It was very well known that Larry was caught many times drinking a lot and being drunk while he was filming. What you may not have heard, however, is that Larry has also stated that he was high on various drugs while he was filming many scenes.
Barbara Eden even shared in her autobiography entitled “Jeannie Out of the Bottle” that Larry said that he never regretted his drinking on set and his drug use while filming. He did, however, worry about how these things were impacting his health and wanted to keep himself healthy.
Old Jim Beam Bottle
Everyone knows Jeannie's famous bottle. It is where Jeannie lived in the show, and it was one of the most popular props of all time. But you will be blown away to find out what it really it! The bottle was actually just an old Jim Beam bottle!
This 1964 bottle of liquor was transformed into a world-famous TV prop! The prop department still spent a few hundred dollars to get the bottle decorated and painted perfectly, but it was still just that. Since they spent so much money on the bottle, it was known around set to be VERY careful with it, since they did not want to have to replace that!
Eden's Real Tragedy
It was well known that Barbara Eden was married to actor Michael Ansara. He even appeared in a role on “I Dream of Jeannie” as the Blue Djinn. They were married from 1958 to 1974. They had one child, a son called Matthew.
Sadly in 2001, their son Matthew died from a drug overdose. They did not make any of the details public regarding the death, and they kept out of the public eye during this time. They did announce the tragic passing of their son to the public, but that was the extent of them sharing that information. They preferred to keep this part of their life private.
Career Man To Family Guy
Larry Hagman was known as the character Tony Nelson on the show “I Dream of Jeannie.” His character was an astronaut. While he spent every night with Jeannie, during the day he worked for the government.
When the show started out writers made Tony a serious, and uptight character. They made him focused on his career instead of focused on Jeannie. As time went on, they wrote him to be more interested in Jeannie and in fact by the end of the series they even got married! Quite a change in character but definitely made sense for the plot.
What Actors Thought About Thier Characters
It is always interesting to hear what actors have to say about the characters they portray. Barbara has said that she always thought Jeannie was more of a tomboy, even though by looking at her you would not think so. Larry had said that Tony was a square who kept putting his career first before a beautiful girl who was putting moves on him.
Barbara and Larry’s opinions on their characters definitely explain the reason why they did not get married on the show for so long. That being said, both Barbara and Larry did not agree with the choice of their characters getting married and didn’t think it should have happened.