In real life, Barbara Eden was married to actor Michael Ansara. He had a role on I Dream of Jeannie, as The Blue Djinn. In the storyline, it is stated that Genie is banished to the bottle when she refuses to marry the Blue Djinn. That must have made for some interesting moments on set!
The show had so many bit players and guest stars come on the show. They only had a handful of regulars, so most of the cast came in and out during the five-year-long run. It is fun to watch the series again knowing that Barbara was actually married to the actor playing the Blue Djinn!
Stuck In Her Bottle
The film “I Dream of Jeannie … Fifteen Years Later” has quite an elaborate plot. The film is centered on Tony Nelson’s promotion at work which cases quite a fight between him and Jeannie. This happens all while the evil Jeannie is busy concocting a plan to ruin her sister’s marriage to Tony.
Tony then becomes indefinitely stuck in space, therefore, trapping Jeannie in her bottle forever since she now has no master. That is until their son figures out how to release her. The two of them then make a deal to save Tony’s life.
15 Years Later
The made-for-TV comedy, ”I Dream Of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later” premiered on television in the year 1985. Barbara Eden, of course, returned to play the role of Jeannie. Bill Daly also came back to reprise his role as Tony’s friend Roger Healy. And lastly, Hayden Rorke returned as Dr. Alfred Bellows.
Actor Wayne Rogers stepped in to portray the character of Tony Nelson since Larry Hagman was filming the CBS series “Dallas” at the time. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be a part of the movie, he just was not able to shift his work schedule to accommodate.
No One Fact Checking
These days when you are watching your favorite television show you may catch small errors here and there, whether it be continuity errors or editing mistakes. But there are people specifically on set to make sure that these errors do not happen often.
Back in the day when shows like “I Dream of Jeannie” took place, these kind of errors were not really a big deal and there was no one making sure that they did not happen because paying an editor meant more money spent! One little error heard in the series was in the episode where Tony goes to Italy. He says that Jeannie would know Italy as Gaul - but that was actually the Roman name for France, not Italy.
Real Soldier
While the show “I Dream of Jeannie” was so far fetched, the show had one aspect that was actually close to real life! Tony Nelson was actually in the Air Force, and Roger Healey served in the Army. In real life the actor Hagman served his country in the US Air Force while Bill Daily spent his years of service in the US Army. He had been an artilleryman in the Korean War.
This real-life experience was so amazing to have while playing their roles. Surely it helped in their character development and the delivery of their lines!