Jeannie Out of the Bottle - Barbara Eden [88]
Ken Kercheval, who played Cliff Barnes in Dallas, plays a schoolteacher whom Jeannie enlists to help her in her quest. Jeannie encounters a myriad of obstacles, including having to negotiate life in the singles scene, 1990s-style.
The thought of reprising a role I’d played twenty-five years before was pretty scary, and I was tentative about accepting it. For one thing, I was sure that the audiences would expect me to have exercised a brand of magic and still look the same. After some deliberation, I decided not to allow vanity to get the better of me. Although Jeannie was not my alter ego, I was still deeply attached to her, and, after a great deal more soul-searching, I took the part. I never regretted it.
It must also be said that in the years since I Dream of Jeannie was first on the air, and despite the myriad of roles I’d played since then, it was virtually impossible for me to shake the ghost of Jeannie, even if I’d wanted to.
Here’s a classic, if unpleasant, example: in 1991, I made a TV movie, Her Wicked Ways, in which I played a White House reporter. Heather Locklear also played a reporter. She was lovely and great to work with, but her husband, Tommy Lee, was quite another story.
We were on location in Washington, D.C., when in the middle of the night, the phone rang. I said hello, and heard Tommy Lee’s voice.
TOMMY: “Oh, my! I’m looking for my wife. Where is she?”
ME: “I don’t know. You must have dialed the wrong number.”
TOMMY: “Well, who am I talking to, then?”
ME: “You’re talking to Barbara.”
TOMMY: “Well, hello, Barbara. You wouldn’t know Heather’s room number, would you, darling?”
ME, MY VOICE DRIPPING WITH FROST: “Sorry, I don’t. Goodbye.”
TOMMY: “Don’t hang up on me, honey, now, don’t.” [Clinking of glasses from the other end of the line] “Hey, guys! Guess what! I’ve got Jeannie on the phone! I’ve got Jeannie on the phone!”
The resultant roar that came across the line almost deafened me.
I cut off the call, left the receiver on the night table, curled up in bed again, and did my best to fall asleep.
Dreams of Jeannie? Now and again it was a nightmare.
Had I truly wanted to escape my I Dream of Jeannie legacy (and I did not), the rerelease of the series on Nick at Night in 1994 would have made it impossible. My picture was plastered the length and breadth of a building on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and on a building in the middle of Times Square in Manhattan. I happened to be in New York City that week and had no idea about the publicity campaign, so you can imagine my shock when my cab drove through Times Square and I looked up to see myself many times larger than life!
The year before, I’d made two NBC movies set in San Francisco, the first of which was entitled Visions of Murder, in which I played Dr. Jesse Newman, a psychologist who works in the San Francisco police department and has psychic abilities. The handsome and distinguished actor James Brolin, who is now married to Barbra Streisand, played my first husband. In the sequel, another actor took that role. I was sorry about that, as James is a very nice, steady man and a good actor.
Speaking of Barbra Streisand, when I was making The Confession with Elliott Gould, Barbra was starring in Funny Girl on Broadway. Elliott was extremely affable and was kind enough to take me to see the show (which was incredible, and her legendary performance spectacular), and afterward he took me backstage to meet Barbra. She was extremely down-to-earth, and not a little discomfited when Shirley MacLaine arrived backstage and showered her with compliments. After Shirley left, Barbra turned to me and said, “She’s a big star, isn’t she? So what’s with the big red nails?” So refreshing, and very real.
When I made Visions of Murder, I was hopeful that Dr. Jesse Newman might develop into