"Bewitched" has Gladys Kravitz, "Mr. Ed" has the Addisons; "I Dream of Jeannie" has Dr. Bellows. Snooping neighbors and suspicious shrinks aren't that far apart (they should both get a life!). Would Major Nelson's astronaut career take a nosedive if Dr. Bellows were to certify that he's nuts? Sure, but Dr. Bellows is crazy, too. Luckily, Jeannie has a ridiculous male to foil.
Despite her pink chiffon harem pants, red bra, bolero jacket, chiffon-draped headpiece, and giggly, childlike ways, Jeannie is a powerful female figure in TV Land. When Jeannie burst on the scene in 1965-70, women were redefining their roles both at home and in the workplace. Though Jeannie could hardly be seen as a role model, her ambivalence about male domination reflected some female social attitudes of the time.
Jeannie is in love with Tony, her astronaut "sponsor." It was love at first smoke, but her general demeanor, ever since she first materialized from that bottle on the beach, is one of high-energy exuberance. Jeannie has more intuition than all the brass at NASA. She is also stubborn and mischievous. If Tony doesn't want her to do something, she says "OK, Master" and goes ahead and does it anyway. And she'll do anything to get her way: white-lying, pleading, provoking, and particularly, performing magic.
Jeannie's sweeping powers are the real source of tension between her and Tony. The courtship of Jeannie's master ends when they marry (originally on December 2, 1969). The magic continues, though, when the animators get hold of Jeannie for Saturday morning cartoons (originally in September of 1973).
Roger Healey was promoted from Captain to Major along with his best friend and fellow astronaut Tony Nelson. But Roger is Army, not Air Force. That is why his uniform is olive.
Roger is the only other person besides Tony to learn that Jeannie is a genie. He envies Tony for being her master. Roger would like a genie of his own so that he could live a life of leisure, with a mansion and a fleet of Rolls Royces and beautiful women at his beck and call. Unfortunately, he must live the life of a would-be playboy who usually has trouble getting a date (although he does go on one date with a woman who resembles Farrah Fawcett).
Roger does not possess the swiftest of minds. Tony has to stomp on his foot a lot to get him to stop saying incriminating things that could get both of them court-martialled if anybody bothered to listen.
Despite his envy, and his less-than-brilliant brain, Roger is a tireless pal. He spends a lot of his time trying to help Tony deal with the bizarre predicaments that Jeannie inevitably creates when she tries to please her master.
Anthony Nelson is an astronaut. He discovers a genie named Jeannie on a deserted island when he crash-lands during an aborted space mission.
Jeannie constantly gets Tony Nelson in trouble, forcing him into embarrassing situations where he has to explain and rationalize her supernatural behavior to his superior officers. But he loves her too much to get rid of her, though he always sleeps alone in his bedroom while Jeannie retires to her bottle.
Thanks to the powerful magic of the genie who calls him "Master," Nelson could be the wealthiest man in the world, live a life of leisure, or rule a kingdom. But he would rather earn a meager wage, work long hours, and dress in a polyester uniform for the thrill of being an astronaut in the glory days of the U.S. manned space program. This is something that never ceases to flabbergast Jeannie-not to mention Tony's best friend Roger, who would definitely put a genie to good use if he had one.
Tony Nelson tries to explain to Roger that magic inevitably leads to trouble, not happiness. Wisdom like this occasionally makes Nelson seem like an uptight square-but it nevertheless adds amusing conflict and torment to what would otherwise be a humdrum, bureaucratic existence for him.