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The Brady Bunch started out as a pet-friendly sitcom. In fact, the show’s pilot was built around the family’s miscellaneous critters.
When Mike marries Carol in an outdoor ceremony, the boys’ dog, Tiger, escapes a car (hey, a little hot in there, don’t you think?) and chased the girls’ cat, Fluffy, across the formally clad laps of the attendees. Does Tiger eat Fluffy in an off-camera act of pet-on-pet violence? The show doesn’t say so explicitly, but other than the show’s very first episode, Fluffy never appears again.
Somehow, Tiger suffered an even sadder fate, according to producer Lloyd Schwartz in his show history, Brady Brady Brady. The sitcom sheepdog was supposed to be a quasi-cast member, written into episode plots like the one in which the family believes Jan is allergic to Tiger. Turns out, it’s flea powder that makes Jan sneeze, but the boys still have to make tearful goodbyes.
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When it was time for Bobby to deliver a sobbing farewell to his pet, the director called “Action!” — and the dog bolted off set.
Hey, animals can be skittish. The trainer put Tiger back on his mark. “Take two — action!” Again, the dog ran out of frame.
“I was afraid of this,” moaned the trainer.
Afraid of what, Schwartz wanted to know.
“That’s not Tiger,” the handler admitted. “Tiger was home, and he got out. He was hit by a car and killed.”
Oh no! Schwartz expressed his regrets. “I’m truly sorry.”
“Me too. He was a good dog.”
But if good dog Tiger was dead, which dog was this? The trainer confessed that he panicked and stopped by the pound for a Tiger doppelgänger on the way to the shoot.
“You put an untrained dog in the center of a set and we’re filming?”
Schwartz had to make a decision. The cast and crew couldn’t stand around while the trainer located another replacement pooch, hopefully trained. That could take hours, if it could be done at all, and waiting would cost thousands of dollars. So Schwartz called over to a key grip, who was handy with a hammer: “Larry, nail the dog to the floor.”
Don’t worry, Larry didn’t staple the dog’s paw to the set. But he did put a nail through its collar, securing Tiger Two in place. The dog appeared sad about leaving the family, but in truth, it couldn’t lift its head from the floor.
While a third Tiger was eventually found, he soon suffered the Fate of Fluffy, disappearing from the series without explanation. The empty doghouse stayed in the backyard for the duration of the series, covering up a damaged part of the family’s Astroturf lawn.
Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Eve Plumb couldn’t explain the vanishing pets on The Today Show last year. “Watching the early shows with Tiger, Tiger is an important element,” said Knight, “and he just disappears.”
“Continuity was not one of the strong points of our show,” laughed Williams. “One day he’s there, one day he’s not.”