‘I Dream of Jeannie’ star Barbara Eden ‘upset’ about marriage scene

Barbara Eden dreamt of a different ending for Jeannie.

After starring as the 2,000-year-old spirit, who is freed from her bottle by NASA astronaut Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) on “I Dream of Jeannie,” the actress, 93, recently revealed one major qualm.

Eden was not on board with the Season 5 decision to have Jeannie marry her “master” Tony, especially since her character became so independent and empowering to housewives everywhere.

“I was very upset about it,” she told Forbes in an interview published on Saturday, “not that anybody would listen to me.”

When asked if she brought her concerns to any of the producers, Eden admitted she did not.

“No, I didn’t. I guess if I had asserted myself, yes, I would have, but I didn’t. I talked about it; I said, ‘This is ridiculous. She can’t marry you. It’s ridiculous,’ but it was okay. It was still funny. People could relate, one way or another,” she explained.

The sitcom’s creator, Sidney Sheldon, meanwhile, agreed with Eden.

“What finally killed us was the head of our network, in the fifth year, saying, ‘You have to get them married,’” Sheldon told the Television Academy in 2018.

“I Dream of Jeannie” ran for five seasons from 1965 to 1970, with Jeannie and Tony’s wedding airing on December 3, 1969.

In 2016, Eden explained the impact her character had on women.

“She was a very independent creature. And very strong. In fact, I’ve had young women come up to me and say it empowered them,” the actress said on “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” at the time.

Earlier this year, Eden shared another shocking revelation about the beloved show.

While on Jennie Garth’s “I Choose Me” podcast, the “Woman Hunter” alum said she loved wearing Jeannie’s genie outfit, which consisted of pink and red pants, a bralette, a headpiece and a cropped jacket, and “never” felt objectified.

However, the star did confess that “the first year of ‘Jeannie,’ I was pregnant.”

She and her then-husband, Michael Ansara, “had tried to have a baby for so long,” Eden recalled. “Finally, I was pregnant. And I found out the same day that they told me that ‘Jeannie’ was going to go on the air.”

She called Sheldon and told him, “I have to talk to you. I really have to talk to you in person.”

Eden recounted how she went to where he was having dinner, and despite her future on “Jeannie” being up in the air, she was “so happy.”

“I was happy about the show too, but more happy that I was pregnant,” Eden gushed. “I sat down there with a big grin on my face and said, ‘You know, I’m pregnant, and I can’t do your show.’”

She added, “I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.”

Eden explained she told Sheldon, “I just had to let you know so you could recast it.”

That wasn’t what the television writer, who died at age 89 in 2007, had in mind, though. Sheldon told her to give it a couple of days so they could “see if we can work this out.”

The team ended up going forward with Eden and finding creative ways to hide her pregnancy.

“I remember one time on the set, I came into work, and there was a bikini,” she reminisced. “I looked at it, and I said, ‘I can’t wear that.’”

The costume designer ended up telling Season 1 director Gene Nelson. 

“And Gene, who happened to have been a very good friend of mine at the time, walked up to my dressing room and said, ‘Barbara, you’re never a diva. Why don’t you put on the bathing suit?’”

“I said, ‘Gene, I am pregnant,’” Eden recalled to Garth.

“I put it on, and Gene came to the door, and he went, ‘Uh-oh. Oh, I see what you mean. I see what you mean,’” she went on. So, “they put a tire on my tummy.”

Eden explained that they added towels on top of the tire to hide the object.

The actress noted that “I Dream of Jeannie” mostly used “lots of material” in front of her to hide her baby bump.

Eden gave birth to her son Matthew Ansara in August 1965.

He died in 2001 at the age of 35 due to an accidental drug overdose.

“When Matthew was clean and sober, he was such a beautiful human being, inside and out,” Eden told People in 2021. “Drugs are inexplicable. It’s so frustrating.”