Thursday, July 25, 2013

Tooniversary: Jeannie (1973)

I Dream of Jeannie was thriving in syndication when someone at Hanna-Barbera decided to remold Jeannie into a teenage genie. Sad to say, the result was less than magical.

Jeannie lasted one season, and as memory serves, it didn't air initially in my market, as the local CBS affiliate opted to black out the show in favor of reruns of Popeye or Mr. Magoo, both of whom would eventually get series on CBS, or even some Looney Tunes that weren't airing on ABC (which was home to Bugs Bunny at the time).

Here's the intro:



Babu would later resurface, sans Jeannie and her master, Corey (Mark Hamill), four years later, on Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics. Joe Besser's final contribution to Hanna-Barbera came a year after that, as the voice of Scare Bear, a member of Yogi Bear's Galaxy Goof-Ups, on Yogi's Space Race.

I think I had seen this in serial format on Fred Flintstone & Friends. It was the only way I'd get to see this show, by the way. Also, the title song is sung by Mark Hamill in character as Corey. Golden throat territory, methinks.

Rating: B.

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