Larry Hagman - Hello Darlin' by LARRY HAGMAN

Author:LARRY HAGMAN
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781451646641
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2011-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

At the start of the fifth season, the network forced Sidney to finally have Jeannie and Tony get married. Everyone associated with the series knew such a made-for-TV event would counter the show’s poor ratings, at least in the short term. But as for Jeannie’s future, it spelled the end. I knew that if Jeannie and Tony wed, the sexual tension that kept the show interesting would be gone. All of us waged a bitter fight against the decision, particularly Sidney and me.

But the wedding episode aired December 2, 1969, amid much publicity and the highest ratings the show had enjoyed for years. I felt like the groom who walked down the aisle with a shotgun at his back. When we wrapped the final episode at the end of January 1970 (the last original show aired May 26) and said good-bye, none of us knew the show’s fate.

I went straight into a movie-of-the-week for Screen Gems called Three’s a Crowd. It costarred Jessica Walter, whom I’d worked with in The Group, and E. J. Peaker. It was quick and fun but no earthshaker. Then I took Maj and the kids on vacation. We spent a week visiting a friend who owned an island in the Caribbean, and then we surprised Mother and Richard on the Copacabana in Brazil. Seeming genuinely delighted to see us, they invited us to the ranch in Anápolis. We went thinking we’d all matured, but Richard was as miserable as ever.

Upon returning to L.A. at the end of the summer, I drove to Screen Gems to visit Claudio Guzmán, who was still editing some of Jeannie’s last episodes. At the gate, which I’d driven through for five years, the guard told me that I needed a pass. When I asked why, he informed me that I wasn’t working at the studio anymore. I made it inside, and then Claudio told me that Jeannie had been canceled while I was in Brazil. We didn’t get the trade papers in Brazil and my agent hadn’t bothered to call me.

I was more relieved than upset. Jeannie might’ve run its course creatively, but I’d achieved my goal. From the beginning I’d wanted to make a memorable comedy, a show that children could watch with their grandparents, and time has proven I Dream of Jeannie one of the best and most enduring sitcoms ever. It’s still on the air every day around the world.

Meanwhile I had a deal with Screen Gems. I focused on finding a quality script. I was amazed, disappointed, and ultimately frustrated by how many bad scripts were out there. I turned down three, but eventually time ran out on my deal and I simply said to myself, Do the best of the lot and try to make it work.

That turned out to be The Good Life, a half-hour sitcom about a husband and wife who abandon their boring middle-class lives and go to work as a cook and a butler for a wealthy couple without revealing their lack of experience.

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