I thought genies only granted 3 wishes - I Dream of Jeannie (1965) Discussion

[–] Diamond97 8 years ago

Maybe it's different for some genies.

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[–] CajunGenie 8 years ago

When Tony found her, he assumed he would get three wishes, and his were: that Jeannie could speak English, for a helicopter, and to set her free. Once she was free, she was no longer bound to her master, but stayed with him willingly. I don't know if that makes a difference concerning number of wishes, because what would be the point of keeping a genie around once the third wish was fulfilled? In fact, the number of wishes is only mentioned once, in the pilot, and never again, so I guess Sidney Sheldon decided not to focus on that. In "Russian Roulette", when the Russian cosmonaut becomes Jeannie's new master, Jeannie tells her she can grant any wish, and does not mention a specific number.

Jeannie's main desire was to please her master, so even though he rarely wished for anything, she still conjured up anything he might have possibly desired without him asking for it, just because she thought it might please him.

That would have made for an interesting episode - if Jeannie had reached her limit and ran out of wish-granting power? :)

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[–] liscarkat (18596) 5 years ago

"what would be the point of keeping a genie around once the third wish was fulfilled?"

For a straight dude, if the genie looked like Barbara Eden, that would be sufficient point.

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[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

One thing needs to be fulfilled on a daily basis

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[–] kentauros 8 years ago

That's a modern misnomer, thanks mostly to Disney, though there must have been stories well before Disney's Aladdin that created that "rule."

Look at both the original story of Aladdin as well as the fantasy book "The Brass Bottle" (c. 1898 by F. Anstey.) In both cases, the djinni is the slave of their master for life, however long the master lives. They also grant endless wishes. Maybe storytellers who came after thought that was too much power in the hands of one person, and so they limited it to three (or less) wishes. I'd guess they did that for better plot effect.

Even so, "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" did quite well in telling a great story when the djinni in it had no limits on wishes. Most limits were related to hierarchy within the djinn-culture (the Djinni of the Ring was a lesser djinni than the Djinni of the Lamp, and could not use his magic to counter the magic of the lamp-djinni.)

The only other limit that comes to mind is that the mythical bird, the Roc, was sacred to the djinn, and was a major plot-point in the original story. I won't spoil it for you if you've never read it. Have a look on Project Gutenberg for a copy 
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?sort_order=downloads&query=Aladdin&go=Go

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[–] Fugitive_Bill 8 years ago

@CajunGenie
"When Tony found her, he assumed he would get three wishes, and his were: that Jeannie could speak English, for a helicopter, and to set her free".

I don't think 'to set her free' was a wish.
So in that case (if 3 was the limit), the third wish could have been,
'I wish for a million more wishes' or wish for a million or eternal wishes?!

-B!LL!

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[–] deem_bastille 8 years ago

but even to set her free WAS a wish, she was set free and then decided to do all of the wishes after that by her own free will. most weren't even wishes, just thinking out loud sometimes.

I know it is a movie and a DISNEY MOVIE at that but I really like how ALADDIN broke it down. can't make people fall in love, can't bring people back from the dead, and can't wish for more wishes.

Oh God. Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more.

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[–] CajunGenie 8 years ago

You both are right - Tony didn't actually say '"I wish" you to be free'. But there must have been some kind of power in the words he DID say, though, that maybe count as a wish?

I remember in "Aladdin", he asks the genie what would he wish for? The genie says "freedom", but the only way he could get out is if his master wishes him out. When the moment comes, Aladdin does say "I wish for your freedom", but when the genie does a double-take, all Aladdin says next is, "Genie, you're free", which sets off the lamp's power and the cuffs instantly come off, and he is no longer a prisoner of the lamp. I think that was his third wish, too!

Is that a standard in genie folklore - that freeing a genie counts as a wish? And maybe neither Aladdin nor Tony had to say "I wish" because they were the master? Or is it the intention behind the words?

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[–] kentauros 8 years ago

In the original story, Aladdin didn't free the djinni, either the one of the lamp or the one of the ring (the ring-djinni was lent to him by the sorcerer.) They were slaves of their containers seemingly forever.

And since people would rather skim a wiki than read an old story, here's a wiki-entry for the original story :)
http://arabiannights.wikia.com/wiki/Aladdin_and_the_Wonderful_Lamp

Now then, as for Tony and Jeannie, technically he makes four wishes before he sets her free. First, he wishes for a P2V, which is a Navy patrol plane. When she gives him a falcon instead, that wish gets taken back. Then he wishes for a ship, and gets one from 2,000 ago. That one gets taken back. His third wish is for her to speak English, and it works. His fourth wish is then for the helicopter.

I don't consider the two he made when she couldn't understand him as wishes not made. They count, and in any other story where the djinni is the trickster, his wish for her to speak English would have been it and he wouldn't be allowed to make any others. She also would have gone back inside of the bottle (whether she wanted to or not) and he'd still be stuck on the island. Plus, as with those stories where it's three wishes only, the djinni's container (lamp, bottle, jug, ring) all disappear, never to be seen again.

As IDoJ is not that kind of story, there's no reason to assume it's three wishes only. Follow the original story of Aladdin instead, especially as we later learn that whoever commands the bottle commands Jeannie :)

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[–] tinkerbell_jonna 8 years ago

Who says?

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[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Was Jeannie speaking Farsi in the first episode? I vaguely remember her not talking then having to learn English in the early eps.

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[–] Gryneos (39) 5 years ago

Yes. According to this website, there was an Iranian influence back then:
http://www.payvand.com/news/08/aug/1287.html

Persian Anachronisms in Dialogue:

Jeannie has entire dialogues in Persian/Farsi in this very first Episode that clearly suggests that Production was familiar with the Iranian language (distinct from Arabic most commonly associated to the Middle East characters in Hollywood movies)

"Sheklat mesleh Seemayekh Khalif Hast" aka "You look like the Caliph"

"Seemorg" aka "Phoenix"

"Sardar aghar Khatereh Tora Azar Dadam, mano bebakhsh" aka "Master if I made you angry please forgive me"

"Yah Shaheh Paryan" aka "Oh my goodness (not sure about translation)"

"Kashti" aka "Boat"

"Az Ma Khoshnood Ast? ..." aka "Are you angry?"

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[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

That is so interesting! Thanks for finding that and sharing here

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[–] duckofprey (1557) 6 years ago

That belief was fiction. The show was reality.

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[–] strntz (12473) 6 years ago

I thought genies only granted 3 wishes

That's them union genies...

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[–] Moonglum9 (11311) 6 years ago

lol

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[–] AmeriGirl26 (14495) 6 years ago

Jeannie was unusual among her kind. She had no limits on how many wishes she could grant, and she could choose to grant them or not. Heck, she had some of her OWN wishes she wanted to have granted!

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