'I Dream of Jeannie' 55th anniversary: Why Barbara Eden counted herself out for iconic role
It's been 55 years since Barbara Eden, as the sexy genie in NBC's "I Dream of Jeannie," appeared from a cloud of smoke and pledged her devotion to a stranded astronaut, Major Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman). After all, he'd freed her from a bottle (a painted Jim Beam bottle) where she'd been imprisoned for more than two millenniums.
Eden's Jeannie worshiped her "Master," Major Nelson, in the comedy series, which debuted 55 years ago, on Sept. 18, 1965, and ran for five seasons. The series, created by producer-turned-author Sidney Sheldon, earned her two Golden Globe nods.
Eden, 89, tells USA TODAY she first read about the project in the Hollywood trades. But she says the lead actresses they were testing were her physical opposite.
"They were all brunettes, and they were all beauty contest winners, which meant they were almost six feet tall," she says with a laugh. "So, I thought, 'Oh, well. That's not for me,' and I forgot about it."
But then the script found her. We'd like to imagine the way Jeannie's bottle rolled up to Major Nelson in the pilot, but in reality her agent sent it over. She loved it but had her doubts.
"I said, 'Are you sure they know what I look like? Because I'm a short blonde and certainly not (the) Middle Eastern-type,'" Eden recalls. She says that after tea with Sheldon at The Beverly Hills Hotel, she got the part, making her "so happy." (Cultural appropriation was not as big of a conversation back then.)
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Still, Eden's Jeannie was almost kept in the bottle when she became pregnant with her only child, son Matthew. He arrived on Aug. 29, 1965. The show's pilot was filmed in December 1964.
Eden and her first husband, actor Michael Ansara, "had tried so hard to have a baby and weren’t successful at all," she says, "and suddenly the pilot sold, and the doctor called me the same day and said I was pregnant." She wanted to tell Sheldon in person, so she drove to writer-actor Buck Henry's house, where Sheldon was having dinner.
He, in jest, brought up Eden being pregnant.
"'I said, 'Yes! And I can’t do your show! I’m so sorry!'" remembers Eden. "But, I was grinning from ear to ear."
She says Sheldon worked quickly to ready the first 13 episodes. "Toward the end there, I was showing quite a bit," she says. "I was like a walking tent. They would put all of those pink veils down on me."
Season 1 of the series also features Eden's favorite episode, the pilot, which is available for viewing on the new "I Dream of Jeannie" YouTube channel. Episodes of the show are also available on Roku and Crackle. While listing the reasons why – a sizable budget and "good script" – Eden pauses. "All I’m thinking when I’m talking to you, I’m (just) thinking about how cold I was," she says of Malibu's Zuma Beach, where Major Nelson first uncorked Jeannie after an unsuccessful mission left him beached.
"And, of course, you always do those things on the beach, during the winter," she says. "So, it was freezing cold, and I'm in this genie costume, but it was lovely."
The iconic costume is still a Halloween favorite among fans and celebrities including "Live" co-hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, and model Molly Sims.
Her costume also drew looks from studio executives' wives, which complicated a shoot for a 1998 Lexus commercial for which she revived her Jeannie persona.
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"They didn’t have any," remembers Eden, "and the man in charge of costumes said, "'All the wives of the executives have borrowed them for Halloween.' And they were gone."
Eden herself had a hand in shaping Jeannie's signature look, designed by Gwen Wakeling.
"She showed me sketches (of the costume), and I loved it," recalls Eden. "And she said, 'All we need now is a color. What color would you like?' And, at that time, I was in a pink mood, and I said, 'Pink.' She said, 'Great,' and that’s what she did. And I think she did a fabulous job."
Eden also has praise for Hagman, who went on to greater fame as J.R. Ewing, the star of CBS's "Dallas," and died in 2012 at age 81.
"It was a joy and a challenge," working with him, she says. "He was so talented and so very sweet – to me. He was his own worst enemy. He had problems..." she says.
(Hagman underwent a liver transplant in 1995 after battling cirrhosis, which he attributed to heavy drinking. He previously opened up to CNN in 2003 about his dependence on alcohol. "I was doing 'Dallas,'" he said. "I'd start drinking about 7:30, after make-up, open a bottle of champagne, have a little orange juice with it, get my vitamins, and I'd consume about five bottles a day.")
But Eden says she has fond memories. "I've never worked with anyone with whom I've been so in tune and on the same level, actingwise," she says. "I really enjoyed working with him."
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'I Dream of Jeannie' anniversary: Barbara Eden on role, Larry Hagman
