Created by bestselling novelist and screenwriter Sidney Sheldon, I Dream of Jeannie bowed in September of 1965, a bit in the shadow of one-year-old hit Bewitched.
It immediately enchanted viewers ready for light escapist fare, and by
the time its second season rolled around next fall the slapstick-happy
series had hit its stride and was a consistent ratings winner for NBC,
offering in star Barbara Eden a bit more of a va-voomish sexual
presence, if still not yet a full glimpse of her artfully obscured
belly button.

The series, of course, centered around astronaut
Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman), and his persistent titular servant (Eden),
rescued from a magic bottle during a crash landing on a desert island.
Despite Tony releasing her from her “commitments,” Jeannie returns to
Cocoa Beach, Florida, to live with him, and it’s there that her petty
jealousies, born of a smitten devotion, are steadily played out. Guest
stars from the show’s season include Sammy Davis, Jr., Groucho Marx,
Dabney Coleman and The Munsters’ Butch Patrick, and episodic
highlights include “Always on Sunday,” “My Incredible Shrinking Master”
and “Jeannie Breaks the Bank,” in which Jeannie’s efforts to give Tony
a much-deserved raise arouse the suspicion of auditing authorities.
These type of shows point up the series’ time-tested formula, which
basically involves Jeannie trying to grant or give Tony a gift, only to
go overboard and place him either in a pinch or an otherwise
ridiculously convoluted scenario.

Predating the love-in generation and “free love” revolution of the later 1960s and early ’70s, I Dream of Jeannie
was slightly radical or least a bit subversive for its time, and the 31
episodes here present an interesting array of comic set pieces that,
taken collectively, offer an easily recognizable arc and distillation
of the heart of the show’s appeal: the new American male as the object
of sexual pursuit. While rampant promiscuity certainly couldn’t be
tolerated or even portrayed in such a piece of mainstream
entertainment, it was somewhat titillating to feature a male lead as
being constantly pursued, and the female lead as the aggressor. The
supervisory “powers” that Tony had could remain implied (and thus
safely in the head of every male viewer), and females could enjoy
Jeannie’s make-it-so head snaps. While the concept remains evergreen
(indeed, a feature film version of the series is in development,
currently with Kate Hudson and Jimmy Fallon attached to star), it is
its use in this era and context that makes the show so ripe with ironic
sexual tension.

A cardboard slipcase stores two slimline snapcases that house I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Second Season’s
four discs. The series is presented in color in 1.33:1 full screen (its
first season was broadcast in black-and-white, and available on DVD in
its original form and a colorized version), with a Dolby digital
English language track. The show is also apparently big in Portugal and
Spain, as those countries, too, rate their own audio tracks and
optional subtitles. There are unfortunately no supplemental extras. B (Show) D (Disc)