It is almost impossible to imagine Jeannie as a brunette. But while they were casting the role, the producers were looking to hire an actress who did not have blond hair for the leading role. They were already getting so much slack with people saying they were ripping off Bewitched. They did not want to have another blond lead. Her beautiful blonde hair almost prevented her from getting cast in this iconic role.
However, the casting directors had multiple rounds of auditions and no one suited the role better than Barbara. They decided to go against their initial idea and cast a blond anyway.
Re-Runs Break TV Records
After airing reruns on the WPIX network, “I Dream of Jeannie” came in at number one during its time slot! The show seemed to have started to gain popularity after it had originally aired. The show was not an instant success. It was never #1 rated when it got its start and it somehow never hit the number one spot with the television ratings.
The entire time it was playing in reruns, “I Dream of Jeannie” continued to be one of the most popular television shows. Networks began to play episodes back to back and in prime time slots. It even became the very first off-network show to surpass network competition. What an amazing feat for this little show!
Their Set Was Destroyed
When a television series is canceled or ends, you may wonder what happens to the set and all of the props that they used for the show. Back in the day during the filming of “I Dream of Jeannie” it was pretty common for studios just to burn down the set.
Once the network canceled “I Dream Of Jeannie,” they had to decide what to do with the set and the props. The producers of the show knew that it was going to be very expensive to store everything if that was what they wanted to do. They decided to burn down the set, to avoid the cost of storing all of the props. The cast and crew got to take whatever they wanted from the set before they burned it to the ground.
Not So Factual
Like we said earlier about editing mishaps and continuity errors, another funny one can be seen in an episode where Tony is changing his rank from Captain to Major. In this episode, he is seen wearing the wrong rank!
On his uniform, he has these little silver clusters - which are meant for a Lieutenant Colonel. During season 2 though, his clusters changed color to gold which is actually for the rank of Major. This error may seem small, but it is actually surprising since Larry really did serve off-screen, so he should have caught that little error, and we are surprised that he did not!
Same Actor, Different Shows
You may know the actor Paul Lynde for his role as the crazy Uncle Arthur on the series “Bewitched.” But did you know, Paul also made three separate appearances on the show “I Dream of Jeannie?” There were not many recurring roles on the show aside from Tony and Jeannie, so Paul came on the show 3 different times in three different bit parts.
His first role was Harry Huggins, he then appeared in the show as a director from Hollywood and then finally as a tough, physical fitness teacher who makes fools out of Tony Nelson and Healy during an exhausting fitness class!