JoeWras
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2012
- Messages
- 12,453
The world has me down. My new series have run out, I'm caught up with Star Trek:Strange New Worlds.
So I decided to dig deep and tried out a few oldies from childhood like: Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, and I Dream Of Jeanie.
I haven't watched any of these in 45 years.
Wow. I eventually landed on I Dream Of Jeannie for a few reasons. First of all, it requires no thinking. Second, Barbara Eden is amazingly beautiful. And third, the supporting cast is out of this world good.
Despite Larry Hagman being drunk most of the time, he plays it perfect. Hayden Rorke could be any of us: "what is going on here?" Don't we all feel that way sometimes? Paul Lynde makes only a few appearances (along with also appearing on Bewitched), and he is beyond incredible. My goodness, these old comedians were amazing. It seems like the new generation is always grinding an axe or two. If anyone had an axe to grind, it should be Paul Lynde, yet we remember him fondly not only for his scripted performances, but his incredible ad-libed wit on Hollywood Squares*.
I've only watched a few episodes and what is striking me is that the producers gave Jeannie an unspoken feminist authority, without her parading around in ERA protests. She was devilish and always got the best of Tony. Tony is in many ways the anti-Darrin. He wanted authority and could have easily had it (he is the master after all), but he played along with Jeannie and let her do her thing. Jeannie would have gotten along fine with Cindy Lauper because "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." And she does. Tony protests, but secretly loves it, and Jeannie, too.
* - Yes, I know Hollywood Squares was partially scripted, with the actors having canned answers ahead of time. Watch Paul Lynde, though. There's a reason he was in the center. He went way beyond the canned answers.
So I decided to dig deep and tried out a few oldies from childhood like: Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, and I Dream Of Jeanie.
I haven't watched any of these in 45 years.
Wow. I eventually landed on I Dream Of Jeannie for a few reasons. First of all, it requires no thinking. Second, Barbara Eden is amazingly beautiful. And third, the supporting cast is out of this world good.
Despite Larry Hagman being drunk most of the time, he plays it perfect. Hayden Rorke could be any of us: "what is going on here?" Don't we all feel that way sometimes? Paul Lynde makes only a few appearances (along with also appearing on Bewitched), and he is beyond incredible. My goodness, these old comedians were amazing. It seems like the new generation is always grinding an axe or two. If anyone had an axe to grind, it should be Paul Lynde, yet we remember him fondly not only for his scripted performances, but his incredible ad-libed wit on Hollywood Squares*.
I've only watched a few episodes and what is striking me is that the producers gave Jeannie an unspoken feminist authority, without her parading around in ERA protests. She was devilish and always got the best of Tony. Tony is in many ways the anti-Darrin. He wanted authority and could have easily had it (he is the master after all), but he played along with Jeannie and let her do her thing. Jeannie would have gotten along fine with Cindy Lauper because "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." And she does. Tony protests, but secretly loves it, and Jeannie, too.
* - Yes, I know Hollywood Squares was partially scripted, with the actors having canned answers ahead of time. Watch Paul Lynde, though. There's a reason he was in the center. He went way beyond the canned answers.
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Roomate thought I was a genius. We were so happy!
