What was the first episode in color?

[SetacOne@aol.com]

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

[Impressions]

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."

[Leigh Ann]

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

[Ms Garthe Knight]

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.

[adbreen_spam]

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!

[Ms Garthe Knight]

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

[DickYorkMan]

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)

[TV Knowledge Fan]

..."The Fastest Gun In the East", which was filmed near the tail-end of the first season {production #30} in January 1966 [but withheld from broadcast until season two, on October 24th]; 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 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.

[CAJeannieFan57]

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

[TV Knowledge Fan]

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!!

[ansara1]

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

[ansara1]

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

[ansara1]

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.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

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."

[I'm not sure Sidney had been aware of this, but Columbia, Screen Gems' parent company, had already featured "a beautiful young girl" as a genie, namely Evelyn Keyes, in their 1945 Technicolor adventure/romance/satire, "A Thousand and One Nights", opposite Cornel Wilde's "Aladdin" (he even refers to the Genie as "Babs"!). It was the kind of movie where Phil Silvers (as Wilde's comedy relief sidekick, "Abdullah") thought up the ending {mentioned in HIS autobiography} where he gets the beautiful genie to grant 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?

[ansara1]

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...