Why Barbara Eden's I Dream Of Jeannie Costume Generated All The Wrong Buzz In The '60s
Ideas of what is and isn't proper change all the time, but the pandemonium over Barbara Eden's belly button on '60s sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie" stands out for being especially ridiculous. However, the actor has always found the chaos that ensued funny.
Though Eden's Jeannie always wore high-waisted pants, fans of the NBC sitcom may recall that there were some occasions when her belly button was slightly visible as she moved. Granted, it wasn't entirely exposed, nor was it ever an issue that came up in the show. However, as Eden recounted years later in a conversation with FoundationINTERVIEWS, after a journalist wrote about their own running in-joke (he'd quip that she didn't seem to have one and ask to see it as proof, and she'd reply that he would need to pay for it), other news outlets started talking about it, and the producer of NBC's "Laugh-In" George Schlatter planned to do a reveal on the show. Cue a very unsettled network. "NBC had a fit. Just had a fit," she scoffed, thinking back on the drama. If you're thinking of the "Barbie" boardroom scene right now, you wouldn't be far off. Eden went on to laugh at what she said Schlatter told her about the panicked meeting over her not-to-be-seen navel, which was, "Here was this long oak table, with all the suits around it, and it was a very serious meeting talking about my belly button, and whether it should or should not be seen."
Luckily, the drama certainly was no tragic detail in Eden's life. In fact, she told Remind that she'd found the inappropriate-for-TV claims ridiculous even then. "I was giggling about it because it was silly. Not only did I have pants on that were like a bathing suit pant, I had everything covered except my arms," she recalled.
Barbara Eden's belly button was banned (but not everyone's was)
It's worth noting that even before the drama over Barbara Eden's belly button, there were already rules that a navel couldn't be shown on screen for fear of corrupting the youth (yes, really). Joan Collins has even discussed having a ruby put into hers when filming the 1955 "Land of the Pharaohs," joking on "The Graham Norton Show" that it seemed, "Much more obscene, I think, than a navel." As such, Eden certainly wasn't the only star to have had hers covered, even if that was a decade later. However, she pointed out in her chat with FoundationINTERVIEWS that there were times the rules seemed to be selectively applied, recounting, "Because of all that brouhaha, we did three shows in Hawaii. Every girl on the beach, plus the actresses in the show, were wearing bikinis. Guess what? [Jeannie] was in a one-piece tank suit."
Sure enough, Eden's swimsuit had full coverage, but in the very same episode, Mrs. Bellows appeared in a pair of low-rise pants and a button-down shirt tied above the waist, putting her own navel on full display. It's a detail that didn't go unnoticed by YouTube users decades later, one writing, "Interesting that Mrs. Bellows shared her belly button, but Jeannie never did."
Fast-forward to the end of the show. The censorship seemed to ease, and in some episodes, Eden's belly button was visible. And, in 2013, Eden appeared alongside Bill Clinton at an event in Austria clad in her costume, and with her belly button out. Well, it's no secret Eden thought the situation was ridiculous in the first place, and in a way, the fact that she'd appear in the same costume so many years later (exposed belly button and all) feels like something Jeannie herself orchestrated.