Barbara Eden Recalls a Lion Sitting in Her Lap — and Smashing a Camera — on 'I Dream of Jeannie' Set

"They're always well-fed. They don't want to eat you. They want to play with you," the actress said during Christmas Con Kansas City

Barbara Eden might just have the magic touch.

During Christmas Con in Kansas City on Saturday, the I Dream of Jeannie star recalled how a lion she worked with while filming the 1960s series loved her but didn't have the same affinity for her costar Larry Hagman.

"I had done a couple of films and worked with lions," Eden, 91, told panel moderator and PEOPLE Senior TV Editor Breanne Heldman during the talk, which also featured Melissa Joan Hart. "The trainer always tells you, you go over, you make friends with the lion because male lions are not aggressive. It's the female you have to look out for. And they're always well-fed. They don't want to eat you. They want to play with you."

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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 — who died in 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.'"

Eden proceeded to rehearse with the lion as the trainer continued feeding the big cat. "They'd put a bowl of raw meat right here by my thigh and he'd eat the meat and he'd look around. He's very happy, very happy," she said. "Then they brought in Larry."

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 filming Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

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

Related: Melissa Joan Hart Celebrates 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' 's 25th Anniversary: 'An Incredible Ride'

Hart added that the Sabrina set "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. "And Caroline Rhea would 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 Jeannie is streaming on Prime Video, Tubi and The Roku Channel. Sabrina the Teenage Witch is available to view on Prime Video, Paramount+ and Hulu.

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