How many Jeannie fans dislike Bewitched?

[Lee G]

I am one of those. I like Jeannie but I could never get into Bewitched. I was never an Elizabeth Montgomery fan and I didn't care much for any of the other people in that show. I think the people involved with Bewitched were taking themselves and the show way too seriously. Paul Lynde though was usually good for a few laughs. I've always been amazed that Bewitched lasted for eight seasons and over 250 episodes! No way do I think it deserved to last that long. Unreal. As it is, I prefer Jeannie. Barbara Eden is beautiful and the show is funny, although a few episodes are clunkers.

[Céline]

I find Bewitched very boring.Elisabeth had charm and was very talented but,she never made me laugh.Barbara was so funny,beautiful and she did a wonderful job in the main role.

I love I Dream of Jeannie,I never miss an episode.All the characters are so funny and lovable.My favorite characters are Jeannie of course,Roger Hayley and Dr.Bellows

[treky]

I think I read somewhere (maybe it was on here) that Liz Montgomery didn't like IDOJ. She thought it was just a copy of BEWITCHED, or something like that.
I know the 2 shows filmed just down the hall from one another.

[CAJeannieFan57]

There WERE a lot of similarities between BW and IDOJ - you can either go to our site or to Harpie's Bizarre site and find a comparison file. It was said that Bill Asher did NOT want any of the same people working for both shows. Jim Henerson started as a writer on BW - the story goes that he had a late night writing session for BW and accidentally typed, "Samantha blinks." Bill Asher found out that Jim was writing for both shows, and promptly fired him from the BW set.

Funny, but Bill Asher went on to direct one of the IDOJ reunion movies. I'm not sure if he was married to Liz Montgomery at the time or not.

That said - I was a kid when both IDOJ and BW were prime time. I used to watch both whenever I could. At that time, I liked them for different reasons. Even then I could feel the romance between Jeannie and Tony, and I liked Roger Healey - so I watched IDOJ. I liked BW because I loved Tabitha. Now, as an adult, I much prefer IDOJ - same reason, that romance between Tony and Jeannie, and I love Roger Healey. I've tuned into BW when TV Land was running it, but just never could get back into it the way I could with IDOJ.

[catlover79]

^ Donna, EM and Bill Asher were long divorced when he directed the IDOJ reunion flick - about 10 or 12 years. Hope that helps.

[mrs.gingerhinkley]

Well, this is a very interesting thread...
I, personally, enjoy both of the shows.
I also find them alike in some ways, but also very different in others.
But, I'll watch any show of the 60's.
they were the best! (however bizarre.... telivision just got to serious afterwards!)

[TV Knowledge Fan]

....at the time Bill Asher directed "I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later", he was happily married to Joyce Bulifant, having divorced Elizabeth by 1974.

I believe that's also why certain guest supporting players were not credited on early episodes of "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" during the first two seasons; Chet Stratton {"Djinn and Water"}, Herbie Faye {"Is There An Extra Genie In the House?"}, Maurice Dallimore {"My Master, the Rich Tycoon"} and Milton Frome {"My Incredible Shrinking Master"} were prevented from receiving screen credit in those episodes because they also happened to appear on "BEWITCHED" during the same period. Perhaps Bill Asher warned Sidney Sheldon NOT to give them screen credit, who knows? But, in the interim after Barbara returned to film the series after her pregnancy, and just before Sidney began writing the show himself {October-December 1965}, the production crew was the same one used on "BEWITCHED"; Sidney "borrowed" them for a few episodes until he could form his own "unit" [William Martin, Lothrop Worth, Tom McCrory, etc.], and Asher didn't seem to mind.....

Personally, I don't hate "BEWITCHED"- it would be like hating two similar flavors of ice cream from two different sources...the only difference is in the "execution". I enjoy both!

[Mr. Television]

Although I like IDOJ more, I still liked Bewitched. The Dick York episodes are classics.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by Walking Tall

Although I like IDOJ more, I still liked Bewitched. The Dick York episodes are classics.

They are classics and always will be.

[AB]

I'm a fan of both shows also.

[Mikado]

These were really pretty much the same show, with Dr Bellows substituting for Gladys Kravitz. The main difference would be that the in-law problems werent as important to the plot in IDoJ. When I was a kid, i think id have to say i prefered IDoJ to Bewitched, but, now, if i have a preference, it would be Bewitched just for Dick York, who's Darrin may have been one of the most complex characters ever, in a basically non-complex show. (Is it any wonder I cant BEAR to watch the later seasons with Dick Sargent?)

[andress_jade]

I am a fan of both. The funny thing is though, I used to watch Bewitched all the time when it was on Nick at Nite and TV Land when I had cable and never gave a second thought to I Dream of Jeannie. But, when a station out of Oklahoma started airing the show on regular TV by way of a transmitter, I got into I Dream of Jeannie.
The funny thing is I like I Dream of Jeannie more even though I saw Bewitched first. They are both very enjoyable shows and both classics. There will never be two shows like them ever again.
There is just something about I Dream of Jeannie that makes me like it more, I can't put my finger on it. But, I love Bewitched, too!
Barbara Eden will always be my favorite genie and Elizabeth Montgomery will always be my favorite witch! LOL!
I Dream of Jeannie has something that Bewitched doesn't have, three surviving main cast members, I think that makes it more special; at least it does for me.

[Heidi Dawn]

I like both shows, they're still fun to watch and are much better than the garbage that's on for sitcoms currently.

Sandra Gould and Paul Lynde both appeared on I Dream of Jeannie before making their appearances on Bewitched.

[CAJeannieFan57]

I too, find that meeting the surviving cast members of IDOJ has made the show a lot more interesting to me. I'm one of the lucky few who has also met Sidney Sheldon, back in 2004. At the same time, yes, I've met Bernard Fox and Erin Murphy (two survivors from the cast of BW). Admittedly I wanted to meet Bernard Fox because of his little guest star role on IDOJ (episode 18), and Erin Murphy just happened to be sitting at the booth next to him. My friend wanted to meet her, and I was along to be photographer.

Don't forget to send Bill Daily a birthday card ASAP - the address is in the 80th Birthday thread, first post. Bill was in a first season BW as a guest - he played the adoptive father in the Visions of Sugar Plums BW episode, that replayed in the second season of BW. That's probably one of the "bigger" coincidences between the two shows.

[storrs19]

I liked both but never cared for Bewitched after Dick York left. There was just no chemistry between Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick Sargent. That being said, I liked I Dream of Jeannie better than Bewitched for several reasons.

The first is that the supporting characters on Jeannie were much more interesting in that Roger and Dr. Bellows were much funnier than Larry on Bewitched. Just think of how many crazy things Roger and Dr. Bellows did and they make Larry look rather mild and boring. My favorite supporting character on Bewitched was Aunt Clara, hands down.

Second: Jeannie never seemed to get stale like Bewitched did, but then again it only ran five seasons instead of eight. Bewitched really should have ended when Dick York left.
I think more exciting plots could be done with the fact that Jeannie had to hide from most people that Tony knew, where as Samantha simply could not let it be known she was a witch. She was always around everyone Darrin knew though. I really do think Jeannie lost some of its pizazz when they got married, because much of the fun was in trying to hide Jeannie from everybody. After they married it became more of a Bewitched type show and wisely they ended it after five seasons.

Third: As for Jeannie's sister versus cousin Serena: Jeannie wins hands down. Sister Jeannie is a ruthless cunning wicked girl who will stop at nothing to have Tony including kidnapping, exile, torture, and throwing a wrench in the space program. Serena just liked to play pranks on people for the most part.

Also, being an astronaut (especially in the mid 1960s) was much more interesting than working for an advertising agency. Just my two cents worth.