposite "JEANNIE", and nothing could change that. And NBC began pre-empting the show more often during the last half of the season.

I'm not sure WHICH version of Larry Hagman discovering "JEANNIE" was being cancelled was "correct" [probably the one where he arrived at the studio and found out]. And I wasn't aware of "two different endings" for "Hurricane Jeannie", either....but that was filmed at the end of January 1970, several weeks before NBC officially cancelled the series. I think everyone involved with the show knew "the end" was coming; Sidney was already planning his next series for Screen Gems and NBC, "NANCY" {the President's daughter married to a small-town veterinarian}, which lasted half a season.


"I DREAM OF JEANNIE" went into syndication in the fall of 1970...and it got better ratings on local stations than it ever did on NBC! Today, it's a "cultural icon"- when one thinks of Barbara Eden, "Jeannie" comes to mind. And when one thinks of "genie"....well, whose image do YOU think most people conjure up?

:typing:

Hi again TV Knowledge Fan,

Thanks for such an in-depth response - and free of charge at that! Well, that explains why Jeannie moved from Saturday nights to Monday nights even though it was getting good ratings. I'd be curious to know how well Colgate - Palmolive did with The Flying Nun.

As for the 1966 - 67 season those were some really good episodes that season - and actually the second season was the last season where there was SOMEWHAT of a semblance of continuity (from background and "rules" set from season one [example - Jeannie was TURNED INTO a genie but human at birth and no contradiction in genies not being able to be photographed]).

In regards to my comment on promos, etc. I made in my previous message the promo you mentioned (The comedy with the magical difference..") is one I have on a DVD and really isn't that "skimpy" where Jeannie is concerned. I really was referring more to the 1966 - 67 (and somewhat the 67 - 68 for that matter) NBC Fall Preview in which the announcer simply says, "and following The Monkees on Monday is the return of I Dream of Jeannie," with a very quick clip. This is preceeded by a long multi-scene promo for The Monkees (though I know this was its premiere season) and followed by a fairly long promo for the following show. The same thing occurs with an ad with the Fall preview featuring Jeannie and Jerry Lewis and again with a 1968 - 69 promo for Laugh In, Jeannie, and the Monday Night Movie. It just seems there wasn't nearly as much of a concerted attempt at promoting Jeannie as there were several of the other NBC shows.

After doing some research I discovered through The Paley Center that Jeannie had an overall rating of #28 for season one, no listing for season two [which leads me to believe it was probabably near but out of the top 30], [no listing for season three], # 27 for season four, and no listing for season five (I'd LOVE to know the other seasons numbers - if you know I'd GREATLY appreciate it!). As I stated in my previous post it is interesting about the push for the marriage for season five seeing as how the overall ratings for season four went UP. I see you mentioned that the ratings went down during the summer of '69 but wouldn't networks be airing repeats during the summer? That doesn't seem quite fair to measure ratings during the "off" season. ...and seeing as how it was up against Gunsmoke - # 27 seems very respectable. Actually, I think it is a testament to HOW GOOD of a SHOW Jeannie was / is that IT MOVED EVERY YEAR OF ITS RUN AND YET NBC PUT IT UP AGAINST JACKIE GLEASON, GUNSMOKE, AND THE MOD SQUAD to name a few. Not only that but it "made it" during its premiere season when practically no one thought it would - and did VERY WELL - against Jackie Gleason - when several previous series in the same time slot had not.

As for Larry Hagman finding out about I Dream of Jeannie being canceled you are probably right. I can not confirm that there were two endings filmed for "Hurricane Jeannie" (one for syndication that we see today with the audiance finding out Maj. Nelson had a dream Dr. Bellows saw Jeannie using her magic powers and another where it is not shown to be a dream if the show had been picked up). I have heard that "alternate ending" told before (it MAY have been in the Dreaming of Jeannie book but even if it was, that may not be true as there are several incorrect "facts" in the book) though only in recent years and with no verification. Personally I doubt there is an alternate ending that was filmed though there is little or no doubt Hurricane Jeannie was the last episode filmed and SUPPOSED TO BE THE LAST EPISODE AIRED for a reason. It certainly seems like a (great and fitting) final episode and is a shame NBC didn't at least do it justice by re-airing it (like ABC did with the episode entitled "Mother Meets What's His Name" on Bewitched it's first season in which Endora meets Darrin for the first time [it was pre-empted as was Hurricane Jeannie - though unfortunately that episode also does not run in the correct order in syndication or on the DVDs]. Last - it is no wonder Jeannie has done so much better ratings wise and become a "cultural icon" in syndication seeing as how AUDIANCES DON'T HAVE TO HUNT FOR IT as they did season after season in prime time but the show can enjoy a regular daily "home" time slot. It's too bad NBC couldn't have done as well by it.

...[again, no charge!], Colgate-Palmolive co-sponsored the first two seasons of "THE FLYING NUN" (1967-'69) {with Quaker Oats}- a first season opening title with their sponsor I.D. is currently posted on YouTube- but apparently dropped their ad support after the second season. In the fall of '68, Colgate was also the primary sponsor of "THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR" on NBC.

As long as Sidney Sheldon was writing and personally producing the show, there was a "continuity" of sorts: although he was vague about Jeannie's origin as a genie in the pilot episode {TONY: "How'd you ever get in that crazy bottle, anyway?"/JEANNIE: "Oh, a wicked and powerful djinn put me in there because I would not marry him."/TONY: "Oh, you poor kid.."}, he has Jeannie's father telling Tony in the second episode ["My Hero?"] about her being transformed into a genie because the "wicked and powerful djinn" was furious at her turning down his marriage proposal...as Tony tells Roger about it in "How To Be A Genie In Ten Easy Lessons". However, when Sidney turned over the responsibility of his scripts to other writers- especially James Henerson- the continuity became "muddied", as in Jeannie's ability to appear in photographs or not, depending on the script- Henerson was guilty of that, but remembered in time, for "The Wedding", that her image CAN'T appear on film.

It was Henerson who virtually created Jeannie's "evil sister" in "Jeannie or the Tiger?" because he wrote it. In Sheldon's "My Master the Rainmaker", Jeannie refers to her "baby sister" living in Bagdad (that's the one that "Dennis Brewster" {Al Hine} fleshed out as "Nunz" in his original 1966 paperback novel loosely based on the series, because I'm positive he studied a "precis" of the characters and story line, through November 1965, before writing his story- the novel is interesting as "alternate history" [and reveals a more elaborate "backstory" about Jeannie's past], but it eventually becomes a variation of "BEWITCHED", which Hine officially adapted for Dell in early '65). Henerson not only made Jeannie's sister her exact twin, but also her direct opposite {somehow, you got the feeling, whenever she turned up, she'd just come from "another roll on the ol' bed of nails"}- he even suggested something of her sex life by having her declare she previously had "47 husbands" in "How To Marry An Astronaut" {one can only imagine how she "disposed" of them over the years}. In time, Jim Henerson saw Jeannie as a variation of "Gracie Allen", and occasionally had her acting more childlike and naive than usual in certain episodes {TONY: (to Jeannie, before they meet the Bellows' and Homer Banks at the TV studio): "You're my cousin Jeannie from Kansas, you're only gonna be in Cocoa Beach for one day, and you'll never see them again..." And what does she say when Tony introduces her? "I am Cousin Jeannie from Kansas, and I will be in Cocoa Beach for only one day, and you will never see me again!"- "Have You Heard the One About the Used Car Salesman?"}. It was only because Barbara Eden was so endearing- and utterly charming- to viewers that they tended to overlook the lapses in Jeannie's character.


I've also seen the 1966-'67 NBC fall preview special, "Two In A Taxi" [9/4/66], featuring Jack Burns & Avery Schreiber. The idea behind that "sneak preview" was to spend more time promoting the new series on the schedule than the returning ones. Natutally, more footage from the pilots of those series (with the exception of "THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E.", which was taken from a later episode; the Roger Miller sequence was lifted from his January 1966 special, which was the "blueprint" for his weekly variety show that fall) was shown, with fleeting glimpses of the returning shows- "production stills" represented "THE ANDY WILLIAMS SHOW", "THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW" and "BOB HOPE PRESENTS THE CHRYSLER THEATER", a brief glimpse of Jeannie from an early color episode, fleeeting scenes from "BONANZA", "THE VIRGINIAN", "I SPY", "PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES", "GET SMART", et al. Incidentally, the scenes from the pilot episode of "THE MONKEES" wouldn't officially be seen until November 14th, because Screen Gems and the network decided the first episode was too different from the series that followed.

In the 1967-'68 fall preview (the last the network scheduled duirng the '60s), "Remember Next Year?" [9/10/67], featuring Danny Thomas & Jan Murray, the scenes of the returning shows were given a little more screen time ["JEANNIE" is represented by part of the opening sequence from "My Master, the Spy" (1/16/67)]- all of the "regular shows" also had samples of scenes from their previous season. Incidentally, there was no "official footage" for "THE JERRY LEWIS SHOW" at the time the fall preview was being "assembled" (no episodes had been taped as yet), so NBC used highlights from Jerry's "demo reel", in which he introduced the gallery of characters he was going to appear as on his weekly series {"Julius Kelp, the Nutty Professor", "The Shoeshine Boy", "The Chinese Detective", et. al.}, and several comedy bits . I have yet to see the 1968 "Monday night promo" spotlighting "JEANNIE"/"LAUGH-IN"/"NBC MONDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES"...

I take Stephen Cox's "Dreaming Of Jeannie" book with a grain of salt. It COULD have been better, and there are some who complain his research wasn't that great, and that he did a "half-assed job" on it- and WHY a chapter on "BEWITCHED" at the end? Had he known that Sidney Sheldon was originally offered the producer's chair on that series before he created "JEANNIE" (he confirmed this in his autobiography), [I]then including that section would have made more sense. I get the feeling Cox would have preferred writing about "BEWITCHED" instead, but Herbie Pilato beat him to it! I've also heard the primary source of the photos Cox included in his book, Howard Frank, wasn't too happy about the final product, either.


:read:

Good morning,
Regarding the following statement you wrote, "I have yet to see the 1968 "Monday night promo" spotlighting "JEANNIE"/"LAUGH-IN"/"NBC MONDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES"... I must point out that I was referring to a PROMO and NOT a Fall Preview as I was to the other two (1966 - 67 and 1967 - 68). Sorry for any confusion.

Well, I read Dreaming of Jeannie from cover to cover and I must say the best part of the book were the photographs (and some of those RARE photos [like the one of Jeannie looking inside the bottle and Barbara's stand in as her sister standing ner her] were my friend's (I saw them in person years before the book came out - a friend of his made copies without permission and gave them out - this is in no way meant in reference to Frank Howard as he couldn't have known this). ...and I spoke to Frank Howard on the phone in my quest to find "rare" 16mm footage (unfortunately he only deals with photos) and you are correct - he was NOT pleased with the book AND he no longer associates with Steve Cox. I actually wrote an article several years ago about this book. It was obvious why he wrote it $$$$ - and he even admits in the beginning he isn't a fan. Personally I thought it wreaked of an insulting tone and was not fair to the show, those who worked on it, or its fans.

I didn't know Sidney Sheldon was asked to produce Bewitched. I have Sidney's autobiography but haven't read it all yet. Did it say if Willliam Asher asked him to produce or did Screen Gems ask him BEFORE Asher? Interesting!

...and not a "fall preview", 'ansara'- there was no "1968 Fall Preview" special on NBC; they only produced three of them for broadcast, 1965 through '67, then created yearly "fall previews" for their affiliate meetings before the new season began, right into the '70s {i.e. "NBC's New Ones For '69-'70", featuring Hugh Downs and Joe Garagiola from "THE TODAY SHOW", spotlighting only the new fall shows ["On Tuesday, right after 'I DREAM OF JEANNIE' and just before 'JULIA', 'THE DEBBIE REYNOLDS SHOW'..."]}.

Stephen Cox has written several books about "classic TV sitcoms" of the '60s- "GREEN ACRES" ("The Hooterville Handbook"), "THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES", "THE ADDAMS FAMILY" ("The Addams Chronicles") and "THE MUNSTERS"- "classic movies" ["The Munchkins Remember 'The Wizard Of Oz' and Beyond", "The 'It's A Wonderful Life' Memory Book"], and one on Johnny Carson's "THE TONIGHT SHOW" ("Here's Johnny!"), and some of them were quite good. But his "historical tome" on "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" was ultimately unsatisfying....especially when you realize Cox admits at the start of his book he's not a fan of the show {"Well, if you aren't a fan, why did write the book in the first place?"/"MONEY, what else???"}. Oh, the information is there, and most of it is quite valuable, but....there are SOME facts he doesn't even bother to delve into, including the "other movies" and "TV shows" involving genies ["The Brass Bottle", as I've mentioned, was originally published as an English novel in 1900, and initially fillmed as a silent in 1923 {in all probability, the film doesn't exist today}; "A Thousand and One Nights" (1968) didn't have ONE "flying carpet" in it {Cox, who NEVER saw the film, swiped his info from Leonard Maltin's "TV Movies" paperback, which claimed it did} because the producer didn't have the budget to show one- it's basically a low-budget "Middle-Eastern" version of a Spanish "spaghetti western", but it has its moments, and Lucianna Paluzzi is quite beautiful and charming as a female genie].

Howard Frank was no doubt "stiffed" by Cox when it came to money due him, after granting permission to use those valuable publicity photos from his collection....and I don't blame him.


As for Sidney Sheldon being asked to produce "BEWITCHED", this is how he remembered it in his autobiography (p. 327):

Jerry Hyams {the Screen Gems executive who later told him to "save your money", after he refused Sheldon's request to film "JEANNIE" in color for its first season} arranged for me to see the pilot of a new show about to go on the air. I loved it. I thought it was charming and was going to be a big hit.
"How would you like to produce it?", Jerry Hyams asked.
I shook my head. Instead of saying yes, which I wanted to do, I said no. There will be times, with no warning, you will lose control of your words and your actions. {This is what Dr. Judd Marmer told Sidney in 1948 after his diagnosis that he was suffering from manic depression}
'BEWITCHED' turned out to be an enormous hit.

Now, Sheldon doesn't say when this occured, but this was sometime in the late summer of '64, at the time he was conceiving a situation comedy idea for his old friend Groucho Marx [he doesn't mention this in the book, but it was widely known in the industry that Sheldon was creating a series for Groucho for the 1965-'66 season- and THAT was going to be his first project for Screen Gems....until Harpo died that September. Suddenly, executives believed Groucho was "too old" to undertake a weekly production schedule for a filmed TV series; despite Sidney and Groucho's objections, the deal fell through]. I suspect Hyams was lining up another producer for "BEWITCHED" because the original one, Danny Arnold, made it clear he had no intention of staying with the show for its first full season. He would produce a handful of early episodes, then move on. Apparently, Hyams consulted Sheldon first (on "production consultant" Bill Asher's suggestion, no doubt), and got a "no". He finally got a "yes" from Sheldon's good friend Jerry Davis, who produced the series through its second season.

:tv:

...if you want to see how "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" was promoted during its first season, see YouTube's "Sing Along With Mitch (3 of 4)", at the 6:26 mark- there's a promo for NBC's entire Saturday night schedule for April 23, 1966, featuring "stock scenes" from each series, as the staff announcer describes the plots of the individual episodes. The "JEANNIE" episode is a repeat ["My Hero?"]; all of them are. Interesting, to say the least- today's promos are more frantic and louder.

:tv:

...if you want to see how "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" was promoted during its first season, see YouTube's "Sing Along With Mitch (3 of 4)", at the 6:26 mark- there's a promo for NBC's entire Saturday night schedule for April 23, 1966, featuring "stock scenes" from each series, as the staff announcer describes the plots of the individual episodes. The "JEANNIE" episode is a repeat ["My Hero?"]; all of them are. Interesting, to say the least- today's promos are more frantic and louder.

:tv:


Thanks! I'll check it out. Sounds interesting.

Hi TV Knowledge Fan,

I actually just saw it. It WAS interesting. Thanks for sharing.
I don't suppose you know of any other footage that happen to
have promos on youtube? Thanks again:)