By India McCarty
BRADY BUNCH star Susan Olsen just revealed that she “almost died” during the production of the first episode of the beloved sitcom.
“I got injured,” the actress, who played Cindy Brady, recounted during an episode of “The Real Brady Bros” podcast. “Yeah, I almost died.”
Olsen said they were getting ready to shoot a scene and she was getting makeup applied to her legs.
“I was standing on a makeup chair and something from the catwalk, where they keep all the lights and everything, fell,” she remembered. “It hit the makeup man first, [bounced] off the body makeup woman and hit me in the face.”
Olsen continued, “You can tell, if you look at the [wedding] ceremony, and you see the three girls on one side, if you were to zoom in really tight, you can see my face is quite swollen. I look different. You can even see it in some of the early publicity shots. You can tell my face is a little swollen.”
She joked that “the saddest news is that we didn’t sue Paramount, because I would have made more off of that than the show” but added she came to work the next day with “two black eyes” and a swollen nose.
“I remember loving it, because I looked like I was in a horror film,” Olsen continued. “And then everybody knew, yes, I had gotten hurt, and I had gotten hurt very badly.”
Related: THE BRADY BUNCH Stars Share Secrets to the Sitcom’s Success
Olsen’s story wasn’t the only interesting behind-the-scenes information revealed on “The Real Brady Bros” podcast. Olsen and co-stars Barry Williams (Greg), Christopher Knight (Peter) and Mike Lookinland (Bobby) also discussed whether or not their TV dad, Mike Brady, adopted the girls.
“We never knew,” Olsen said, with Knight joking that it was “too complicated” for the sitcom to delve into.
Williams pointed out that they “never had an episode about it” but added that, throughout the show, “We don’t ever refer to ourselves as stepbrothers, stepsister, or stepmom, stepdad.”
“I look at it now, as an adult, and looking back on the show and its success — which is undoubtable — I recognize that the reason, in part, for that success is because we didn’t do that,” Knight explained. “It was all about getting along. And in getting along, having mom’s picture always up, referencing your real mom or your birth mom, is only gonna be a potential wedge issue. So it was completely put aside.”
Olsen left the world of acting shortly after her stint on THE BRADY BUNCH, telling an audience at The Hollywood Museum, “Fame was the one part I didn’t like.”
“I loved the work. I loved my castmates. I really loved the industry. I really liked what I did. I was a kid who wanted a job. [But] fame to me was silly. Just really, really ridiculous. It was like fool’s gold,” she continued.
Olsen “wanted to break the mold” and take more dramatic roles, but Hollywood couldn’t see her as anyone but Cindy Brady. She decided to pursue a career in graphic design, worked as the host of a radio talk show and now serves as an acting teacher to young people.
THE BRADY BUNCH is a fan-favorite for its heartwarming and relatively drama-free storylines, but Olsen’s story revealed that there was plenty of drama going on behind the scenes!
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