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I Dream of Jeannie follows the adventures of astronaut Captain Tony Nelson, whose one-man capsule comes down near a deserted island in the South Pacific.
On reaching the beach, Tony notices an unusual bottle rolling back and forth on the sand. He reaches down to take a closer look, but when he takes out the stopper and rubs the bottle a genie in a pink harem outfit appears in a puff of smoke and kisses him on the lips. At first, Jeannie is unable to speak English – but what are genies for if not to grant wishes? Having solved their communication problems with his first wish, Tony asks the newly English-speaking Jeannie to send a recovery helicopter. With a blink of her eyes one appears. Before heading home he grants her her freedom – but Jeannie has fallen in love with Tony and decides to go with him. Before he leaves, she rolls her bottle into his bag – and so begins their life together in the U.S.A.
Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) – Tony is an astronaut with the United States Air Force. When his one-man capsule lands in uncharted territory, he finds a bottle containing a genie. Though he tries to let her go, she is devoted to him and stows away in his bag (there are certain things it’s easier to do when you’re a genie). Once back home, Jeannie’s devotion and desire to fulfill her genie heritage cause all manner of problems for Tony, and his attempts to cover up her exploits make his own behavior look increasingly odd. That doesn’t escape the attention of NASA’s resident psychiatrist, Dr. Alfred Bellows, who sets out to prove to his superiors that Tony is either insane or hiding something. Luckily for Tony, he’s never quite able to manage it.
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Jeannie (Barbara Eden) – Jeannie is a “genie” whose 2,000 year imprisonment in a bottle finally ends when Captain Tony Nelson discovers it and gives it a rub. She immediately falls in love with him and devotes her life to her new master. Blond, beautiful Jeannie wants Tony all to herself and one of her first actions is to put an end to his engagement to his commanding general’s daughter. Happily for Tony there’s one limitation to Jeannie’s astonishing powers: she’s unable to use them if she’s in a confined space, a fact he puts to good use to check her most extreme behavior.
Roger Healey (Bill Daily) – Roger is Tony’s best friend and a fellow astronaut. When he finds out about Tony’s bottle-based acquisition, Roger steals Jeannie so that he can live a life of luxury. Unfortunately for him, Tony soon reclaims her and for the most part Roger respects Tony’s status as her master after that. He is a good friend to both Tony and Jeannie over the years.
Dr. Alfred Bellows (Hayden Rorke) – Dr. Bellows is NASA’s resident psychiatrist and a Colonel with the United States Air Force. While convinced that Tony is either crazy or hiding something, he is never able to prove it – which tends to make him feel just a little bit crazy himself.
Amanda Bellows (Emmaline Henry) – The wife of Dr. Alfred Bellows, Amanda is on the same page as her husband as far as Tony Nelson’s behavior is concerned.
Photo Courtesy of NBC
Main Cast
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Tony Nelson | Larry Hagman |
| Jeannie | Barbara Eden |
| Roger Healey | Bill Daily |
| Dr. Alfred Bellows | Hayden Rorke |
| Amanda Bellows | Emmaline Henry |
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Additional Cast
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| General Peterson | Barton MacLane |
| General Schaeffer | Vinton Hayworth |
| Henry Tracy | Woodrow Parfrey |
| Bartender | Joseph V. Perry |
| Arabian Reverend | Benny Rubin |
| Air Policeman #2 | Jerry Shane |
| Sergeant | Don Mitchell |
| Haji | Abraham Sofaer |
| Allen Kerr | Paul Lynde |
| Congressman Widdicomb | Jack Smith |
| Burly Nurse | Jane Dulo |
| Biff Jellico | Michael Ansara |
| Miss Murphy | Ila Britton |
| Campbell | Arthur Adams |
| Hamid | Frank De Vol |
| Corporal | Xavier Nash |
| Jude Miller | J. Pat O’Malley |
| Botanist | Chet Stratton |
| Sam Farrow | William Bassett |
| Captain Yardley | Dabney Coleman |
| Dean Geller | Booth Colman |
| Mr. Phillips | Ted di Corsia |
| Azmire | Ronald Long |
| Annie | Reta Shaw |
| Suleiman | Jackie Coogan |
| General Whetherby | Harold Gould |
| Melissa | Karen Sharpe |
| Judy Carne | Herself |
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Trivia
Larry Hagman’s ranch in Ojai, California was called Heaven.
While Barbara Eden is best known for I Dream of Jeannie she starred in many films and was one of Elvis Presley’s leading ladies in Flaming Star.
Bill Daily (Roger Healey) was drafted into the Korean War, where he served in an artillery unit. He also performed entertainment shows for numerous units with actor and musician Dick Contino.
Larry Hagman (Major Anthony Nelson) once dated actress Joan Collins of Dynasty fame.
The pink harem costume that Barbara Eden wore as Jeannie is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Hayden Rorke (Dr. Bellows) appeared in major films and on Broadway before working in television.
Larry Hagman’s autobiography, published in 2001, was called Hello Darlin’: Tall (and Absolutely True) Tales About My Life.
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In 2002, Barbara Eden (Jeannie) accepted an invitation from President Bush to the annual lighting of the national Christmas tree event at the White House. She sang Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and hosted the show and pageant with the President and First Lady.
Bill Daily was a regular on The Bob Newhart Show.
Emmaline Henry (Amanda Bellows) appeared in a guest spot in season 1 of I Dream of Jeannie before she was cast as Amanda Bellows.
In the episode entitled “My Poor Master the Civilian” we see (via Jeannie) what Tony’s life would look like if he quit the space program and took a civilian job. One of the sets used for his ‘office’ is the same as that used for the office of Darrin Stephens in Bewitched.
Larry Hagman was in the United States Air Force and produced as well as directed several series.
Barbara Eden’s memoir Jeannie Out of the Bottle was published in 2011.
Because NBC did not expect the series to last beyond the first season they refused to fund the extra cost of filming season one in color. The show’s creator, Sidney Sheldon, said in his autobiography The Other Side Of Me, that he offered to pay the extra $400 an episode himself. Jerry Hyams, an executive at Screen Gems Television, one of the production companies for the series, told him, “Sidney, don’t throw your money away.”
Larry Hagman is actress Bridget Fonda’s godfather.
Barbara Eden’s husband, Michael Ansara, directed one episode of the series and guest-starred in three of them.
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Hayden Rorke’s final screen appearance was in 1985 in the reunion movie I Dream of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later.
Before Bill Daily’s television popularity, he was well-known as a stand-up comedian.
Though Larry Hagman did not appear on either of the I Dream of Jeannie reunion movies, he did appear on several promotional events and reunion shows with Barbara Eden and Bill Daily.
Barbara Eden was married three times and had one child, a son named Matthew. Sadly, before Matthew was born she also suffered a miscarriage and had a baby that was stillborn.
Larry Hagman is best known for his work on the television series Dallas as the underhanded Texas oil man J.R. Ewing. He was the only actor in Dallas to star in every single episode. This also gave him the record for the most consecutive appearances by a leading actor in an hour long prime time dramatic series, at 357.
Barbara Eden was pregnant during the show’s first season, a fact that her rather skimpy outfit made difficult to disguise. Close-up shots came to the rescue, together with a large veil to cover her front.
Larry Hagman was a devoted Sopranos fan.
Bill Daily had two chances at having his own show but neither worked out. He did, however, have a recurring role as Larry the psychiatrist in the cult favorite ALF.
The property used as Tony Nelson’s house is still standing today. It is located on Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, California, where it is now being used as the Ranch Operations Office. Despite a few cosmetic changes, it is almost exactly the same as it was 50 years ago.
As a result of heavy drinking, Larry Hagman developed cirrhosis of the liver and had a transplant in 1995. He spent seven weeks in hospital and had a sixteen hour operation that saved his life. One year after the transplant Hagman served as the National Spokesperson for the 1996 U.S. Transplant Games. He continued serving as an advocate of both transplantation and organ donation until his death.
Barbara Eden chose the colors of her harem outfit as well as the color of the trim on her bottle.
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Larry Hagman sent flowers to his ex-Dallas co-star, Cathy Podewell, every year on her birthday. Cathy played one of his wives, Cally Ewing.
Barbara Eden was Miss San Francisco of 1951.
Hayden Rorke was the son of stage and screen actress Margaret Rorke.
Sidney Sheldon originally wanted a brunette to play Jeannie because he did not want her to appear too similar to the character of Samantha in Bewitched. However, after failing to find anyone he felt played the character the way he had written her, he turned to Barbara Eden. She had impressed him in the movie The Brass Bottle, which was where he came up with the idea for the series.
Larry Hagman was a resolute non-smoker after quitting and served as the chairperson of the American Cancer Society’s “Great American Smokeout” from 1981 to 1992. He was also a great supporter of the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
In her autobiography Jeannie Out of the Bottle Barbara Eden said “It wasn’t an issue until the media made it an issue.” She was talking about her navel.
Larry Hagman met actress Donna Mills while working on the short-lived series The Good Life in 1971. She also worked on the series Knots Landing with him several years later. The two remained best friends for 41 years until Larry died.
When Barbara Eden made a guest appearance on I Love Lucy Lucille Ball wanted to put her under contract. Instead Barbara signed with 20th Century Fox.
Hayden Rorke was gay and had a longtime partner, director Justus Addiss.
When Larry Hagman was young his idol was actor Jim Davis. Davis would go on to play Hagman’s television father in Dallas until his death in 1981, and Hagman kept a portrait of Davis hanging in his home.
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In the first season, which was filmed in black and white, the smoke effect was created using a screen overlay sometimes combined with animation. When the series’ was first shot in color animation alone was used for the effect. Later, they graduated to a live smoke pack, which lifted out of Jeannie’s bottle on a wire.
Larry Hagman died of throat cancer at Medical City Dallas Hospital on November 23, 2012 at the age of 81. Both Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray were at his bedside when he died.
During the Persian Gulf War, Barbara Eden traveled with Bob Hope to the Middle East to perform for the troops.
Bill Daily appeared in both the I Dream of Jeannie reunion movies.
The characters of both Tony and Roger were promoted from the rank of captain to major during the first season.
Hayden Rorke enlisted in the army during World War II. Whilst serving he performed in his first film, This is the Army, with future President Ronald Reagan.
The harem shoes that Jeannie wore were made by Neiman Marcus. They were made in three different colors: pink for Jeannie, green for Jeannie’s evil twin sister (Jeannie II) and white. Decorated initially with beads and lace, the insole was printed with “Taj From India”.
Larry Hagman used to visit the home of Patrick Duffy’s parents when he was just a teenager, before Patrick was born. It was Hagman who suggested both that Patrick audition for Dallas and that he should return after leaving the previous season, which turned out later to be the “dream season”. The two were good friends throughout the series and beyond.
Barbara Eden guest-starred on the popular Lifetime series Army Wives.
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Larry Hagman was married to his wife, Maj Axelsson, for nearly 60 years at the time of his death. They had two children together.
Barbara Eden put on her ‘Jeannie’ costume at the 21st Life Ball in Vienna at the age of 78. She was escorted on stage by former Olympic swimmer Greg Louganis and singer Fergie. After she did her blink and nod gesture, President Bill Clinton appeared.
Although the series was set around Cape Kennedy and Cocoa Beach in Florida, it was filmed mostly in California. The crew made only two visits to Florida’s Space Coast, both in 1969. The first was in June for a parade, where the cast was escorted to the Cocoa Beach City Hall, then on to Cape Canaveral where Barbara Eden pressed a button to launch a Loki-Dart weather rocket. Later that night, they went to Lee Caron’s Carnival Club, where Eden kissed astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the cheek. The second visit came in November and was for a mock wedding between Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden, staged for television journalists ahead of the December airing of the episode where Tony and Jeannie get married. The Florida Governor at the time, Claude Kirk, attended and cut the cake for them. In 1996, after almost thirty years, Barbara Eden returned to the area as a speaker for Space Days at the Kennedy Space Center. She was presented with a street sign that read “I Dream of Jeannie Lane”, which was later put up on a small street off A1A near Lori Wilson Park.
In 1996 Robert Downey Jr. asked Larry Hagman to lend him $100,000. Hagman responded by offering to pay for his drug rehab.
Barbara Eden’s son, Matthew Ansara, died of a heroin overdose on June 25, 2001.
The bottle used for Jeannie was not specifically made for the show. It was actually a special Christmas 1964 Jim Beam liquor decanter that held “Beam’s Choice” bourbon whiskey, and how it came to get its starring role is something of a mystery. Once the show became colorized, they started using a bottle painted purple, which they used for the rest of the series as well as the movies that followed. Numerous bottles were painted and used throughout the series and Larry Hagman, Bill Daily and Barbara Eden each owned one.
Larry Hagman reportedly refused to speak for one day each week as a test of his self-discipline.
Despite playing a married woman many times, Emmaline Henry never wed.
Before signing an autograph for a fan, Larry Hagman would ask them to tell him a joke or sing a song.
Hayden Rorke died of multiple myeloma in 1987.
Bill Daily has been married three times and has three children, two of whom are adopted.
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