Which Classic Sitcom Never Had a Christmas Episode?
What To Know
- Unlike many classic ’60s sitcoms, I Dream of Jeannie never featured a Christmas-themed episode during its five-season run.
- Although one episode referenced a “Christmas Club” and others aired near or on Christmas, none included holiday settings or themes.
- This omission is notable given the show’s whimsical nature and the era’s tendency for sitcoms to celebrate the holidays.
Classic sitcoms from the ’60s rarely missed a chance to celebrate the holidays; shows like Gilligan’s Island, Bewitched, Mister Ed and The Beverly Hillbillies all found a way to work Christmas into their storylines. That is why it still surprises longtime TV fans that I Dream of Jeannie, a series that ran for five seasons and produced 139 episodes between 1965 and 1970, never featured a Christmas episode at all, despite offering up a Thanksgiving-themed episode in the second season.
Why was there no Christmas episode of I Dream of Jeannie?
The show’s creators have never weighed in on why Jeannie and Tony never had a holly jolly Christmas. But Christmas does pop up on one episode, albeit in an indirect way.
In the episode “Jeannie Breaks the Bank,” which aired on December 19, 1966, Tony mentions joining a “Christmas Club,” a type of savings account people once used to put aside money for holiday shopping. Jeannie ends up getting Tony in trouble by putting $3 million in the account.
Everett Collection
Even though it aired close to Christmas and includes talk of Christmas, the episode itself is not set during the holidays and contains no decorations and no seasonal theme of any kind. It is simply a regular episode that happened to land on the schedule in December. There was even another episode that aired on Christmas Day in 1965, but again, no mention of Christmas.
It seems odd for a show that is built on whimsy that the writers never concocted a Christmas-themed episode. There are so many hijinks that Jeannie could have gotten herself into during the holidays, and it seems like a gross oversight. Can you believe that there was never a Christmas-themed episode of I Dream of Jeannie? What is your favorite Christmas episode from a ’60s sitcom? Let us know in the comments!
Where to Watch I Dream of Jeannie
If you’d still like to revisit all of the episodes, you can watch it on Tubi or Roku with ads or find it on Antenna TV.
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Classic TV Shows of the ’50s & ’60s
September 2020
Test your knowledge, from Bonanza and Gunsmoke to I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek and more fun TV of the 1950s and 1960s.
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