Some are always citing Bewitched as being "original."
Yet it copied:
My Favorite Martian. A Martian with powers (Samantha) and his mortal friend (Darren) with a nosey landlady (Mrs. Kravitz). Even the animated opening is similar.
The Patty Duke Show. Twin Cousins (Samantha and Serena).
The Dick Van Dyke Show. A married couple.
I Love Lucy. A married couple and a child.
And the movies Bell, Book, and Candle and I Married a Witch.
Well all shows are knock offs of other shows. In the 60's most shows had "twin" characters. It was extremely common. I don't really think that The Dick Van Dyke show is at all similar to Bewitched though. Bewitched did copy I Love Lucy several times though in several different ways.
I mean The Flinstones is a knock off of The Honeymooners
The Munsters is a knock off of The Addams Family
Dynasty is a knock off of Dallas
and so on...
The only difference from now and then though is that they don't call it a knock off they call it a "franchise", a "reimagining, or a "cross between" where as back then they just sort of pretended that it was a completely different concept. NBC greenlighted Jeannie because they wanted to copy the success of Bewitched, there is no denying it. Honestly I love both shows but they have similar plots pretty blonde girl being told by a man not to use magic even though they use it anyways and both have crazy extended families.
Barbara Stanwyck and I used to ride the trolley! ~Andrea Zuckerman
Honestly I love both shows but they have similar plots pretty blonde girl being told by a man not to use magic even though they use it anyways and both have crazy extended families
Actually, Nelson went back and forth. Sometimes he wanted her to use her powers, other times it was "No, Jeannie, I can do it myself", or "No.'Whenever you try to help me, something always goes wrong", and of course he never wanted Roger to use her.
shareHowever, Tony never strictly forbid Jeannie from using her magic. That was a major plot point in Bewitched, and Samantha obeyed, when it was convenient. Jeannie never obeyed. Plus, she had to use her powers just to get in and out of her bottle every day, so there's no way she could be forbidden to use her magic. Where else would she have slept?
Yes, Tony was an idiot in trying to be self-sufficient. And yet, he didn't seem to mind Jeannie keeping his house in working order by magic (or getting his meals for free.) It was the additional things she did to improve his life or help him (or protect him) that he objected to.
The Munsters is a knock off of The Addams Family
People pitch to multiple networks. Back then there were three networks either the creators of The Munsters or the creators of The Addam's Family pitched to one network before going to the other or there was a leak at one of the networks.
ABC and NBC constantly were "stealing" from one another especially back then.
Barbara Stanwyck and I used to ride the trolley! ~Andrea Zuckerman
<<<Bewitched did copy I Love Lucy several times though in several different ways.
Like the scene with the chocolate factory line.
It's interesting to note that both Sidney Sheldon (IDOJ) and William Asher (Bewitched) worked together on The Patty Duke Show, where they had one actress playing two parts. Hmmmmm..... So, those that say IDOJ is a rip-off of Bewitched aren't completely accurate. These two shows fall under the same genre (fantasy), so naturally, there will be similarities. Just like between The Munsters and The Addams Family, Star Trek and Lost in Space, Rawhide and Wagon Train, Batman and Wonder Woman, Cannon and Columbo, The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin, Hogan's Heroes and McHale's Navy, Twilight Zone and Night Gallery (and for current shows - The View and The Talk) - these pairs of shows are similar to each other because of the genre they fall into. Saying that one is a rip-off of another...well, you'd have to say that all westerns except the first one are rip-offs. Within the pairs, everyone usually finds that they prefer one over the other, which would seem odd on the surface due to their being so similar. But actually, that makes sense, because everyone has different tastes, which are constantly changing. What shows I liked as a child, I may find irritating today, and vice versa.
Just my two cents...
That said, Jeannie and Tony are the MOST Beautiful TV couple EVER!!
They ROCK :)
The movie I Married a Witch inspired Bewitched.
Open the door for Mr. Muckle!!
I don’t see Bewitched and IDOJ being anything alike. Even if Jeannie was a hybrid of Bewitched it held its on very well imo. Samantha was a witch who was pretty smart and could go through an entire day without using her magic if she wanted to. Seemed like her family were the ones causing most of the incidents and she just had to go behind them and clean it up before Darrin lost his damn mind about it!
Jeannie was an unpredictable, naïve, stubborn, clueless, impulsive genie who caused Anthony to have daily meltdowns and get into huge amounts of trouble all of the time. The cast, the plot lines, the characters were all completely different.
IDOJ was more comical, more whacky and complete chaos, while Bewitched was much more reserved.
I could probably sit an entire episode of Bewitched and not laugh, and I am not saying that is a bad thing because it was such a popular show and lasted much longer than Jeannie. That’s too bad. If only Jeannie had a little bit more substance, just a little….then it would have taken it much farther than Bewitched…but oh well I love the show so I’m not complaining too much.
Jeannie and Tony->https://www.facebook.com/jeannietonynelsonfans
It always got me when they'd show Samantha doing some real drudgery like vacuuming, and I'd think, "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?" Endora was spot-on right about that one!
shareIt always got me when they'd show Samantha doing some real drudgery like vacuuming, and I'd think, "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?" Endora was spot-on right about that one!
When Samantha did use witchcraft to do housework (like to make sure it was done before her mother-in-law came over), she would do it really, really fast. Why wouldn't she just zap the house clean? I would if it were me. I HATE housework!
shareI don’t see Bewitched and IDOJ being anything alike. Even if Jeannie was a hybrid of Bewitched it held its on very well imo. Samantha was a witch who was pretty smart and could go through an entire day without using her magic if she wanted to
Samantha and the other witches lived around and among human society. Jeannie was ignorant of 1960s culture and had to have things explained to her.
shareThis is true. But in the first couple of seasons if you'll watch closely there are a few things Samantha is naive about as well. She's not quite as bad as Jeannie but there are things that she doesn't seem to understand about humans.
Remember the magic words: "Please", "Thank you" and "Step off bitch!"
There is room in this world for good-natured escapist fare. I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched can certainly entertain the viewer with their fun plots and they both have a talented cast who give it their best.
shareDiamond97---You are really stretching with those examples. You can take those examples and apply them to many television shows. IDOJ was a fun show, I felt that it was more oriented for children than Bewitched. Samantha didn't act like a child as Jeannie did. But there really isn't any reason for me to go on with this..every poll that I have ever seen, even the one that was conducted by TVLand put Betwitched on top in all categories,such as, Who was smarter? Who was more powerful? etc. If you love IDOJ, that's awesome. I enjoyed watching it as well, but it doesn't take an expert to see that what you're saying is really reaching for something that isn't there.
shareIDOJ was a fun show, I felt that it was more oriented for children than Bewitched.
@hka-3
Were you able to see the houses for "Leave it to Beaver", "My Three Sons" and "The Partridge Family"?
What an outstanding experience that must have been!! I wish I could have done that!
I would be SO tempted to scrape away or break away a piece of those facades for souvenirs!!
Didn't "Home Improvement" blow up the Stephens house?
I hope you took lots of photos.
Diamond97---You are really stretching with those examples. You can take those examples and apply them to many television shows. IDOJ was a fun show, I felt that it was more oriented for children than Bewitched. Samantha didn't act like a child as Jeannie did. But there really isn't any reason for me to go on with this..every poll that I have ever seen, even the one that was conducted by TVLand put Betwitched on top in all categories,such as, Who was smarter? Who was more powerful? etc. If you love IDOJ, that's awesome. I enjoyed watching it as well, but it doesn't take an expert to see that what you're saying is really reaching for something that isn't there
Diamond97---You are really stretching with those examples. You can take those examples and apply them to many television shows. IDOJ was a fun show, I felt that it was more oriented for children than Bewitched. Samantha didn't act like a child as Jeannie did. But there really isn't any reason for me to go on with this..every poll that I have ever seen, even the one that was conducted by TVLand put Betwitched on top in all categories,such as, Who was smarter? Who was more powerful? etc. If you love IDOJ, that's awesome. I enjoyed watching it as well, but it doesn't take an expert to see that what you're saying is really reaching for something that isn't there.