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Barbara Eden reveals to PEOPLE her favorite I Dream of Jeannie episode and guest star as the beloved sitcom celebrates its 60th anniversary
The actress, best known for playing the titular genie in the NBC series, also shares her least favorite moment from the show
Additionally, Eden opens up about how Jeannie's iconic blinking of the eye, nod of the head and crossed arms to indicate her casting a spell, came to be
In just the blink of an eye, somehow it's been 60 years since I Dream of Jeannie premiered.
PEOPLE recently caught up with Barbara Eden, who starred as the titular 2,000-year-old genie named Jeannie opposite the late Larry Hagman on the NBC fantasy sitcom that ran for five seasons between 1965 and 1970, to reflect on the show's legacy for the milestone anniversary.
Eden, fresh off her 94th birthday, reveals some of her favorite and least favorite moments from the show. She points to the pilot episode as her favorite, saying, "I loved it."
That episode, titled "The Lady in the Bottle," which aired on Sept. 18, 1965, saw the one-man capsule carrying Hagman's astronaut Captain Tony Nelson come down on a deserted island. He finds a strange bottle on the beach that, when he rubs it, produces Eden as the Jeannie — who promptly kisses Tony and, eventually, helps him get rescued. Tony intends to leave the genie bottle behind, but it rolls into his duffel bag as Jeannie wants to join him in his daily life back home.
Thus begins one of the most beloved shows of the '60s.
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Eden also shared her favorite guest star from I Dream of Jeannie's run, giving that honor to singer Sammy Davis Jr.
"I loved having Sammy Davis Jr.," she shares. "He was such a darling gentleman."
Davis Jr. appeared in the season 2 episode "The Greatest Entertainer in the World," which aired on Feb. 27, 1967. The episode centered around Tony failing to get Davis Jr. to perform at a NASA party and Jeannie helping him out by creating a duplicate of the famed "The Candy Man" singer.
Despite all the highs of I Dream of Jeannie, Eden did recall her least favorite moment from filming the show.
"I think the only time, and it was when the crew and Larry and the whole cast left me in the bottle at lunchtime and I was starving," she remembered. "I couldn't get out of the bottle."
"I had done the scene in the bottle, but I couldn't get in or out of it. There was no ladder, and I yelled and I screamed," she added. "But everything else was always comfortable. No, well, I was stuck in the safe. That wasn't comfortable."
One thing that made Jeannie so memorable was the way she would cast a spell, blinking her eye, nodding her head and crossing her arms — a move Eden says she is asked to do a lot still to this day, but also has fans do back at her, too.
Eden credits Gene Nelson, who directed the pilot, for coming up with the blinking part.
"The arms, I just figured it out. That's what a genie does," she explains. "And I thought blinking the eyes is a very passive thing. You have to do stronger things, so that's why I nodded my head."
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In the end, Eden said being so synonymous with a character like she is with Jeannie is "a huge blessing" and revealed why she think the show has had such longevity over the years.
"It's magic. They always want magic," she says of the show's fans. "Magic is good."
I Dream of Jeannie can be streamed on Tubi.
Read the original article on People
