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The on-screen chemistry between Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden on I Dream of Jeannie was hardly a fantasy.
In an exclusive chat with PEOPLE, Eden, 94, recalled having an instant connection with the actor.
“It was immediate, and I have no idea why, but it was,” she said of their TV bond. “We just were on that same carpet, if you will. I believed him, and he believed me when we were working.”
In the fantasy sitcom, Eden played Jeannie, a 2,000-year-old genie living in a bottle, who falls in love with astronaut Captain Tony Nelson, portrayed by Hagman.
The show ran for five seasons, ending in 1970, and included two follow-up TV films, which Hagman was not part of due to his work in Dallas, where he starred as J.R. Ewing.
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“We couldn’t connect time where we were both free,” she said of the spinoff films. “I cannot remember. I remember the shows and doing them, but I don’t remember things happening.”
She added, “I think they stand on their own. Yeah, I do. I’m really sorry Larry couldn’t do them, but he was very busy with Dallas.”
The iconic on-screen duo reunited on Hagman’s famed primetime soap opera about a wealthy Texas oil family 20 years after Jeannie’s ending. And although they were playing “opposing forces” in the last season of Dallas, they picked up right where they left off.
“It was wonderful,” she recalled of her role as Lee Ann de la Vega. “We can be different people, and we were in that. It wasn’t Jeannie and Master at all, and I enjoyed it, and I think Larry did, too.”
Hagman died on November 23, 2012, from cancer complications at the age of 81.
After his death, Eden told The Hollywood Reporter, “Larry was one of the most intelligent actors I ever worked with. He more than hit his marks. And when you’re working with another actor, you know immediately if the ball isn’t tossed back. Plus, Larry was savvy about the business, which I wasn’t.”
