Genuine Florida

Swampy heads over to Lori Wilson Park on A1A in Cocoa Beach to visit a marker of Florida history. Here the entrance street is named ‘I Dream of Jeannie’. The NBC television series from 1965 to 1970 was based in Brevard County. Character Captain Tony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman, lived in Cocoa Beach and, though filmed in California, most of the series took place here. The series involved an astronaut whose wayward spacecraft delivers him to a desserted island. The astronaut, Captain Nelson, finds a bottle. Upon rubbing the bottle Captain Nelson finds himself with a genie for the next five years on television.

Connections Trivia: The series title, ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ is a swipe of the song ‘ I Dream of Jeannie (With the Light Brown Hair)’ by Stephen Foster, who wrote Florida’s state song, ‘Old Folks at Home’.