What was up with 1960s sitcoms and unleashed lions?
Bob Denver, who played Gilligan on Gilligan’s Island, was nearly crushed to death by a 400-pound big cat that wasn’t properly harnessed to one of the island huts. That same lion — a veteran of sitcoms like The Beverly Hillbillies, Mr. Ed, and I Dream of Jeannie — nearly killed Jodie Foster while making the family adventure film Napoleon and Samantha.
While Zamba the lion was revered for its on-set good behavior — “the greatest lion that ever lived” must have had an excellent press agent — it nearly took down another 1960s sitcom star. That was William Demarest, who played cranky Uncle Charlie on the long-running comedy My Three Sons.
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Barry Livingston, who played youngest son Ernie on the show, recently told his lion story on Steve Kmetko’s Still Here Hollywood podcast. In typical sitcom outlandishness, the show’s writers devised a plot about a lion escaping from the circus and ending up in the Douglas family yard. Hilarity, as they say, ensues. “As a kid, suddenly you’re working with a lion off a chain, you know, 10 feet away from you,” Livingstone remembered. “That was an interesting day at the office.”
It was about to get more interesting. Its trainer usually kept the beast in a cage, but one day, the lion somehow got free when no one was looking. “Where’s the lion? It’s gone!” While the escaped cat explored the soundstage, the production crew frantically searched for the missing lion.
Everyone was in a panic and rightly so, considering “you’ve got a man-eating beast wandering around this cavernous sound stage over at Desilu,” Livingstone said. “Many, many, many dark places for a lion to hide out.”
The crew rounded up the actors as quickly as possible, locking the kid comedians in their dressing rooms. But one cast member had no idea that danger was lurking: Demarest, then in his 70s and in no shape to outrun a lion.
With no cell phones or other ways to contact him, Demarest arrived at the dark studio for production, his eyes slowly getting accustomed to the gloom from the bright sunshine outside. “Usually your eyes take a minute to adjust,” explained Livingstone.
Demarest made his way to his dressing room, and of course, “that’s where the lion was perched.” The actor finally saw what was waiting for him and “let out a pretty good string of obscenities.”
Uncle Charlie ran for his life, and the lion gave chase. Luckily, however, the beast “was drugged up. They had him goofy, you know,” Livingstone said. Its dopey state slowed it just enough for Demarest to reach his dressing room, where he could call for help.
Whew. “A misstep here or there,” noted Kmetko, “and it could have been My Two Sons.”
Livingstone chuckled. “Or we’d have needed another Uncle Charlie.”
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