“The Brady Bunch” Cast Got ‘to Goof Off’ Behind the Scenes — Including Sneaking Off to Explore the “Bonanza” Set

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

Barry Williams and Christopher Knight opened up about filming The Brady Bunch during 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.”

“Bobby, for instance, Michael Lookinland, would go around on the scaffolding above the sets,” Williams, 70, explained. “We went to other sets on the lot, and kids would not have been allowed to do that. But because we were there and became part of the Paramount Studios family, we got privileges to goof off.”

Related: Maureen McCormick Says a Brady Bunch Reboot Would Have to ‘Knock Her Socks’ Off for Her to Do It (Exclusive)

He remembered especially that the cast would play on the set of Bonanza, 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.

Knight, 67, who played Peter Brady, said they always knew that it “was a privilege to work in an adult environment,” but he and Williams would still wander off and investigate the lot “like a kid.” He added that they all had a parent on set watching them, except for Williams, who was 16 and was also supervised by Knight’s mom. “So it was kinda hard to drift too far astray,” he said.

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.”

Related: Christopher Knight — The Brady Bunch’s Peter — Didn’t Want to Be a Child Star: ‘Isn’t That Your Parents’ Job to Work?’

“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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Williams added that he didn’t feel bothered by all the kids playing because he would hang out with his TV parents, Florence Henderson and Robert Reed, and Ann B. Davis, who played Alice the housekeeper. “Ann B. Davis and I played tennis against the soundstage wall,” he remembered.

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.”

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