You Bet Your Ass There Is A Connection To ‘I Dream Of Jeannie’!

This photo is from the 1964 movie ‘The Brass Bottle’. It starred Tony Randall and Barbara Eden…but not a a genie! Eden played Randall’s wife…Burl Ives played the genie that caused more problems than he solved.

‘I Dream Of Jeannie’ was created and produced by Sidney Sheldon for NBC in response to the great success of ABC’s ‘Bewitched’, which had debuted in 1964 as the second most watched program in the United States. Sheldon was inspired by the ‘The Brass Bottle’ and came up with the idea for a beautiful female genie.

When casting was opened for the role of Jeannie, Sheldon could not find an actress who could play the role the way he saw the character…as a brunette. He did not want a blonde genie because he thought there would be too much similarity with the blonde Samantha on ‘Bewitched’. However, after many unsuccessful auditions, he called Barbara Eden’s agent.

When NBC began its prime time season in color in the fall 1965, ‘Jeannie’ was one of two regular programs on NBC that remained in black and white. This was due in part to the special photographic effects employed to achieve Jeannie’s magic. By the second season, however, further work had been done on techniques to create the visual effects in color, necessary because by 1966 all US prime time series were being made in color.

Now this is odd! Sheldon originally wanted to film season one in color, but NBC did not want to pay for the extra expenses, as the network (and Screen Gems) believed the series would not make it to a second season. According to Sheldon’s autobiography “The Other Side Of Me”, he offered to pay the extra $400 an episode needed for color filming at the beginning of the series, but Screen Gems executive Jerry Hyams advised him: “Sidney, don’t throw your money away”.

Source