Robert Conrad leaps off the balcony and grabs onto the chandelier.

Conrad releases the chandelier only to find his fall guy (Laveroni) too far away to lessen the impact of his fall.

Conrad's body continues its momentum at full speed.

He lands on the back of his head. In this photo he is clenching his teeth in pain.

This is the first frame after Conrad's 12 week recovery. He gets up off the floor after 'the fall.'

On Tuesday January 23, 1968 we began "The Night of the Fugitives," the eighty-first episode of THE WILD WILD WEST. Many things would happen between the time we started and the time we would finish that episode, more than twelve weeks later.

The show started out as another one of the many fun shows we did. Charles McGraw was guest starring with Simon Oakland and Mickey Hargitay, the former Mr. Universe and ex-husband of movie sex symbol, Jayne Mansfield. A bar fight was scheduled for the following day, so Whitey was in the bar with Bob preparing for the fight scene.

Agent West would chase his elusive quarry through the bar where he is confronted by several stuntmen whom he will quickly displace, then continue chasing his man up the stairway. When more stuntmen, as anxious to stop him as he is to succeed, exit a room at the top of the stairs, Agent West would throw one of them (Red West) through the balcony railing. Then, seeing himself surrounded on all sides, he'd turn to leap to a chandelier twelve feet above the stage floor.

Assuming the momentum of his body will put the chandelier into a swinging motion, West planned to swing forward and kick Laveroni (who is standing on the stage below) through a window. The purpose of this move is to stop or slow Bob's swing so he can let loose of the chandelier and drop to the floor.

What made Whitey especially nervous was the fact he wouldn't be there for the fight. So, like a mother hen, Whitey wanted to make sure we were prepared to protect Bob. This concern was not only because it was his job to protect Bob in a stunt but because every stuntman has a sincere concern for a colleague's safety. Whitey would miss the fight because Bob not only excused him to do a commercial at another studio, but had insisted he take the job because of the money involved. Whitey hesitated, but assured that everything would go off like clockwork, he took the job. . . and cusses himself to this day for doing so.

On the day of the fight we walked through the fight routine several more times. When Bob believed we had it down pat, the cameras rolled. Everything went like clockwork... up to the kick. Blame can be put on several contributing factors to what happened next such as the bar on the chandelier that Bob grabbed was not taped; Bob's hands were sweaty; Bob's weight, added to the momentum of his diving body wasn't considered; or, as the video tape revealed over and over again, Laveroni moved too soon and Bob missed the kick.

There can be little doubt that when Bob kicked out at Laveroni and missed, more weight was added to the several hundred pounds the momentum of his swinging body had already created on the sweating fingers gripping the chandelier. Unable to retain the grip, his fingers slipped from the chandelier and Bob fell head first, twelve feet to the hard surface of the stage floor.

I was lying on my back at the foot of the stairs, near where Bob had thrown me seconds earlier, and watching the action so I could be prepared for my next move. When Bob fell, his head missed my hand by several inches. I point this out only to show the proximity of the fight area and reason for my ability to recall and know how close Bob had come to being killed.

There is no rational explanation for Bob living through that fall and I give full credit for his survival to our Creator. To have survived landing as he did was one thing and to have fallen on his head at the angle he did and survive without breaking his neck or damaging his spinal column is, in itself, another small miracle. For him to get off the ground and stagger about on his own two legs was impossible but he did, despite the fact there was no question he was badly hurt.

An ambulance was called before Bob got to his feet. Lenny Katzman was there by the time it arrived and stood by Bob as the attendants started to lead Bob to the stretcher. He refused and began to weakly struggle with the attendants. Bob looked at me. Neither Lenny nor I were sure whether we should interfere. Bob was weak and could barely stand, but he refused to give in. For the first time since I met him, my heart really went out to him and I didn't know how to handle it. I often told Bob facetiously, "If you're faced with a problem you can't knock out with a left hook, run away from it." Boy did I feel like running.

"Cang! Don't let them put me in the back!"

That was all I needed to hear. I stepped in to grab Bob. As I did so, I looked at Lenny.

"He ain't goin' for it, Lenny! Let him ride in the front!" I was damn near begging but it was totally unnecessary.

The attendants looked at Lenny and Lenny nodded his approval. The attendants helped Bob into the front seat and rushed him to the hospital.

On the following day, we were informed that the show would be shut down until further notice.