There was an assistant director on the show, twenty-five-year-old Harry Falk, who was a nice-looking, pleasant young man. When the Rosses noticed that Patty was spending time with him on the set, they immediately had him fired. Patty was devastated, but she said nothing.
Just before Patty’s birthday, the company planned a party for her on the set.
Patty came to see me in my office. “I want to ask a favor of you, Sidney.”
“Anything, Patty. What can I do for you?”
“I would like you to invite Harry Falk to my birthday party. Will you do that for me?”
“Of course I will.”
The afternoon of the party, Harry Falk came onto the set. John and Ethel were visibly upset, but Patty ignored them. She walked over to greet Falk and they spent most of the time together. The repercussions were soon to come.
CHAPTER 31
We rounded out the casting of Jeannie with Hayden Rorke playing the psychiatrist, and Barton MacLane as General Peterson.
I felt that the show should open with animation, to tell the story of Jeannie’s discovery by an astronaut. One of the best animators in Hollywood was Friz Freleng, but he had worked mostly in motion pictures, and had done very little television. I sent him the pilot script and asked him if he would be interested in animating the opening sequence. He was, and he created a brilliant opening.
I hired Dick Wess, a talented composer, to write the music for the first season, but after hearing it, I felt it was wrong for the show. Instead, I used a bright, upbeat melody written by Hugo Montenegro for the Jeannie theme.
The bottle that I selected for Jeannie’s home was a Jim Beam liquor decanter, which we painted in bright colors.
The first day of rehearsal went smoothly. We had a reading of the pilot script with the cast and our director, Gene Nelson, and I asked the actors if they needed any changes, or if they were comfortable with their lines. I wanted to make sure the actors were satisfied because I wanted no ad-libbing when they started to shoot. Everyone was happy.
I Dream of Jeannie was ready to start creating its magic.
In the morning, less than an hour after production on the pilot began, my secretary said, “Mr. Nelson is calling from the set.”
I could not wait to hear the good news. “Gene—”
“I’m quitting. Get someone else. Sorry.” He started to hang up.
“Wait! Wait a minute!” I was panicky. “Stay right where you are. I’m on my way down there.”
Three minutes later, I was on the set. I took Gene aside. “What happened?”
“Nothing. That’s the problem. I can’t work with actors who don’t know their lines. Larry Hagman doesn’t know his lines and Bill Daily doesn’t know his lines, and—”
“Stay right here.” I was furious.
I called Larry over to the side. “How dare you come on this set the first day of shooting and not know your lines.”
He looked at me in surprise. “What are you talking about? I know my lines.”
“The director says you don’t.”
“Well, all I did was to expand on them a little. I had some ideas, and I just added a few things here and—”
“Larry! Listen to me and listen carefully. We have a tight schedule. We have a lot of pages to shoot every day. You’ll say the lines exactly as they’re written. Is that clear?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”
I called Bill Daily aside. “What excuse do you have for not knowing your lines?”
He said, “I’m sorry, Sidney. I—I’ve never had to learn lines before. I always worked in clubs like The Improv. I did a comedy act.”
“This is not The Improv,” I snapped. “If you want to stay in this show, you’ve got to memorize your lines.”
He swallowed. “Okay.”
I went back to Gene Nelson. “There’s been a little misunderstanding, Gene. I think after today, everything is going to be fine. I want you to stay with the show. Larry will be great. I’m going to tape Bill’s dialogue and let him play it in the car on his way to and from the studio, so he can learn it. Will you give it another chance?”