Larry Hagman - I Dream of Jeannie

I Dream of Jeannie

After years of guest-starring in television series, Hagman's profile was raised when he was cast as "genie" Barbara Eden's television "master" and eventual love interest, Air Force Captain (later Major) Anthony Nelson in the NBC sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, which ran for five seasons from 1965. The show entered the Top 30 in its first year and was NBC's answer to the successful 1960s magical comedies, Bewitched on ABC and My Favorite Martian on CBS. The show ended in 1970. Two reunion movies were later made, both televised on NBC: I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later (1985) and I Still Dream of Jeannie (1991), but Hagman did not appear in either of them. He felt five years on the original show was enough, and it was time to do serious dramatic work.

In November 1999, after 29 years, Hagman agreed to reunite with Jeannie co-stars Barbara Eden and Bill Daily and creator / producer Sidney Sheldon on the The Donny and Marie Show. In 2002, when I Dream of Jeannie was set to join the cable channel TV Land, Hagman once again took part in an I Dream of Jeannie reunion with Eden and Daily, this time on Larry King Live. On the TV Land Awards in March 2004, Hagman and Eden were the first presenters to reunite on stage. The following October, Hagman and Daily appeared at The Ray Courts Hollywood Autograph Show. And the following year, 2005 brought all three surviving stars from I Dream of Jeannie to the first cast reunion at The Chiller Expo Show.

Hagman and Eden reunited in March 2006 for a publicity tour in New York City to promote the first season DVD of I Dream of Jeannie. He reunited once again with Eden on stage in the play Love Letters at the College of Staten Island in New York and the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. The appearance marked the first time the two performers had acted together since Eden appeared with Hagman in a five-episode arc on Dallas in 1990.