I Dream of Jeannie
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | I Dream of Jeannie |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | Sidney Sheldon |
| Date(s): | September 18, 1965 – May 26, 1970 |
| Medium: | television series |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | I Dream of Jeannie at Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
I Dream of Jeannie is an American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as astronaut, U.S. Air Force Major Anthony Nelson, who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries. The show also co-starred Bill Daily as Major Roger Healey and Hayden Rorke as Dr. Alfred Bellows.
Produced by Screen Gems, the show originally aired on NBC from September 1965 to May 1970 with new episodes, and through September 1970 with summer season repeats. The show ran for five seasons and produced 139 episodes.
Alongside its comedic situations, exotic costumes and characters (see Orientalism below) and stereotypical "All American" astronauts, the series also included stock footage of the early US space program prior to the Apollo Moon missions.
Reboot series
Between 1973 and 1974, Hanna-Barbera produced a single-season cartoon series that rebooted the concept as a teen comedy entitled, Jeannie. In 1979, one episode of this cartoon series was used as part of a university study to examine the effects of sex role stereotypes on very young girls. The impact of this episode appeared to be inconclusive.[1]
Orientalism
In subsequent years, some criticism has also been raised regarding the show's portrayal of Arabic or Muslim peoples and cultures. As a 1960s sitcom, it presented very simplistic and stereotypical characters, scenes and cultural paradigms. Katherine Bullock states:
I Dream of Jeannie stands as the earliest television example of Orientalism as a key production feature, with Once Upon a Time as one of the most recent. The fact that this represents an over 50-year continuity of television’s negative stereotyping of Arabs-Muslims is one of the reasons I wrote this article....... Every aspect of production in Jeannie, from the set and costumes to dialogue, characterization, and plotline, calls on and reproduces a rather limited set of Hollywood’s Orientalist stereotypes... What is striking about Sheldon’s sitcom is that, while other television shows might have an isolated episode or character that is Orientalist (Shaheen 1984), I Dream of Jeannie was the first television series (five seasons, 139 episodes in total) based entirely on Orientalist stereotypes. In other words, the show’s Orientalism is essential rather than incidental... (p. 7).[2]
While exploring contemporaneous undertones from the 1960s, Bullock also calls for that a modern-day examination within fandom:
The Jeannie persona is now very widespread in contemporary American culture: many ballet schools, for instance, still have their girls perform “Jeannie” dances at family concerts (search “Jeannie ballet” on YouTube); the Jeannie costume can be found among Halloween outfits. There are spin-offs, such as Jeannie board games, slot machines in casinos that play Eden’s voice (Eden 2011: 259), a Jeannie porn film, and a cartoon series (Brooks and Marsh 1999: 477). There is even a robust trade in Jeannie artifacts (Grandinetti 2005). The show itself seems to be well liked to this day, judging by keen interest in the DVD sets on Amazon and appreciative online consumer comments. In a special interview for the 40th anniversary in 2013, Sheldon said that the show was Number 2 in the United Kingdom (Jeannie 2013: disc 4). So, while it was not a blockbuster, I Dream of Jeannie is still being viewed by millions worldwide. Its ability to purvey Orientalist stereotypes thus remains strong and begs analysis. (p. 10).[2]
Ongoing Legacy
Leone Locatelli explores the impact of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie on the inclusion of sorceresses (majokko) and magical girlfriends (mahou kanojo) within manga and anime.[3]
Fandom
There are fewer fanworks such as fanfiction and fanart than other series; however, Barbara Eden's costume has undoubtedly inspired costuming and cosplay efforts among science fiction fan communities around the world. The TV series continues to be beloved by viewers and its popularity is one of the reasons why it's still in syndication today, decades after the show first aired on network television.
Fanworks and fannish communities that focus on I Dream of Jeannie exist today, largely on the internet.
Zines
A number of print zines included fan fiction and other information about I Dream of Jeannie both pre and post-internet. Examples include: Airwaves 7 and Diamonds and Dynamite 2.
Fan-Produced Newsletter
In early 1991, fan Patterson Lundquist began an I Dream of Jeannie fanzine entitled Jeannie's Bottle. Each issue was approximately four double-sided pages in length, folded in thirds for mailing purposes. The title was derived from the iconic glass prison in the television series that Jeannie called home. The issues contained information, photographs, and interviews of personality involved in the sitcom. As time would progress the production costs and time required to issue a monthly fanzine would take its toll on Patterson. The newsletter ceased publication in early 1994.
Links & Resources
- I Dream of Jeannie fanworks at Archive of Our Own
- I Dream of Jeannie at FanFiction.Net
- I Dream of Jeannie Wiki
References
- ^ Emily S. Davidson, Amy Yasuna and Alan Tower, The Effects of Television Cartoons on Sex-Role Stereotyping in Young Girls, Source: Child Development, Vol. 50, No. 2 (June 1979), pp. 597-600. (JSTOR)
- ^ a b Katherine Bullock, Orientalism on Television: A Case Study of I Dream of Jeannie, ReOrient, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Autumn 2018), pp. 4-23 (ACADEMIA).
- ^ Leone Locatelli, Vite da Strega. Bewitched, I Dream Of Jeannie e la nascita delle ragazze magiche (trans. Witch's Lives. Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and the birth of the magical girls), Manga Academica, 2021.