User Reviews

"Never Put a Genie on a Budget" lacks the usual laugh track, making for an interesting change of pace. Visiting Russian cosmonaut Major Gregorian (Noam Pitlik) is spending his time in Cocoa Beach at Major Nelson's home, where Jeannie's brief brush with the law finds her arrested for theft (BATMAN's Stafford Repp still in uniform). Not knowing that charging today means paying tomorrow, Tony puts his wife on a strict budget, resulting in a dinner that cost only 49 cents (stale 3 day old bread and a single apple), Gregorian forced to go out for his meal. Washing her husband's shirts and selling off his car also don't meet with his approval, and the two boarders have to go by Friday. Dr. Bellows is aghast that Gregorian believes all NASA astronauts are on relief, giving Tony another opportunity to make a better impression on the major. Actor Noam Pitlik, best remember as Officer Swanny on SANFORD AND SON, later became a prolific director, with the boarders played by Larry Bishop, son of comedian Joey Bishop, and Maggie Thrett, one of "Mudd's Women" on STAR TREK. An instrumental version of The Monkees' "Your Auntie Grizelda" is heard during the open house gathering, a Screen Gems copyright heard earlier in "Jeannie and the Bachelor Party."