He Didn't Shrink At Playing a Shrink

In every high-concept sitcom of the 1960s, the concept (a talking horse, a car that’s a dead mother, a wifey witch, a genie in a bottle) is hidden from a character who is baffled about unexplained things going on.

On Bewitched, that role was assumed by the always-funny Alice Pearce. On I Dream of Genie, it was Hayden Rorke as the NASA psychiatrist who always seemed to be looking around in confusion and saying “There’s something about this house.”

Dr. Alfred Bellows was Rorke’s best-known role, but he was no newcomer when Jeannie debuted in 1965. By July 1940, he had been in 15 Broadway productions, including 68 weeks in “The Philadelphia Story” with Kate Hepburn. After serving in World War Two, he came west and appeared along the coast in a production of Dream Girl with Lucille Ball. Then came castings for guest roles on various TV series.

Here he is talking about his role in what is likely an NBC news release. This material appeared in various papers for more than a year; the first time I ran across it was in an edition dated December 29, 1966.

TV Psychiatrist Has to Reject Patients
HOLLYWOOD—TV fans take their actors seriously.
Just ask Hayden Rorke, who portrays Air Force Col. Alfred Bellows, a psychiatrist in “I Dream of Jeannie,” on the NBC Television Network Mondays.
"I received one letter from a lady in Portland, Ore., who wrote, 'If I should ever need a psychiatrist I shall you the money, since I can't leave here, and you'll have to come to me," Rorke said. "Another person wrote me three or four times, convinced that if she could meet me I could solve her problems."
RORKE handles such situations honestly.
"I tell them or write them that I am just playing a part," he said, "But that I'm not a psychiatrist."
He is pleased, however, that he is convincing in the role, particularly when the compliments comes from doctors and psychiatrists.
"I've had letters from several psychiatrists who've told me that I'm a credit to the profession," said Rorke. “One even wrote (tongue-in-cheek) he wouldn't mind being psychoanalized by me."
Rorke has found that psychiatrists “are very human and have a sense of humor,” qualities that he find essential as Dr. Bellows, who is constantly bewildered over situations that cannot be explained logically, due to the magical powers of an invisible Jeannie (Barbara Eden).
“They’re doing it to me again!” has become Bellows’ exasperated trade remark.
Fans have picked up the refrain.
“Kids stop me and say, ‘Well, they’re doing it to you again,’” said Rorke. I even get it in church.”
Though he makes a convincing Air Force psychiatrist, Rorke’s personal interests have never run along those lines.
“I’m the only human being in the world who has no ambition to go to the moon,” he said.
Nor has he shown anything but a layman’s interest in medicine or psychiatry.
“I have a great respect for psychiatry, although I never wanted to be a psychiatrist or a doctor,” he said.
Rorke, who was born in Brooklyn, chose to continue the family theatrical tradition. He was educated at Brooklyn Prep, Villanova College and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before spending three years in Walter Hampden's Classic Repertory Company. He has distinguished himself on the stage, screen and television over the last 27 years.
HE HAS HAD parts in such motion pictures as "Spencer's Mountain," "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," "The Night Walker," "A House Is Not a Home," "I'd Rather Be Rich," "Thrill of It All," and "Youngblood Hawke." Rorke analyzed the appeal of "I Dream of Jeannie."
"At first I thought the audience would be limited to youngsters, from teen-agers on down," he said. "But I found out that the show is just as popular with adults. Most adults want to escape. What Barbara does as a genie convinces adults that escape is within reach. It's part of the endless pursuit for release and change from the mundane."
The show, Rorke agreed, deals essentially with wish-fulfillment.
“It’s interesting about wishes,” he said. “We actually experience a lot of things we wish for, but we never admit this and we keep on wishing.”
Rorke, the actor, spoke of happiness.
“I think the basis of all happiness is honesty,” he said.
The remark was worthy of a psychiatrist.

Not everyone in the profession was pleased, as Rorke admitted in a column by Donald Freeman of the Copley News Service. It appeared in print on July 21, 1967.

Psychiatrists Pen Notes to Bellows
HOLLYWOOD—Hayden Rorke. Bite off the name. It is a name of substance — a blunt, direct, no-nonsense, executive kind of name. And the man who bears it is an ascot-wearing fellow, an actor down to his toes and the possessor of one of the more familiar faces in television and pictures. Hayden Rorke is a character actor presently employed as Col. Bellows, the Air Force psychiatrist to the astronauts in the series, "I Dream of Jeannie."
"Just last week I got a letter from a psychiatrist in North Carolina," Rorke said in that full-bodied, stage-trained voice that marks him as the complete actor. "He wrote to me, and I quote, 'Dear sir, you are a complete disgrace to the psychiatric profession. You are gullible. You are always being taken in by the one with the genie.' And that was just the beginning. I wrote back to tell him that I have no control over the scripts.
"On the other hand," said Rorke, "a psychiatrist in Pennsylvania wrote to tell me how much he appreciated the subtleties of my portrayal as an analyst. He added that possibly, since I do so well in the show, I could be prevailed upon to handle his overflow. Overflow! Some psychiatrist he must be.
Playing the “Heavy”
“Oh, I’ve become known, all right,” Rorke went on. “I’m ushering in church and I happen to pass the plate. Kids spot me and yell out, ‘It’s Dr. Bellows!’ Things do get a bit out of hand. But I must say that most viewers are convinced that I’m totally put upon. In actuality, I’m play a sort of heavy. “One needs a heavy, even in comedy, with two attractive chaps to serve as contrast—Larry Hagman and Bill Daily. Still, I never do anything bad and I do try not to ridicule the profession. I'm not, in short, one of your funny, funny psychiatrists." Rorke paused. "Now as for my part," he said, "if I ever find out who the genie is, I'm out of a job." And as for the series itself: "I’m told that NASA checks over every script and as a result we're very correct in our terminology. In fact, the astronauts themselves complained that we in the show were a bit too 'military,' that we seemed to be in uniform all the time. They liked the image but preferred to see us in civvies occasionally. Consequently, Screen Gems bought me three new suits to wear on the show, which I think is nice. "I should add that I've always thought our audience was probably on the juvenile side. I'm amazed—no, make that startled—to learn that the astronauts themselves watch our show. That seems so unlikely and yet, if they mentioned our uniforms, it must be true."
People Too Fickle
An actor for over 25 years, Rorke is eminently the realist as he contemplates his medium. "The days of the long run series are, I believe, over. The days of a 'Bonanza' or a 'Perry Mason' or a 'Donna Reed Show,' with their 8 or 9 or 10 years on the air—all gone. People have become too fickle, too discriminating.
“Five years is now the saturation—and if a series can get by its third year, the crucial year, then a five-year run is a good bet. We're gunning for those five years and those fat residuals."
I mentioned fan mail. "The kids do write the customary fan mail," Rorke said. "But the women keep sending me candy. Can't possibly understand why unless they think I need strength, which I do."

We hope those residuals were good because Rorke got those five years he wanted. In a way, a genie granted his wish for a change.