I used to watch I Dream of Jeannie on TV Land as a little kid back in the 90s and never thought of it as anything other than an innocent, quaint relic of the past. I recently watched an episode of it on Youtube out of nostalgia and was struck by how raunchy it was.
“What’s for dinner?”
“Well that’s up to you, baby. What’s the best place in town for a nice, *thick *Chateaubriand with Bernaise sauce?”
Whoa. In other words, what’s the best place in town for a nice, thick cock covered in semen. (Of course, that’s not actually Jeannie, it’s her slutty sister.) But it’s not just that, it’s the whole show. There’s also Jeannie’s provocative outfits, and the whole fact that she is a slave to Major Nelson and presumably has to do anything he wants, including sexual acts - yet, from my recollection anyway, Nelson never actually displays any sexual interest in Jeannie and in fact comes off as either homosexual or asexual.
Was every episode of that show this raunchy? If so, it all went completely over my head when I was a kid.
Sorry, all I saw was a really bored genie desperate to get out of her bottle and have a fun night on the town. The handsome Major being a bonus, of course.
Either that or I am a lot more naive than I think I am.
I wouldn’t be so sure that the writers weren’t trying to sneak some subtle entendre in there, but the show was mostly a tease. It was definitely playing to male fantasy of an adoring sex slave, but it never had the courage to pay that fantasy off. Major Nelson always just seemed like an uptight dick.
With both this show and Bewitched, I always found it irritating that the husbands were these sexist pigs who had these awesomely powerful women but only wanted them to stay home and be domestic servants and were always trying to forbid them to use their powers. There has to be some kind of cultural subtext in there somewhere.
If I had a wife with Samantha Stevens’ abilities, I’d never stop begging her to use it. If I had Jeannie in a bottle, I’d never stop begging her…
OK, did you people actually watch the scene I’m talking about? I don’t need to “get out more” nor am I some kind of pervert who is constantly reading sexual innuendos into things - on the contrary, I hate it when people do that. I hate overanalysis of stuff like TV shows and movies in general.
I really think that what she’s saying there is supposed to be a sexual reference. How could it not be? If you watched the actual video you would see how she’s all over him, throwing her body onto his, caressing him and speaking in a breathy, seductive voice as she asks about the “Chateaubriand and bernaise sauce.”
Given that food is constantly used as a stand-in for genitalia or sex acts (ever listened to old-time blues?) I can’t help but think that it’s supposed to be sexual here.
Oh come on, people! That stuff was bigtime on these shows.
Just look at Petticoat Junction.
Three young, beautiful single women with no visible means of support, living at “The Shady Rest” hotel at a train stop. Swimming naked in the water tank with their clothing hanging over the side for advertisement. A Madam and a sleazy “Uncle Joe” (yeah, sure) taking care of them.
Just what the hell do you think that show was about?
No doubt “I Dream of Jeannie” did have a lot of sexual innuendo, but in that scene it sure looks like she wanted to go out for dinner. I watched the video. Good Jeannie boasts that her master takes her out often and Bad Jeannie complains that hers never does. Then Bad Jeannie tells Major Nelson that she wants to go somewhere where they can get a good steak. Cut to a restaurant, where, to the stunned amazement of the wait staff and patrons, she eats Tony’s semen-covered cock.
On the other hand, maybe she takes him to a restaurant because when she says Chateaubriand, she means Chateubriand.
ETA: But even as a child I thought the very name “Petticoat Junction” was a pretty obvious innuendo.
I really think it precludes any innuendo on Bad Jeannie’s part, unless she’s seriously confused about what a restaurant is.
Now if you want to argue that the writers intended people to think of a semen-covered cock, go ahead, because I don’t think anyone can prove they didn’t, but the scene works perfectly well without it.
I always thought these shows grew out of the nudie cuties of the 50s and early 60s.
In the Russ Meyer movie “The Immoral Mr. Teas,” for example, the title character is surrounded by hot chicks and yet he never gets any sex. The formula for these movies was that women were always sunbathing or skinny dipping and the guy was always ineffectual, hiding in the bushes, being a peeping tom.
In these 60s sitcoms, the guys were clueless. It’s like they had never heard of sex and didn’t know what to do with these women. That was part of the attraction of the shows—it made them safe to watch.
Sure, there was banter with double meaning but it never ever went past that.
At first I thought you were nuts, but then I thought about some more, and decided well… you were still nuts, but then I pondered just bit further and decided you are spot on. She wants a big, spermy astronaut dong. And you’re right about Major Nelson, I think he wants a big spermy dong too.
Boy, are you guys off the mark. I saw the show as a stark drama of Ibsenian tragedy. Jeannie is a hot young sub who is obsessed with being topped by Major Nelson, a clueless vanilla dork who can’t see her infatuation enough to take advantage of it, much less respond to it in kind. When Jeannie marries Major Nelson in the final season, and utters the searingly ironic words, “I do,” it was perhaps the most searingly tragic moment on television, as Jeannie’s obsessive infatuation with Major Nelson leads her to a life of suburban whitebread dullness. If there had been another season, it could only have ended with Jeannie’s suicide, and Major Nelson becoming a reclusive farmer who broods a lot.
And you know that episode of Gilligan’s Island? Where the Skipper hits Gilligan with his hat? It’s a metaphor, you see, representing the Skipper’s giant wang and hinting how at night it was slapping up against Gilligan’s face.
