‘Jeannie’ Dreams On

As quick as you can blink twice, Barbara Eden is transformed tonight at 9 into the wily genie Jeannie in the new NBC movie “I Still Dream of Jeannie.”

“I Dream of Jeannie” was created by Sidney Sheldon, who went on to write such best-selling glitzy novels as “The Windmills of the Gods” and “The Other Side of Midnight.” The series premiered 26 years ago on NBC and has been going strong in repeats ever since it left the network in 1970.

“I Still Dream of Jeannie” marks the second time Eden has reprised the role. She starred six years ago in the NBC movie “I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later.”

The series’ legion of fans will find Jeannie up to her usual crazy tricks tonight, and, of course, she’ll be wearing her trademark genie outfit-- but with a change. Eden will be exposing her navel, something NBC wouldn’t allow in the 1960s.

Larry Hagman, who co-starred as her astronaut master-hubby Tony in the series, won’t be around, but Bill Daily, who played Tony’s best friend Roger Healey, is back.

“We tried to retain the spirit of the (original),” Eden said. “We wanted to stay as close as possible as to what was done before, because the show is not off the air. It’s on all over the world. To (change) Jeannie, I think, would be doing the audience a disservice.”

To explain Hagman’s absence, the movie has Tony in orbit on a secret NASA mission. Because his feet are no longer on Earth, he is not considered an earthly master.

“Jeannie is not allowed to stay in this plane of reality for more than three months without an earthly master,” Eden said. “Her very naughty sister, played by guess who, monitors her and knows she must come back home. She is told she can have a temporary master and stay on Earth, so she is looking like mad to find a temporary master.”

Her search for a temporary master leads her to singles bars and even a 10-K run.

“It has to be a man who is unmarried so Bill Daily can’t be the master and my son can’t be the master because he’s a relative,” Eden said. “It’s pretty funny when she explains to the guys what a master is.”

Eden said she wasn’t the first choice to play Jeannie in the ‘60s. “I think they tested every brunette in town for the part,” she said. “I guess then they decided to go with a completely different thing. I read the script and had a meeting. Sidney called me and said, ‘I understand you’re my Jeannie.’ That’s how I got the part.”

Eden was pregnant with her son Matthew when she shot the first 13 episodes of “Jeannie” back in 1965. “I worked from three months to 8 months pregnant,” she said. “It wasn’t easy. We used lots of veils.”

A footnote: Look for Barbara Eden, playing a manicurist who sets up business in Floyd’s barbershop, on The Andy Griffith Show, Friday at 3:35 p.m. on TBS.

“I Still Dream of Jeannie” airs tonight at 9 on NBC. “I Dream of Jeannie” airs Monday-Fridays at 5:05 a.m. on TBS and at 4 p.m. on WGN.