Whatever You Do, Don't Tell Barbara Eden "Jeannie" Was Sexist!

[Brian Damage]

Your costar, Larry Hagman, sounds like he was a jerk on the set.
Well, I'll tell you he was interesting. He kept things alive let's put it that way. I think Larry was going through a very difficult time in his life. I'm no psychiatrist; he's wonderful, thoughtful and loving. He truly is but he's also a perfectionist and he wants things to be just right from his point of view and it frustrated him horribly that the scripts weren't what he would do, the way he wanted that carried over in his relationship with the crew, never with me though.

You were lucky he was nice to you.
I think we really got along. I would see the behavior coming and turn around and go into my dressing room.

You write how he urinated on the set.
That's what I hear. I was on set but not present. Whenever I knew something was going to happen I left, I went to my dressing room, you could tell when it was coming.

Sounds like a spoiled child having a tantrum.
Well yeah, but it kept you awake.

What do you say to critics who say the show was sexist?
It wasn't at all. First of all it's a fantasy and Jeannie was doing her job which is to please her master, it could have been a mistress. In this case it was a guy who was really cute so she fell in love immediately. She'd been in that bottle a long time. Her main thrust was to make him happy no matter what and that's where you get the comedy, that and the fact she was a fish out of water.

Did you think it was silly NBC wouldn't show your belly button?
Well it was silly. It didn't bother me. I didn't care one way or the other. It all happened because a reporter came down on the set and said to me that he didn't believe I had a belly button. He wrote about it and it got picked up by stringers all over the country. It sort of ballooned.

http://www.popeater.com/2011/04/08/b...-jeannie-book/

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...who knew exactly what Sidney Sheldon was trying to say in his "JEANNIE" scripts. This is not to say that I was there when he wrote and produced them, or that I knew him personally (although I did receive some nice letters from him)- it's that I KNOW that "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" was not "sexist".

See, everyone who watches the show for the first time these days have a "modern" opinion of what they're seeing. Men usually think Jeannie is "hot", and "boy, oh, boy, if I were her master, I'd know what I'd ask for!". Women often have the attitude, "Why is she so subservient? Doesn't she have a mind of her own? I wouldn't kowtow to a man for anything!!". No, no, no, NO! Nothing like that!!

Like Barbara has said, Jeannie is from another time {supposedly 2,000 years ago}, and she was in her bottle on that deserted island so long, she had no idea of how much things had changed over the centuries...or experienced modern American society or customs (remember, when Tony Nelson initially freed her from the bottle, she spoke in Farsi {Persian}, the only language she ever knew....she doesn't start speaking English until he wishes her to).

All she knew was that she had to fulfill her ancient heritage as a genie, and "serve" the first one that released her from the bottle. Could she help it if she happened to instantly fall in love with her new "master"? Yet, when he tried to release her from her obligation of "serving" him when he was about to be rescued by the helicopter she "blinked" up [diverted by a storm she created; don't ask me how she did it, she merely fulfilled his wish for a "helicopter"], she doesn't want to leave him, so she sneaked back into her bottle and into his duffel bag---only to be discovered in his house when he's back in Cocoa Beach. She tells him, "Thou hast set me free! That means that I am free to please thee...and I am going to please thee very much...". So, while she's under no obligation to be his "slave", she wants to "serve" him, and give him whatever he wants- or rather, what she thinks is best for him- because she loves him!!! She's determined to "please" her "master"- even if she almost kills him! And it takes Tony a long time to realize this....yet, in the initial episodes, he has a love/hate relationship with Jeannie. On the one hand, he doesn't mind her doing "little things" for him (creating breakfast, lunch and dinner, light housekeeping, occasional games of chess, "cuddling", et. al.)- but he's also as stubbornly independent as her {"Stop it, Jeannie!!"}, and won't let her run his life, supervise his relationships with other women, and allow him the solace and privacy he thinks he deserves. He isn't even impressed or "enticed" by her harem costume; to him, she might as well be wearing a loose shirt and blue jeans around the house, or a robe and slippers.

All that came under the heading, "Romantic Comedy"...and Sidney Sheldon was good at writing those kinds of situations when he won the Oscar for writing "The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer" for RKO in 1947, and as a script writer at MGM in the late '40s and early '50s. So he knew the territory....and he also knew that, in writing over half of the episodes in the series, the situation between Jeannie and "Master" was basically a "battle of the sexes" [and she often won!]. He also knew that having a beautiful genie at your side, willing to give you anything you wished for, wasn't all that it appeared to be.


[As for Barbara's navel, there were several times during the last two seasons when she, occasionally, casually lowered the waistband of Jeannie's harem pants just a bit, allowing it to peek through. I think that was her sly interpretation of what she told that Hollywood reporter {Hank Grant}, "Nickel a peek!". She probably thought during filming, "Okay, let's see if the NBC censors notice if I just....lower this a little bit....this way....and slide it... back....up."]

[DemandYourPickle]

Well, the interviewer really seems to have it in for Larry Hagman....

"Your costar, Larry Hagman, sounds like he was a jerk on the set."

"You were lucky he was nice to you."

"You write how he urinated on the set."

"Sounds like a spoiled child having a tantrum."

A bit harsh, don't you think? Sure, Larry had his problems, but don't we all? It's not like Larry was the devil or anything. Gosh!

[MickeyMac]

^


I noticed that too.

[TV Knowledge Fan]

...Larry has had very little to say about 'I DREAM OF JEANNIE" to interviewers and talk show hosts over the years. Naturally, they'd want something more "juicier" to come out of Barbara's mouth concerning her co-star's behavior. She knew what was going on, but she's the kind of person who would never "bad mouth" him to anyone.

[catlover79]

I just read Barbara's book. She does mention some of Larry's antics, but ever the lady, she just tells about them in a matter of fact sort of way, and not in a salacious manner.

[MickeyMac]

From what I understand Hagman was a handful, but I get the feeling he, Eden and Bil Dailey did manage to get along. Whenever the mention the show Eden nor Dailey seldem have anything to say bad about Hagman.

[catlover79]

^ Yes, I think they all did commentary for the IDOJ pilot on the DVD set.

[CAJeannieFan57]

Yes, all three did commentary for the pilot on the DVD sets.

When I've spoken to Bill and mention Larry, he only says that Larry had some problems, but they all got along. Bill loved rehearsing with Larry, and really enjoyed the physical comedy that they were given permission (by Claudio and Hal, directors) to put into the episodes. He and Larry worked everything out themselves.

[catlover79]

Thank you, Donna!!