Info:
DVD Release Date: July 8, 2008 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Color/1969-1970
MSRP: $39.95
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 26
Running Time: 628 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: Spanish and Portuguese audio and subtitles; closed-captioned
Special Features: None
Introduction:
With the blink of an eye, Jeannie pops out of her bottle one last time for the fifth season of I Dream of Jeannie! The four disc set contains the final 26 episodes of the NBC series about the lady in a bottle that astronaut Tony Nelson found during a fortunate accident. No longer is she that mystery woman in Major Nelson’s house, she is about to become Mrs. Nelson and start her brand new life as a “normal” housewife. But don’t be fooled--just because it is the last season doesn’t mean there aren’t many great episodes left. In fact, this is really one of the best seasons of the series.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The season begins with “Jeannie at the Piano,” where Major Nelson gets to demonstrate his ability to play the piano at Carnegie Hall. The problem? He doesn’t naturally have that ability! Jeannie can be a queen or Mrs. Anthony Nelson in the two-part episode “Guess Who’s Going to Be a Bride?,” which will she choose? Jackie Coogan guest stars. Jeannie gives Mrs. Bellows some beauty cream that takes the years off of her--literally--in “Jeannie’s Beauty Cream.” Dr. Bellows and Roger want to throw a bachelor party for Tony, but will Jeannie approve? Find out in “Jeannie and the Bachelor Party.”
Does a genie always bleed red? Find out in “The Blood of a Jeannie.” Jeannie doesn’t know the diference between Puerto Rico and Cuba in “I’ll See You in C.U.B.A.” Farrah Fawcett guest stars. Jeannie has to get an uncle to approve of her marriage in “Uncles A-Go-Go.” The big day arrives in “The Wedding.” Jeannie’s sister is back in “My Sister, the Home Wrecker.”
Tony puts Jeannie on a strict household budget--just in time for a Russian cosmonaut to visit--in “Never Put a Genie on a Budget.” Jeannie blinks up some wine in “Please Don’t Give My Genie No More Wine,” but is it the right kind of wine? There is no room for the guests in the twelve story hotel in “One of Our Hotels Is Growing,” so why not blink up a thirteenth floor? Dr. Bellows’ nephew sees Jeannie turn ino smoke in “Jeannie and the Curious Kid,” how will she get out of that mess?
Tony somehow becomes a pool shark in “Help, Help! A Shark!” Tony and Jeannie have their six month anniversary in “An Astronaut in Sheep’s Clothing.” Dr. Bellows thinks Jeannie is a genie in “Hurricane Jeannie,” so what took him so long? The series ends with “The Chili King,” where Tony becomes a celebrity--on a can of chili!
Packaging:
Fans that have been collection the series are going to love this: the packaging is basically identical for this season to all of the other seasons. Of course, the artwork has changed for this season (with the cover art showing Major Nelson with Jeannie in her wedding gown), but otherwise, the rest is pretty much the same. We have two slimcases inside, each contaning two discs. The front of each slimcase has a picture of Jeannie on it, and the back has a listing of the episodes on the discs inside the slimcase with descriptions. The set uses a purple and blue color scheme.
Discs 1 and 4 each contain six episodes, while Discs 2 and 3 each contain seven episodes. Disc 1 contains a picture of Jeannie and Djinn Djinn, Disc 2 contains a picture of Jeannie and Major Nelson, Disc 3 contains a picture of Dr. Bellows’ nephew (very unusual choice...) and Disc 4 contains another picture of Jeannie.
Menu Design and Navigation:
Finally, we have a show that made it through every season with the same menus for each season... very good for consistency! And besides that, the menus are very nice anyway. There is no point in fixing something that wasn’t broken. The main menu on each disc begins with the theme song playing, and then smoke comes out of Jeannie’s bottle with all of your menu options, which include Play All, Episode Selection, Audio, and Subtitles. Episode Selection takes you into her bottle where you can choose the episode that you want to see. There aren’t any scene selection menus on the set, but chapters are placed at each commercial break. Audio and Subtitles allow you to change the language and add subtitles to the episodes, which are in both Spanish and Portuguese.
Video and Audio Quality:
Once again, we have video and audio quality that isn’t exactly perfect, but by 1960s standards, looks great. There are a few minor flaws here and there (mostly with grain), but other than that, there aren’t any issues that would cause serious concern. The audio demonstrates probably could have been restored a little bit better, but honestly it isn’t bad. It is presented in mono, of course, and there is closed-captioning for those that need it. And, just for fun, you can watch the episodes in Spanish or Portuguese, or just turn on subtitles in those languages. I never quite understood why those options have been there for this show, but it is very interesting to see the series in a different language. It appears this time that there aren’t any episodes with missing foreign language audio tracks.
The episodes are a bit shorter this season than in past seasons, but I believe most of them are fine. There are a few that run just under 24 minutes, but in general, the episodes are in the 24:00-24:30 range. The shortest one is the second part of a two part episode, and sometimes these are naturally shorter to begin with. Runtimes for each episode are as follows:
Disc 1:
1. “Jeannie at the Piano” (24:15)
2. “Djinn Djinn, the Pied Piper” (24:40)
3. “Guess Who’s Going to Be a Bride,” Part 1 (24:24)
4. “Guess Who’s Going to Be a Bride,” Part 2 (23:36)
5. “Jeannie’s Beauty Cream” (24:46)
6. “Jeannie and the Bachelor Party” (24:22)
Disc 2:
7. “The Blood of a Jeannie” (24:05)
8. “I’ll See You in C.U.B.A.” (23:17)
9. “Jeannie & the Mad Home Wrecker” (24:12)
10. “Uncles A-Go-Go” (24:19)
11. “The Wedding” (23:57)
12. “My Sister, the Home Wrecker” (23:52)
13. “Jeannie, the Matchmaker” (23:45)
Disc 3:
14. “Never Put a Genie on a Budget” (24:06)
15. “Please Don’t Give My Genie No More Wine” (23:54)
16. “One of Our Hotels is Growing” (24:16)
17. “The Solid Gold Genie” (23:56)
18. “Mrs. Djinn Djinn” (24:10)
19. “Jeannie and the Curious Kid” (24:18)
20. “Jeannie, the Recording Secretary” (24:17)
Disc 4:
21. “Help, Help! A Shark!” (23:56)
22. “Eternally Yours, Jeannie” (24:04)
23. “An Astronaut in Sheep’s Clothing” (24:17)
24. “Hurricane Jeannie” (24:17)
25. “One Jeannie Beats Four of a Kind” (24:17)
26. “The Chili King” (24:17)
Special Features:
The only special features are Minisodes from the Sony Minisode website, if you can even call those special features. There is one from Bewitched (5:05) and another one from Fantasy Island (5:40). These can be found on Disc 3. Why can’t they include some commentaries or interviews?
Final Comments:
This is a pretty good season of the show, not in spite of the changes, but because of the changes. This season reminds me more of Bewitched, as Jeannie starts to play a regular role in Major Nelson’s everyday normal life as a “normal” woman (even if she does still show up in drawers and file cabinets from time to time). Also, it allows the series to get into new story ideas, and unlike many shows that spend their later season rewriting old episodes, there were still new story ideas for this season. It is a shame that the series only lasted five seasons, because at this point, it could have gone on at least another season or two. But then again, maybe it is a positive thing that the show went off the air while it was still good.
It is nice to see that this series was actually completed on DVD. The same can’t be said about too many shows. It is frustrating, though, that the special features did not continue beyond the first season. There are many things that could have been included, particularly since a majority of the cast is still alive and well. It is possible that the next step for Sony may be to put out a complete series set, but if they do one and it is anything their most recent complete series releases, you’ll probably be better off just buying each season individually. You’ll want to blink all five seasons into you collection, fast!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 4.5/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 1/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 06/23/08
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