Barbara Eden Movies

A made-for-TV domestic comedy, Let's Switch stars Barbara Eden as a homemaker and Barbara Feldon as her best friend, a glamorous magazine editor. Both are slightly jealous of each other's life style, so they decide to switch roles for a while. Feldon is consigned to the laundry and kitchen, while Eden makes the worldwide journalistic rounds. "There's no place like home...there's no place like home..." Let's Switch plays like an elongated half-hour sitcom, which in essence it is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There's little chance that the made-for-TV Guess Who's Sleeping in My Bed? will ever be confused with either Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (67) or Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (63). The plot: Dean Jones divorces Barbara Eden, but finds that he can't live in the style to which he's accustomed without his ex-wife's income. Circumventing Eden, Jones ingratiates himself with his children and convinces them to allow him to move back in. Eden, meanwhile, has a new "significant other" in the form of Kenneth Mars, but since Mars has never gotten the girl in any previous film, it's no trick to guess the outcome of this story. Guess Who's Sleeping in My Bed? is elevated by the direction of the always inventive Theodore J. Flicker, who once upon a time gave us that imperishable movie satire The President's Analyst (68). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although advertised as a "reunion" of former I Dream of Jeannie stars Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, the made-for-TV A Howling in the Woods is actually a vehicle for Eden, with Hagman contributing a glorified cameo role. The scene is a remote wooded area in Nevada, where disillusioned housewife Liza Crocker (Eden) has arrived for a solitary camping trip. It so happens that Liza's "sanctuary" is located near the small and cloistered town where she was born -- a town that does not necessarily want to have her back. As Liza's husband, Eddie (Larry Hagman), searches for her in hopes of a reconciliation, the heroine is terrorized by the mournful sound of a howling dog, which triggers painful and frightening memories that she had hoped were long, long buried. Based on a novel by Velda Johnston, the underrated and almost unbearably suspenseful A Howling in the Woods debuted November 11, 1971, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fifth and final season of I Dream of Jeannie marks the long-overdue consummation of the romance between sexy genie Jeannie (Barbara Eden) and her "master", astronaut Tony Nelson (Larry Nelson), with Tony finally popping the question in the two-part episode "Guess Who's Going to Be a Bride." The impending marriage of the two principals opens up all sorts of new plot developments: For example, Jeannie is unable to partake of the obligatory blood test because a genie's blood is green; and in the episode "The Wedding", an attempt to snap a picture of the happy couple comes a-cropper because genies can't be photographed! And even though Tony and Jeannie are still husband and wife, Jeannie's duplicitous twin sister (also Barbara Eden) has not given up her efforts to snag Tony for herself, as witness the episode "My Sister the Homemaker", which ironically boasts a guest appearance by Barbara Eden's real-life husband Michael Ansara. And so it goes until the series' 139th and final episode, "My Master, the Chili King". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Barbara Eden appears as both Jeannie and Jeannie's mother in this episode. Summoned to Cocoa Beach to help Tony (Larry Hagman) overcome a case of sleeping sickness (which she caused via some misguided magic), Jeannie's mom meets Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke) for the first time--and falls madly in love with him! Jeannie must now persuade her mother to both release Tony from his malady and to reconsider her plan to make Dr. Bellows her master and put Mrs. Bellows (Emmaline Henry) out of the way! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gullible Jeannie (Barbara Eden) is delighted when her duplicitous lookalike sister Jeannie II (also Barbara Eden) offers to help Jeannie land Tony (Larry Hagman) as a husband. Of course, Jeannie II really wants Tony all to herself, and she'll stop at nothing to achieve this goal. And as usual, feckless Roger (Bill Daily) is trapped in the middle of all this intrigue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Four of I Dream of Jeannie opens with the episode "U-F-Oh Jeannie", in which the magical titular heroine Barbara Eden and her astronauts friends Tony (Larry Hagman) and Roger (Bill Daily) skirmish with a family of gun-totin' hillbillies. In the subsequent "Djinn Djinn Go Away", we are introduced to Jeannie's troublesome magical dog, who has a bad habit of making himself invisible after wreaking havoc. Also: Joe Flynn, late of McHale's Navy, plays the no-nonsense replacement of Tony's psychiatrist nemesis Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke) in "Dr. Bellows Go Sane"; "The Biggest Star in Hollywood" features guest appearances by several of the regulars from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, as well as that series' producer George H. Schlatter; and still one year away from becoming the "new Darrin" on Bewitched, Dick Sargent shows up in "Jeannie for the Defense". The season's liveliest episode is the two-part "The Case of the Vanishing Master", wherein enemy agents plant a lookalike for Tony Nelson in his home, causing no end of mischief when the phony Tony tumbles onto Jeannie's secret identity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the third episode of a four-part story, Jeannie (Barbara Eden) is still locked in a safe that is destined to be sent to the moon. Her lookalike sister Jeannie II (also Barbara Eden) shows up, intending to use the situation at hand in order to ensnare Jeannie's master Tony (Larry Hagman) for herself. Unfortunately, Jeannie II's own master Habib (played by Ted Cassidy, aka "Lurch" on The Addams Family) likewise appears--fully prepared to kill several characters whom we care about! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Three of I Dream of Jeannie finds the magical Jeannie (Barbara Eden) still loyal and devoted to her mortal "master", astronaut Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman), while Tony's best friend Roger Healy (Bill Daily) continues to hatch schemes to exploit Jeannie's astonishing powers--and Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke), flustered Air Force psychiatrist at Cocoa Beach, Florida, persists in his efforts to discover the source of the mysterious occurrences in the Nelson household. This season marks the introduction of Jeannie's twin sister Jeannie II (played by Barbara Eden in a brunette wig) in the episode "Jeannie or the Tiger." As wicked and calculating as her sister is sweet and unassuming, Jeannie II immediately begins plotting and planning to nab Tony for herself, usually by posing as "Jeannie I", bare-midriff harem costume and all. Other episodes of note include the season opener "Fly Me to the Moon", wherein Jeannie transforms a NASA chimp into a human being, played by Larry Storch; "My Master,the Weakling", featuring Don Rickles as a sadistic athletic coach; "Jeannie, the Hip Hippie", a showcase for Screen Gems' resident tunesmiths Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart; "Meet My Master's Mother", with the delightful Spring Byington in the title role; "My Son, the Genie", with Gilligan's Island escapee Bob Denver as a klutzy apprentice djinn; and singer Don Ho as himself in "Jeannie of Honolulu." Plus: In "Who are You Calling a Genie", our heroine develops amnesia; and in the three-part "Genie, Genie, Who's Got the Genie", the duplicitous "twin" Jeannie locks the genuine article in a safe bound for the moon! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jeannie's wicked lookalike sister Jeannie II (also played by Barbara Eden) is back, this time with the doleful news that "our" Jeannie has been designated a jinx and must return to Bagdad for sixteen years. Sadly, Jeannie vows that Tony (Larry Hagman) will not be lonely in her absence, so she chooses an appropriate fiancée for her master, a girl named Helen (Shannon Farnon). What Jeannie doesn't know is that the crafy Jeannie II has fabricated the "jinx" story so she can have Tony all to herself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

I Dream of Jeannie switches from black and white to color as the series enters its second season, enabling magical heroine Jeannie (Barbara Eden) to convey her various mood swings via the color of the smoke emanating from the bottle where she resides. Otherwise, it's the mixture as before: Astronaut Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) does his best to hide the fact that a genuine genie is living on his property; Tony's buddy Roger (Bill Daily) continues to try to capitalize on Jeannie's unique skills in order to fatten his bank account; and base psychiatrist Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke) is more determined than ever to prove that the strange occurrences in the Nelson household are proof that Tony is a few bricks shy of a full load. This season, the long-suffering Bellows is given an equally long-suffering wife named Amanda, played by skilled comic actress Emmaline Henry). The season opener "Happy Anniversary" features Michael Ansara, then the husband of series star Barbara Eden, as the Blue Djinn, who first trapped Jeannie in her bottle 2500 years ago. Other guest stars include Paul Lynde as a confused IRS agent in "My Master the Rich Tycoon"; veteran Hollywood musical arranger Frank DeVol in "My Master, the Great Caruso"; Butch Patrick, fresh from two seasons of The Munsters, as Dr. Bellows' bratty nephew in "My Master the Author"; and a cameo appearance by series creator Sidney Sheldon's longtime friend Groucho Marx in "Greatest Invention in the World". Also, this season features the series' first two-part episode, "The Girl Who Never Had a Birthday", in which Jeannie is in danger of disappearing forever because of the dilemma elucidated in the episode's title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although there had been several attempts throughout the 1950s and early 1960s to create a TV sitcom based on the legend of Aladdin's Lamp--one of these, "Al Haddon's Lamp", featured Buddy Ebsen as a bucolic genie--the premise did not result in a full series until producer Sidney Sheldon hit upon the brilliant idea of featuring a sexy female genie. Debuting September 18, 1965 on NBC, the weekly, half-hour I Dream of Jeannie starred Barbara Eden as Jeannie, a curvaceous blonde bottle imp rescued from 2500 years' imprisonment by astronaut Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman). Out of gratitude, Jeannie arranged for Tony to likewise be rescued from a desert island, then followed him to his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida, there to serve and obey her new "master." Unable to convince anyone that he'd found a genuine genie, Tony opted instead to keep Jeannie's presence, and her true identity, a secret, which proved problematic whenever our heroine used her magic to get her master in and out of various jams. The only other person who knew Jeannie's secret was Tony's astronaut buddy Roger Healy (Bill Daily), whose various efforts to profit from Jeannie's awesome powers invariably came a-cropper. Also featured was Hayden Rorke as Cocoa Beach's air force psychiatrist Dr. Alfred Bellows, who was convinced that the mysterious goings-on in Maj. Healy's household were proof that Tony was crazy and delusional, obliging Jeannie to gently discredit Bellows in the eyes of his superiors week after week after week. Although Tony tried to maintain a normal social life with several girlfriends, these relationships were forever scuttled by the jealous Jeannie, who of course had fallen in love with her master. Ultimately, Tony reciprocated Jeannie's affections, and the couple was married during the series' fifth and final season. By this time, Jeannie had begun wearing "civilian" clothes and had pretty much forsaken the midriff-baring harem costumes that had been her trademark in the first few seasons (Amusingly, network censors demanded that the series' producers disguise the fact that Barbara Eden had, like practically every other woman on earth, been born with a belly button!) Complicating the lives of the principal characters were several "visitors" from Jeannie's past life in Baghdad. Among these were Jeannie's twin sister Jeannie II (also played by Barbara Eden), a dark-haired vixen who hatched endless sinister schemes to snag Tony for herself; and Jeannie's magical pet dog Djinn Djinn, who managed to render himself invisible at the most inopportune moments. Lasting 139 episodes (109 of these in color), I Dream of Jeannie ended its NBC run on September 1, 1990. Barbara Eden went on to star in a brace of "reunion" TV movies, telecast in 1985 and 1991; and from 1973 to 1975 an animated version of the property, simply titled Jeannie, was seen on CBS' Saturday-morning lineup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fabian, Tab Hunter, and Peter Brown star as three surfers--Jody, Steamer and Chase--who make a pilgrimage from California to the north shore of Oahu for a vacation. Surfers from all over gather here every winter to compete with each other for the title of "the last ride" champion. While surfing the gigantic waves of the Pacific, the three young men each find romance with attractive young ladies (Shelley Fabares, Susan Hart, and Barbara Eden). Ride the Wild Surf features extensive surf footage of the Hawaiian Islands by cinematographer Joseph Biroc. Biroc was credited for a total of five feature productions in 1964. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide