“The Brady Bunch” is a quintessential family sitcom, so much so that we even went as far as to name it one of the 10 TV shows from the 1970s that defined the decade. And there’s one undeniable fact for any great TV family: They need a great dog. The Brady family did have one … at least for a few episodes, before a real-life tragedy struck.Â
Sherwood Schwartz, the show’s creator, wrote in his memoir, “Brady, Brady, Brady: The Complete Story of the Brady Bunch” (via Remind Magazine), about a memorable incident that happened while shooting “Katchoo,” the 5th episode of the series:Â “The dog was placed in the boys’ bedroom set, and I retrieved Mike Lookinland from the schoolroom. Bobby Brady was ready. The dog was ready (so I thought) and the camera rolled. The director said, ‘Action!’ And the dog promptly ran off the set.”
Following the dog’s disappearing act, Schwartz discovered some deeply sad news via Tiger’s on-set trainer. The handler revealed, “That’s not Tiger. Tiger was home, and he got out. He was hit by a car and killed.” Schwartz began to question the situation — namely, whose dog was this and where did he come from? — and the pieces started to come together. From there, the dog chaperone revealed even more disturbing details.Â
The dog who played Tiger had to be replaced
The showrunner’s book revealed Tiger’s handler had brought in a different dog as a replacement unbeknownst to the crew — and Schwartz ended up being forced to use the pet in the scene despite the fact that he was not trained for performance and set exposure. The series creator also wrote about having to nail the dog’s collar to the ground so he would stay on his mark, demonstrating the difficulty of working with animals who aren’t trained for performance.
Following the tragedy of the dog’s death, Tiger (who actually cracked the top ten in our “Brady Bunch” characters ranking and is even included in our list of TV’s best animals of all time) was temporarily recast with another performance pup. But it seems as though the on-set experience of having a dog in the family was never quite the same again.
The Brady family’s connection with their canine companion “just sort of faded away,” according to Eve Plumb, the actress who played middle sister Jan Brady, who spoke about Tiger’s original role in the series during an interview on the “Today” show in 2024 (via People). “That’s TV,” the performer noted. “Stuff comes and it goes.” Tiger’s last appearance on the five-season comedy was in Episode 11 of Season 2, titled “What Goes Up…”
Tiger disappeared from The Brady Bunch
The family’s beloved pooch — who originally belonged to patriarch Michael Brady’s sons (Greg, Bobby, and Peter) prior to his marriage to matriarch Carol Martin at the top of the series — had been with the show from the very beginning. He was the star of the show’s pilot episode, which aired in September 1969 and was titled “The Honeymoon.” In the episode, Tiger starts a major brawl at Mike and Carol’s backyard nupitals with Fluffy, a cat that originally belonged to Carol’s daughters (Cindy, Jan, and Marcia) before the events of the show began.
“Watching the early shows with Tiger, Tiger’s an important element …” Christopher Knight, who played middle brother Peter, noted during the “Today” show appearance alongside Eve Plumb. “And he just disappears.”
Barry Williams, who played the eldest brother, Greg, highlighted one of the show’s flaws, one that extended to how it incorporated Tiger into the mix (or not). “Continuity was not one of the strong points of our show,” he said on the “Today” show. “And so one day he’s there, one day he’s not there.” Meanwhile, the girls’ cat didn’t make it past the pilot episode, so Williams had a point.
