by Dawn McElligott
When I was a little girl, “I Dream of Jeannie” was THE show to watch. It had been conjured up as a competitor to ‘Bewitched” on ABC. But it was more fun. Jeannie was single, whereas Samantha was weighed down with motherly concerns. Jeannie was lively and enthusiastic. If her roommate, Major Nelson yelled at her she could turn into smoke and escape into her bottle. I loved her bottle. She felt safe there. The décor was exotic and uniquely her own.
The imaginative show inspired me to be a writer so I watched TV actively. I was always looking to see how shows were made in contrast to the children at school. They had lunchboxes advertising TV shows that I assumed they watched passively.
As soon as I learned to read I scanned the credits of “I Dream of Jeannie” and saw that it had been created by Sidney Sheldon. I inferred that for Sheldon’s name to be in the credits he had to have done much more than mutter “Why not a show about a genie?”