The I Dream Of Jeannie Episode That Led To The Demise Of The Popular '60s Show
Growing up with Nick at Nite, there was one classic series that I adored above all others: "I Dream of Jeannie." Comparisons to that other '60s rom-com fantasy about a supernatural lady causing mayhem in the suburbs be damned, Sidney Sheldon's sitcom was just the blast of silliness that I craved as a kiddo.
As an adult, I've also come to appreciate that easily-rattled U.S. Air Force pilot Anthony "Tony" Nelson (Larry Hagman), his amiable buddy and co-worker Roger Healey (Bill Daily), and Barbara Eden's trouble-making, wish-granting genie ... Jeannie were clearly in a throuple but had to play coy about it to avoid ruffling their neighbors' feathers. Not that they were all that careful about maintaining their cover, what with Roger constantly strolling into Tony and Jeannie's humble abode uninvited with the casualness of someone who definitely doesn't secretly live there. Y'all ain't as slick as you think you are!
Anyhoo, it was Samantha and Darren who ultimately got the last laugh. Viewers tuned in for eight seasons and 254 episodes of the Stephens' escapades on "Bewitched," as opposed to five seasons and 139 episodes for Tony and Jeannie. Why a big difference in longevity for such similar shows? Historians point to the dwindling ratings in "I Dream of Jeannie" season 5, which not-so-accidentally coincided with Tony putting a ring on it and marrying Jeannie in episode 124, "The Wedding" (which aired on December 2, 1969). Personally, however, I don't think the problem was having Tony and Jeannie get hitched. I think the real issue was that the show's cast and crew were forced to do this against their will.
'Witches are human. Genies are not'
Writing in his 2006 memoir "The Other Side of Me," Sheldon recalled being overtaken by a feeling of dread when NBC's then-head of programming, Mort Werner, called him as "I Dream of Jeannie" was wrapping up its fourth season and told him in no uncertain terms: If he wanted a season 5 renewal, then Tony and Jeannie would have to tie the knot. Sheldon gave it the old college try and "wrote a wedding scene," but it was no good. In his own words:
We filmed the wedding at Cape Kennedy and a lot of the Air Force brass attended. I tried to make the script as interesting as possible, but with their marriage, the relationship had changed and much of the fun went out of the show. At the end of the fifth year, "I Dream of Jeannie" was canceled. Mort Werner had taken a hit show and destroyed it.
Appearing on Today for the TV series' 50th anniversary in 2015, Eden confirmed that she, too, wasn't down with the wedding. "No, I didn't [like the idea], it just ruined the show. Because she [Jeannie] wasn't human!" Eden explained. "She was an entity." She also alluded to this being the reason that "Bewitched" could get away with Samantha and Darren being married but "I Dream of Jeannie" couldn't do the same for Tony and Jeannie:
"Genies aren't human. Witches are human. Genies are not. And she [Jeannie] thought she was and he [Tony] knew she wasn't."
As Eden saw it, this not only broke the show's "credibility," it also screwed up the series' internal dynamics. "We had a lot of fun with the fact that she [Jeannie] was weird," she noted.
The Moonlighting 'curse'
This whole situation makes me think of the so-called "'Moonlighting' curse," which dictated that shows with central will-they/won't-they pairings could never actually have their would-be lovers hook up, lest they suffer a premature death like Glenn Gordon Caron's convention-defying '80s rom-com detective series. The thing is, the very concept also blatantly ignores the myriad of behind-the-scenes problems that transpired as "Moonlighting" entered its latter seasons, and its effect on the show. As the likes of "The Office" and "Bones" would illustrate decades later, there's no good reason a series can't change things up when it comes to the flirtatious interplay between two attractive leads ... assuming it's willing and able to put in the effort to evolve along with them.
Therein lies the crux of the issue when it comes to "I Dream of Jeannie." Had Sheldon come up with a killer reason for having Tony and Jeannie walk down the aisle on his own, it might have inspired his fellow writers to take the idea and run with it, giving the show a new lease on life in the process. Instead, Sheldon and his team were dragged into doing so by the whims of a network executive. Perhaps "I Dream of Jeannie" was just too frothy a confection to ever change up its formula and still work, but this assuredly wasn't the way to try and do it.