Rebooting "I Dream of Jeannie"

[Danja]

I think the big thing would be to cast a Middle Eastern actress as Jennie this time

Mindy Kaling?

and I doubt you could get away with her calling Tony master all the time.

Officially, that's what he was to her (Jeannie was his genie, and he was her Master).

NBC tried to turn Jeannie into Lucy Ricardo (Every week, viewers tuned in to see what banana peel Jeannie would step on next. It made for painful viewing. )

It got SO bad, Sidney Sheldon walked away from the show (the character that was onscreen was no longer the character that HE created).

Sidney Sheldon wrote under three pseudonyms (Allan Devon, Mark Rowane, and Christopher Golato).

Humor that might've worked in the 1960's will not necessarily work today.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Mindy Kaling?

Not of Middle Eastern ancestry.

 

[Danja]

Not of Middle Eastern ancestry.

Like it or not, a blonde Jeannie is now an icon.

Audiences will not tolerate toying with icons (See Will Smith's disastrous Wild Wild West remake and the uproar over casting African-American actress Halle Bailey as Ariel in Disney's live-action Little Mermaid remake. This is to say nothing of casting Latina Rachel Ziegler as Snow White.)

The uproar over TLM struck me as ludicrous (Mermaids are mythical beings. Why CAN'T a mermaid be African-American?)

 

[Nerys Myk]

Like it or not, a blonde Jeannie is now an icon.

Audiences will not tolerate toying with icons (See Will Smith's disastrous Wild Wild West remake and the uproar over casting African-American actress Halle Bailey as Ariel in Disney's live-action Little Mermaid remake.)

The uproar over TLM struck me as ludicrous (Mermaids are mythical beings. Why CAN'T a mermaid be African-American?)

I'm not sure casting a brunette will be seen as that extreme.
Then again, people lost their shit over a blond actor being cast as James Bond.

 

[JD]

In this case though, it's correct a bad casting choice in the past. I have a feeling it would probably be pretty evenly split people wanting authenticity to the original show, and people wanting cultural authenticity. Personally, I always vote cultural authenticity, and of the two groups they'd be the ones who could cause a lot more trouble for the producer.

Mindy Kaling?



Officially, that's what he was to her (Jeannie was his genie, and he was her Master).

Yeah, but having a woman constantly calling a man Master is going to look good in 2025 or whenever it would come out. And context doesn't matter, people are gonna be pissed no matter what it is.

 

[Gaith]

Inevitable mention of the 1994-97 Weird Science TV show.

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[Ovation]

Yeah, but having a woman constantly calling a man Master is going to look good in 2025 or whenever it would come out. And context doesn't matter, people are gonna be pissed no matter what it is.

Well, they could simply have Jeannie say it once, have Tony explain why it isn’t suitable in the 21st century and be done with it. Or have Jeannie say it in a clearly sarcastic tone, thus implying it was never appropriate, and be done with it. Or skip it entirely. Any of these options would be fine.

 

[Guy Gardener]

also how Jeannie is in love with Tony and he's trying to be a gentleman about it, since they aren't married, and the whole power dynamics thing.

Astronauts are public heroes celebrated in the newspaper for being perfectly wholesome.

If an Astronaut was keeping a slave in a jar, he would lose his Job, because it's a lapse in ethics to be caught %%cking around, or giving the optics of being less than wholesome.

If however, their situation is legally considered actual slavery, and not some weird fetish, Tony could wind up in Jail for 20 years.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Not to shy away from the whole "master" debate. But the concept of what an astronaut does has changed since the 1960s. They aren't one man capsules splashing down in the middle of oceans/deserts anymore.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Well, they could simply have Jeannie say it once, have Tony explain why it isn’t suitable in the 21st century and be done with it. Or have Jeannie say it in a clearly sarcastic tone, thus implying it was never appropriate, and be done with it. Or skip it entirely. Any of these options would be fine.

But it's fine when a Jedi does it?

 

[Nerys Myk]

But it's fine when a Jedi does it?

Is Tony a space wizard?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Not to shy away from the whole "master" debate. But the concept of what an astronaut does has changed since the 1960s. They aren't one man capsules splashing down in the middle of oceans/deserts anymore.

I was replying to "Tony being a Gentleman" from one page back, which is 60s specific.

On the show, they pissed off the brass at one point and got reassigned to an arctic weather station.

Then of course, there's Tony's mother.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Is Tony a space wizard?

21st century specific of the audience.

How a 21st century audience responds to Ahsoka Tano calling Anikan "Master" but they would freak out if it happened in a contemporary setting.

Although 50 shades of gray made a lot of money.

But that movie was all about a killjoy who made up her own rules to a game everyone else was playing happily.

 

[Nerys Myk]

21st century specific of the audience.

How a 21st century audience responds to Ahsoka Tano calling Anikan "Master" but they would freak out if it happened in a contemporary setting.

Context is king.

 

[Ovation]

Context is king.

Exactly (and is among the first things I write on the board in every history class I teach).

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Cast Eric Roberts to play Tony. And make Jeannie a Doctor Who fan.

 

[JD]

Well, they could simply have Jeannie say it once, have Tony explain why it isn’t suitable in the 21st century and be done with it. Or have Jeannie say it in a clearly sarcastic tone, thus implying it was never appropriate, and be done with it. Or skip it entirely. Any of these options would be fine.

Yeah, that occured to me, and probably would be the best way to handle it. That way they can recognize and acknowledge it was a big part of the original series, but also move past it at the same time.

21st century specific of the audience.

How a 21st century audience responds to Ahsoka Tano calling Anikan "Master" but they would freak out if it happened in a contemporary setting.

Although 50 shades of gray made a lot of money.

But that movie was all about a killjoy who made up her own rules to a game everyone else was playing happily.

The jedi/padawan relationship is a master/student inspired by Asian martial arts, that's very different from a woman calling the guy who more or less owns her master.

 

[Danja]

Yeah, but having a woman constantly calling a man Master is going to look good in 2025 or whenever it would come out. And context doesn't matter, people are gonna be pissed no matter what it is.

I would set the reboot after the two TV movies (I Dream of Jeannie: Fifteen Years Later and I Still Dream of Jeannie).

In the two movies, Jeannie and Tony have a teenage son, Tony Jr. I'm sure they're going to be MUCH more circumspect around HIM.

There's an entire era after the movies that has yet to be explored.

 

[FreezeC77]

Not to shy away from the whole "master" debate. But the concept of what an astronaut does has changed since the 1960s. They aren't one man capsules splashing down in the middle of oceans/deserts anymore.

Farscape was still doing it in 1999. Could do something along that lines. An experimental smaller craft. Possibly something taken to altitude attached to a plane and then launching for a fly to orbit thing.

 

[Danja]

Well, they could simply have Jeannie say it once, have Tony explain why it isn’t suitable in the 21st century and be done with it. Or have Jeannie say it in a clearly sarcastic tone, thus implying it was never appropriate, and be done with it. Or skip it entirely. Any of these options would be fine.

Jeannie said it sarcastically in the 60's series.

In one episode, Jeannie is solving a crossword puzzle:

Jeannie: "Six letter word for Rat ... M-A-S-T-E-R."

Jeannie is not brainwashed. She has some degree of agency (Tony freed her from bondage in the pilot. She stays with him because she loves him.)

She walked away from Tony and went back to the Middle East in "Guess Who's Going to Be a Bride?" She walked away from him AGAIN in I Dream of Jeannie: Fifteen Years Later.

Spoiler

They get back together in I Still Dream of Jeannie.

Jeannie and Tony often switched places in TOS (Jeannie has shrunk him, blinded him, turned him into a dog, sent him to the North Pole, etc. She tortured him! )