Did "I Dream of Jeanie" have a resurgence in the 80's?

[horsemen4ever]

I am curious, in the late 70's into the 1980's did I Dream of Jeanie has a resurgence in syndication and the public eye at large. I remember in 1989, all of sudden the Adam West Batman show was real popular in syndication. I wonder with Dallas, if I Dream of Jeanie had similar resurgence.

Larry Hagman was suppose to host Saturday Night Live in 1981 the night Charlie Rocket said the f word on television. I wonder had he hosted, would they have done I Dream of Jeanie sketch. I wonder who have played Jeanie, maybe future voice over actress Gail Matthius perhaps. Though if they really wanted to get wacky, two words Gilbert Godfried. That would have interesting at least. The Gilbert I know would have made that work.

[smokinvokoun86]

I feel like to 80s and 90s kids, at least to me, there was a real boom of syndication. Maybe it was Nick at Nite, because even as a kid I would love to watch Nick at Nite. I Dream of Jeannie was certainly one show I loved as a kid because of syndication and Nick at Nite.

[Mozenrath]

I am sure had Hagman hosted, they absolutely would have done a sketch about I Dream of Jeannie, that's the kind of thing SNL even back then would have been all over. Obviously, Dallas would have also been touched on, but there's no way Jeannie would go by without mention.

As for the question on if it mounted a resurgence, definitely. I mean, I saw episodes on TV in syndication in the early 90s, and there was the TV movies in 1985 and the early 90s one, even if Hagman didn't come back for them.

[A Platypus Rave is Correct]

Nick at Nite definitely boosted Bewitched and Jeannie.

It was two of their most replayed showed.

[Sephiroth]

Jul 24, 2021 21:09:15 GMT -5 smokinvokoun86 said:

I feel like to 80s and 90s kids, at least to me, there was a real boom of syndication. Maybe it was Nick at Nite, because even as a kid I would love to watch Nick at Nite. I Dream of Jeannie was certainly one show I loved as a kid because of syndication and Nick at Nite.

The mid to late 80’s was when 24/7 tv first became a thing. So networks were looking to pad the newly open schedule with cheap programming.

[Ultimo Gallos]

At least where I lived I dream of Jeanie and Bewitched aired Mon thru Fri at 2pm on a local UHF channel from sometime in the early 80s until at least 88.

[HonkyTonkMan]

I suppose that I Dream of Jeannie did indeed have a resurgence in popularity during the 1980's.

Thanks to the syndication reruns of I Dream of Jeannie episodes on television during the 1980's,
I first discovered this gem of a sitcom during the 1980's when I was just a child.

I've seen all 139 episodes of I Dream of Jeannie.

I Dream of Jeannie is zillions of times better than any of the American television sitcoms from the 21st Century.

Barbara Eden's iconic character Jeannie is my all-time favorite sitcom character without a shadow of a doubt.

[tirtefaa]

Jul 24, 2021 22:11:04 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave is Correct said:

Nick at Nite definitely boosted Bewitched and Jeannie.

It was two of their most replayed showed.

Even before that, they were syndicated on Fox where I lived. Maybe it's just my observation, but it always felt like Bewitched was far better and popular, while Jeannie was just kind of there as a supplemental sister show.

[BlackoutCreature]

A lot of those wacky 60's sitcoms had a resurgence in the 80's and early 90's. They were usually cheap filler programming that could appeal to both kids and nostalgic adults.

[WoodStoner1]

Wow, two Jeannie threads revived. I was about to make some "Alexa Bliss in 2016!" jokes but what the hey...

Yes, it boils down to: the 80s was when classic programming was all over local stations' schedules, as well as cable and especially, say, TBS. (and yes, when Nick at Nite began)

That's probably how I've come to appreciate so much super old school TV. It was a normal week to see them everywhere when I was growing up. That just led to me wanting to discover things I may not have seen on TV then, things from the same time(s).

Batman reruns were still around years before the first Burton movie. By the time I paid attention, it was WNEW, Channel 5, in NYC that had them after the afternoon cartoon block. Here's something funny: another local got a edited-down package of Laugh-In reruns, and 7 year old me used to LOVE them despite having no idea what they were talking about.

I was going to complain that it's not like that now, and to a degree the locals rely more on judge shows and talk shows, but when I see '90s and 2000s+ reruns, I need to remember that some of those are now as old as Jeannie was when I saw her in reruns back then!

[Ron Woodsman aka Shempaholic]

A lot of my favorite shows as a kid in the late '80s and early '90s were shows from the '60s. Get Smart was my absolute favorite show at one point. I even named my dog Max after Maxwell Smart. I loved I Dream Of Jeannie, Green Acres, The Addams Family, the lost goes on and on. They still hold up today, for me at least.

[HIM]

Jul 24, 2021 21:09:15 GMT -5 smokinvokoun86 said:

I feel like to 80s and 90s kids, at least to me, there was a real boom of syndication. Maybe it was Nick at Nite, because even as a kid I would love to watch Nick at Nite. I Dream of Jeannie was certainly one show I loved as a kid because of syndication and Nick at Nite.

Yep. This.

Nick at Nite made me a fan of all those old shows. I Dream of Jeanie, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mary Tyler Moore, all those things. From the late 90s till like 06 I was all about those shows.