Christopher Knight: From Bradys to Bionics to Brands

After The Brady Bunch was canceled in 1974 and following the demise of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour in 1977 Knightamp160followed in the footsteps of his former Brady Bunch costar Robbie Rist the notorious Cousin Oliver by appearing on The Bionic Woman amp160Rist had played one of former tennis pro turned schoolteacherspy Jaime Sommersamp8217 Lindsay Wagner pictured below students on the first two seasons of the series but by the third season and a switch from ABC to NBC the overhauled series saw much less of Sommers in the classroom amp160Season three also introduced viewers to Max the Bionic Dog in its twopart season opener amp160Max was a bionic test subject whoamp8217d been kept under wraps until his body started rejecting his bionic enhancements jaw and limbs causing concern that his condition was age related and would endanger Sommers and her OSI colleague Steve Austin Lee Majors aka the Six Million Dollar Man amp160Turns out Max was simply depressed after his bionic meltdown he appeared in eight more episodes of the series and his popularity fueled talk of a spinoff seriesThatamp8217s where Knight came into the pictureamp160 In one of the Max episodes he played a teenager who rescued the bionic poochamp160 It was a job Knight had no idea would be so fondly remembered amp160amp8220Yes I became the owner of Maxamp8221 he said with a smile when MediaVillage asked him about the role amp160amp8220That episode was actually the pilot for the proposed spinoffamp160 I was to play Max39s owneramp8220The problem with that show was the shoot daysquot he continuedamp160 quotThey were on a six or sevenday schedule for every hour of televisionamp160 I believe we went three days over on that episodeamp160 They started projecting it out and said amp8216There39s no way this is going to workamp8217 and it was because we were working with the dog amp160Today youamp8217d probably do all the dog stuff in postproductionamp160 But at the time they would have had to write less for Maxamp160 The less screen time Max had the more they could39ve gotten done quickeramp8221Knight recalls his time on The Bionic Woman as amp8220a great experienceamp8221 and one he learned a lot fromamp160 amp8220It kind of made me understand why Bob Reed who played Mike Brady didn39t want to work with kids or petsamp8221 he laughedamp160 amp8220I guess most actors don39t because animals can be tough and can take away a lot of the energy in a scene amp160I mean there39s a lot of magic that can happen when they do the right thing but with everybody else on set the magic is dissipated by then amp160It is tough and a lot of work amp160But it was a lot of funamp8221Unbeknownst to Knight at the time and later revealed on the special features of a DVD release of The Bionic Woman the amp8220originalamp8221 idea of a bionic dog was not so original amp160A German writer had designed a very similar German Shepherd in print right down to the same bionic limbs sixyears prioramp160 Unwilling to pay royalties Universal dropped the ideaFortytwo years after filming the failed Max pilot Knight has fond memories of filming it for two reasons amp160amp8220I remember trying to get the dog to bite the little wax lock off its cageamp8221 he recalled amp160amp8220It took me back to the days of Tiger the Bradysamp8217 dog who we didn39t have for very long and the cat who disappeared after the pilot episode of The Brady Bunch We had the occasional wrangler onset for the goat the mouse and frogsamp160 The most memorable pet experience I ever had was working with that spider on The Brady Bunch in Hawaii amp160Every time you work with an animal there39s someone there to work with them so I had a spider wrangler but how do you work with a spideramp8220To the best of my knowledge they don39t speak Englishamp8221 he continued amp160amp8220So it was all about where the spider was moving amp160It was steered by air so I39m lying on a bed that was lifted by blocks as the wrangler was kneeling at the side of the bed by the camera blowing through a straw to turn the spider in the direction it was supposed to go amp160If it started going too far one way the wrangler had to crawl around the bed and motivate it from another direction amp160This guy was going back and forth and believe me it was hysterical and so hard not to crack up overamp8221While Knight believed he was safe during the filming of that memorable The Brady Bunch scene in reality he had been lured into a sense of false security amp160amp8220It was a tarantula and they told me they had put ball bearings on its fangs for the scene so it couldn39t bite amp160I was 13 years old and probably should have been wiseramp160 Maybe I was a little sheltered but I believed them amp160I find out years later that you can39t put ball bearings on a spideramp8217s fangsamp8221 he laughedamp160 amp8220It39s impossibleamp8220So the reason I was so brave was that I thought it couldn39t hurt meamp8221 he recalled amp160amp8220If it had bitten me in the throat I39m not sure what might39ve happened amp160If they bite your finger or something it will just swell up amp160All I know is that I was the big man on campus for a day or two because I worked with the spider and frankly I don39t like bugs that muchamp8221These days Knight doesnamp8217t workamp160with animalsamp160 After wrapping A Very Brady Renovation heamp8217s busy curating a line of home goods offered online under the Christopher Knight Home banner and recently announced the launch of a production company venture called Former Prodigy Media one that will focus on documentariesdocuseries and possibly a home makeover show under the Christopher Knight Home brandChristopher Knight can be seen in Aamp160Very Brady Renovation telecast Monday at 9 pm on HGTVClick on the social media tiles above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively those of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggers

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Christopher Knight: From Bradys to Bionics to Brands

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Steve Gidlow

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Christopher Knight: From Bradys to Bionics to Brands

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