Think and blink!
The iconic 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie aired for five consecutive seasons on NBC, earning two Golden Globe Award nominations and an Emmy nod in its time. The series followed the 2,000-year-old genie Jeannie, played by Barbara Eden, who is discovered on a deserted island in the South Pacific by astronaut Major Anthony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman. Nelson takes Jeannie back to the United States, where they eventually fall in love and get married.
Jeannie’s teeny personalized traveling vessel that she would magically shrink herself into by blinking will forever be emblematic. In 2001, Eden gave PEOPLE an exclusive home tour, which included her collection of genie bottles.
“This is the original genie bottle,” Eden said while showcasing the one-of-a-kind purple-and-gold bottle from the sitcom. “It’s not usually here. I keep it in the bank. It has a few nicks. It’s been around a while. It’s got a chip there and a chip there, but it’s the real thing.”
Here, catch up with the stars of the series.
Barbara Eden as Jeannie
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Barbara Eden’s TV debut took place in 1955 on The Johnny Carson Show. From there she went on to make appearances on I Love Lucy (1951), Father Knows Best (1954) and The Andy Griffith Show (1960), just to name a few. In 1965, Eden starred in NBC’s fantasy sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie for five consecutive seasons. Between 1965 and 1970, the iconic actress received two Golden Globe nominations for best TV actress — comedy or musical and best TV star — female.
Eden married her third husband, real estate developer and architect Jon Eicholtz, in 1991. The pair live in Beverly Hills and have been married for more than 30 years.
The actress told PEOPLE in 2019 that she thought a reboot of the magical 1960s sitcom was “a good idea. They should do it.”
“I’m really lucky,” she told PEOPLE in October 2021. “I have dear friends. I have a wonderful family, a very supportive husband. Yes, I’m very happy.”
Eden celebrated her 93rd birthday in August, telling PEOPLE her secrets to staying fit include working out and eating healthy.
Larry Hagman as Major Anthony Nelson
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Larry Hagman played the dashing astronaut Major Anthony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie from 1965 to 1970. He famously went on to play the cruel oil baron J.R. Ewing on the CBS primetime soap Dallas (1978-1991).
Acting ran in Hagman’s genes: His mother Mary Martin was a Broadway star, playing Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. His children with wife Maj Axelsson, Heidi and Preston, continued in the family business.
In 2011, Hagman announced he was diagnosed with stage 2 throat cancer, 15 years after a liver transplant procedure. However, his diagnosis didn’t prevent him from participating in the TNT reboot of Dallas in the early 2010s.
Hagman died on Nov. 23, 2012, at age 81.
Bill Daily as Captain Roger Healey
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Bill Daily found breakthrough success in his role as Army Captain Roger Healey, which launched him into his next role as an airline co-pilot and neighbor of the Newharts, Howard Borden, on The Bob Newhart Show (1972).
On the NBC sitcom ALF (1986) Daily played the psychiatrist Dr. Larry Dykstra before going on to have a short-lived sitcom of his own, Small & Frye (1983).
The actor became an occasional panelist on CBS’s game show Match Game and applied his personal love for magic to three TV specials called Daily’s Hocus-Pocus Gang, which introduced young magicians to the craft.
Daily died in 2018 from natural causes, days after celebrating his 91st birthday.
Hayden Rorke as Dr. Bellows
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Hayden Rorke took his stage name from his mother, Margaret Hayden Rorke, an early 1920s actress. Rorke appeared in I Love Lucy (1951), The Twilight Zone (1961), The Andy Griffith Show (1965) and The Love Boat (1977), among other hit shows.
However, Rorke’s best recognized role was as the NASA medical officer, Dr. Bellows, in I Dream of Jeannie. Rorke’s last film was CBS’s TV reunion movie I Dream of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later (1985).
Rorke died in 1987 at the age of 76 from multiple myeloma.
Emmaline Henry as Amanda Bellows
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Emmaline Henry is best known for her role as the wife of Dr. Bellows, Amanda Bellows, in I Dream of Jeannie. Her first appearance on the show was as a magician’s assistant in the first season. Henry then continued on the series for 33 episodes as Amanda Bellows until the final season aired in 1970.
She is also known for her appearances in Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster (1962). Henry married actor Mark Roberts in 1969 before divorcing in 1974.
Henry died of a brain tumor at age 50 in 1979.
