Photo:Paul Archuleta/Getty

Barbara

Paul Archuleta/Getty

Barbara Edenmight just have the magic touch.

DuringChristmas Conin Kansas City on Saturday, theI Dream of Jeanniestar recalled how a lion she worked with while filming the 1960s series loved her but didn’t have the same affinity for her costarLarry Hagman.

Eden had been advised to let the lion “smell your hand like a puppy” but “always be ready to jump away because they could break your leg, you know, if they rolled over for a tummy rub.”

Before Eden went to do a scene with Hagman — whodiedin 2012 at age 81 — and the lion, she wanted to introduce him to the animal.

“I went over to Larry in his dressing room. I said, ‘Larry, we have to go make friends with the lion,'” Eden said. “And he said, ‘What? I’m not making friends with any blankety-blank lion!’ And he walked away. I go, ‘Okay.'”

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I DREAM OF JEANNIE

At that point, the lion started to get agitated.

“The lion was brought in and he ate the meat, looked around, looked at me, looked at Larry, and, ‘ROAR!'” Eden recalled. “Larry, I wanna tell you, he was off the set. Not only was he off the set, the cameraman, the whole crew. They broke the camera. And I had an 800-pound lion in my lap, purring. They purr, just like kitty-cats!”

Comparatively, Hart, 47, said she’d only worked with “a cat that was much smaller” while filmingSabrina the Teenage Witch.

“We got a little scratch, but that was about it,” she said.

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SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH

Hart added that theSabrinaset “was covered” with spoons of cat food in order to get the cats to cooperate during shooting.

“They would have the cat food tin and they’d have this long spoon and it would be a plastic spoon tied to like a fishing pole. And they’d scoop it in there and they’d come up and had a little beep on it. Go beep, beep, beep,” Hart said. “AndCaroline Rheawould be like, ‘What’s up?’ And the cat’s supposed to do the same thing, right? ‘What’s up?’ And then, they’d feed it and they, you know, they’d pay it, as they called it …. They do have to earn their food!”

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I Dream of Jeannieis streaming on Prime Video, Tubi and The Roku Channel.Sabrina the Teenage Witchis available to view on Prime Video, Paramount+ and Hulu.

source: people.com