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Jeannie's Magic Lamp - Ancient Persian
bottle that was the home to Jeannie (Barbara Eden), a magical
genie on the fantasy comedy I DREAM OF JEANNIE/NBC/1965-70.
Jeannie and her twin sister with
bottle
Jeannie was imprisoned in the bottle by an evil Blue Jinn until
Air Force astronaut Anthony "Tony" Nelson (Larry Hagman)
found it on a beach and released her from her two thousand year
confinement.
Adopting Tony as her new Master, Jeannie returned to live with him
in Cocoa Beach, Florida. She still lived inside the bottle but could
now travel freely in and out on her own (via a meta-morphing cloud
of pink smoke).
The bottle's interior was decorated with a colorful display of
curtains and throw-pillows. Occasionally, Tony put the cork back in
the bottle to keep Jeannie from interfering with his plans (like
going on a date with a beautiful woman).
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Tony Nelson Meets Jeannie |
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"Once upon a time in a mythical
place called Cape Kennedy, an astronaut named Tony Nelson
went up on a space mission. The missile went up but
something went wrong and they had to bring it down.
Captain Nelson landed on an
island in the South Pacific where he found a bottle - at
least it looked like a bottle - but it didn't act like a
bottle because in it...was a genie. Oh not your average
every day genie but a beautiful genie, who could grant any
wish
Captain Nelson was so
grateful, he set Jeannie free, only she didn't want to be
free, You how it is when you've been cooped up in a bottle
for two thousand years. She wanted to have fun and she
wanted to have it with Captain Nelson.
So she followed him back to
Coco Beach, a mythical town in a mythical state called
Florida and there in this house the girl in the bottle
played spin the astronaut." |
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-- Narration
from the first season |
TRIVIA NOTE: Barbara Eden still owns one of the purple bottle's used
on the show. On the last day of shooting, Barbara took the bottle
used on the last show as a souvenir. According to Eden, her bottle
was not the first one used on the show because over the run of the
series many of the bottles used got broken.
To create a lamp bottle for the show, the studio artists started
with a black glass bottle. Then they painted it purple and added
ornamentation for an authentic ancient Persian look.
Barbara displays the last bottle used on the show and sample black
glass bottle on a wall in her home library.
Once an earthquake struck Barbara's home, and everything in her
library fell off the shelves and onto the floor. The rubble blocked
the entry way to the room and Barbara pushed her way into the room
where she found a pyramid of books on the floor. Luckily, as if by
magic, her purple I Dream of Jeannie bottle was found resting at the
top of the books and in perfect condition. (Entertainment Weekly
8/12/94 p. 43)
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"You know what would be cool? To find a girl in a
bottle, like 'I Dream of Jeanie'. I'd like to make out with her on
that little couch. |
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-- Bill Haverchuck,
Freaks & Geeks |
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