It was the year two thousand, and Barbara Eden was sixty-nine years old. But that didn’t mean she was out of the business at all. In fact, in that year, she began one of her more successful ventures – she got a starring role in “The Odd Couple: The Female Version,” a version of the famous play that first appeared on Broadway in 1985 and written by Neil Simon.
He adapted a play of his own from 1965 that had two male roommates trying to do life together, and he updated it so that a pair of women could play the leads. According to our sources, she played the role on and off for four or five years, depending on how you count it. She played opposite Rita MacKenzie.
Starting With a Different Name
Very few famous actors and actresses actually go with the name that they started with – in this case, Eden was born as Barbara Jane Morehead. She was born on August twenty-third, 1931, in Tucson, Arizona. Her mother was Alice Mary, and her father was Hubert Henry Morehead. She is, apparently, a descendant of Benjamin Franklin. For several decades after her birth, it was believed that she was born in 1934, though we’re unsure if that was just the public perception or if she thought that’s when she was born.
Early in life, her parents divorced. She and her mother moved to San Francisco, where her mother married Harrison Connor Huffman, a telephone lineman. Eden’s mother then had a daughter, Eden’s half-sister. The time Eden was born led to a love of a certain art form.
Living Through the Depression
Eden was born smack in the middle of the Great Depression, which meant that there weren’t many luxuries that people could afford. History tells us that many people just had problems putting food on the table, so they weren’t taking a lot of trips. In order to keep her children entertained, Eden’s mother would regularly sing to them. This, in turn, got Eden interested in singing.
Her first public performance was singing in the church choir, and she quickly became the soloist. Her singing was good enough for her to sing with local bands while she was a teenager, earning ten dollars a night (something like a hundred and fifty dollars these days. Not bad) in nightclubs. By this point, it was at or past World War II.
Moving up in the World
When Eden was sixteen, with the world now fully post-war, she joined Actor’s Equity, an American labor union that represented performing artists, and started singing at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She was also acting in the Elizabeth Holloway School of Theatre. She graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco in the spring of 1949.
Even back then, she was a stunning woman – she attended City College of San Francisco, studying theater for one year, and she was elected Miss San Francisco in 1951, entering into the Miss California pageant (our research tells us she did not win that award). Yet it was clear that Eden, then still appearing as Barbara Huffman, had the performing chops and the looks to take her a long way into Hollywood – or whatever she chose to do.
Becoming a Semi-Regular
Barbara only attended college for one year, dropping out because she knew she was ready to find her place in the performing world. She’d felt the rush singing for people with bands in nightclubs, and while she didn’t make it very far in the Miss America pageant, it was obvious that she was a looker. Just being entered into the Miss California stage gave her career a boost. A little while later, she got an even bigger boost when she became a semi-regular on “The Johnny Carson Show.”
By far, it is one of the most popular shows on television – and this was back when TVs had maybe three channels. Carson was seen by the majority of homes almost every night, and that means that Barbara was able to get some serious exposure, showing off her pipes and her winning smile.
A Few Small Roles
Thanks to her appearances on “The Johnny Carson Show,” which added up to fourteen in total, Barbara started using the name Eden in 1956, which was also when she started to get a lot more work. She got to be in the feature film “Back From Eternity” in 1956 in the all-important role “Blonde College Girl,” for which she was uncredited.
There was also the show “The West Point Story,” in which she played Toni DeWitt for a single episode. She had a role as Diana Jordan on “I Love Lucy” in 1957, and she also had appearances in “Highway Patrol,” “The Millionaire,” and “Crossroads.” She was still a ways away from her most famous role, but things were looking up for Eden. Next was the contract.
Clear Potential
Everybody who worked with Eden could tell she was destined for big things. She might not have had a ton of training, but she had natural charisma, and, most importantly, she was beautiful. Never discount how important that is for the entertainment business. She showed up on a bunch of different sitcoms and lots of other shows such as “Gunsmoke,” “Perry Mason,” and plenty of others.
Her big break came from the same thing that every actor and actress was looking for at the time – a screen test with a major studio. It was 20th Century Fox that gave her a chance to show off, and while she didn’t make it into the movie she was testing for, “No Down Payment,” 20th Century Fox still liked her enough to offer her a contract.
Screen Test, You Say?
You might be wondering what a screen test is. Well, let us fill you in. You might be familiar with a simple audition when an actor or actress goes in to read for a role, but a screen test is one of the next steps. This is after the candidates have been narrowed to a smaller list. At this point, the actors or actresses are set in front of a camera.
Maybe they read a bit from the script, maybe they do something they’ve performed, or maybe they work with other actors. It’s to make sure the person will look good on the screen. It's a regular part of the process, and Eden getting a chance to screen test for such a big role was evidence of good things.
Taking the Next Step
While Eden was likely discouraged at not landing the role in a big film, she still got an acting contract – that’s a great result from a screen test. Just a few short months after she inked the paper, she was given the starring role in the television series “How to Marry a Millionaire,” which was based on the 1953 film of the same name.
Starring Eden and a gaggle of other gals, the show was one of the first sitcoms based on a feature film, following the adventures of a bunch of twenty-something women who are out to marry into money, as the title suggests. They rent a pricey penthouse apartment in order to put themselves in the right places to marry, though they are constantly beset with problems paying rent.
Two Seasons Was Enough
The series “How to Marry a Millionaire” lasted for two seasons, from 1957 to 1959, running for fifty-two episodes. The film it was based on featured none other than Marilyn Monroe in the number one role, the role that Eden took over once the series started. All things considered, however, the show wasn’t terribly successful – while the first season had some good ratings, the second season was short and sweet and ended after only thirteen episodes.
It was a good first step, and after that, she started to get a lot more roles both on the small screen and the big screen. But she still had a ways to go before she became a magical genie that would break new television ground. But before that, she decided to get married.
A Big Role in Real Life
Her professional life was on the rise, but we know that you’re really excited to hear about her personal life – and we have the goods for you. She’d been in a couple of series and had gotten some time on the silver screen, and that meant she was getting plenty of attention from men. One of them she deemed good enough, and his name was Michael Ansara.
He was an actor from Syria who’s best known for appearing in “Broken Arrow,” a series running from 1956 to 1958. These two stars got married in 1958, before Eden had made that next step in stardom and long before she was a household name. Ansara often played Native American characters, and he was also Commander Kang in several parts of the “Star Trek” universe.
Leading Lady of the Movies
She was a new wife, she’d been the lead of a series, and she was a well-known performer, so what was next? A couple of leading roles in movies, that’s what! She got her first starring role in the musical comedy “A Private’s Affair” in 1959. In the film, a pair of men named Luigi and Jerry join the army, and then Jerry finds himself in an accidental marriage. Not to Eden; she was another character.
The movie was a success, but only just barely, making one and a half million against a budget of one-point-two million. Barbara Eden was actually a little lucky to get this role – it was meant to star Sheree North, but North had to drop out when she became pregnant.
Working With the King
After another film called “Twelve Hours to Kill,” Eden got to star in another film, “Flaming Star,” a Western film that starred none other than Elvis Presley. Barbara Eden played the female lead, Roslyn Pierce. Presley acted as Pacer Burton, who was the son of a Kiowa mother and Texan father working as a rancher.
Critics have said that Burton is one of his better roles. It was released only one month after another Presley film, “G.I. Blues,” but did not achieve the same level of box-office success. It was the twelve-highest-earning film of the year, according to “Variety.” It was a movie that helped to inspire Quentin Tarantino, who called it a “truly great ‘50s Western, and maybe the most brutally violent American Western of its era.” Tarantino likes violent movies, so what a surprise.
Other Choices in the Film
The film doesn’t really stack up today, but a few interesting tidbits tell us that everyone thought it was going to be a hit at the time, which it was. First, Eden wasn’t the original choice for the female lead – that was actually fellow Barbara Steele. It seems the “Queen of All Scream Queens,” a film actress best known for horror, wanted to branch out. However, a disagreement with director Don Siegel led to her dismissal.
After Barbara Eden read for the part, they decided to go with her. And it wasn’t always going to be Elvis acting as the main character. There was big competition for the film’s lead role, with some other big names like Frank Sinatra attracted to it before Presley was picked for the main role.
A Rising Star
Since she was landing big roles against other leading ladies, it was becoming clear that Barbara Eden was becoming someone big in Tinseltown. On the other hand, her next few films relegated her to smaller roles. These include appearing as Clemmie Shreve in “From the Terrace,” a rom-drama in 1960.
In 1961, she had a trio of roles: “Swingin’ Along,” as the third-billed in the credits, “All Hands on Deck” as the fourth in the film, and “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” where she was billed third and where she got to act alongside her husband. This proved to be one of the biggest movies of her career. It was a science-fiction disaster movie starring Peter Lorre and Joan Fontaine, and it’s all about being underwater in a fancy new submarine.
Another Big Part
In 1962, Eden got the chance to have another big role in a movie after a few years of playing second fiddle. The film was “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.” It was a fantasy film that focuses on the Grimm brothers, Wilhelm and Jacob, both biographical and fantastic at the same time. Eden played “Greta Heinrich,” the love interest of one of the brothers.
It was filmed using the Cinerama process, which was photographed in an arc with three lenses on a camera that produced three strips of film. Three projectors would then produce a single panoramic image on a screen that was curved a hundred and forty-six degrees around the front of the audience. The film was a big hit, making plenty of money and being nominated for an Academy Award.
Final Films for Fox
Barbara Eden had turned from a budding star with plenty of potential into a REAL star who was earning 20th Century Fox plenty of money. Her final films under contract were the 1962 film “Five Weeks in a Balloon” with Red Buttons, an adventure film loosely based on the 1863 novel of the same name by Jules Verne. The very last film she had under contract, in 1963, was the thriller film “The Yellow Canary,” and Eden starred alongside Pat Boone.
The screenplay was written by Rod Serling (From “The Twilight Zone”) from a novel by Whit Masterson. Eden played the aggravated wife of a pop star as the two have to frantically search for their son after he is kidnapped. After it was done, Eden’s contract was up with Fox.
Plenty of Good Job Prospects
Being out without a safety net like a contract can be scary, but Eden probably wasn’t all that worried. She had proved she was bursting with star power. Plump with it. Absolutely straining with the stuff. And she had nothing to be worried about – despite Hollywood’s ability to chew up starlets, she was in a grand total of FIVE movies in 1964. In a pair of them, “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” and “The Brass Bottle,” she starred opposite Tony Randall.
There was also “Quick, Let’s Get Married,” “The New Interns,” and “Ride the Wild Stuff.” Of these movies, “The New Interns” was probably the most successful, but none of them really did gangbusters – even that film barely earned two and a half million dollars.
An Important Film, Anyway
One of the movies Eden had starred in during 1964 was called “A Brass Bottle,” and you might find the setup familiar. It’s a fantasy-comedy about a modern-day man who accidentally acquires a bottle that contains an ancient genie. The two strike up a friendship. Eden plays Tony Randalls’s girlfriend, Sylvia. Maybe there was some kind of focus on genies in bottles going around. This was before Disney's “Aladdin,” but long after the idea was first created, so who knows?
Well, it turns out producer Sidney Sheldon saw Eden acting in that film and thought she would be perfect to audition for his new series, “I Dream of Jeannie.” Yes, we’ve finally gotten around to it. Sheldon approached her in 1965, asking her to audition, and Eden was quick to say yes.
One of the Many Beautiful
Producer Sheldon had, at that point, auditioned numerous young women, from brunette starlets to...brunette beauty queens. We think we know what he needs to change. Work had begun in 1964, at which point “Bewitched” was the number-two show on television. He knew he had a good idea for something with comedy, romance, and a fantastic element, but he needed the right woman to be the genie.
After seeing “The Brass Bottle,” he figured he might as well give Eden a chance to audition. We wonder if the fact that the movie was about a genie helped his decision-making process, even if it wasn’t Eden herself who was the one coming out of the bottle. But Eden was a little taken aback when she found out who she was competing against for the spot on the series.
The Competition
Sure, Eden was a lovely lady, and she’d actually had some success as a beauty contestant, but she was an actress and not a model. Sheldon tempted Eden to the show, and Eden was happy to try out – especially after Sheldon was so flattering about her resume. It was then that Eden found out who she would be competing against.
In an interview with Channel to News in Australia, she said that when she found out all the other women competing for the job were models and beauty pageant winners, she had to actually ask her agent if Sheldon knew that she was primarily an actress and not just a pretty face. But it was clear that Eden suddenly had a leg-up on the other women. Not only was she a blonde bombshell, but she was also a trained and talented actress, too.
Landing the Biggest Role of Her Life
Despite being up against some stiff competition, Barbara Eden proved that she was the woman for the job. She accepted the role, and to some, that might come as a surprise – why give up movies for TV? Every actor’s dream is to be the lead in a long-running television show, trust us. That’s a lot of money, no matter what. Not only that, but landing a movie star like Eden immediately gave the show a whole lot of buzz and press before it was even shown on the screen.
Eden would play the titular character Jeannie, a genie that had been stuck in a bottle for two thousand years before being found by an astronaut. Immediately, the two start to fall in love, but a lot more happens, too.
Starting the Magic
The first episode of “I Dream of Jeannie” was shown on September 18th, 1965 on NBC. The pilot episode was called “The Lady in the Bottle.” Captain Tony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman, has his one-man capsule “Stardust One” come down far from the planned recovery area, near a deserted island in the South Pacific. While on the beach, Tony notices a strange bottle that seems to be moving on its own.
He removes the stopper and rubs the lamp, and a beautiful woman emerges, who begins speaking Persian before kissing him on the lips. He is unable to understand her until he expresses a wish that the woman could speak English, at which point she does perfectly. She is able to help Tony get rescued, and he’s so grateful that he frees her, but she’s fallen in love with him at first sight, so she decides to stay with him.
A TV Show That Made History
“I Dream of Jeannie” ran for five seasons with a total of a hundred and thirty-nine episodes, and it also happened to make a couple of strides when it comes to television history. Since the show first began in 1965, “I Dream of Jeannie” would be the final series on NBC to begin in black and white as opposed to color.
It was only that way for a single year, and then it switched to color, reflecting the ways TV had advanced in the few short years it had been a main method of entertainment. If the show had stayed in black and white, it might not have been anywhere near as popular as it turned out to be – everybody was always looking for the new thing.
Trying on Plenty of Clothes
“I Dream of Jeannie” had a lot going for it – it had humor, romance, magic, and a couple of actors and actresses who knew their way around a set. For Eden, the show was like a dream come true. She got custom-made clothing that was designed to make her as attractive as possible, combining clothing elements from all over the world – the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia – and that’s just when she’s dressed as a genie.
While in modern-day clothing, she also had plenty of fancy duds that took advantage of the counterculture era in which the show was set. Even if you’ve only seen the show a little bit, you can probably picture some of the colorful and cute outfits that Eden got to wear during the show’s long run.
Becoming a Brunette
Despite becoming one of the most famous blondes of the decade, Barbara Eden decided to throw on a brunette wig for a couple of episodes of “I Dream of Jeannie.” Eden also portrayed Jeannie’s evil fraternal twin sister, whose name also happened to be Jeannie. We feel like the parents could have avoided a lot of confusion.
This wicked version of the original Jeannie starts appearing in the third season and always tries to steal Tony away for herself. Thank goodness he was always able to avoid her tricks and traps. All it took was a little bit of magic from “Jeannie II,” and she would look just like her twin sister. Also, as it turns out, Barbara Eden looks just as good as a brunette and maybe even better. Who could have guessed?
Treated Like Royalty
Before long, it was clear that “I Dream of Jeannie” was one of the biggest shows on television. In order to keep all the actors and actresses happy during those five years, the show went to great lengths to get them anything and everything they wanted. She told the “Today Show” that they not only got a great deal of respect from the crew, but they were pretty much treated like royalty.
Anything they could think of would be delivered right to the studio for their enjoyment. It’s even been noted that these luxuries were above and beyond what actors and actresses in similar roles were able to receive. This has become a lot more commonplace when it comes to shows and movies now, but back then, it wasn’t as common.
What Did Barbara Like to Order?
So you might be asking what Eden wanted when she was told that she could have everything – no questions asked. We’re sure there were normal orders like food and drinks and maybe some things she could use to pamper herself, but there was one specific item that she would order over and over again: bagels! Yes, it seems that this famous actress's greatest vice was bagels from a specific shop in town. Hey, we can’t blame her. Bagels are great.
According to her, she would order loads of bagels every day while the show was filming. We wonder what kind of bagels she went for when she had a hankering, but our tireless research has turned up very little. As long as there are no raisins, we’re fine with whatever she picks.
The All-Important Chemistry
Barbara Eden’s counterpart on “I Dream of Jeannie” was Larry Hagman, who played Captain Tony Nelson. According to Eden, the chemistry between these two was the most important part of the show, and it was the backbone of the sitcom. While Jeannie was madly in love with Nelson, they had a classic on-again, off-again relationship as Nelson wondered if he was truly in love with her back.
Meanwhile, men and women popped up to try and woo either of these pairings away from the other. However, by the end of the fifth season, the two characters had tied the knot, and Barbara Eden herself says that it was the end of the story – they were happy together forever. Thankfully, Eden and Hagman got along fine, or the show would have had a lot of problems.
A Friend of Big Cats
After five seasons of a show, a whole lot can happen. Not just behind the scenes, either – we’re talking about the stuff that goes on in front of the camera. Once, the show needed to bring in a lion for one of the scenes. This isn’t normal life, even for actors, but Eden was able to adjust on the fly. It turns out that her experience in the movie industry had given her a couple of chances to learn how to deal with big cats, including lions.
According to sources, Eden quickly became friends with the animal, which is a little cooler than we were expecting from ol’ Barb here. And it’s a good thing, too, since the lion eventually realized it wasn’t all that happy about having to be on set.
Letting Loose With a Roar
So when did this big cat make an appearance? It was the first season of the new show, and the pressure was on from the studio for them to make it into a hit. They had a good start, but they needed to take it up a notch. Obviously, the answer was for them to bring in a lion. Remember that, kids: if you want to take things up a notch, introduce a lion. They wanted to stand out from the crowd and do something really special. Thus, a lion on set.
At one point, apparently, the lion decided that it needed to say something – it let out an enormous roar, scaring everybody in the vicinity away...except for one Barbara Eden. Standing up to a ferocious animal like that, what a woman!
Keeping the Belly Out of Frame
If we told you that the show had to hide Barbara Eden’s belly during the first season, you’d probably think we were crazy. She had a famously tiny waist and small tummy, but the show still had to keep it out of frame. Why? The most regular reason why women have to hide their stomachs while filming something – she was pregnant.
She was pregnant with her first child, Matthew Ansara, but it would have been...quite strange for the mystical genie to be pregnant while wooing Captain Nelson. Having Eden be pregnant would make the show a little strange. In order to hide the fact that Eden was in a family way, they used a lot of close-up shots and costumes that kept her growing belly from being noticed.
The Origins of the Character
Nowadays, the show seems pretty simple – a genie that falls in love with the man who frees her. It’s simple! Back in the sixties, however, this was a bit of a different kind of show. It was a little hard to explain at the time, and it didn’t help that Eden was given a number of different origins for her character.
In one episode, she explains that she came from a family of genies – makes sense, since her sister was a genie too. But in the first episode of the second season, the “Blue Djinn,” played by Barbara’s real-life husband Michael Ansara, appears and tries to take Jeannie back from Captain Nelson since they were pledged to be married. He reveals that it was he who turned her into a genie the first time she refused to marry him.
Memories, Memories
Picking our favorite thing out of a big collection is never easy. What’s your favorite food? What about your favorite song? Favorite trip you’ve ever taken? Pretty difficult. Barbara Eden filmed more than a hundred and fifty episodes of “I Dream of Jeannie,” so surely she’d have just as tough a time picking her favorite of all the shows, right?
We bet it was difficult, but she still had a quick answer when asked: Her favorite was “The Lady in the Bottle,” the very first episode. This despite her also saying that filming on the beach was uncomfortable. Maybe she knew that there was something special about the show right from the very beginning. Or maybe she was just pulling our leg. Filming a show on a beach doesn’t sound that bad if you ask us.
Why, It’s the Monkees
If you weren’t around during the sixties, you should go back and listen to some of that stuff. You might like it! Lots of people did at the time, and especially the people behind “I Dream of Jeannie.” They were put together by a producer to become a fictional band for the show “The Monkees,” which meant they were often seen on other shows.
“I Dream of Jeannie” made several nods to the other show, and the people who were actually behind writing the music for “The Monkees,” Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, made a number of cameos with Jeannie as part of the band that she created. The band that she created inside the show, at least. If you could snap your fingers and have famous musicians help you make music, wouldn’t you?
One Lamp Remaining
If you’re a big fan of the show, you might be looking for a piece of genuine prop magic from the show. Well, you might be able to find something, but if you’re after a lamp like Jeannie was trapped in, you’re pretty much out of luck. You see, after the show finished its fifth season, they knew it was over and realized they had to do something with the set.
The studio executives decided that the best thing they could do was...burn it. Yes, really. This was so that they didn’t have to pay storage costs. This burn included almost all of the props from the show, but Barbara Eden couldn’t bear to see every single thing she had worked with for the last five years burn up, so she kept one of the lamp props.
Fans of the Fanservice
Jeannie’s outfits were infamous while they were on television. It was a famously risque look, with see-through harem pants and a rather tight top, but there was one element that never made it onto the screen – Barbara Eden’s belly button! Despite her being rather famously uncovered for the most part. The show made the choice to make her pants high-waisted enough to keep her belly button from being revealed. This is even stranger since belly buttons have already been seen on TV in shows such as “Gilligan’s Island.”
The network threatened fines if Eden’s navel made an appearance, and there were apparently long discussions about whether they should show it or not. The belly button never made an “official” appearance, but sharp-eyed viewers can catch a glimpse if they know when to look.
Her Most Famous Role
It isn’t uncommon for a veteran actor or actress to become well-known for a single role – often, this isn’t a bad thing, but some people can be frustrated when they try to play something else. Just check out the problems Leonard Nimoy had after he was done playing Mr. Spock from “Star Trek.” Barbara Eden spent five years as the magical Jeannie, so no doubt most people knew her as that character far more than anything else.
Though this can be frustrating to a working actor, Eden stated that she didn’t really mind it in spite of a long career in Hollywood. She just seems like a pretty cool person, all things considered. She could have easily been annoyed at people calling her Jeannie all her life, but she just went with it.
Coming Up With Ideas for the Show
Not only was Barbara Eden the title character of “I Dream of Jeannie” and easily the most famous part, but she also helped to come up with a couple of things that gave the show its look. It seems like an easy choice for Jeannie’s main genie costume to have a pink color, but Eden asked for it, creating an outfit that would be copied and loved for decades to come.
She also had the idea to give the bottle she came out of a purple trim, helping it pop on the screen and giving it a little bit of a mystical quality. Eden only had the opportunity to make these decisions because the show began in black and white in the first season before moving over to color after that.
That’s Kinda Mean
There’s one episode (“Tony’s Wife”) that has to do with Jeannie’s evil twin sister (who is also named Jeannie, remember). At the end of the episode, Tony Nelson traps Jeannie II inside a perfume bottle. The show used an oversized mock-up of the bottle to show Jeannie II inside it, which Barbara Eden could not get out of without help from the crew.
The director wanted to get a realistic performance out of Eden for the shot of Jeannie II banging on the inside of the bottle and crying for help, so he had everyone on the set leave for lunch and pretend they had forgotten Eden while she was in the bottle while a camera was still rolling. This shot actually made it into the final cut of the episode.
Playing Her Own Mother
A number of actresses showed up on the series as Jeannie’s not-too-kind mother (who apparently doesn’t have a name other than “Jeannie’s Mother”). In a pair of episodes in season one she is played by first Florence Sundstrom (episode two), then by Lurene Tuttle (episode fourteen). After that, the show made the somewhat odd decision to have Barbara Eden play her own mother in the following appearances.
They used some heavy makeup, a gray wig, and a pair of glasses to turn her into an older version of herself in two episodes of season four — two and eighteen — but it wasn’t fooling anybody. At the very least, the two characters did actually have a resemblance, which is what usually happens between mother and daughter. You might not like it, but that’s how it works.
Getting the Husband in on the Magic
We’ve mentioned that Eden’s real husband, Michael Ansara, had a part as the “Blue Djinn,” whom Jeannie had scorned two thousand years ago. But that wasn’t the only time he showed up. He was also the legendary King of the Hawaiian islands, King Kamehameha in season three, and Major Biff Jellico in season five. We don’t get a lot of characters named Biff anymore, do we? Shame.
In that final appearance, he catches the eye of Jeannie II, and the two get a little friendly (because Jeannie II wants it to seem like Jeannie is being unfaithful), as much as the networks would allow at the time, anyway. Who better to have played the character you get intimate with than your real-life husband? He also got to direct an episode late in season five, “One Jeannie Beats Four of a Kind.”
Even the Magic Must End
At the end of season five, in 1970, drooping ratings led to the show being canceled. But Barbara Eden was now a bona fide star in and outside Hollywood. Right after the show ended, she was on to her next projects. She filmed a couple of pilots for a pair of shows – the first was called “The Barbara Eden Show,” and the second was for a series called “The Toy Game.” Neither show was picked up by networks, and neither of the pilots was ever aired.
We’ve unearthed a little bit of information about both of these little-known projects. We can’t tell you why they weren’t picked up – certainly, Eden’s name alone would have given them a boost, but here’s what we know anyway.
A Show of Her Own Name
In “The Barbara Eden Show,” Eden plays a woman named Barbara Norris, who serves as the head writer for a hit soap opera. Her real life, however, is just as hectic as the storylines that she’s writing. She has to deal with the show’s mean star, who refuses to go along with the plots that she’s come up with, and there are plenty of other problems that come up while working on the show.
Meanwhile, her family at home, which includes her son and either her husband or boyfriend, sources are split, is just as difficult for her to handle. Other members of the cast include Moosie Drier, Joe Flynn, Roger Perry, Lyle Waggoner, Bob Harks, and Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi from “The Karate Kid”).
Toys Are Serious Business
“The Toy Game” has even less information to give us. The only thing we can glean from the internet about the story is that Barbara Eden plays the CEO of a toy company, and she has to compete with a rival toy company and CEO, played by her old friend Larry Hagman. Once again, Moosie Drier is part of the cast, as are Joe Flynn and Lyle Waggoner, but this time, we also get Reta Shaw. That’s basically the only information that we can discover about it.
Both of these shows were comedies, and we’re still surprised that neither of them even got a chance with an initial season. Even though her on-screen husband was acting with her in the second show, it didn’t get picked up or even aired.
Back Into Movies
Barbara Eden had to take a break from movies while working on “I Dream of Jeannie,” so once that show came to a close, she was able to get back into movie projects. Her first choice after playing the lady in the bottle was “The Feminist and the Fuzz,” a made-for-TV movie in 1971 in which Eden plays a women’s lib advocate who meets Officer Jerry Frazer while they both view an apartment.
While their worldviews clash (Frazer’s “ladies first” attitude ruffles Eden’s feathers), they have to pose as a married couple due to a misunderstanding and a lack of affordable housing. Both members of this fake couple already have significant others, so there are plenty of misunderstandings. And hijinx! Oh boy, are there ever hijinx? But we think we know where this one is going.
Not Just Romantic Comedies
For so long, Eden had played the romantic lead in movies and shows, and she wanted to try something a little different. For that reason, she took the top spot in the TV film “A Howling in the Woods,” which also came out in 1971. She starred alongside her old pal Larry Hagman in this thriller film directed by Daniel Petrie. Eden plays Liza Crocker, a disillusioned housewife who plans to divorce her husband, Eddie, played by Hagman.
She returns to her family home in Nevada to visit her stepmother, discovering that she has a new step-brother, her father is missing, there’s a whole lot of mysterious behavior by the townsfolk, and, most frightening, there is a peculiar howling coming from the woods every night.
A Few More TV Movies
We’re not sure why, but Eden was sticking to TV movies for the most part in the years after “I Dream of Jeannie” stopped. Maybe she just liked the filming process better. From 1972 to 1974, she appeared in one TV movie per year. Hey, she’s earned a little bit of a break. In 1972, she starred in “The Woman Hunter,” a mystery film in which Eden plays Dina Hunter, who gets to know an artist she comes to believe has a criminal past.
In 1973, she was in the film “Guess Who’s Sleeping in My Bed?” as Francine Gregory, a divorced woman whose ex-husband comes to live with her, bringing his new wife, baby, and dog. Finally, “The Stranger Within” was a science-fiction horror film that tried to capitalize on “Rosemary’s Baby” with a twist.
Something for the Kids
Eden clearly loved to make grownup material, but she also had a chance to take a little break and make something fun for the whole family. In 1974, she appeared in a prime-time special that aired on ABC in December, with her acting as one of the ABC newscasters, along with people such as Elliott Gould and Carol Burnett.
She and the other newscasters stepped out of the office to go get lunch, which meant that someone had to fill in during that time – who better than the “Sesame Street” muppets? Bert and Ernie, Grover, the Cookie Monster, and a couple of other familiar faces decided to make their break into the news business, needing to make up an hour of programming. “The Electric Company” also stopped by to give them a hand.
A Change in Husband
As is so common and frequent when it comes to Hollywood couples, the relationship between Barbara Eden and their husband, Michael Ansara, didn’t last. They married in 1958 and divorced in 1974 for a reason largely unknown. It didn’t take long for gentleman callers to start beating a path to her door, however. Only three years later, in 1977, Eden married a man named Charles Fegert, though that relationship would only last five whole years.
Skipping ahead a bit, Eden would find love a third time with a man named Jon Eicholtz, whom she married in 1991. As of this writing, the two are still together. Through all that, Eden only had one child, Matthew Ansara. He apparently made a couple of appearances in “I Dream of Jeannie” as a young boy.
Back to the Silver Screen
After a long time away from theater movies, Eden jumped back in with the 1976 crime comedy film “The Amazing Dobermans,” also starring Fred Astaire and James Franciscus. It was the third film in the trilogy, starting with “The Doberman Gang” in 1972. Astaire, his five trained Dobermans, and a gambler have to go undercover at a circus, where they come up with an act involving the dogs.
Eden plays a circus performer named Justine Pirot, who starts a relationship with the character that Franciscus plays. All three of them have to come together to stop a plot of a mob boss who intends to rob an armored car hauling the circus’s box office take. It doesn’t seem to have made many waves in Hollywood.
Another Big Hit
While also filming a couple of smaller TV movies, Eden was cast as the lead in the film “Harper Valley PTA,” an independent movie based on a song that turns up the raunch a whole lot. Eden played Stella Johnson, a widowed cosmetics salesperson whose way of doing life tends to cause trouble around her.
She eventually becomes the president of the PTA after the events of the film. Against a budget of only one million dollars, the movie was a smashing success at the box office, making twenty-five million dollars. The film didn’t fare as well with critics, but what do they know? The movie was such a hit that it led to a television series a few years later.
The Show of the Movie
The “Harper Valley PTA” series ran for two years, from January 1981 to August 1982, comprising thirty episodes. Barbara Eden starred in the entire thing, along with names such as Fannie Flagg, Jenn Thompson, Anne Francine, and Bridget Hanley. Also, Eden once again plays her own evil twin just by putting on a black wig – no doubt this was mostly just an homage to Eden’s far more famous earlier series.
Most of the humor came from the same thing as the movie – Eden’s character flouting the small town’s conventions and exposing the hypocrisy of the most notorious residents. She tangled with different families, the town’s mayor, and had an eccentric uncle who was always trying to invent something, though his gadgets never worked right.
Showing Off the Gams
You probably know by now that Eden had a lot of physical advantages going for her, including her long and shapely legs. To that point, she acted as the spokeswoman for the L’eggs brand pantyhose from 1979 to 1983, appearing in a series of print ads as well as TV commercials for the brand. This product actually radically changed the hosiery marketplace by coming in egg-shaped plastic containers and the in-store product racks that emphasized egg containers.
In the seventies and early eighties, pantyhose was a big part of women’s fashion, but as the eighties rolled on, their share of the market started to dwindle. However, thanks to the revolutions that the product had created and the help of Barbara Eden, L’egg maintained a lot of the market share even into the nineties.
Her Time on the Stage
Eden had been a star in big movies and the leading lady of one of television’s most popular shows – what was left? Well, how about starring in theater productions? Eden had actually taken the stage a number of times since 1964, but her most popular outing was probably as Tess Harding in “Woman of the Year” in 1984. She plays a busy TV personality who gets into a relationship with a handsome cartoonist.
This was the play’s first national tour after none other than Lauren Bacall had played the main character during the Broadway run. Tess is up for the eponymous award, but she has to decide between her career and her relationship and needs a lot of help figuring out what will truly make her happy.
Bringing the Band Back Together
While on the road with the “Woman of the Year” show, Eden couldn't do much other acting, but after that, it was back to her most popular role. In 1985, she starred in the film “I Dream of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later.” It was the first of two reunion films for the famous series. It’s been fifteen years since we last saw the characters. Jeannie has been a housewife for fifteen years, and Tony Nelson is being promoted to Colonel, soon to retire from the NASA space program.
Jeannie wants to throw a party for him, but, as you might expect, complications arise. There’s even a space flight that is in danger of being struck by a meteor! The audience even thinks that Jeannie and Tony are broken up at the end until Jeannie uses some magic to fix things.
She Still Had It
Ratings were good enough for the television special that NBC decided they would run it on prime time for a second showing. T.J. Nelson, the child of Jeannie and Tony, is revealed to have the same magic powers as his mother, which adds a whole new wrinkle to the story. Barbara Eden clearly still had the magic she did back when the show was on the air, but Larry Hagman did not.
He was starring in the CBS series “Dallas” at the time and wasn’t able to reprise his role of Tony Nelson. Instead, actor Wayne Rogers filled in for him. The film even went back to the very same beach where the show began, the same one where Tony Nelson found Jeannie’s bottle.
Slowing Things Down a Little
By this point, Barbara Eden was in her fifties and one of the most famous actresses around, even if she wasn’t a premium A-list star. After reprising her most famous role, she decided to slow down a little bit. The only other thing she did until 1987 was appear in the documentary about Academy Award-winning producer and director George Pal.
The documentary came out in 1985 and has Pal himself and a lot of other people, including Eden, talking about Pal’s work. Other than that bit, Eden didn’t do anything other than appear on stage for the play “South Pacific” in 1986. Only one movie and a play to perform? It’s like she was on vacation! Eden clearly liked to stay busy, but even she needed to relax for a little while.
Her Musical Career
We’ve talked about her movies, her shows, and her plays, but there’s one part of Barbara Eden’s career we haven’t touched on just yet. Eden grew up with her mother singing to her, and she started her entertainment career singing in nightclubs. She was in a couple of musical films and theater productions, but she also released an album of songs all the way back in 1967. It was called “Miss Barbara Eden” and was released through Dot Records.
It didn’t really make all that much press, but it was another way that Eden displayed she had the all-around star power to be a hit in Hollywood. She also performed a couple of songs for the “Harper Valley PTA” soundtrack, just to round out her career.
Moving Into the Nineties
Eden had a couple of films in the eighties, including “Creepshow 2” in 1987. It wouldn’t be until 1996 that Eden would appear in another feature film, but her television films before the end of the decade include stunning pieces of work such as “The Stepford Children,” “The Secret Life of Kathy McCormick,” and “Your Mother Wears Combat Boots.”
As you can probably guess, none of them really moved the needle as far as career goes. She also showed up in a sextet of episodes of the show “Brand New Life” from 1989 to 1990. As it turns out, that was the entire show. It was a television series that originally premiered as a two-hour television movie pilot. It’s a little like “The Brady Bunch” for a new era, with Eden’s character having three kids and marrying a widower with three of his own kids.
Her Career Overall
Here’s a weird thing about Barbara Eden’s career. She made worldwide news as Jeannie, she was in a couple of good movies, and she had a couple of other things get general attention, but other than that...she hasn’t done a great deal that has made people really stand up and take notice.
She was never nominated for an Academy Award, but she got a couple of Golden Globe nominations for her work on “I Dream of Jeannie,” winning neither of them, and had a couple of after-the-fact awards once her career had more or less come to a close like a TV Land Award in 2003, but that’s about all she can boast about. Still, she’s a beloved figure that almost anyone from the era will have fond memories of – even if it was just the harem pants.
Joining up With Hagman Once More
Since the beginning of the show “Dallas,” Larry Hagman was one of the main characters. It followed an affluent and feuding Texas family who owned an oil company. Hagman played J.R. Ewing, one of the show’s most popular characters. The show started in 1978 and ran all the way until 1991, and J.R. was the only character to have appeared in every episode – a total of three hundred and seventy-five.
In 1990, Barbara Eden got to appear as LeeAnn De La Vega with her old on-screen beau, in five episodes until the end of the show. LeeAnn was an entrepreneur from J.R.’s past who came back for some revenge. She had been in a relationship with him, but it had ended quite badly.
A Little Bit of a Boost
Her time on “Dallas” ended up revitalizing Eden’s career a little bit. After “Dallas” was done, Eden starred in the play “Same Time, Next Year” as the character Doris. 1991 also saw her release a trio of television movies. Two of them are not all that important. They were “Her Wicked Ways” and “Hell Hath No Fury.” The first deals with Eden as a TV reporter and White House correspondent who has to deal with the secrets of a young woman who is a little too obsessed with her.
The second has Eden as a housewife who is accused of killing her husband while being terrorized by the woman who was actually responsible. The third of three, however, was “I Still Dream of Jeannie,” the second of two reunion movies from the famous series.
Third Time’s the Charm
Barbara Eden and Bill Daily were the only two regular cast members who came back for this second TV movie. Larry Hagman was unable to join, thanks to finally completing Dallas and wanting to relax for a bit (We also heard that he had issues with the script). While the character Tony Nelson is mentioned in the film, and he briefly appears in the animated opening sequence, he doesn’t appear for the rest of it.
His character’s spot was taken by someone played by Ken Kercheval, who ironically played a competitor of J.R. Ewing on “Dallas.” It is, even for “I Dream of Jeannie,” kind of a goofy story, with Tony Nelson on a top-secret space mission. Jeannie and TJ have to break into NASA to find out more.
A Sour Reception
Despite Barbara Eden always being great as Jeannie, people generally just didn’t like this movie. It’s the kind of thing you might want to watch if you’re a fan of the show (which ended twenty years prior to this, remember), but if you aren’t, you really had no reason to tune in. It comes in at a whopping five point three stars on IMDb.
The film aired on October 20th, 1991, which was exactly six years after the broadcast of “I Dream of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later.” NBC originally commissioned the film to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the original television series. Even Bill Daily, the only other original cast member to show up, said he disliked the reunion movies since he thought the scripts were weak, and neither of them had Larry Hagman.
Taking the World by Storm
Eden wasn’t about to let the poor reception to “I Still Dream of Jeannie” slow her down. Her next big project was joining none other than Don Knotts on an eleven-city national tour as part of the play “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” in 1993. For the rest of the nineties, Eden was also in the stage plays “Nite Club Confidential” in 1995, which is a musical that debuted off-Broadway in 1984 and which regularly received negative reviews, and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
The latter was a classic bit of Broadway that has come and gone a number of times, and Eden was part of the 1998 production that didn’t make very much press. Eden has spent a lot of time on the stage, and she seemed to enjoy it, but it was never a big part of her career.
The Rest of the Nineties
Now past the sixty-year mark and still looking great, Barb was taking things a bit slower again. She didn’t show up on television screens after her time in Dallas (other than reruns). She had a trio of television films to pad her resume. The first two were “Visions of Murder” and its sequel, “Eyes of Terror.” Eden plays Dr. Jesse Newman, a San Francisco psychologist who is caught in a web of suspicion and intrigue when she starts to experience paranormal visions. Newman becomes a prime suspect in a murder.
The sequel does more or less the same thing, with Newman now looking into the city’s elite. Both of the films were part of NBC’s Friday night movie series, with the first being “NBC Friday Night at the Movies” and the second being “Friday Night Mysteries.”
Acting With Captain Kirk
The final television movie Eden was in during the nineties was “Dead Man’s Island,” and she got to appear with the captain himself, William Shatner. Eden plays Henrietta O’Dwyer Collins, often known as just Henrie O, who is an investigative journalist. Shatner plays her friend, who calls her to a mysterious and remote island, thinking that someone is trying to kill him.
It becomes a thriller murder mystery as they try to discover who could be the one out to get him. Made for CBS, this film was shown on television in March of 1996. It’s based on the novel of the same name by Carolyn Hart, which was released in 1993. It was yet another of the many TV movies that Eden has been in that, when stacked together, just create a pile of mid-tier (at best) films.
Getting Brady With It
The single feature film that Eden took part in during the nineties was the film “A Very Brady Sequel,” and she even got to play a familiar character. Instead of being a big part of the film, Eden showed up, once again, as Jeannie, but this time it was just a cameo appearance. She appeared alongside other cameos, such as Rosie O’Donnell, David Spade, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and more.
While we doubt her appearance made much of a difference, the film was seen mostly as a failure, and it made less than half of what the first Brady movie made. Clearly, Eden’s time in the spotlight had come to an end. But who knows – maybe the new millennium would have something for her. And, indeed, it did.
One of the Odd Ones
It was the year two thousand, and Barbara Eden was sixty-nine years old. But that didn’t mean she was out of the business at all. In fact, in that year, she began one of her more successful ventures – she got a starring role in “The Odd Couple: The Female Version,” a version of the famous play that first appeared on Broadway in 1985 and written by Neil Simon.
He adapted a play of his own from 1965 that had two male roommates trying to do life together, and he updated it so that a pair of women could play the leads. According to our sources, she played the role on and off for four or five years, depending on how you count it. She played opposite Rita MacKenzie.
A Terrible Blow
While it seems like Eden’s life was nothing but magic and good memories, in 2001, her life was rocked by one of the worst things that could happen to a person – the death of a child. Her one and only child, Matthew Ansara, died of excessive use of illegal substances at the age of thirty-five. Eden says that she had an emotional breakdown when she found out, and she’s said that not a day goes by when she doesn’t think of her son.
She and her husband Michael had to try for seven years before they were finally able to conceive, and it’s easy to see Eden’s pregnancy during the first season of “I Dream of Jeannie.” Eden went on to say that she doesn’t think there’s anything worse than losing a child.
A Little More Magic
Any show that wanted a dose of magic knew where to go. They’d go to the source and get Barbara Eden, and this includes the magical show “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” from 1996. Eden appeared as Great Aunt Irma, the matriarch of the magical family, but she didn’t first show up until 2002. She was referred to as the “Dreaded holy terror of the Other Realm,” which tells you all you need to know.
Her being on the show was never a good thing, and she eventually became the Head of the Witches Council, Ruler of the Other Realm, and Queen of All Witches. So, you know, don’t make her mad. This was even referenced in an episode of “IT Crowd,” in which a character refers to her “time of the month” as “Aunt Irma visiting.”
Using Her Voice
While it’s likely that Eden's most popular attributes are her good looks, she’s also used her voice for a couple of different things, and not just singing! She’s also known for doing a little bit of voice work on animated shows, such as the children’s TV series “Shimmer and Shine.” In the show, Eden voices a teacher who is also a genie. She helps the main characters rescue a princess from a crystal cave.
We’re starting to feel like the poor gal has been a little typecast! Eden also voices the same character in a season-three episode called “Samira and Zeta,” revealing that Eden’s character was a teacher at Genie Hall, which is where a bunch of the main characters, including the main antagonist, go to school.
A Play With an Old Friend
In her old age, Barbara Eden seemed to be enjoying the stage more and more. Maybe it was being able to work directly in front of fans. Maybe it was the lack of cameras. Whatever it was, she even got her old friend Larry Hagman in on the fun as well. Apparently, audiences just couldn’t get enough of these two acting together. Of course, they had years and years of experience and chemistry working together. For that reason, the two of them performed in 2006 on the stage, rather than the screen.
It was a play called “Love Letters,” and there were apparently a pair of performances at Staten Island College and West Point. Hagman had already performed the play in the nineties. Eden would reprise her role in 2013 for a special one-night-only show and then again in 2019.
Always Doing Something More
After yet another jaunt on stage, Eden was trying to figure out what she should do next. She found a guest-starring role in the Lifetime series “Army Wives,” a drama series that follows the lives of four army wives, one army husband, and their families. It turns out there might have been a little nepotism at work when it came to this job – the show was written and produced by Eden’s niece, Katherine Fugate.
Then, in 2008, Eden decided to film a made-for-TV movie, “Always & Forever,” with the Hallmark Channel. It was released in 2009, and she stars as Mary Anderson, and this project was small enough to not even earn a page on Wikipedia. It was...okay, is what we’re seeing. Eden played the main character’s mom.
A True Star
Barbara Eden has bounced around from one project to the next, never really staying put, and only a few of the things she put her time into are remembered nowadays. But she still earned her place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She might not have ever succeeded in getting an Oscar, a Tony, or a Grammy (though that wasn’t very likely anyway), but she still got her name down Hollywood Boulevard.
Barbara Eden had her star right between Roger Wagner and actor Barry Fitzgerald in 1988. She’s sung, acted, made magic, and made us laugh, and one of the great things about the Hollywood Walk of Fame is it doesn’t require you to have all that critical fame and awards. If people loved you, you might just get a spot.
Missing Her Captain Nelson
In 2012, Larry Hagman passed away due to complications from acute myeloid leukemia. In response to the news, Eden looked back on her first day of shooting for “I Dream of Jeannie.” It was apparently very cold that day, and Eden could still remember what it was like that very first day. Larry had become the center of so many fun, shocking, and wild moments.
Eden knew that those moments would live with her forever, even if she wouldn’t be able to see him anymore. She called him one of the most intelligent actors she had ever worked with and also said that he was incredibly savvy about the business side of things – and also admitted that she was not. It was barely even work acting opposite him in “I Dream of Jeannie.”
Bring out the Books
Not only did Barbara Eden have plenty of talents when it came to singing or acting, but she also got to be creative as a writer, too. She’s a published author with a pair of books to her name. The first one was a book titled “Barbara Eden: My Story,” and it primarily goes over the details of her rise to fame. It was published in 1989 to a small amount of acclaim, and she would later update it in 2011 into “Jeannie Out of the Bottle,” which had more information.
In it, she chronicled her personal life and Hollywood career of more than fifty years, as well as her marriages to Michael Ansara, Charles Fegert, and Jon Eicholtz. She also had more information about her time dealing with the death of her son.
Not Gifted in the Kitchen
You may or may not be aware that there is a show called “Worst Cooks in America.” Well, in 2016, they had a special called “Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition.” Now, there are some celebrities who are quite talented in the kitchen. Barbara Eden, apparently, isn’t one of them.
She and the other contestants had to go through a culinary boot camp, with fifty grand on the line toward their favorite charity. She didn’t have the best time, as she was booted off on only the second episode out of only seven. Well, at least she beat Kenya Moore, who was almost half her age at the time – Eden was the oldest contestant by far at the age of eighty-five.
The Final Feature Film
At this point, the last feature film that Barbara Eden has been in was called “My Adventures With Santa.” She might not have played the title character (that would be a little odd), but she did get to dress up as Mrs. Claus. A family enters an enchanted store, only to discover that the store isn’t exactly what it seems.
It’s an Amazon Prime movie, which might tell you a little bit about its quality. It stars such other stars as Denise Richards and Patrick Muldoon. Right now, on IMDb, it holds a rather depressing four-point two out of ten, and it seems like it’s lucky to even get that high from what we can see of it. IMDb sometimes doesn’t know what to do with bad movies.
The Magic Is Still With Us
As of this writing, Barbara Eden is alive and kicking in her nineties old. Her last piece of acting has been applying her voice to, once again, Jeannie in a trio of YouTube-only specials under the title of “Master Dearest, from the Diaries of Jeannie.” Other than just that little bit, she hasn’t done anything since the beginning of 2020, but that probably has to do with a bunch of things.
Maybe she’s done acting at this point – once you get into your nineties, it’s a little hard to have the energy. But maybe she still has something magical in her. It remains to be seen, but we can all sit back and be glad that we got to enjoy all of the fun and joy that this leading lady was able to give us over the years.