The Lady In The Bottle

"The Lady in the Bottle" is the pilot for "I Dream of Jeannie" that was picked by NBC. The episode first aired on September 18, 1965. It wouldn't air again until the fall of 1970, when the series went into syndication.

Plot

Capt. Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman) is on a rocket, on a space mission. During re-entry, things go awry and he has to make an emergency landing on a desert island. There, he finds an old bottle that seems to move. When he opens it, a 2000 year old beautiful girl named Jeannie (Barbara Eden) appears, speaking in Persian. Tony, shocked, wishes he could understand what she said, so she starts talking in English. She says she is a genie and he is her new master. He can wish whatever he wants and she will make that wish come true. Tony tests her, wishing a helicopter would appear to rescue him from the island. When it appears, he just thanks her and goes home; but he doesn't see that the girl, inside her bottle, roll into his bag and go back to Cocoa Beach, Florida with him.

Production

The episode was shot from December 2, 1964 to December 4, 1964 in black-and-white film (some reruns of the episode air digitally colorized). NBC bought the pilot to make a full-length series.