Barbara Eden - Great 2-Part Interview

[Mot Morenzi]

This channel was unavailable for a while but it's fortunately returned, as this interview with Barbara is delightful and very candid. She tells a lot of her familiar stories, but both parts are still well worth watching in their entirety. Part one is primarily devoted to I Dream of Jeannie, and she talks about comparisons to Bewitched around 15:50.

Lucy comes up in part two, around 8:20, and she tells a lesser heard story about bumping into Lucy many years after her guest appearance. Afterwards, she has laugh about Ann Sothern's involvement in My Mother the Car.

 

[JoeySanJoaquin]

Thanks for sharing this Brian! Can't wait to watch it at home.  Love Babs!

[Neil]

I had to look her age up and I couldn't believe it.  Assuming this interview is recent, Barbara looks better than ANY 86 year old in the history of the world.  Sure she's lit well and has obviously had to have had some work done but she doesn't have that frozen face/swollen lip look that so many have.  And she's so sharp, animated and has a voice that perfectly matches her Jeanne days.  She really does seem like a genuinely nice person.  To contrast Barbara's young look, she's now the same age as Mae West was in "Sextette" and Mae looked a bit garish and moved around like a dumpster with one locked wheel.   Here's a sobering thought.  This Barbara Eden could be the grandmother of the "Jeanne" Barbara Eden, and without too much of a stretch, the GREAT-grandmother.  (Easily the great-grandmother of Pat Boone fan "Diana")  I was never a fan of "I Dream of Jeanne" fan but I always liked her.  "Jeanne" wasn't clever in the way "Bewitched" was, plus it was on NBC, whose 60s (and 70s) sitcoms were a definite step down from CBS's or even ABC's.

I wonder WHOSE idea it was to bleep out Ann Sothern's name, though referencing My Mother the Car and Ann's rather large "rear bumper" (poor Ann: ALWAYS a weight reference!)  leaves no doubt who she's talking about.   I've heard the Lucy story before and it's always good to hear these things about Lucy as opposed to kicking Ruth McDevitt, etc.  Think of it: "Lucy" was still #1 but she took time out to be nice to this young unknown, who of course turned in a great performance in one of the last half-hour episodes.  As did Desi.  And Lucy: the 'trying to sit down with tight skirt' bit is hilarious.

[Mot Morenzi]

I'm guessing Barbara requested that Ann's name be muted. She was very forthcoming about Ann's identity as the "mean actress" in her book, but tends not to name names when interviewed. Barbara's a very gracious person and clearly not many people provoke ill feelings in her. Miss Sothern is a clear exception. 

[JoeySanJoaquin]

On 2/7/2018 at 10:42 AM, Neil said:

".....and Mae looked a bit garish and moved around like a dumpster with one locked wheel."

Thanks Neil for one of THE funniest, most clever things I've read in a long, long time and so enjoyed that I had to re-read it 3 , 4 times and laughed harder each time!  Thank you sir I needed that!!