Do You Think 'I Dream Of Jeannie' Could've Worked If Roger Healey Became The Lead???

[Brian Damage]

If the producers went and fired Larry Hagman, do you think Roger Healey aka Bill Daily was strong enough as a lead character???

[Mr. Television]

I don't think so. What made Roger so great was his relationship with Tony and how he always seemed to get him in trouble with Jeannie. The show would have been changed considerable if Larry was fired. I thinkl all the leads were cast perfectly. I can't imagine any of them being replaced.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...any more than Jack Mullaney did on "MY LIVING DOLL" (1964-'65). In that series, Bob Cummings was the "caretaker" of a tall, gorgeous robot, played by Julie Newmar. Mullaney originally played Bob's next-door neighbor, "Peter", an innocent "bachelor", clueless as to "Rhoda's" true origins as a robot, yet had a yen to date her (virtually the same kind of personality "Roger Healey" initially was).

However, after the 21st episode was filmed in January 1965, producer Jack Chertok and Cummings had it out over a proposed script that Bob commissioned ["Grandpa Visits"], in which he would have portrayed Bob's grandfather {virtually the same character he doubled as on "THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW", aka "LOVE THAT BOB"}...and Julie would have been relegated to a "cameo" appearance at the beginning and end of the story. Now, Bob wasn't being fair to Julie during production; he kept trying to "teach" her how to act opposite him, and was jealous of the fact she was getting more attention than he (for obvious reasons). So, Bob figured this script would prove he was the "star" of the show, and remind people how good he was as an "old geezer". Chertok angrily reminded him the series wasn't "THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW", and that Julie was his co-star- and he had no intention of indulging Bob's ego by virtually "writing" her out of the episode just so he could play "Grandpa" again, and take the focus of the show away from her. After a heated argument, Bob walked out of Chertok's office, off the Desilu backlot, and out of the show for good.
{Now imagine what would have happened if Gene Nelson had his way, and convinced Sidney Sheldon to fire Larry in a similar manner...}

In any case, Jack Mullaney suddenly found himself the "star" of "MY LIVING DOLL" (his character, "Peter", discovered, after Bob had left for Pakistan, that "Rhoda" was a robot, and he was supposed to watch over her, as Bob had done). He and Julie co-starred for the remainder of the series- five more episodes, in fact, before CBS pulled the plug after the 26th episode [the reasons being a) James Aubrey, the executive who originally gave the show the "green light" without a formal pilot episode, was fired in February 1965; and b) the ratings for "MY LIVING DOLL" were mediocre].

Now, the difference between Jack Mullaney and Bill Daily was that Jack was the more experienced actor [he was a supporting player on "THE ANN SOTHERN SHOW" in its first two seasons (1958-'60), and co-starred with Frank Aletter on Sherwood Schwartz's "IT'S ABOUT TIME" (1966-'67)], and worked very well with Julie Newmar in their episodes. In the early "JEANNIE" episodes, Bill was still struggling with memorizing lines, and overcoming his slight nervousness acting in front of a camera {that awkwardness became a part of Roger's character, to his advantage}. I don't think he wouldn't have been ready to become Barbara's co-star, had Larry been fired.

[old grouch]

Bill Daily was born to play a second banana, which he did quite well on 'Jeannie' and 'The Bob Newhart Show'.

[MickeyMac]

Larry Hagman was perfect as Major Nelson IMHO.

[dougiezerts]

Interesting concept.
I think Roger was much more willing to marry Jeannie than Tony was, so they would have gotten married sooner.