‘I Dream of Jeannie’: The wedding ruined the hit show

I Dream Of Jeannie ran on NBC from September 1965 until May 1970, with repeat episodes being broadcast until September of that year. The show was produced by Screen Gems, and there were 139 episodes.

The first 30 episodes were in black and white, and the remaining 109 were colorized. The stars were Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie and Larry Hagman as astronaut Tony Nelson, who found her bottle and became her master.

The two had great chemistry, and Jeannie fell in love at first sight, but it took Tony a bit more time to acknowledge his feelings.

The premise of the show was quite innocent. Jeannie and Tony had a lot of sexual tension, but only kissed now and then. It was understood that she was a genie and not human, and she came across like a teenager with a crush.

In season 5, however, things changed, and the “ Will they or won’t they?” was taken out of the dynamic. Today's viewing audience will probably consider Jeannie as too submissive and consider the program as degrading to women.

During its time, Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden captured the hearts of viewers who enjoyed their chemistry and accepted the show for what it was which is a sitcom

Barbara Eden has said that she believes having the couple marry killed the series. The wedding was inevitable because having a couple living together without marriage was not something that was done during that decade.

As Jeannie became more human, the idea of her and Tony continuing this stalemate was unrealistic. Perhaps the writers should have continued to have Tony date other women and Jeannie interfere. He could have eventually admitted his love for his genie, and the wedding episode could have been the final one.

The series creator, Sidney Sheldon, said he did not care for the wedding, and in his biography, The Other Side of Me, he explains the situation. According to Sheldon, during the show’s fourth season, when it hadn’t been picked up for a fifth, he got a call from NBC’s Mort Werner, who decided Jeannie and Tony should get married. He actually gave an ultimatum that the show would not air for a fifth season unless there was a wedding.

Werner pointed out that the sexual tension between the couple is what made the series fun. He said that once the sexual tension was gone, there would be nothing to work with.

This has happened on other television shows but there have been a few exceptions. On the Daytime series Days of Our Lives, Bo and Hope Brady (Peter Reckel and Kristian Alfonso) married after many obstacles. They had chemistry that has lasted 40 years, so there are exceptions.

Barbara Eden was also outspoken in her opinion that the couple should not marry, but Mort Werner went along with the wedding anyway. Sheldon said that Werner destroyed a hit show, but perhaps the handwriting was already on the wall.

Viewers probably would not have continued to tune in to the show if it had gone on in the same vein for 5 or 10 more years. This was probably a no-win situation, and Tony and Jeanie's unique dynamic simply had an expiration date.

The entire cast agreed that the wedding would be the end of the series and they were right. Ratings fell, and during the fifth season, the show was not even in the top 30.

I Dream of Jeannie can currently be seen on the Roku and Tubi streaming services for free and on Prime Video for a fee.