In the very early episodes

[Rezny@gmail.com]

of "I Dream of Jeannie",the script consultant is listed in the black and white first season closing credits as Arthur Alsburg.But later in the first season,Arthur Alsburg's name is NOT listed on the closing credits as script consultant.In the latter episodes from first season black and white episodes,who WAS the script consultant?

[TV Knowledge Fan]

....during the first half of the first season, Sidney Sheldon had problems with several of the scripts submitted to him by "outside writers"; he was busy writing the majority of 'THE PATTY DUKE SHOW" episodes at the time, and after the first two episodes, turned the scripting chores over to others. He later recalled, in a newspaper interview, that he literally "threw away" several thousand dollars worth of scripts during the first season because to him, "they didn't have the right ring"- that is, they didn't fit his idea of what "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" was supposed to be.

Sidney rewrote several of them, sometimes uncredited: for example, there was supposed to be a climax scene in the first-draft script of Austin & Irma Kalish's "Whatever Became of Baby Custer?" when, after Tony discovered that Custer was missing, found out that Jeannie was also missing. He then went to a traveling carnival at the edge of town, and mistook a "veiled woman" for Jeannie on the midway. Well, that was rewritten so that Tony journeys no farther than Major Jamison's house, where Custer walks in (just as he's about to admit that Jeannie was responsible for the boy's disappearance to Dr. Bellows), and tells everyone he went to a "traveling carnival at the edge of town", and is satisfied with an explanation of seeing Tony float in the air, as "a lady at the carnival did the exact same thing" when he saw her float in the air {TONY: (excitedly, to Custer) "What'd she look like, huh? What'd she look like??"/CUSTER: "Big fat lady with dark hair"/TONY: (gives a big sigh of relief)}. And there was a scene in the original script of Essex & Seelen's "The Moving Finger" where Jeannie dressed up as the mirror image of silent film "vamp" Pola Negri, in order to convince Jason Huberts' director that she should be in the movies. That had to be rewritten [how would Jeannie know about Pola Negri if, as she claimed at the beginning of the episode, "I have never seen pictures that move, or a 'Rita Mitchell'"?], so the scene became one where Jeannie pops up in her harem outfit and recites Omar Khayyam's "Rubiyat" as a "screen test". And, in Mary McCall Jr.'s "Djinn and Water", Tony, after originally discovering the secret of turning salt water into fresh water from Jeannie's grandfather, reported his findings to "Leslie Staples" of the U.S. Department of Agriculture: that character had to be changed to an unnamed "Botanist" instead of the government.

Anyway, Sheldon decided he needed help in "reviewing" his scripts by mid-season (after Barbara returned from her "pregnancy break"), so he asked Arthur Alsberg, a veteran comedy writer who'd written three consecutive scripts with Bob Fisher- they were the ones where Roger initially got "involved" with Jeannie, that Sidney liked- to become his temporary script consultant. Alsberg oversaw the next five episodes, and made any changes or corrections that Sidney felt were necessary (although Sidney personally rewrote Bill Davenport's script for "The Richest Astronaut in the Whole Wide World"). Then, Sidney decided that, since he seemed to be the only one to understand what "JEANNIE" was all about, he would take charge and write every single episode from that point {starting with "My Master, the Doctor"}, releasing Alsberg from the series by mutual agreement. And he was right- Sidney DID write the best scripts, mixing the right amount of "sexual tension" between Tony and Jeannie, and conflict between him and Dr. Bellows (and Bellows and General Peterson). And he did this while writing the final episodes of "THE PATTY DUKE SHOW"!

[ansara1]

Did anyone notice that in the first and some of the second season (particularly in the first half of the first season) that Jeannie seemed a bit more savvy or "in the know"? She still possessed her sweet, innocent, naive', "fish out of water" qualities but just seemed a bit more knowledgable for a lack of a better way of putting it. I LOVED her character all the way through the series but kind of wish the writers had kept this element of her personality more throughout the series entire run. Could this have been due to the first director, Gene Nelson's, influence? I'd especially love to know what TV Knowledge Fan thinks about this!

PS: I saw an interview Sidney Sheldon did where he stated that after having viewed the pilot, the powers that be told him to "soften" Jeannie's character a bit. She did seem to have a LITTLE more of her sister's character in her on the pilot episode. She was more like Jeannie to me from episode 2 on - though I loved her in the pilot episode. It's a classic!

[Rezny@gmail.com]

Also,in the pilot,she frowned a lot(except for at the end,when she smiled that smile she was known for).