Here’s Why This I Dream Of Jeannie Icon Refused To Speak To His Co-Stars

The cameras are all set up late in the morning one day in 1970, and they’re ready for another scene on the set of hit comedy I Dream Of Jeannie. The director sends someone to find his star actor, but he’s nowhere to be found. Eventually, the runner tracks him down: he’s in his trailer. But why has he locked himself away from the cast and crew?

Funny couple

The show, which was created by Sidney Sheldon for Screen Gems, had been going for five years by this point and was nearing the end of its run. So when the cast were not busy filming, you'd have thought that they'd have been making the most of their remaining time together. But Larry Hagman had other ideas.

Conflict on set

Despite the quality of its stars, the show wasn’t plain sailing to make. There was conflict between Hagman and one of the directors — and it only ended when the director left. Eden, as a result, was called on to choose between the people she worked with. And she opted for Hagman. But by the time the show ended, had Hagman remained as loyal to her as she did to him?

High concept

Eden’s loyalty seemed to echo her character’s on-screen behavior. Her genie spent five seasons trying to please the man she called “master” – Hagman – while he pretended to his workmates that nothing strange was going on. It wasn't an entirely fresh idea, but it did capture the public imagination. It was the type of high-concept series that was all over TV in the 1960s.

One joke

Sheldon wrote about the pressure he got from the network over the show’s simplicity in his biography, The Other Side of Me. When the network said it was a one-joke show, he wrote back, “You are quite right. Jeannie is a one-joke show, and that’s exactly why it’s going to work. I Love Lucy is a one-joke show. The Beverly Hillbillies is a one-joke show. The Honeymooners is a one-joke show.”