The Brady BunchCast Got ‘to Goof Off’ Behind the Scenes — Including Sneaking Off to Explore theBonanzaSet

Mar. 15, 2025

The cast of ‘The Brady Bunch.’ From left: Barry Williams, Susan Olsen, Eve Plumb, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight and Mike Lookinland in the 1970s.Photo:Everett Collection

Everett Collection

Being a child star can be hard — but it’s a little easier when you’ve got five friends.

Barry Williamsand Christopher Knight opened up about filmingThe Brady Bunchduring a Jan. 23 episode of their rewatch podcast,The Real Brady Bros., and remembered the hijinks that the show’s six child actors would get up to behind the scenes.

A fan wrote in and asked if the Brady kids felt like they were allowed to do things other kids couldn’t because of the show. Williams, who played oldest sibling Greg Brady, said that the show’s producers were “very protective of allowing us to be kids on the set because it was a disciplined professional environment, and yet we’re still kids.”

Barry Williams (left) and Christopher Knight in ‘The Brady Bunch’ in 1972.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

He remembered especially that the cast would play on the set ofBonanza, the long-running Western series that filmed on the same lot. “I used to play on the main street and go up inside their sets and things like that. So that was fun, and I was always appreciative that they let us goof around and be kids,” Williams said.

The cast of ‘The Brady Bunch’ in 1969.ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

The podcast’s producer asked if Knight ever felt frustrated, like he didn’t have enough time to play. “The saving grace from my point of view on this show was that I wasn’t the only kid,” he said. “And it wasn’t like just me and somebody else. It was a group of us, all similar in age. We were our own little prairie schoolhouse.”

“I don’t know what it would be like to work for that long on a set with only adults if I was 10 years old,” he continued. “There’d be no one to throw a ball with that was your age and no one to goof around with, no one to try to influence. Like I would get Michael into trouble.” The other kids on the show were “sort of a blend between a friend and a real brother and sister," he added.

“It’s not a bad environment,” he said, though he noted he knew it’s not always that way for child actors.

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Knight called Williams “literally too cool for school.” He was the “leader” of the kids, he said, but he also got to play with the adults. “Barry was sort of this thing in between.”

source: people.com