Tony, ever the prideful astronaut, accepts a wager: a trip around the world, via conventional (read: slow) transportation, to manually collect data points. The first one back to Cape Kennedy wins. It’s a silly bet, but it serves a crucial narrative purpose—it gets Tony out of the house and onto a series of commercial flights.
Original Air Date: February 21, 1969 Director: Hal Cooper Writer: James S. Henerson I Dream of Jeannie 4x23 Around the World in 80 Blinks
The episode also serves as a wonderful time capsule of late-1960s television—a world where a U.S. astronaut could jaunt to Paris between commercial breaks, where international travel still seemed glamorous and exotic, and where a loving, magical wife could solve (and create) all your problems with a single blink. Tony, ever the prideful astronaut, accepts a wager:
The problem? Tony’s pride won’t let him win the bet by magical means. He insists on waiting for a commercial flight back to Florida, effectively forfeiting his lead. This leads to a wonderfully absurd confrontation in a Parisian square, where Jeannie, in a fit of frustration, blinks a flock of pigeons into formation to spell out “TONY IS A STUBBORN GOAT” in the sky. (The visual gag, simple by today’s standards, is pure 1960s sitcom gold.) Original Air Date: February 21, 1969 Director: Hal