DVD REVIEW: I DREAM OF JEANNIE – THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON

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THE
PITCH

Blonde
magical Arab infiltrates the United States Air Force, hilarity ensues.

 

THE HUMANS

Larry Hagman, Barbara Eden, Bill Daily, Hayden Rorke and Barton MacLane

 

 

“Jeannie’s
Thulsa Doom impression took time, nevertheless Major Nelson was still
impressed.”

 

THE
NUTSHELL

 

I Dream
of Jeannie is one of those pop culture touchstones that dotted the television
landscape in the 1960s. The show tells the tale of Captain Anthony Nelson and
his fateful discovery a bottle containing a genie. He rubs the bottle and out
pops the only fair-haired Djinn in the known world. Together they spent the
time bumbling Air Force business and getting into hi-jinks with the biggest
gallery of studio day-players this side of Petticoat Junction.

 

 

“Larry
Hagman really wanted to play Arnim Zola in the worst way. But, Favreau wasn’t
going to add him to the Iron Man movie.”

 

THE
LOWDOWN

I Dream
of Jeannie was never one of those shows that I made time to watch on Nick at
Nite. I hate to say that I always stayed within the realms of 70s/80s sitcom
reruns, but nobody challenges Alex P. Keaton for my television viewing dollar.

But, I
was pulled into the world of 1960s sitcoms and hour long dramas by my parents.
Between marathon sessions of The Andy Griffith Show and their favorite thing
ever M*A*S*H, I feel that I’ve developed a special place in the pit of my
heart for these laugh tracked filled glimpses of another era.

 

 

“Major
Nelson’s sphincter tightened as Jeannie got ready to blink her third Anal
Intruder into existence.”

 

Season Four
of I Dream of Jeannie opens with very little development to the tried and
true formula that had kept the show afloat for years. Jeannie gets into trouble
and Major Nelson has to sort it out, while trying to keep his employers from
knowing any better. The only major difference to the pattern of formulaic
episodes is that Major Healy gets to crowd in on the Nelson and Jeannie
hi-jinks for a huge chunk of this season’s episodes.

That’s
really the problem with the sitcoms of that Era. It’s not to say that the
problems were strictly relegated to the infancy period of the Television
medium. You can find it all the way up to hour long drama’s attempt to break
the serious nature of other entertainment mediums to primetime. After all, how
many times did you see an episode about William Daniels getting into mischief
with a new puppy on St. Elsewhere? That’s right; you didn’t see that crap go
down with Dr. Mark Craig. You had to wait to see him slum it on Boy Meets
World to get a taste of the puppy lovin’.

The
Presentation Quality on this set is top-notch for a show of its age. But,
that’s to be expected as the show has been Digitally Remastered and trimmed
here and there for the benefit of worldwide syndication. If you’re a fan of the
show, I recommend picking it up on the first week release sales via Amazon.
But, if you’re just casually invested, there’s not enough material here to make
you take the plunge.

That’s
the real death knell of this set. It does a great job of bringing the complete
fourth season of the show to DVD, but when you look at it really
hard…you wonder if all the work was really necessary. But, this is keeping from
a guy that owns the complete run of She Spies and What’s Happening on two
different formats.

 

 

“Jeannie:
Fucking the sight back into Master since 1965.”

 

THE
PACKAGE

It’s
almost becoming a uniform decision by the major studios to release their TV on DVD sets in slipcovers housing
Slimline cases. That’s not to say that I don’t like this move, as I’ve got
thick Deadwood and Rome cases that make shifting around
DVDs to be a pain in the ass.

You might
wonder why I’m paying so much attention to the actual package itself. Well,
when you don’t include any special features with a show…sometimes, I sit in awe
of DVD packaging. Not really, I’m just
trying to call attention to the fact that Sony could’ve put a little something
on here for the customers.

 

I don’t
care if it’s an Electronic Press Kit, a photo gallery or even a montage
dedicated to Barbara Eden’s navel. Something beats nothing and the Jeannie
fan got the short end of the stick. Which if you’re actually an obsessive fan
of the show, you should take the stick and jab your eyes out with it. You don’t
deserve eyes for obsessing over what’s an easily forgettable bit of Cold War
Pop Culture fluff.

 

 

 

“Larry
Hagman always liked to take the Bobby Kennedy Memorial route through the Hotel
Kitchen.”

 

6.0 out of 10