Jeannie Out of the Bottle

In the fall of 1964, a 30-year-old Barbara Eden was about to debut as the lead in an edgy new show, I Dream of Jeannie. Scandalized by the show’s cavalier treatment of matters sartorial and conjugal, NBC’s Broadcast Standards department decreed that Eden’s flimsy pink harem pants must be lined with silk to conceal her legs; that the smoke representing Jeannie could not linger long in the bedroom of Captain (later Major) Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman); and that her costume had to conceal her belly button — which it did for all 139 episodes, which ran from 1965 to 1969. … Back to Article