Wake up

[I Dream of Jeannie]

O.k. lets livin up this board. I've never seen this show but I have heard some funny stuff about the movie and the tv show and besides it has Barbara Eden in it so it has to be great. Anybody got any ideas about the show or anything?

[TV Knowledge Fan]

......an independent producer named Phil Borack oversaw production of the
low-budget theatrical movie starring Barbara in 1978, which was aimed squarely at the drive-in movie crowd, as that's how most people first saw the film. When NBC presented it on their "SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES" one evening in March 1980, an amazing thing happened- it got more ratings than the Olympic hockey game ABC was showing at the same time!! Fred Silverman, NBC's chief programmer at that time, INSISTED that Barbara be cast in a weekly series based on the movie, on the strength of those ratings. Universal Television was chosen to produce the TV version (with Borack as "consultant"), and a production crew was assembled to produce a weekly hour-long series. But then, strikes by Hollywood musicians and performers
occured that summer, and virtually ALL TV production was shut down out West. By the time the strikes were settled in late 1980, a decision had been made to transform "HARPER VALLEY" into a half-hour comedy instead. And on Silverman's insistance, Sherwood Schwartz and his production outfit {Redwood} replaced the earlier one, and 13 episodes were quickly "ground out", with the show finally premiering in January of 1981. The ratings were good, if not spectaular, on Friday nights (Barbara appearing as a "Jeannie" lookalike in the third episode helped a lot!), and the series was renewed for a second season. However, for some reason, Schwartz bowed out as producer, and a new production unit, headed by Sam and Greg Strangis {Ten-Four}, assumed responsibility for producing the second season. Again, another Hollywood strike- this time by the writers- delayed production of the new season, which finally began that November. By that time, some of the cast members were dropped, and the show moved to Thursday nights...opposite another Universal TV series, "MAGNUM, P.I.", on CBS. That was NBC's mistake....and the show halted production after videotaping its 29th episode (previous episodes had been filmed) by January 1982. It not only cost Barbara her series, it just about destroyed her marriage to Chuck Fegert as well.

Any other questions?

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