Doll-A-Day 2019 #82:Trendmasters I Dream of Jeannie

  Yesterday we saw the Barbie Pink Label I Dream of Jeannie doll from 2000. Today we're looking at another Jeannie.

This doll was made by Trendmasters in 1996.

You'll have to excuse the dust, but she has been sitting high atop a bookshelf on our landing for over 20 years.

 I never opened her because I like her displayed in her box. Her box has nice graphics, and those great onion domes.

Trendmasters made several Jeannie fashion doll sized dolls around this time, as well as a few miniature Polly Pocket sized bottle locket play sets. You can see a commercial for the playsets HERE. This doll is supposed to represent Jeannie from the first episode of the series.

But in the first episode Jeannie had a different outfit. Instead of the two piece  top with the velvet vest, she had a one piece velvet top.

Other dolls in the Trendmasters Jeannie line included Jeannie in a groovy 60's dress from an episode called, "The Mod Party",Jeannie in her wedding dress, from the episode,"How to Marry an Astronaut", and even Jeannie's sister, in her green outfit, from the episode, "My Sister the Homewrecker".
  Yesterday we talked about how accurate the outfit is on the Barbie Jeannie. This one is very good too, except for the giant gold necklace they put on Jeannie.

She has pink high heels.

It's hard to see in the box,but she does have the little hat,and her hair is braided below it.
 

   Like yesterday's girl, this Jeannie also comes with her bottle. (I forgot to photograph yesterday's girl's bottle, so I have gone back and added a picture.) In this case,it's actually a hair brush!

She also comes with a small bottle on a necklace.

It looks more like a bottle of shampoo than Jeannie's bottle,so I don't know why they did that.

   The doll herself has a bit of a budget doll look about her. Her face paint isn't very attractive.

A bit of trivia: Jeannie's bottle was made from a specially painted Jim Beam decanter! it was made from a 1964 Jim Beam Christmas edition bourbon decanter which belonged to director Gene Nelson.

  Jim Beam made a few similarly styled coloured glass decanters with handles. But the Jeannie bottle has no handle.Since the first season of the show was filmed in black and white, the first bottle used,which came smokey gray coloured, was painted only with gold paint. When the show went to colour in the second season, the new bottles were painted with pink and purple. There were at least 12 bottles used during the run of the show, although some were broken in use. Barbara Eden, who played Jeannie owns the last bottle, used in filming the last scene on the final day of shooting in 1970.

  Remco made a couple of different size Jeannie dolls in 1966,neither of which were fashion doll sized. They must have retained the rights for a while, because they made more Jeannie dolls,fashions, and playsets in 1977. That was even after the demise of the animated "I Dream of Jeannie" series,which ran from 1973 to 1975. They even made a great 'Dream Bottle Playset',which included a living space and furniture for the 6 inch doll.
  In 2018 Target offered a Mego I Dream of Jeannie set that included 8 inch Jeannie and Major Nelson dolls. It seems to still be available from Target online. The dolls are pretty ugly and look nothing like Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, (who played Major Nelson in the "I Dream of Jeannie series.). Madame Alexander made a Jeannie and Major Nelson set in 1996,using their standard 8 inch dolls. There has never been a fashion doll sized Major Nelson doll, but some people have turned the12 inch  2013 Figures Toy Co. J.R. Ewing doll into a Major Nelson. There are two versions of the character, wearing different suits, but both made in the likeness of Larry Hagman.
  Tomorrow we'll look at another doll. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #81: I Dream of Jeannie

  Yay! Ivy's home! To celebrate,today's doll is one from Ivy's collection. She may be familiar to you.

It's Barbie as Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie", the TV series, which ran for five seasons, from 1965 to 1970.

Sorry she's a little dusty. She's been in Ivy's room all these years.

  There were Jeannie dolls made during the original run of the show,and after. There was a Barbie as Jeannie doll made in 2000 too. That doll had a modern Barbie face and folded arms. This doll is part of the 2010 Barbie Pink Label line. There were a couple of other dolls in this series,including Elly May from the Beverly Hillbillies. Ivy has that one too,but she couldn't find her.

 

The dolls use the vintage style Barbie head and body.

  There are two major controversies surrounding the "I Dream of Jeannie" TV series. One is the question of sexism. Jeannie was a provocatively dressed female 'slave' to a male 'master',there to fulfill his every wish and answer his every whim. The other controversy is which was better,"I Dream of Jeannie" or "Bewitched". I can't discuss the one question without bringing up the other. As far as the first one is concerned,here are my responses.
1. Ok. She's wearing a harem outfit. What are genies supposed to wear?
2. Jeannie was supposed to be limited in what she was able to do by being a genie in the first place. She was supposed to do whatever her master told her to do. But Jeannie rarely did what Major Nelson wanted. Instead, she found loopholes,or outright disobeyed,and did pretty much whatever she pleased. She often gave Major Nelson what she thought was better for him, rather than what he wanted. Kind of the way Ken shops for me. In short, Jeannie was supposed to be a 'slave', but she still was less under Major Nelson's thumb than Samantha was under her husband Darrin's thumb on "Bewitched". (Even if she did occasionally get banished to her bottle.She was a genie, after all.)
  And that brings me to the other question: which was better? Let me preface my answer by saying I don't like Darrin...especially the second one. The first one was basically a hapless loser at his wit's end most of the time. The second one was just obnoxious for no reason. But both of them demanded that Samantha not use her powers at all. She was just supposed to totally suppress her instincts,and give up everything that made her who she was. He was rude to her family, especially her mother,who might not have hated him so much had he not treated them both the way he did. And Samantha was willing to give up who and what she was, just for Darrin. Darrin threw constant fits about not wanting any help from Samantha's powers, and yet she was constantly saving his job by being better at it than he was. Major Nelson was happy to enjoy the perks of having a genie once in a while. He just didn't want everything done for him, and he wanted to be an astronaut,something he needed no help at. (Unlike Darrin, who hardly ever managed to come up with a winning advertising slogan on his own.)
  Other than the Darrin problem,almost everybody on "Bewitched" was unlikable. Darrin was a jerk to Samantha's family,and most of them were happy to screw his life up whenever they could. Larry, Darrin's boss was a bigger,crabbier,bossier pain in the butt than Dr. Bellows ever was.

 

 Jeannie was played by Barbara Eden.

  The outfit is fairly accurate. It has the little tassels on the sleeves and the...bodice?

 

It's missing the lower tassel though.

The hat is pretty good. It's hard to see, but her hair is braided below that hat.

She's even wearing Jeannie's pearl necklace.

The bottom half has the cutouts on the hips.

  This was the second version of the outfit on the show. the first had a more conservative top.

That one hair!

She was originally wearing gold shoes. (Inaccurate, Jeannie's shoes were pink with metal trim.)Ivy couldn't find those either. In fact, when she brought the doll and the outfit to me, the outfit was on her brunette Solo in the Spotlight reproduction,because she had been pretending at some point that Solo  was Jeannie's evil sister, who was portrayed by Barbara Eden in a dark wig.

    She came with her bottle.

The lid,tiny as it is, even comes off!

Tomorrow we'll see another version of Jeannie.