Hey, Jeannie!

Hey, Jeannie! is an American situation comedy starring Jeannie Carson as a young Scottish woman living in New York City. Twenty-six episodes aired on CBS from September 8, 1956 to May 4, 1957 in the Saturday slot following The Gale Storm Show and preceding the western series Gunsmoke.^[1] Six additional episodes aired in 1958 in syndication.^[1] Reruns of Hey, Jeannie! aired during the summer of 1960 under the title The Jeannie Carson Show.^[2]

Premise

Carson, who is actually of English descent, plays 28-year-old Jeannie MacLennan, who like Andrew Carnegie, is originally from Dunfermline, Scotland.^[3] Upon signing to star in Hey, Jeannie!, Carson became the second highest paid entertainer in the United Kingdom, behind Vivien Leigh.^[4] Whereas Carnegie settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carson's character comes to New York to better herself financially. She takes a job as a waitress in a donut shop and lives with her sponsors, Al and Liz Murray, a brother and sister portrayed by Allen Jenkins (1900–1974) and Jane Dulo (1917–1994). Jenkins is cast as a cab driver in Brooklyn.^[3] Frequently the whole cast breaks out in song, performing such numbers as "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," "Side by Side", "Start All Over Again," and "The Lady's in Love with You."^[1][5]

In the 1958 episodes, the series was revamped, Carson was cast as a flight attendant, and Allen Jenkins and Jane Dulo were replaced.^[6] Jack Kirkwood (1894–1964) appeared as Charlie O'Connell, Jeannie's landlord, who particularly dislikes pets. Vera Vague (also known as Barbara Jo Allen) portrayed Mabel, the boss of the flight attendants.^[1] In one of the syndicated segments, Jeannie befriends Joe, a young Korean orphan, after she indicates that she is a baseball fan. When the flight lands, Joe, played by Warren Hsieh, follows Jeannie to her apartment, instead of the residence of his adoptive parents.^[1]

Guest stars

In another segment, Chuck Connors, who was at the time launching his own ABC western series, The Rifleman, portrays millionaire playboy Buck Matthews, who rents an entire plane for himself and invites Jeannie to join him on a tour of the nightclubs of New York.^[1]

In the series finale, Jeannie meets the Cheyenne chief, Mike Flying Eagle, played by Robert Warwick, on a flight from Washington, D.C., where he had been to seek federal aid for drought relief. He performs a rain dance, and Jeannie and the flight engineer, Herbert, portrayed by William Schallert, hire a light aircraft to salt the clouds with ice. This creates rain at last. The grateful Flying Eagle declares Jeannie his daughter, "Little Rain Cloud." But the Pawnee are irate because the downpour destroys their newly planted grain.^[1]

Other guest stars included Jack Albertson, Parley Baer, Charles Bronson, Virginia Christine, Tristram Coffin, Mike Connors (who plays a rodeo star Lash Connor),^[1] Hans Conreid, Brian Corcoran, Clegg Hoyt, Helen Kleeb, Richard Long, Jerry Paris, Lyle Talbot, Sammee Tong, Mary Treen, and Will Wright.^[7]

Scheduling

Hey, Jeannie! replaced another unsuccessful situation comedy, the 1955-1956 season's It's Always Jan starring Janis Paige, in CBS's Saturday 9:30-10:00 p.m time slot.^[2] Hey, Jeannie was a production of Dick Powell's Four Star Television and ran opposite Lawrence Welk's Dodge Dancing Party on ABC and Sid Caesar's Caesar's Hour on NBC.^[8]

ABC reran some ten Hey, Jeannie! episodes between June 30 and September 30, 1960, on Thursday at 9:00 p.m. under the title The Jeannie Carson Show^[2] as a summer replacement for the departing variety show The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom.^[1]

Notes

References

• Lost Laughs of '50s and '60s Television: Thirty Sitcoms That Faded Off Screen (2010 ed.). McFarland. 2010. ISBN 978-0-7864-4466-3.  - Total pages: 240