‘I Dream Of Jeannie’ & the Jim Beam Whiskey Bottle

Cue the music … Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, and I Dream of Jeannie, the television series.

For those who forget, I Dream of Jeannie was a fabulous situation comedy that ran in first-run from 1965 to 1970. It has been on-air ever since in reruns for more than 50 years.

It was one of my brother's and my favorite television programs while growing up.

We also had the opportunity to meet Barbara Eden as adults. It was a great experience.

The photos below are from the day that we met Barbara Eden. She is a beautiful, kind and wonderful person.

The iconic bottle, even though it’s an inanimate object, was such a big part of the show as many scenes would show Jeannie sitting in the bottle or, with smoke pouring out of the bottle and Jeannie reappearing and reanimating into real life.

Jeannie’s Bottle was a 1964 Jim Beam Whiskey Bottle. Specifically, it was a 1964 special Christmas edition decanter produced by Jim Beam.

As folklore would have it, either Sidney Sheldon or the show’s first director, Gene Nelson searched for just the right bottle to serve as Jeannie’s Bottle.

Walking by a liquor store, he saw the Jim Beam Whiskey bottle and immediately knew it was perfect. The bottle sold for $ 5.99 in 1964.

There is no doubt, this special 1964 Jim Beam Whiskey bottle was the perfect choice.

Sidebar: These 1964 Jim Beam Whiskey bottles are very collectible with the goal of having talented painters create their very own Jeannie bottle.

The show began in the black-and-white television era. So, the Jeannie Bottle that you see directly below was before color television. It was perfect for the Black and white television days. It took on a great, antique look as Jeannie Nelson was allegedly 2,000 years old.

With the advent of color television, Jeannie Bottles were painted a very colorful pink and purple, which really popped nicely on color television.

There were 139 episodes of I Dream of Jeannie. It’s estimated that 12 Jeannie Bottles were used. Some of the bottles broke when the smoke process, which used heat and chemicals to simulate making Jeannie reappear, took place.

The word on the street is that show director Gene Nelson took the first bottle and held on to it for the rest of his life (30 years). It is reportedly in storage right now, in safekeeping by Nelson’s children.

And, Barbara Eden took ownership of the last Jeannie Bottle (painted pink and purple) after filming the final episode of the iconic television series.

A Jeannie Bottle that was used on the show sold in 2017 for more than $100,000.

Now you know the story of I Dream of Jeannie and the 1964 Jim Beam whiskey bottle and exactly what they have in common.