Great 1960s sitcoms on DVD for Thanksgiving eve

November 26, 8:54 AMTV on DVD ExaminerJohn Stahl

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Providers of genie therapy

Last night was the stereotypical dark and stormy night here in Massachusetts, and I was feeling the onset of my moderate holiday stress regarding gifts and events and the anticipation that I would be alone for much of the holiday season. This prompted me to pull my DVD set of the colorized version of the first season of "I Dream of Jeannie" off the shelf for some genie therapy. I will review this season when I complete this portion of my genie therapy.

Seeing the episodes in which a movie studio conducted a screen test of Jeannie with predictably hilarious results, Jeannie chased then-Caption Nelson around while driving his car when she was invisible, and Billy Mumy of "Lost in Space" fame trailed Captain Nelson around to catch Jeannie in the act of doing magic really perked me up.

I will be watching a great set of eight Christmas sitcom episodes, which include rare ones from the 1950s sitcoms "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners" that is entitled "TV Sets: Holiday Treats" tonight and will publish my review of it next week.

I am sure that I will pick out more light-hearted fare for Thursday evening after Thanksgiving dinner, and "Get Smart" will likely be in the mix. These old sitcoms truly make just about anyone feel better and are nice forms of nostalgia for those of us who are old enough to remember their network runs or syndication runs after school and in the evening.

The additional 1960s comedies that I am recommending as a modified form of genie therapy are out on DVD and can be found inexpensively are:

1. "Bewitched," which is very similar to Jeannie and shares the same first season attributes of being available in a great colorized set and of having some of the best plots in its run.

2."F Troop," which is a very broad comedy about calvary soldiers in the West in the period after the Civil War.

3. "Gilligan's Island," which is a story about "seven stranded castaways" actually is better than I remembered. The all-out silliness is great fun and the stories are more interesting than I had recalled.

4. "My Favorite Martian" is a great show about a martian stranded on earth. This DVD sets of this show are slightly more expensive than the others but worth the few extra dollars. One reason that I like the show so much is that the scifi plotlines followed my college physics course very closely and helped me understand the topics. I believe that I received an A in the course despite having virtually no scientific aptitude.  Readers may recall as well that I regard the DVD set of this third season of this show very highly.

I do hope that all of you enjoy your Thanksgiving; I also invite you to add comments or questions to this posting or e-mail me at tvdvdguy@gmail.com.