The Emancipation of Jeannie

Why I dream of Jeannie.

When I was a young girl, our TV viewing was limited to TV Ontario and CBC, but for a brief period a local TV shop offered to give you some TV channels from the US!  This was sheer genius and everyone subscribed. No one truly understood what was actually going on then.  Now, we would understand the practice to be "pirating" television from large US conglomerates.  As I understand it, he recorded tv shows on a very primitive VCR (this was the 70s), or reel-to-reel system, and rebroadcast the signal (or recorded shows) to us in chunks.  You didn't know what would be "on" or when. But you could cruise the channels (with a dial, no remote, nothing past channel 13) and you'd have a pleasant surprise when the USA network, or WTBS would appear.  This is how I came to know of "I Dream of Jeannie" and Barbara Eden.  For years, I had this idea that I might find a genie in a bottle on a beach one day too.

But, I learned something from Jeannie.

From Crackle: The Americanization of Jeannie

I learned that it was acceptable to live with a man and not be married to him first.  It was okay to go hide in your bottle (*insert tongue-in-cheek reference here*) and pout.  It was fine to cause mischief and play "dumb".  It was also okay to not do the dishes, because you could blink them clean later.  It all worked out in the end, even when Roger Healey tried to sway you over to his bachelor pad with his ascot.  


I loved Jeannie.  She was iconic and revered to me.  Some called her a sex object!  She caused men to have nasty thoughts about her and little girls to bare their midriffs later in their teen years.  But wait!  Jeannie found independence in a time when women were expected to stay home and cook and clean.  It was Jeannie who paved the way.  For me, anyhow.  She had a naivety, surely.  But she was 1000's of years old and had come from the middle east (with a robot accent) and popped out of the bottle after being trapped by the Blue Gin.  


Yes, Jeannie was a swell gal.  She shaped me in some ways.  Sad, huh?  Shaped by a Sidney Sheldon character.  Oh well, I like to think that the TV pirate of my home town also shaped a lot of the kids growing up in the 70s and 80s.  Without that pirated tv, we would have no clue about American culture. We'd still believe that the man on the Polka Dot Door has still never met the Polkaroo!  Or that Rod Coneybeare, The Friendly Giant had a chicken living in a book bag. Or Mr. Dressup let stray puppets live in the treehouse in his backyard and go to the car wash in a BMW (2:00 mark).  


{Please click through for your own benefit.  I had a tear form in my eye for The Friendly Giant and Mr. Dressup.  Oh, and couple giggles when Rusty popped out of the book bag and Casey paid for the carwash with a $2 bill!}


So, thank you Mr. Nutter for going to jail and risking it all for the sake of some entertainment in a sleepy little northern Canadian town.


signed, the willow