Barbara Eden: At 75, She's Still Making Us Dream About Our Favorite Jeannie - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

Zoneboy · 10-14-2009, 01:13 AM

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Barbara Eden has long accepted, with a twitch of the nose and a nod of the head, that to the Great Masses of TV Viewers she will always be frozen as a shapely young blonde genie who lives in a decorator lamp.

It’s been this way since the 1965 premiere of I Dream of Jeannie, which ran for 139 episodes over five seasons, making the actress who once guest-starred on I Love Lucy a lovable star. And like Lucy, Jeannie continues to rope in new generations decades after the show long left the air. It some places Eden‘s revealing genie getup can be seen 14 times a week!

But the truth is that Eden is hardly a one-trick genie. Her work---what came pre- and post Jeannie---is the stuff of which great career are made. We thought she was brilliant in a theater-in-the-round production of the Broadway musical Woman of the Year . . . just one of the many stage role she’s successfully tackled. There are also roles in some 20 feature films, hit headliner gigs in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Atlantic City and the new Hallmark Channel original movie Always & Forever, premiering Saturday, October 24.

As much as it seems like she’s lived a charmed life, Eden would be the first to tell you it simply isn’t true. At least not entirely.
There’s the sense from chatting with the deliberate, soft-spoken and unfailingly gracious Eden that there remains a bit of lingering heartache; that an event which took place some eight years ago continues to eat away at her and always will. It’s the death in 2001 of 35-year-old son Matthew Ansara, her only child, from an accidental heroin overdose.

“Someone who had lost a child once told me–and it’s true–that no matter what happens to you for the rest of your life, there’s always a piece of you missing,” she says. “You can laugh, you can go to parties, you can have fun, but . . .”

It would be wrong to say that Eden has moved on from the wrenching tragedy. She never fully will, but she‘s learned to intergrate it into her life so can she push forward, a step at a time, embracing life as best she can.
And one of the ways is working. In Always & Forever, the 75-year-old actress portrays a meddling mother who feels she knows what’s best for her daughter when it comes to romance.

“I had great fun doing the film,” Eden says. “I feel like it was a positive role because whatever I was doing for my daughter was for her own good. I guess that would qualify me as an interfering mother!.”
She laughs. “Not that I’m that in real life. The whole shoot was just kind of a breeze.”

But of course, the thing that everyone still likes to talk about is a role that wrapped nearly 30 years ago and found her playing a 2,000-year-old character who addressed her co-star as “Master.” There is simply no getting around the fact that Eden and Jeannie are forever, inextricably entwined.
Yet you’ll never hear Eden complaining about it lo these many years later. Far from it. In her mind, I Dream of Jeannie hasn’t embodied a blend of blessing and curse but "simply 100% blessing." Really and truly.

“Yes, people bring Jeannie up to me every day of my life,” she admits, “but I’ve never resented that. I’m glad people like her. She’s easy to live with. It’s a clean-cut fantasy that your mother would approve of. The only issue is when kids still ask me all the time to cross my arms and bob my head, because then they look around and want something to happen.”

Clean-cut fantasy, indeed. Eden was even barred from showing her belly-button on camera because of the stringent decency rules of the time---remember how Elvis was filmed only from the waist up on The Ed Sullivan Show?

What many may not realize is that after Jeannie went to the big lamp in the sky, Eden didn’t exactly disappear. Her nightclub act flourished. She began a slew of made-for-TV movies, starring in an average of two a year throughout the '70s and nearly that many into the ‘80s and early ‘90s. She was so busy that she insists she was too busy "to think about any imagined career limitations" Jeannie may have imposed.

“I honestly had no time to resent anything,” she says. “That’s the interesting part. It just astonishes me how much staying power Jeannie has to this day. It still reruns all over the world.”

Eden is still chummy with her Jeannie "master" Larry Hagman, whom she sees once in a while, and with whom she will always have a tight bond. “He’s a lovely man,” she says, “and I feel like we did something very special together.”

Oh, and all of that stuff that the Jeannie does, like materialize objects and control situations with a cross of the arms and a blink of the eye? Eden believes that a form of that is possible no matter how preposterous it may have seemed on the series.

“I honestly do,” she confirms. “Metaphysics covers a wide territory, but I do believe that we’re all connected metaphysically. While I’ve never seen any actual proof of the Jeannie kind of magic, I don’t think it’s all just hocus-pocus. There could be something to some of it.”

The show’s enduring popularity was driven home for Eden when she was paid a visit six months ago by four men from France, tourists who had come from Paris to Beverly Hills specifically to visit Eden and give her a gift because they loved I Dream of Jeannie so much.

“Imagine that!” she marvels. “They brought me a tiny Eiffel Tower and flowers and just wanted to tell me how much they love me and the show. They made the trip just for me! They were very polite and well-dressed. It was really a thrill.”

This would have been pretty much unimaginable back when the show began shooting. Eden was a working actress, and Jeannie was simply a job she was happy to have. What made it difficult at the outset was that Eden was pregnant, forcing the producers to skillfully hide this maternal condition during the series’ first 13 episodes.
“I’m not sure how skillful they actually were,” Eden admits, “but being pregnant made me feel very good.”

More recently, Eden was busy over the winter starring in a stage production of Love Letters in Maine. She loves to work but sometimes turns it down now in order to travel and spend more quality time with her third husband, Jon Eicholtz, to whom she has been married since 1991.

It’s also important to Eden to stay in shape. She goes to spin class three times a week and works out with weights regularly. She finds that it enables her to relax and helps her in her work, which remains hugely important.

“I grew up with a very strong work ethic in my family,” Eden says. “Integrity and honesty have always been big for me as well. But I think what’s helped the most is my determination never to let the small stuff bother me. No matter what it is, I just take 10 deep breaths and deal with it. And it always seems to work out.”

catlover79 · 10-14-2009, 01:36 AM

Barbara Eden is one classy lady. It is so nice to see someone be so positive about her signature role, and someone who is moving ahead with life despite enduring such terrible tragedy (the loss of her only child). It's also great that she is still close to Larry Hagman. Years ago, she once did a production of Love Letters with none other than Barney Miller himself, Hal Linden!!

HuntingtonM15 · 10-14-2009, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catlover79

Barbara Eden is one classy lady. It is so nice to see someone be so positive about her signature role, and someone who is moving ahead with life despite enduring such terrible tragedy (the loss of her only child). It's also great that she is still close to Larry Hagman. Years ago, she once did a production of Love Letters with none other than Barney Miller himself, Hal Linden!!

Yep, she was on tour with him in Love Letters this year, too. I was tempted to see it, but I couldn't afford the $60 per ticket at the time. I saw her back in 2002 in the female version of The Odd Couple, and she was hilarious. I met her after the show and she couldn't have been anymore gracious.

MickeyMac · 10-14-2009, 11:15 AM

In the last season of Dallas Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman were reunited when Eden was cast as one of JR's jilted (or gilted or however you spell it) lovers who came back for revenge. It was good to see them together, but since it was the last season and the ratings had dipped so, it got little notice.

catlover79 · 10-14-2009, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickeyMac

In the last season of Dallas Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman were reunited when Eden was cast as one of JR's jilted (or gilted or however you spell it) lovers who came back for revenge. It was good to see them together, but since it was the last season and the ratings had dipped so, it got little notice.

I vaguely remember that - wasn't Susan Lucci on Dallas around that same time?

MickeyMac · 10-14-2009, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catlover79

I vaguely remember that - wasn't Susan Lucci on Dallas around that same time?

Yeah she sure was. If they had gotten both Eden and Lucci about ten years earlier it when the show at the top of the rating, it would have had a much bigger impact. I seem to recall the Susan Lucci's appearance on Dallas didnt get much fanfare either.

catlover79 · 10-14-2009, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickeyMac

Yeah she sure was. If they had gotten both Eden and Lucci about ten years earlier it when the show at the top of the rating, it would have had a much bigger impact. I seem to recall the Susan Lucci's appearance on Dallas didnt get much fanfare either.

Yeah, Dallas was on its way out by then. Most of the original cast had long since left. I think the only original cast members left on the show by then were Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Ken Kercheval. The whole show seemed to go out with a whimper.

OH Nuts! · 10-14-2009, 10:38 PM

What a lovely woman Barbara Eden is. I thought she was ravishing in the 60s as that hot little genie.

It's so refreshing to see a star that's grateful they were given the good fortune to be in a hit show - and are appreciative and gracious to their fans - not like that dipsh*t Gary Coleman who hisses and spits when fans try to come up to him - the creep.

Long live the very (still) beautiful Barbara Eden. She made the show.

10-14-2009, 01:13 AM	#1
Zoneboy RIP, I'LL NEVER FORGET YOU :( Moderator Forum Superstar Join Date: Jul 13, 2003 Location: AT HOME WISHING ALL THIS WAS JUST A DREAM AND THAT I'LL WAKE UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE. Posts: 34,439	Barbara Eden: At 75, She's Still Making Us Dream About Our Favorite Jeannie Link Barbara Eden has long accepted, with a twitch of the nose and a nod of the head, that to the Great Masses of TV Viewers she will always be frozen as a shapely young blonde genie who lives in a decorator lamp. It’s been this way since the 1965 premiere of I Dream of Jeannie, which ran for 139 episodes over five seasons, making the actress who once guest-starred on I Love Lucy a lovable star. And like Lucy, Jeannie continues to rope in new generations decades after the show long left the air. It some places Eden‘s revealing genie getup can be seen 14 times a week! But the truth is that Eden is hardly a one-trick genie. Her work---what came pre- and post Jeannie---is the stuff of which great career are made. We thought she was brilliant in a theater-in-the-round production of the Broadway musical Woman of the Year . . . just one of the many stage role she’s successfully tackled. There are also roles in some 20 feature films, hit headliner gigs in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and Atlantic City and the new Hallmark Channel original movie Always & Forever, premiering Saturday, October 24. As much as it seems like she’s lived a charmed life, Eden would be the first to tell you it simply isn’t true. At least not entirely. There’s the sense from chatting with the deliberate, soft-spoken and unfailingly gracious Eden that there remains a bit of lingering heartache; that an event which took place some eight years ago continues to eat away at her and always will. It’s the death in 2001 of 35-year-old son Matthew Ansara, her only child, from an accidental heroin overdose. “Someone who had lost a child once told me–and it’s true–that no matter what happens to you for the rest of your life, there’s always a piece of you missing,” she says. “You can laugh, you can go to parties, you can have fun, but . . .” It would be wrong to say that Eden has moved on from the wrenching tragedy. She never fully will, but she‘s learned to intergrate it into her life so can she push forward, a step at a time, embracing life as best she can. And one of the ways is working. In Always & Forever, the 75-year-old actress portrays a meddling mother who feels she knows what’s best for her daughter when it comes to romance. “I had great fun doing the film,” Eden says. “I feel like it was a positive role because whatever I was doing for my daughter was for her own good. I guess that would qualify me as an interfering mother!.” She laughs. “Not that I’m that in real life. The whole shoot was just kind of a breeze.” But of course, the thing that everyone still likes to talk about is a role that wrapped nearly 30 years ago and found her playing a 2,000-year-old character who addressed her co-star as “Master.” There is simply no getting around the fact that Eden and Jeannie are forever, inextricably entwined. Yet you’ll never hear Eden complaining about it lo these many years later. Far from it. In her mind, I Dream of Jeannie hasn’t embodied a blend of blessing and curse but "simply 100% blessing." Really and truly. “Yes, people bring Jeannie up to me every day of my life,” she admits, “but I’ve never resented that. I’m glad people like her. She’s easy to live with. It’s a clean-cut fantasy that your mother would approve of. The only issue is when kids still ask me all the time to cross my arms and bob my head, because then they look around and want something to happen.” Clean-cut fantasy, indeed. Eden was even barred from showing her belly-button on camera because of the stringent decency rules of the time---remember how Elvis was filmed only from the waist up on The Ed Sullivan Show? What many may not realize is that after Jeannie went to the big lamp in the sky, Eden didn’t exactly disappear. Her nightclub act flourished. She began a slew of made-for-TV movies, starring in an average of two a year throughout the '70s and nearly that many into the ‘80s and early ‘90s. She was so busy that she insists she was too busy "to think about any imagined career limitations" Jeannie may have imposed. “I honestly had no time to resent anything,” she says. “That’s the interesting part. It just astonishes me how much staying power Jeannie has to this day. It still reruns all over the world.” Eden is still chummy with her Jeannie "master" Larry Hagman, whom she sees once in a while, and with whom she will always have a tight bond. “He’s a lovely man,” she says, “and I feel like we did something very special together.” Oh, and all of that stuff that the Jeannie does, like materialize objects and control situations with a cross of the arms and a blink of the eye? Eden believes that a form of that is possible no matter how preposterous it may have seemed on the series. “I honestly do,” she confirms. “Metaphysics covers a wide territory, but I do believe that we’re all connected metaphysically. While I’ve never seen any actual proof of the Jeannie kind of magic, I don’t think it’s all just hocus-pocus. There could be something to some of it.” The show’s enduring popularity was driven home for Eden when she was paid a visit six months ago by four men from France, tourists who had come from Paris to Beverly Hills specifically to visit Eden and give her a gift because they loved I Dream of Jeannie so much. “Imagine that!” she marvels. “They brought me a tiny Eiffel Tower and flowers and just wanted to tell me how much they love me and the show. They made the trip just for me! They were very polite and well-dressed. It was really a thrill.” This would have been pretty much unimaginable back when the show began shooting. Eden was a working actress, and Jeannie was simply a job she was happy to have. What made it difficult at the outset was that Eden was pregnant, forcing the producers to skillfully hide this maternal condition during the series’ first 13 episodes. “I’m not sure how skillful they actually were,” Eden admits, “but being pregnant made me feel very good.” More recently, Eden was busy over the winter starring in a stage production of Love Letters in Maine. She loves to work but sometimes turns it down now in order to travel and spend more quality time with her third husband, Jon Eicholtz, to whom she has been married since 1991. It’s also important to Eden to stay in shape. She goes to spin class three times a week and works out with weights regularly. She finds that it enables her to relax and helps her in her work, which remains hugely important. “I grew up with a very strong work ethic in my family,” Eden says. “Integrity and honesty have always been big for me as well. But I think what’s helped the most is my determination never to let the small stuff bother me. No matter what it is, I just take 10 deep breaths and deal with it. And it always seems to work out.” Attached Images
	__________________ 'Twas The Night Before Christmas And All Through The Full House Not A Creature Was Stirring, Not Even Mighty Mouse. All My Children We're Nestled All Snug In Their Beds While Visions Of Sugarbakers Danced In Their Heads.

10-14-2009, 01:36 AM	#2
catlover79 God Bless Val Forum Addict Join Date: May 29, 2006 Location: Bewitched in Ohio Posts: 70,392	Barbara Eden is one classy lady. It is so nice to see someone be so positive about her signature role, and someone who is moving ahead with life despite enduring such terrible tragedy (the loss of her only child). It's also great that she is still close to Larry Hagman. Years ago, she once did a production of Love Letters with none other than Barney Miller himself, Hal Linden!!
	__________________ "Jesus loves you and He approves this message." "I'm alive. I'm feeling good. I'm trying to live every moment as much as I can." - Valerie Harper, March 2013

10-14-2009, 11:15 AM	#4
MickeyMac Member Forum Star Join Date: Jun 18, 2008 Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan Posts: 19,008	In the last season of Dallas Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman were reunited when Eden was cast as one of JR's jilted (or gilted or however you spell it) lovers who came back for revenge. It was good to see them together, but since it was the last season and the ratings had dipped so, it got little notice.

10-14-2009, 10:38 PM	#8
OH Nuts! Member Forum King Join Date: Feb 15, 2005 Posts: 133,383	What a lovely woman Barbara Eden is. I thought she was ravishing in the 60s as that hot little genie. It's so refreshing to see a star that's grateful they were given the good fortune to be in a hit show - and are appreciative and gracious to their fans - not like that dipsh*t Gary Coleman who hisses and spits when fans try to come up to him - the creep. Long live the very (still) beautiful Barbara Eden. She made the show.