Whatever Happened to Max the Bionic Dog From ‘The Bionic Woman’?
What To Know
- Maximillian, the bionic dog introduced in the third season of The Bionic Woman, was initially played by a talented dog named Bracken.
- Due to Hollywood politics and demands from stunt dog owners, Bracken was replaced after two episodes by eight different stunt dogs, making dramatic scenes more challenging to film.
If you grew up in the ’70s, then you know just how popular the TV shows The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman were. Starring Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner, these two shows started a bionic craze.
Way back then, it was quite common for kids to dream about someday, somehow becoming bionic, never mind the traumatic accident that would have to occur to necessitate the body part upgrades. Anyway, many an afternoon elementary school recess was spent reenacting the adventures of these two heroes.
And, as time wore on, it wasn’t just Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers anymore. Nope, there was also the Bionic Boy. His name was Andy Sheffield. Apparently, Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) had someone else that he needed to keep a watchful eye on as well. Vincent Van Patten, son of Dick, played the youthful hero that many thought was sure to get his own TV show, but never did.
And then there was the best bionic hero of all, the one that is the true focus of this retrospective: the bionic dog.
Writing for the Television Academy Foundation, TV Historian Herbie J. Pilato said, “For the third season, The Bionic Woman switched networks…and was given a bionic dog, named Max, short for “Max-a-million” (because that’s how much the O.S.I. invested in rebuilding him).”
Max was so darn cool! He could do all sorts of neat things with his bionic limbs, as well as his newly constructed jaw. It turns out that he was actually bionic long before Steve and Jaime were. And, during his introduction in the first two episodes of the third season of The Bionic Woman, there was some question about whether or not Max could go on because, you see, it appeared that he was rejecting his bionic components.
To do Max’s dramatic scenes, a dog named Bracken was hired. It was a role that any dog would die for.
According to the cast and crew, Bracken really was the ideal dog for the role because he could actually act. All of the actors, including Lindsay Wagner, really enjoyed working alongside him because he was just that good. However, according to Pilato’s book, The Bionic Book Reconstructed, it wasn’t long before Bracken was out of the role. After those first two episodes of the third season, he was replaced by eight different dogs: stunt dogs, to be exact.
Everett Collection
So, why the sudden change?
Apparently, there were some unfortunate Hollywood politics that came into play involving the people who owned the stunt dogs. It would seem, feeling like they had the upper hand, the stunt dog owners requested that their dogs do the dramatic scenes as well. It really did seem like something of an ultimatum to the producers: you can have the stunt dogs, or you can have Bracken, but you can’t have both.
So, Bracken was handed a pink slip by the show. From all accounts, everyone was disheartened to see him go, and the dramatic scenes did indeed become much more difficult to shoot. This often required Wagner and others to act out a scene entirely without the dog, leaving the editors to insert Max’s scenes later on.
No doubt about it, it is a sad story, especially if you’re Bracken. And to make matters worse, there are no available details about what might have happened to him after his dismissal from the show.
Perhaps Bracken lived out his remaining years far away from the heartbreak of the Hollywood Hills, chasing butterflies on a farm or something awesome like that. That’s what a good boy like Bracken deserved; let’s hope he got it.
Remind