HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Apr. 8, 2006 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released another classic television series on DVD. The first season of I Dream of Jeannie is now available in a four-disc set. Although the set is available in a color version, like the first two seasons of its stable mate Bewitched, television purists will definitely want to go with the original black-and-white, as that’s how that season aired. I Dream of Jeannie is the story of Captain Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman), a pilot in the US Air Force and an astronaut aboard Stardust 1, an orbital space mission. During Stardust’s climb to orbit, an upper-stage motor misfires and forces a mission abort. Off course and out of range of the recovery forces, Nelson settles in on a small island to wait for rescue. While making a giant SOS signal on the ground, Nelson picks up a strange and unusual bottle to make part of one of the letters, along with more mundane looking rocks and logs. When the bottle moves, Nelson takes notice and opens it. What pops out is a beautiful genie (Barbara Eden), free for the first time in two thousand years and determined to help her new master any way she can. Nelson doesn’t need anyone else in his life, or so he thinks. Instead of heading back to her home in the Middle East, Jeannie stows away in Nelson’s gear and follows him home to Florida. And that’s when the zaniness ensues. The four-disc set includes all thirty episodes from the first season. The pilot episode, “The Lady in the Bottle”, features optional commentary from Eden, Hagman and Bill Daily (who played Captain Roger Healey). The commentary is hilarious, as the actors, all going on to success in other ventures after Jeannie ended, sound as if they’re watching their work for the very first time. Also included is an entertaining documentary called I Dream of Jeannie – Out of the Bottle, which features interviews with the show’s stars and the show’s creator, Sidney Sheldon. If there is one area where this set fails, it is in making a significant historical omission. Each episode of I Dream of Jeannie ended with the infamous animated Screen Gems logo and theme—what television logo fanatics refer to as the “S From Hades”. Screen Gems, of course, was the television production arm of Columbia Pictures, which is now owned by Sony. For whatever reason, the folks at Sony decided to strip that animation in favor of the long version of the modern Sony Pictures Television outro. Sony isn’t the only one guilty of stripping an original outro; Universal did the same thing by removing the original outro on the first two seasons of Emergency! on DVD. Other than the issue with the outro, I Dream of Jeannie is definitely worthy of being in your classic television collection. Jeannie Trivia: During the first season, it was not readily apparent that Captain Roger Healey was in the US Army. The only way to tell is to look at the lapels of his uniform jacket. The castle insignia of the Corps of Engineers is prominently displayed there. And according to the astronaut qualifications at the time, Roger Healey would not be have been eligible to be an astronaut. In the color episodes of following seasons, Healey’s olive-green uniform stands out against Nelson’s sky-blue Air Force uniform. ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
