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WHICH WAS BETTER ---- I DREAM OF JEANIE OR BEWITCHED ?

gregg75

gregg75

I'd vote for Bewtiched. I think the writing/jokes were better on there.

A shows success seems to be measure by how many charachters they have. I can only think of
5 on Jeanie (Tony, Jeanie, Dr. Bellows & wife, Roger). I can remember 16 on Bewitched (Darin, Samantha, Endora, Larry & his wife, uncle Arthur, Serena, Gladys Kravitz and Abner, Tabatha and brother Adam, aunt Clara, Maurice, Dr. Bombay, Darin's mother and father).......who else am I forgetting?
 
gregg75 said:
I'd vote for Bewtiched. I think the writing/jokes were better on there.

A shows success seems to be measure by how many charachters they have. I can only think of
5 on Jeanie (Tony, Jeanie, Dr. Bellows & wife, Roger). I can remember 16 on Bewitched (Darin, Samantha, Endora, Larry & his wife, uncle Arthur, Serena, Gladys Kravitz and Abner, Tabatha and brother Adam, aunt Clara, Maurice, Dr. Bombay, Darin's mother and father).......who else am I forgetting?
Click to expand...
Serena(Liz Montgomery in a wig, credited as 'Pandora Spocks'); Esmerelda(Alice Ghostley) the 'disappearing' housekeeper; Hagatha and various other aunts in the 'council of witches'.
I enjoy both shows, and would give 'Bewitched' huge advantages in cast and writing, especially the earlyseasons. However, Bewitched really went downhill after 4 or 5 years(maybe even the year before Dick York left, since Marion Lorne(Clara) had died.)
'Jeannie' ended just about when it should have.
 
I liked both shows, but I Dream of Jeannie rocked for me. And Barbara Eden was and still is the most sexiest TV actress ever!. I saw where Barbara plans to write an autobio next year,I can't wait to read it.
 
Nothing against Barbara Eden; Larry Hagman is a great straight man,
and I always get a kick out of Bill Daily, but "I Dream Of Jeannie" is
too slapstick-y for me. Also, Barbara is cutesy, whereas Elizabeth
Montgomery had a certain dignity about her and it was pretty obvious
that Samantha was smarter than the mortals around her, whereas I
never gave Jeannie many IQ points. I think , too, that the producers
of "Bewitched" went out of their way to find classy actors like Agnes
Moorehead and Maurice Evans, and Paul Lynde (God love him) is always
a hoot as Uncle Arthur. The only thing wrong with "Bewitched"
is that it should have ended when Dick York left; I never bought into
Dick Sargent as Darrin and I think the scripts became increasingly
childish around that time. But looking at the two shows as complete bodies
of work, the acting and scripts were better on "Bewitched" and it gets my vote
as the better of the two.
 
Bewitched may have lasted longer than it should have.

The mono-tone speaking voice of Jeanie is almost unbearable in 2010.....

YOU WISH ME 2 GET YOU A PILL-O MAST-ER

WHERE DID MY PUP-E GO TONE-E
 
I always gravitated towards Jeannie, frankly, because Barbara Eden in the costume was SMOKIN' HOT!!
When you reached a point where you started to notice girls, she could certainly grab your attention!
Not that Elizabeth Montgomery was not an attractive woman, but Jeannie really did it for me at that age.

Saw her interviewed recently with a short haircut. She and my mom are about the same age, and with
the short hair there is an uncanny resemblance, which nowadays, really creeps me out! ::)
 
bpatrick said:
Elizabeth Montgomery had a certain dignity about her and it was pretty obvious that Samantha was smarter than the mortals around her. . . .
Click to expand...

Plus the fact that after Bewitched ended, Ms. Montgomery embarked on projects completely 180 degrees opposite her persona on the show (notably, the 1974 TV-movie A Case of Rape), so that not only did she exude dignity but also a substance beneath the surface. As for Ms. Eden . . . I can think of three words: Harper Valley P.T.A.
 
When Montgomery did LIZZIE BORDEN which was 360 degrees opposite of Samantha.
I was like.....WOW.....this woman really can act. I think she proved there can be life after
working on a sitcom. So many others cry that they could never find work again.
 
Hey, Bewitched is on now! I hope it's the one where Durwood makes Endora really mad and she turns him into a barnyard animal and she doesn't crop up again until maybe two minutes before the show's over to change him back. That's a classic.
As for Jeannie, don't you just love how Major Nelson never locked his front door so Dr. Bellows could just barge in whenever? Did that guy ever knock?
 
Both shows premiered when I was a little kid, but I have say I was immediately drawn to Bewitched and Jeanie was just I'll watch if I'm home. My parents probably controlled the TV at that hour on Saturday night anyway. Don't forget that was Lawrence Welk night. Bewitched had more depth to it which I appreciated even at that young age. It had an underlining message to it that reflected the times about discrimination and mixed marriages. Besides Dick York was a hoot! Definitely jumped the shark when he left.
 
I would have to say Bewitched, although I enjoyed both. I loved the cast of characters on Bewitched and the slapstick on Jeannie.
 
I liked them both too. But... Bewitched gets the #1 vote. And it's basically for many of the reasons already stated. It's very much agreed that after York left, the show lost most of its originality and creativity. I also disliked the addition of Samantha's son, Adam.
 
bpatrick said:
The only thing wrong with "Bewitched"
is that it should have ended when Dick York left; I never bought into
Dick Sargent as Darrin and I think the scripts became increasingly
childish around that time.
Click to expand...
...Dick Sargent was as fine a dramatic actor as Dick York (their respective performances in Hardcore and Inherit the Wind are both good examples, in the former case one of the few reasons to even watch the otherwise wretched thing in the first place), but York was by far a better comic actor than Sargent, particularly when alongside the brilliant Agnes Moorehead (whose relationship with Sargent was always strained, to say the least) and Elizabeth Montgomery. As for I Dream of Jeannie, I always found the manner of Bill Daily more of a distraction than a contribution to the series (he was better suited to his place on The Bob Newhart Show and his often bizarre answers on Match Game '7x)...
 
Hate to be the party-pooper here, but didn't care for either. This was the era of sillly, over the top sitcoms that had very little to do with reality. Perhaps I was too young to appreciate. I find the sitcoms from the 80's and 90's were much more relatable, and funnier for that reason. However, I know the 60's was a tough decade, and people were looking to escape. I totally get that. ( BTW, both Barbara Eden and Elizibeth Montgomery were quite talented, and Montgomery, who also did some quality movie work, died too young for sure.)
 
Two of my all-time favorite sitcoms, love them both, but I'd give the edge to "Jeannie" just because I had a crush on Barbara Eden :-*
 
I like both shows, but I lean more toward Bewitched. The story lines were better, Samantha was able to blend in much better with society much more than Jeannie did, and the characters all fit in with the program. The inside of the Stephens home also looked nice, and in my opinion wouldn't look too dated by todays standards (in my opinion), whereas Major Anthony Nelson's home is dated by todays standards (though in style in the 60's).

While most people had problems with Dick Sargent taking over the role of Darrin Stephens, but I saw no problem with him taking over the role. Just my opinion, but I thought he fit the role better. It's anyone's guess if the show would have been successful in the beginning, had Dick Sargent been able to take the part in the beginning. Afterall, he was originally chosen to play Darrin Stephens, but had other commitments, that prevented him from taking the part.
 
The one thing I didn't like was Dick Sargent's portrayal of Darrin. Darrin was always mean and crabby the way Sargent portrayed him.

I never felt bad for Sargent's Darrin when Endorra or anyone else cast a spell on him.

I just never found "I Dream of Jeannie" to be funny. There was really nothing wrong with it really, I just don't find it funny.

The one really cool thing is how NICE Larry Hagman was in this role and how EVIL he was as JR. It seems odd for a TV actor to be able to play both sides of the coin so well.
 
That's why it's called "acting." Look at Andy Griffith, the
nice, salt-of-the-earth Andy Taylor and the nice-on-the-
outside-but-really-conniving Lonesone Rhodes in "A Face In
The Crowd." Or to go back, James Cagney could play George
M. Cohan, then turn around a few years later and play the
despicable Cody Jarrett in "White Heat" and be believable in
both.

A note about the change from fantasy sitcoms like "Bewitched"
and "I Dream Of Jeannie" to the more realistic "All In The Family,"
Mary Tyler Moore, etc.: the networks were losing younger viewers
because of the fantasy shows and with the upheavals of the '60s
young people wanted to see shows that more closely reflected the
way life is really lived. You'll notice that "Jeannie" ended in 1970;
"Bewitched" in 1972, at just about the time the sitcom lineup was
starting to include more believable shows like "AITF," MTM, "M*A*S*H,"
"Sanford And Son," Bob Newhart, and "Maude."

But that's not to say that fantasy went away; ever hear of a show
called "Charmed"?
 
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