"I Dream of Jeannie" (1965-1970)

Major Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) is a military man who works in the space program in Florida. One day, he's sent on an exercise, which is part of his training as an astronaut. He comes across a bottle, and is surprised when a 2,000 year old genie named Jeannie (Barbara Eden) pops out. Tony thinks he's hallucinating. When he returns home, he's surprised to find that Jeannie has folllowed him, and life is not the same for Tony after that.

Tony hides Jeannie for awhile, but eventually his best friend, Major Roger Healey (Bill Daily) is let in on the secret. The both of them find themselves helped and hindered by Jeannie during various adventures. Roger sometimes caused problems because he thought it wouldn't be a problem to use Jeannie's powers in various situations. They also have to explain some of the more unusual occurences to their superiors, Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke), General Peterson (Barton MacLane) and General Schaeffer (Vinton Hayworth). Bellows was particularly suspicious of Tony, and always kept his eye on him.

Jeannie grew on Tony after awhile, and a mutual attraction grew. During the last season of the show, the genie and the military man were married.

Jeannie was from the Middle East, but was played by a perky, blond-haired actress, who today still looks like she did when she appeared on this show. The censors kept Ms. Eden's belly button covered because even though her costume would normally show it, they felt it was not proper for network TV -- remember, this was the 1960s.

When I see the reruns, and Larry Hagman's character makes up some lie to throw Dr. Bellows off the track, I can't help but think of the tricks and cons the character he portrayed on "Dallas" (1978-1991), the nefarious J.R. Ewing, used to pull.

Bill Daily appeared as Howard Borden, a neighbor of Bob and Emily's on "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-1978).