Why ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ Couldn’t Be Made Today, According to Barbara Eden
Ninety-three-year-old Barbara Eden doesn’t seem to be one of those “You can’t make jokes like that anymore!” entertainers, but she’s got a pretty good point about why I Dream of Jeannie wouldn’t fly in 2025 — at least in its original conception. A sitcom about an astronaut who finds an ancient genie in a bottle? “I’m not sure that anyone would want to do it,” Eden recently told Forbes.
The sticking point? Well, Jeannie calling Major Tony Nelson “Master,” for one thing. The term has all kinds of connotations, few of which are palatable to modern audiences. The 1960s version of the show used the term for laughs, especially among the mere mortals who didn’t understand the supernatural relationship between Jeannie and Tony.
But Eden says the word had no ill will behind it. “You know, ‘master’ is just a word and it was in her vocabulary,” she said. “She didn’t really say she was a slave. Never, you know?”
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Jeannie wasn’t even a human being, Eden argued. “It was actually a classic theme,” she said. “A thousand years and all the genies — and she was an entity. She wasn’t a human, but she thought she could be a human, and he knew she couldn’t — and there, you have the comedy, because she just wasn’t human.”
Point taken, but Jeannie wasn’t exactly a Roomba either. I’m guessing viewers today would disapprove of a beautiful, for-all-intents-and-purposes-human woman calling her boyfriend “master.” However, certain Reddit communities would definitely be down.
If I Dream of Jeannie were rebooted today, Eden would have one strong recommendation: Don’t let Jeannie marry Major Tony this time! When network execs insisted on the wedding plot line during Jeannie’s fifth and final season, “I was very upset about it,” she said. “Not that anybody would listen to me.”
Consummating a will-they-or-won’t-they relationship has damned better shows than I Dream of Jeannie, and the sitcom didn’t survive once that romantic tension was removed. Eden wishes she’d fought for what she believed, admitting she didn’t complain directly to producers. “I did not so much. No, I didn’t,” she said. “I guess if I had asserted myself — yes, I would have, but I didn’t.”
Because the show was canceled, producers never had to deal with practical problems with the relationship. Jeannie was immortal, for one thing — she’d still look like a 25-year-old when Tony Nelson was ready for assisted living. Can genies have children? Would their offspring be mortal, genies or some kind of hybrid? No one really thought it through.
“I said, this is ridiculous. She can’t marry you,” Eden said. “It’s ridiculous, but it was okay. It was still funny. People could relate, one way or another.”
