Barbara Eden rubbed audiences the right way as a 2,000-year-old genie, but the actress insisted she never saw herself as a sex symbol.
“I Dream of Jeannie,” which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, tells the tale of astronaut Major Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman), who finds a magic bottle with a genie (Eden) inside. The two go on to fall in love and build a life together.
The beloved sitcom premiered on Sept. 18, 1965, catapulting Eden to superstardom.
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When Fox News Digital asked the now 94-year-old about what it felt like to be a sex symbol, she replied, “I had no idea.”
“I never thought of [Jeannie] as sexual,” she explained. “She was lovable because she was so honest and forthright and obviously devoted to her master. And she was learning. I enjoyed playing that part of it. She was learning everything about this time. She was 2,000 years old, which people seem to forget.”
“She was an entity — she wasn’t a real woman,” Eden shared. “She was female, of course, but an entity, not a human. And that’s your comedy right there. She felt she could be human, and of course, he knew she wasn’t.”
But one thing Eden couldn’t have anticipated was the public’s fascination with her belly button — or lack of one. The actress famously wore a pink two-piece with high-waisted, billowing pants and a crop top that concealed her navel.
“Mike Connolly [a columnist for The Hollywood Reporter] would come down to the set,” Eden recalled. “He would tease me about how I didn’t have a belly button because it never showed. Well, it did, because I’d raise my arms and do all kinds of physical things, and of course, my belly button would peek out.
“But he enjoyed teasing me. He would poke me in the middle and say, ‘I don’t believe you have one!’ And then he started to write about it. And then guys all across the United States began to write about it.”
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“I thought it was funny, but strange,” she chuckled. “Suddenly, the standards and practices, or whatever they called it in the film industry, realized I had a belly button. Even the studio realized I had a belly button! But before that, no problem.”
Eden pointed out that no one at the studio initially decided to cover her navel until the buzz about her so-called disappearing act spread like wildfire.
“They then said I had to have the waist come up high,” she said. “But not only that, I wore dancer’s pantyhose, which are pretty thick, plus a pair of underwear over that, and then the chiffon. And then there was silk inside. It was so funny. All I could do was laugh at the whole thing. And men would come down to the set just to stare at my belly. It was a lot of foolishness, but fun.”
Eden gave input on one thing about her midriff-baring costume.
“The color,” she said. “Gwen Wakeling, an Oscar-winning costume designer, came to me and showed me her sketches. And of course, I loved them. Then she said, ‘What’s your favorite color?’ I said, ‘Well, it depends. Right now, it’s hot pink.’ And she went with pink. I’m still so happy she did that.”
Looking back, Eden still has fond memories of bringing the show to life alongside Hagman, who died in 2012 at age 81.
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“I was doing a film at Universal and by then, I already knew I got the Jeannie part,” she recalled. “[Show creator] Sidney Sheldon called me one day and said, ‘Would you mind doing this scene with this young man? We’re thinking about him to play your master.’ I know they were testing another actor, but they didn’t ask him to come meet me.”
“So, Larry came to me while I was working at Universal,” she said. “We were in my dressing room, and we did the first scene of the pilot together there. In that scene, [Jeannie] just loves him and gives him big hugs. And of course, I played the part. It wasn’t Barbara, it was Jeannie doing this. Well, several months later, Larry told me, ‘You scared me! I didn’t know what you were doing.’”
For Eden, magic was in the making.
“I noticed our chemistry during the pilot, the first time I ever worked with him,” she said. “I realized right away that it was going to work. He was so good, and I was pretty good myself. But we were on the same radio frequency, or whatever you want to call it. We understood each other as the characters. We understood each other. We enjoyed it.”
“He was a super sweet and kind man,” Eden continued. “He was a little different from the rest of us. He marched to his own drum, which was fun because it was always pretty interesting. I loved him.”
Despite the success of “I Dream of Jeannie,” Eden made clear there was no feud between her and Elizabeth Montgomery, who starred in the sitcom “Bewitched.” Montgomery played Samantha Stephens, a charming witch attempting to live a normal suburban life with her mortal husband.
“I enjoyed being with her,” said Eden. “We did not have a lot of time to talk or be girlfriends. Remember, we would be in the makeup department in the morning, getting ready for our scenes. We had to get to work. But she was always pleasant.”
“I Dream of Jeannie” aired for five seasons, from 1965 to 1970. The star said that over the years, she never felt Jeannie’s powerful presence overshadowed her Hollywood career.
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“I was always content and happy with her,” she explained. “Even when I was doing ‘Jeannie,’ I was lucky enough to still be doing other things. I opened the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I went back to singing again.”
“When we had breaks shooting ‘Jeannie,’ I would do another film in between and then go back. It was a long ping-pong. … And I’m so pleased that people still like her. I had no idea that the show would have the impact that it’s had all over the world.”
“Back then, I didn’t think about being famous,” she reflected. “I was just working. I didn’t have time to sit back and say, ‘I made it.’ I just didn’t. You can’t do that when you’re working hard.”
“And I don’t think there was one secret behind the show’s success,” said Eden. “I think it’s the combination of a really good idea, a terrific cast … it just worked. And that magic doesn’t always work. You can have very fine actors, but if the writing isn’t right, so many things can go wrong. But we were lucky.”
Eden hasn’t thought about what she would like to do next. She’s too busy staying active.
“I hope to accomplish whatever is thrown at me,” she laughed. “I look forward to the next challenge.”
