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Here’s What Happened to Actress Barbara Eden Before, During and After ‘I Dream of Jeannie’
There’s something admirable about a person who embraces their past rather than spending a lifetime trying to elude it. The latter is particularly true in Hollywood and, in this instance, the stars of Classic TV shows who are bitter about the thing that made them famous in the first place. Compare them to Barbara Eden, who, at 88, still seems to relish delighting her fans by crisscrossing her arms and assuming the I Dream of Jeannie position (a show, incidentally, currently airing on Antenna TV).
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Comments Herbie J Pilato, host of the Amazon and Shout Factory streaming Classic TV talk show Then Again With Herbie J Pilato, and author of Glamour Girls, and the Girl Next Door: Television’s Iconic Women from the 50s, 60s and 70s, “Recently an actor said they’d love to be typecast, but, generally speaking, performers don’t like to be typed at all. They want to break the mold or want to establish themselves, but once they do establish themselves, they want to move away from it. Barbara never seemed to want to move away from Jeannie — she embraced it — whereas Elizabeth Montgomery and Mary Tyler Moore took some time to come around. It took the Nick at Night resurgence of TV shows from the classic era for them to say, ‘Okay, I guess Samantha Stephens and Bewitched and Laura Petrie and The Dick Van Dyke Show aren’t going anywhere. We just better deal with it.’ But Barbara never pushed it away.”
Michael McKenna, author of The ABC Movie of the Week: Big Movies for the Small Screen, says, “Barbara did TV movies for a long time. Her first one was in 1971 and her last one was in 1996. That’s a tremendous run of network films. It wasn’t like she veered off and started doing Lifetime movies or anything like that. She was making network TV films with pretty good casts, which says that she was an established TV star who may have been typecast as Jeannie, but proved that it wasn’t an accurate assessment of who she was. The makers of these films loved the advantage of a recognizable face and that it gave them a leg up on the competition to be able to put her in different films no matter what genre it was.”
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Most impressive about this is that Barbara was really coming off the success of a single iconic series whereas someone like the late Michael Landon had three big shows behind him: Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven. “But Barbara,” Michael muses, “after I Dream of Jeannie is bouncing around from TV movies to little guest spots to variety shows and, again, the fact that she does it for 25 years is really remarkable.”
For Geoffrey Mark, author of The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television, Barbara’s success in some ways was a little surprising considering the perception of her early in her career. “Initially she was riding the tail end of the Marilyn Monroe sex symbol thing,” he suggests. “She was a beautiful, young, busty blonde with a great behind, and she could have gotten stereotyped into that early on, but she didn’t, because, as it turns out, she’s a wonderful comedian, a good actress and a genuinely nice person.”
For much more on Barbara Eden, cross your arms and blink … or you can simply scroll down.
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Kobal/Shutterstock
When She Was a Little Jeannie
She was born Barbara Jean Morehead on August 23, 1931 in Tucson, Arizona. The first inkling that she would be moving in the direction of show business came when she sang in the church choir, often taking on solos, and then, as a teenager, singing in local bands at night clubs. She became a member of Actor’s Equity and studied singing at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as acting at the Elizabeth Holloway School of Theatre. In 1951, she was named Miss San Francisco and went on to the Miss California beauty pageant. It was only a couple of more years before she would make the leap to film and television.
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20th Century Fox
‘Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?’ (1957)
In 1956 she made her debut in the film Back From Eternity. That same year, she appeared on the television series West Point Story. In 1957 there was the film Bailout at 43,000 and this one, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? It stars Tony Randall and Jayne Mansfield, and Barbara’s role as Miss Carstairs is uncredited.
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Republic Pictures
‘The Wayward Girl’ (1957)
When a woman (Marcia Henderson) is framed for manslaughter by her stepmother (Katharine Barrett), she turns to a “parole racket” to get herself out of jail to clear her name. Barbara plays a character named Molly.
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20th Century Fox Television
‘How to Marry a Millionaire’ (1957)
This was one of the first TV shows to be based on a film, in this case the 1953 production starring Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall and David Wayne. On television, the premise is that Mike McCall (Merry Anders), Loco Jones (Barbara) and Greta Hanson (Lori Nelson) have moved to the big city to find themselves some wealthy potential husbands. The show aired in syndication. Enthuses Geoffrey, “She played Loco and she was wonderful in it. It was a role that really brought her to the attention of a lot of people, including Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, who hired her to play a part in the final season of I Love Lucy.”
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20th Century Fox Television
There’s Something About Barbara
“Barbara was not a dumb blonde,” opines Herbie. “She was talented and diverse and made her mark in an expansive way with a kind of energy that you didn’t really see from the typical blonde, beautiful actress of that era. She definitely had a different spark to her and brought a bubbliness to Jeannie that was so much fun. She came across like a TV version of Marilyn Monroe, which is appropriate considering she was cast in the TV version of Marilyn’s film How to Marry a Millionaire.”
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CBS Television Distribution
‘I Love Lucy’ (1957)
“Country Club Dance” was episode 25 of Season 6 and appearing on I Love Lucy was a really big deal for her. When Barbara arrived to start rehearsals, she quickly realized that everything she’d heard about Desi Arnaz‘ philandering ways was absolutely true. Refusing to fall for his charms, she basically avoided him during rehearsals as much as she could. Lucille Ball definitely noticed and even got word back to her that it was something she genuinely appreciated (even offering Barbara a Desilu contract, which she had to decline as she had just signed with 20th Century Fox).
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CBS Television Distribution
The Show Must Go On
What blew Barbara away even more was a particular instance that took place before she went in front of the cameras. As recounted in her biography, she was summoned to Lucy’s dressing room and was ordered by Lucy to take her dress off. She did so and was handed another dress. “I thought, ‘Probably a sack dress,’” writes Barbara. “Then I put it on. It was the tightest, sexiest dress I’d ever seen, one that showed off all of my curves. ‘Take it off again,’ Lucy said. I did, and she and one of her friends spent more than an hour adding sparkles all over the dress so that it would look even more shiny and glamorous. Now that’s the kind of woman Lucille Ball was. She was really smart and really dedicated to her show, and even though she realized that Desi was actively pursuing me, she still put me in that dress because she knew it was right for the character and right for the show. The show meant everything to her, more, even, than her hurt pride over her cheating husband.”
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David F Smith/AP/Shutterstock
Wedding Bells
In 1958, Barbara married actor Michael Ansara (who, for the record, made a pretty formidable Klingon on no less than three Star Trek series, among his many other roles). The two of them would go on to co-star in the 1961 feature film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. This was Michael’s second marriage, having first been wed to actress Jean Byron and, then, after he and Barbara divorced in 1974, he married actress Beverly Kushida three years later. He passed away of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on July 31, 2013 at the age of 91.
Barbara would be married to Charles Fegert from 1977 to 1982, and married Joe Eicholtz in 1991.
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20th Century Fox
‘A Private Affair’ (1959)
For Barbara, it was definitely a busy 1957. After her episode of I Love Lucy, she appeared on The Millionaire, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Bachelor Father and December Bride. The following year, she appeared on episodes of Father Knows Best and The Lineup. But in 1959, she was back on the big screen with A Private Affair, which co-starred Sal Mineo and Gary Crosby. The film is about a trio of U.S. Army recruits who, while preparing to compete on a TV talent show, find themselves mixd up in romantic adventures.
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20th Century Fox
‘Twelve Hours to Kill’ (1960)
A witness to murder (Nico Minardos) discovers that the police who have been assigned to protect him, are actually working with the killers. Barbara plays Lucy Hall.
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Moviestore/Shutterstock
‘Flaming Star’ (1960)
In West Texas back in the Old West, fighting breaks out between two cultures and it falls to Pacer (Elvis Presley), a mixed-blood, to serve as peacemaker, though it isn’t long before he finds himself pulled into the violence himself. Barbara, as Roslyn Pierce, is a full-blown co-star in this one. Directed by Don Siegel, who would go on to helm Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, among others. Susan Doll, the author of The Films of Elvis Presley, reveals, “Barbara Steele was originally tapped for Eden’s role in Faming Star, but her British accent was considered too strong. I think Barbara Eden was much better for the part — she was a terrific leading lady without being the passive frontier homemaker that you often find in Westerns. She was spunky and vivacious. I think the scene in which Elvis’ character professes his love for her character is quite moving.”
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20th Century Fox
‘From the Terrace’ (1960)
The focus is on Paul Newman’s David Alfred Eaton, who is in a loveless marriage and an uninspiring personal life all so that he can have success as an executive on Wall Street. Joanne Woodward co-stars with Barbara as Clemmie Shreve.
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20th Century Fox
‘Swingin’ Along’ (1961)
Peter Marshall (later to serve as host of The Hollywood Squares) is a con man and Tommy Noonan is an amateur songwriter who decide to team up to try and win first prize in a songwriting contest. Carol is played by Barbara.
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20th Century Fox
‘All Hands on Deck’ (1961)
Wackiness on a Navy ship, with Pat Boone as an executive officer, who just happens to be a singer as well, in pursuit of love and potentially finding it in Barbara’s Sally Hobson.
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20th Century Fox
‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’ (1961)
Using his highly advanced atomic submarine the Seaview, U.S. Navy Admiral Harriman Nelson (Walter Pidgeon) plans on shooting a nuclear missile into the underwater burning Van Allen Radiation Belt to save the planet. Barbara is Lt. Cathy Connors. The film, written, produced and directed by Irwin Allen, would spawn the 1964-68 television series of the same name.
Also in 1961, Barbara appeared on the TV series Adventures in Paradise.
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Mgm/Kobal/Shutterstock
‘The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm’ (1962)
A look at the lives of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, and three of their stories that are brought to life. The character of Greta Heinrich is played by Barbara.
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Moviestore/Shutterstock
‘Five Weeks in a Balloon’ (1962)
Set in 1862, the focus is on inventor Samuel Fergusson, who creates a large balloon for him and a variety of passengers to use in order to claim a region of African land for England. Barbara is Susan Gale in this film that is, once again, produced and directed by Irwin Allen.
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CBS Television Distribution
‘The Andy Griffith Show’ (1962)
Returning to television, Barbara appeared on episode 16 of The Andy Griffith Show‘s second season. In it, she plays manicurist Ellen Brown, who starts working at Floyd’s barbershop. The men of Mayberry gradually start to embrace the idea of her working there, though their wives are not so pleased, though she is nothing like they think she is.
In the same year, she appeared on the shows Target: The Corruptors, Cain’s Hundred and Saints and Sinners.
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20th Century Fox
‘The Yellow Canary’ (1963)
Three episodes of the Clint Eastwood series Rawhide, and four episodes of Burke’s Law made up Barbara’s TV work in 1963, the same year she starred in this film. She plays Lissa Paxton, wife of her pop singer husband, Andy (Pat Boone), who she is in the process of getting divorced from when their son is kidnapped.
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MGM
‘The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao’ (1964)
In this Western — which features a healthy dose of fantasy — a strange circus comes to a town bringing with it strange characters and wonders that are nearly overwhelming to the townspeople. Script is by Charles Beaumont of The Twilight Zone. Tony Randall is Dr. Lao and Barbara is Angela Benedict.
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Golden Eagle
‘Quick, Let’s Get Married’ (1964)
Ginger Rogers is Madame Rinaldi, the owner of a bordello who helps a thief (played by Ray Milland) uncover the location of an ancient buried treasure. Barbara is Pia Pacelli.
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Universal Pictures
‘The Brass Bottle’ (1964)
Tony Randall teams up with Barbara again in this fantasy (which is pretty ironic considering its subject matter) about a real-estate developer who inadvertently releases a genie (Fakrash, played by Burl Ives). Barbara is Sylvia Kenton.
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‘The New Interns’ (1964)
A sequel to 1962’s The Interns, focus is on nurse and doctor interns working at a major American hospital. Barbara is Nurse Laura Rogers, with co-stars including Michael Callan, Dean Jones, Telly Savalas and Stefanie Powers. Points out Geoffrey Mark, “This is where Barbara met Dawn Wells, who would become one of her closest friends, and this film helped get Dawn cast in Gilligan’s Island. Barbara became her mentor, which is how Dawn views her to this day.”
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Columbia Pictures
‘Ride the Wild Surf’ (1964)
Romance and surfing in Hawaii are combined in this film starring Fabian, Shelley Fabares and Barbara (as Augie Poole). In the same year, she appeared in episodes of Route 66 and The Virginian, while 1965 saw her on Slattery’s People and The Rogues before she signed on for the role that would change her life and secure her place in pop culture history.
Laughs Susan Doll, “As a kid, one of my favorite movies with Eden was Ride the Wild Surf. I really wanted to learn surfing, though Ohio was no place for that!”
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Sidney Sheldon Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
‘I Dream of Jeannie’ (1965-70)
I Dream of Jeannie is the iconic show starring Barbara as the magical Jeannie and Larry Hagman as astronaut Tony Nelson, and the comic mishaps that occur when she and her bottle start living in his house. “I Dream of Jeannie is a blatant rip-off of Bewitched,” points out Geoffrey Mark matter of factly. “Bewitched had premiered on ABC the season before. It was done through Screen Gems, which, in those days, was the television arm of Columbia Pictures. And Bewitched really was the first break out hit ABC had that was in the Top 20 and Screen Gems wanted to capitalize on that and do another show like it.”
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Moviestore/Shutterstock
Strange TV
Continues Geoffrey, “In the early ‘60s we were given shows like Mister Ed, My Favorite Martian, My Mother the Car, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, The Addams Family — just this period of time where there were all of these fantasy shows. Shows about magic — black magic — comedy horror, reincarnation. They were short-lived except for Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. Now I Dream of Jeannie was the brainchild of, of all people, Sidney Sheldon, who had been a major MGM screenwriter and would become a major Jacqueline Susanne type novelist. He really shepherded the show. There were probably three or five writers in all five seasons; Sidney wrote the majority of the scripts, but used different names so it wouldn’t be obvious.”
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The Fantasy Element
“It was a well done show,” he opines, “well cast and well directed, but they did run out of ideas. In the last season they had Jeannie and Tony Nelson get married. The one thing that I Dream of Jeannie had going for it that Bewitched didn’t, and of course they couldn’t say it out loud in the scripts, but this sexual tension thing. He’s got this half-naked with her breasts hanging out girl, living with him. She’s in a bottle, she sleeps in a bottle — not in his bed — but how many men were living that fantasy with him? A girl who can give you anything you want, a girl that you think you’re controlling, but is really controlling you — how many men live that reality? And, ooh, they’re not married. It’s naughty. When they got them married, although I like the marriage episodes and how they can openly show their affection for one another, hiding what she was became tedious. It was the right move from a story point of view to marry them, but the audience lost interest in it. ‘Now he’s like us; I’ve lost the fantasy.’”
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Matthew Ansara
When Barbara first started shooting I Dream of Jeannie, she was pregnant with Michael Ansara’s child. In 1965 she gave birth to Matthew, who, sadly, would die on June 25, 2001 of a drug overdose. In an interview with London’s Express, Barbara reflected, “You never lose the hurt. I live with it every day. The pain may be less sharp with the years, but it never goes away. You choose life. But you hurt.”
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ITV/Shutterstock
Barbara the Singer
The success of I Dream of Jeannie opened up a whole new world for Barbara, which got her on stage singing. Says Geoffrey Mark, “Major hotels used to have a showroom, like at the Americana in New York, the Palmer House in Chicago, the San Francisco major hotel there. They had a built in nightclub showroom with dinner and a show that was like Las Vegas, except no gambling. And you could make a very nice living playing these big hotel rooms and nightclubs around the country. And Barbara played them all. Barbara also, once Jeannie hit, every summer went out with musicals and played big time summer stock doing Annie Get Your Gun, in which she was wonderful; The Sound of Music — those kinds of Julie Andrews/Ethel Merman/Mary Martin parts. And she was wonderful in them, because she’s a wonderful comedian and she can sing. Not sure you’d want to buy an album by her, but a competent stage singer. She also sang on The Carol Burnett Show, Kraft Music Hall, Smothers Brothers Show, Dick Cavett … all of these places she was on, she would also sing a song. So she was cultivating a singing career, a musical stage career along with television and movies.”
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Sony Pictures Television
‘The Feminist and the Fuzz’ (1971 TV Movie)
As the title suggests, it’s about a feminist and a cop, who, through a variety of circumstances, end up as roommates. Barbara is Dr. Jane Bowers and David Hartman is Officer Jerry Frazer. Says Michael McKenna, “This was her first TV movie and it was a big success, which surprises everybody. No one knew it was going to be that big of a ratings success, but it’s such a window into the early 1970s. She’s a woman’s libber — a phrase they don’t use anymore. David Hartman is a cop and they end up sharing an apartment in some sitcom scenario and he’s the chauvinistic. But those were the discussions people were having in 1970 and 1971, and that’s why it’s sad we lose touch with these TV movies, because, because they can offer us a window into what was going on even more so than feature films. For a film, sometimes it takes two years for you to go from idea to the theatre. There was also a situation where feature films were a little bit scared to do things, and so there were about five or six good Vietnam TV movies before any of the big Vietnam movies of the ‘70s came out. TV did it first. In some ways, The Feminist and the Fuzz seems like a pilot for a series, but it never really got that momentum going.”
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NBCUniversal
‘A Howling in the Woods’ (1971 TV Movie)
Liza Crocker (Barbara) is a wife taking a break from her husband and goes on a vacation in the woods. There she deals with a mysterious howling in the evenings, and her husband, Eddie Crocker (Larry Hagman) continually trying to get her to come back home. “It was a dark mystery movie,” says Herbie J Pilato, “so it was really wise of her to do that, to remind people that she could be something else than Jeannie. She definitely showed some diversity there.”
Adds Michael McKenna, “The interesting thing in this one for viewers is that Larry Hagman plays her husband. So it was a reunion of the couple, but it’s a dark, kind of gothic horror and Larry plays a really good bad guy. Seeing them together again was strange in one way, because the undertone is that he’s somehow looking to get rid of her. In other words, there’s something sinister going on — they’re a married couple, but she can’t really trust him.”
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CBS
‘The Woman Hunter’ (1972 TV movie)
We’re beginning to get the sense that Barbara shouldn’t take vacations. This time she’s Dina Hunter, getting away from it all with her husband, Jerry (Robert Vaughn), but finding herself targeted by an international killer.
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ABC
‘Guess Who’s Sleeping in My Bed?’ (1973 TV Movie)
In this comedy, divorcee Francine Gregory (Barbara) wakes up to find her ex-husband (Dean Jones), his second wife, their baby and dog showing up absolutely broke and in desperate need of a place to stay.
Also in 1973, the actress starred in the pilot The Barbara Eden Show — little of which is known — but it didn’t go to series.
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Lorimar Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock
‘The Stranger Within’ (1974 TV Movie)
Arguably one of Barbara’s most remembered TV movies, largely because it’s such a change of pace for her. This time she’s playing a pregnant woman whose behavior begins to change, which is attributed to the child she’s carrying. Offers Michael McKenna, “For Barbara, it was probably an advantage to be able to play against type, because TV producers used to like it if they could get somebody who was one thing in the public’s mind and then make them something different. I’m thinking about somebody like Andy Griffith, who used to every once in a while do those villainous roles. Recently I watched the TV movie Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring, from 1971 and starring Sally Field. She played a hippie girl who runs away and then is lost to sex and drugs. A lot of people tuned in to watch that because, previously, she had been the wholesome girl on the beach in Gidget and then The Flying Nun. Turns out that people wanted to see her drop acid and roll around with two guys kissing her at the same time. It’s really important to note that people connected with individual actors and characters and in this case was willing to follow them from project to project.”
Also in 1974, Barbara starred in the TV movie Out to Lunch.
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NBCUniversal
‘Let’s Switch’ (1975 TV Movie)
A housewife (Barbara’s Lacy Colbert) and the editor of a woman’s magazine (Barbara Feldon’s Kate Fleming) decide to switch lives to see what it’s like.
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Golden Films
‘The Amazing Dobermans’ (1976)
In this feature film, a former con-man and his five trained Dobermans attempt to stop a racketeer and the people that work for him. Barbara stars alongside Fred Astaire and James Franciscus.
In 1976, Barbara also starred in the TV movie How to Break Up a Happy Divorce, with Barbara as a woman attempting to win her ex-husband back again.
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NBCUniversal
‘Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?’ (1977 TV Movie)
From the light and frivolous to something a little edgier, Barbara is Liz Stonestreet, a private detective who, in an attempt to find a millionaire’s missing daughter, goes undercover as a porn actress.
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Jeff Robbins/AP/Shutterstock
‘Harper Valley P.T.A.’ (1978)
Single mother Stella Johnson (Barbara) goes up against the PTA board of the town of Harper Valley when they decide she dresses too sexily and is a bit too loose sexually for their tastes. The film would spawn the 1981-82 TV series of the same name with Barbara reprising her role. Laughs Herbie J Pilato, “When she did the film and the series, she had this fun little accent, which always helps, but she brought the bubbliness to a different level. Jeannie was bright and happy and feisty, but her character here was like Jeannie on steroids. With an accent.”
In 1979, Barbara starred in the TV movie The Girls in the Office. This was followed in 1980 by the TV movie Condominium.
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CBS
‘Return of the Rebels’ (1981 TV Movie)
When the owner of a popular campground (Barbara’s Mary Beth Allen) finds her property being threatened, a motorcycle gang — coming to town for a 25 year reunion — decides to lend a helping hand.
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Sony Pictures Television
‘I Dream of Jeannine … Fifteen Years Later’ (1985 TV Movie)
In 1984 Barbara starred in the feature film Chattanooga Choo Choo alongside George Kennedy. The following year, though, she was back in the reunion movie I Dream of Jeannie … Fifteen Years Later, which brought back a number of people from the original series, with the exception of Larry Hagman who was busy on Dallas and didn’t want to step back into the past. Instead, Wayne Rogers played Tony Nelson.
The late Bill Daily, who played Roger Healy on the show, commented, ““Those are the worst,” he said. “I thought Larry was going to be on it. I’m in my dressing room and Wayne Rogers walks in with Larry’s suit on. He wasn’t funny on M.A.S.H. And the show was just written so badly. Then I get the next script, and it’s even worse. I said, ‘I can’t do this,’ but then they said we’d be spending five weeks in Vancouver and I’m, like, ‘Five weeks in Vancouver? Maybe the script isn’t that bad.’ But it was.”
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NBCUniversal
‘The Stepford Children’ (1987)
In this TV sequel movie to the feature film The Stepford Wives, Barbara and Don Murray play Laura and Steven Harding who move to Stepford, Connecticut with their kids, and find themselves battling to avoid assimilation into robots.
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NBCUniversal
‘The Secret Life of Kathy McCormick’ (1988 TV Movie)
When Kathy McCormick (Barbara), a clerk at a grocery store, inadvertently finds her way into high society, she captures the romantic attention of stockbroker Grant Sherwood (Josh Taylor).
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NBCUniversal
‘Your Mother Wears Combat Boots’ (1989 TV Movie)
A mother (Barbara) is so desperate to get her son out of the U.S. Army, that she is able to convince him to accept a bet: if she can get through basic training, he’ll come back home.
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Walt Disney Television
‘Brand New Life’ (1989 TV Movie and 1990-91 TV Series)
Liberal and conservative values collide in this TV movie that spawned a TV series spin-off starring Barbara and Don Murray as, respectively, Barbara McCray Gibbons and Roger Gibbons, who marry and create a new family with their six kids. That’s the way they all became the … Gibbons bunch!
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Rastar Productions
‘Opposites Attract’ (1990 TV Movie)
A mayoral candidate (Barbara’s Charlie McKeon) for a California town gets romantically involved with her opponent, a former cowboy star (John Forsythe’s Rex Roper). A reunion between the two in that early in her career she appeared on an episode of John’s sitcom Bachelor Father.
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Warner Bros
‘Dallas’ (1990-91, 5 Episodes)
Barbara and Larry Hagman were reunited on five episodes of his series Dallas, which saw her playing a character named Leann de la Vega. In an interview with tulsaworld, Barbara explained, “Leann’s a very sharp businesswoman who took over running an oil company eight years ago after her husband’s death. She knows J.R., because they went to college together. Let’s just say that he wasn’t very nice to her in college and their paths cross again in a business deal. She decides to extract every drop of blood she can get from him.”
Observes Herbie J Pilato, “On Dallas she played what was almost an Alexis Carrington type of character. If you watched those episodes, you didn’t even think of Jeannie. That was the same thing with Larry Hagman as J.R. — you don’t think of Tony Nelson. That’s a testament to both of their talents.”
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Columbia Int Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock
‘I Still Dream of Jeannie’ (1991 TV Movie)
With Tony Nelson away on a secret mission, Jeannie has a short time to locate him and bring him home, because a Jeannie cannot go more than three months without an earthly master. The hunt is on, though the one question many people asked was why they made this film in the first place. Laughs Geoffrey Mark, “If you still looked that good in that costume, wouldn’t you want to do it, too? It’s a chance to star in a two-hour movie. These TV movies became a fad for a while for all kinds of shows. And someone was going to pay her a couple of hundred thousand dollars to do the film and you’ve got to work and to be seen, which is always important.”
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Hearst Entertainment
‘Visions of Murder’ (1993 TV Movie)
Psychologist Jesse Newman (Barbara) begins experiencing visions that are leading her on the path to preventing the murder of one of her patients. James Brolin co-stars. Spawned the 1994 sequel, Eyes of Terror.
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Paramount Pictures
‘A Very Brady Sequel’ (1996)
Barbara made a cameo appearance, in character as Jeannie, in this big screen parody of The Brady Bunch. That same year, she starred in the TV movie Dead Man’s Island, which sees her as a woman who is asked by an ex-lover (played by William Shatner) to find out who’s trying to kill him.
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CBS Television Distribution
‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ (2002-03, 3 Episodes)
Barbara made three appearances on the supernatural sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, playing the character of Aunt Irma. Also in 2003, Barbara appeared in the feature films Loco Love and Carolina. Four years later she made guest appearances on the TV shows George Lopez and Army Wives.
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Hallmark Channel
‘Always and Forever’ (2009 TV Movie)
Grace Holland (Rena Sofar) is reunited with high school sweetheart Michael Foster (Dean McDermott) and teeters on whether or not to try and pick things up where they left off. Pulling strings behind the scenes is her mother, Mary (Barbara, in what is her final TV movie to date).
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BIANCA DE MARCHI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
All the Confidence She Needs
It’s been a decade since her last TV movie, but Barbara still happily pushes herself forward, interacting with her fans as much as she’s able to. “I think she’s very confident in herself,” says Geoffrey Mark. “She understands the business beautifully, how it works, what one has to do to become a star and then maintain that stardom. She’s enormously hardworking and probably the reason she’s able to do all of that is that she always paid attention to her personal life. Which has not always been happy, but she paid attention to it. She didn’t take it for granted.”
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Speed Media/Shutterstock
Surviving the Pain
“She had a long marriage to Michael Ansara,” Geoffrey notes, “and she had a child that she unfortunately lost to a drug overdose, and what do you say about that? When someone loses a child to an overdose, it’s a double-whammy, because no parent should ever lose a child for any reason, but when you lost it to drugs there’s always that feeling, ‘This could have been prevented.’ Yet, one never feels that she’s bringing that pain with her to you or that she’s feeling sorry for herself.”
Adds Herbie J Pilato, “To this day, she remains very kind and loves her fans. She just fully embraced the whole Hollywood thing and didn’t fly by the seat of her pants on no talent. Certainly she’s had her traumas — my gosh, she loses her son — but while she grieved, she didn’t retreat. I’m sure there’s not a day that goes by that she doesn’t think about him, but she has managed to keep moving forward.”
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Frank Franklin/AP/Shutterstock
Friend to the Fans
Geoffrey Mark, who is actually friends with the actress, reflects, “I like Barbara. She’s intelligent, she’s warm, she’s generous with her time and she’s wonderful with her fans. And when she’s with you, you feel loved. I saw her do this question and answer thing out in Coachella. There’s a casino there. It was the first time she’d done it and I went to be of support. About 400 people showed up. There was a line after her show for an hour and a half of fans bringing their Jeannie bottles, their I Dream of Jeannie lunch boxes, Jeannie dolls — bringing anything for her to sign and she saw everybody. She happily made her fans happy.
“She understands that these are the people who give her a career. I think that’s a hallmark of people in the business who stay in the business, who get it. This haughty, ‘I don’t do autographs’ baloney… Really? That means that if one person is going to talk badly about you, they’re going to tell 20 people and those people are going to tell 20 people each. You’re going to get a bad rep. Well, nobody’s talking badly about Barbara Eden. Her rep is fine.”