With the blink of her eyes and a nod of her head, Barbara Eden will make your wishes come true in I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Series.
Enjoy all 139 episodes in their original broadcast presentation including the first season in black & white on this 12-disc collection that re-introduces Larry Hagman as Captain Anthony Tony Nelson, an astronaut who finds himself Master to a beautiful and crafty genie (Eden) whom he unknowingly releases from a bottle. Together, he and Jeannie are a magical match. Packed with some of television’s brightest guest stars, I Dream Of Jeannie is the beloved must-own comedy series that will have you dreaming of TV’s Golden Age.
For thoughts on I Dream Of Jeannie, please check out my colleague Mike Vaughn’s thoughts here.
Video Quality
I Dream Of Jeannie gets an upgrade to Blu-Ray courtesy of Mill Creek Entertainment, but deeming it an upgrade feels disingenuous. This is one of the poorest efforts from the company I have seen to date. While advertised as being from high definition masters, all signs point to this being an upscale from standard definition to the point where these discs are 1080i instead of 1080p. Doing a quick comparison to the old Sony DVDs I had at my disposal shows very little difference between the sources, and occasionally the old DVDs even beat this new presentation. One of the biggest issues with this disc is not the occasional speck of damage to the print, but rather the ugly compression artifacts and macroblocking that plague most of the episodes, especially as you get to the later seasons.
The presentation has a handful of moments where scenes stabilize a bit more, but these moments do not stick around long. The interlacing causes some harsh jagged edges within the presentation that are unsightly. The image is often very soft and hazy in a way that does not present in some of the HD streams available on streaming platforms. The colors are muted with not much stability in saturation. Skin tones look fairly natural, but the black levels are inundated with crush. There is even at least one episode entitled “The Best Genie I Ever Had” (Season 2, Disc 3) that has a frame rate issue that makes the episode basically unwatchable. Mill Creek Entertainment has provided a Blu-Ray disc that might technically be a step up from DVD for certain episodes, but most people being honest would agree that the Sony DVDs best this set more often than not. There were perfectly great new masters available that Sony could have provided, so it is a real wonder why they did not end up on these discs.
Audio Quality
This new Blu-Ray comes with a lossless DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix that does not really offer that much more pleasing presentation than the video portion of the disc. If the presentation was free from basic errors, it would be a fine representation of the show, but it cannot achieve that low bar. There are often warbly musical moments and dialogue, and most egregiously the episode “Help, Help, A Shark!” (Season 5, Disc 2) has an audio error of a loud electronic buzz for over a minute which drowns out some dialogue. When there are no obvious errors, the dialogue holds up fairly well without being stepped on by the music or sound effects. The environmental effects are delineated when it comes to showcasing the ambience of the setting. For most of the episode, the information that needs to be conveyed comes through alright, but there are definite flaws here. Optional English subtitles are provided on this disc.
Special Features
- I Dream Of Jeannie… 15 Years Later: A 94-minute reunion film is provided here which aired in 1985.
Final Thoughts
I Dream Of Jeannie always felt like a lesser version of Bewitched, but it has enough of an identity to elicit numerous laughs per episode and endear you to the characters. It is pretty standard fare for the time period, but watching these episodes is like returning to a more comforting time of life. Unfortunately the new Blu-Ray presentation from Mill Creek Entertainment really hinders that enjoyment. The A/V presentation is frankly awful and often finds itself struggling to appear better than the old Sony DVDs. Beyond just not looking or sounding good at times, there are some major audio and video errors for certain episodes that make them unwatchable for at least a portion of the runtime. This set could have been pretty great under different circumstances, but things are not looking pretty here.
I Dream Of Jeannie: The Complete Series is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Mill Creek Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
