BJ and the Bear Fan Club

FACTS ABOUT

BJ AND THE BEAR

(This page is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Sam (Bear) the Chimp)

Sam the Chimp:

Sam won the plum role of "the Bear" in the hit TV series "BJ and the Bear" at the age of 3. How, you may wonder, does a chimp break into showbiz? Well, Sam was born in the wilds of Africa with hopes, dreams...and a craving for bananas. After graduating from the "Walking Wildlife School", Sam made his TV debut as a chimp trained to steal evidence in an episode of "Rosetti and Ryan." Sam also went on to work in other movies and TV shows, after his stint on BJ. Sam is owned by trainer Marvin Downey. Marvin says he knew Sam would be a "star", because of his great personality and his almost-human looking eyes. Sam lived out his remaining years at Mr. Downey's animal compound. Unfortunately, Sam succumbed to a form of kidney failure in the early 1990's at the age of 15. But I am sure all of us will always remember him as the beer drinking, donut eating, "fuzzy" sidekick of BJ McKay.

Bears Stunt Double:

Did you know Bear had a stunt double? If you look on Doe's website on the photo galleries first page, there is a picture of Greg with Bear holding his right hand and the stunt double holding his left. Because Bear was considered a "star" of the show, they could not get him drunk. So every scene where Bear has been drinking beer or is drunk, it is his stunt double. Greg said in an interview on the Vicki Gabereau show that they used to give the double a shot in the arm to make her drunk. Greg also said that Bear would sometimes get jealous if Greg was around the double and wind up biting Greg's hand. He also said that when they weren't filming, Bear was kept in a cage. Every time someone would walk by, Bear would pick up his poop and throw it at people. Greg said "Yeah Bear was a handful, when he was in his cage, if anyone walked by and didn't say hello to him, he would......" (Greg makes the motion of putting his hand behind his back and tossing something).Vicki, the interviewer, burst out laughing, that is when he told about getting the stunt double drunk. It is a 20 minute interview that Greg gave last Dec (2000). He was so funny he said when they got the double drunk they would just prop her up and take the shots for the episode.

Behind the Scenes of "Wheels of Fortune"

Apparently there were nine people in the cab of the truck , not including Bear. He was in the cab as well. Greg had only a three week truck driving course and wasn't that familiar with the truck. There was the director, camera people, microphone people, Greg, Bear and a woman and a few others in the cab. They were actually filming the episode right from the inside of the truck, not on a set model. They were going down a steep snow and ice covered hill while it was snowing. Greg was driving the whole time they were filming the episode. Greg lost control of the truck going around a curve too fast and ended up slamming into a snow bank. No one was hurt and no damage to the cab, but it scared the hell outta Greg. He said he was glad the trailer wasn't on or it could have been worse. I don't know if you're aware but Greg did ALL his stunts on the show. Even the one with him on the motorcycle. Whenever Greg had to do a fight scene and if Bear was on camera, he would attack and bite the guy fighting with Greg. He was very protective of Greg and always got so excited whenever the director would call "Action!".

Behind the Scenes of "Never Give a Trucker an Even Break"

In this episode BJ is driving a motorcycle. One scene calls for him to grab a hold of a two by four that was attached to the runners of a helicopter. The helicoper was supposed to come close enough for BJ to grab ahold of the two by four before his motorcycle went over the cliff. Like I have said before Greg did most of his own stunts. Anyway, BJ was travelling at approximately 40 mph, when the copter swooped down for him to grab a hold of the two by four. Unfortunately, the pilot of copter came in too low and too fast. BJ tried to grab ahold of the 2 x 4, but it was not secured properly and fell away, so the only thing that BJ could do was to lay the bike down on its side at 40 mph. The bike did go over the cliff and Greg only sustained minor cuts and bruises. It really could have been a lot worse, but thankfully no one was injured, except the motorcycle.