When he was appearing on the series "Day By Day" in 1988, columnists and pundits predicted a "big career" for tall, lanky Christopher Daniel Barnes. But that series didn't last and it took seven years and a turn as Greg Brady trying to lure "groovy chicks" in "The Brady Bunch Movie" (1995) for Barnes to get the kind of showy role that would offer name recognition. Acting professionally since he was eight years old, often as under the stage name 'C.B. Barnes', he moved with his family from his native Portland, ME, in 1981 and began acting in TV commercials, racking up credits in over 100. A two-year regular role on the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" followed, as did his feature film debut as JoBeth Williams' son in "American Dreamer" (1984). Barnes was 13 when his family relocated to the West Coast and he landed the role of the half-alien, half-human son of "Starman" (ABC, 1986-87), co-starring Robert Hays. Two years later, he was the teenaged son of Linda Kelsey and Douglas Sheehan in the NBC sitcom "Day by Day" (1988-89). Barnes then appeared in several "ABC Afterschool Specials" and "CBS Schoolbreak Specials" as well as in supporting parts in TV-movies and occasional episodic guest appearances. He was a high school teen who innocently fails his urine analysis test in "Testing Dirty" (ABC, 1990), a teen stranded in the jungle in "Exile" (NBC, 1990), a friend to a ghetto youth thrust into prep school in "Murder With Motive: The Edmund Perry Story" (NBC, 1992), and appeared on the NBC sitcom "Blossom" several times as the title character's beau.
Barnes provided the voice of Prince Eric in Disney's 1989 animated hit, "The Little Mermaid," as well as the voice of "Spider-Man" in the animated series. Despite being past 20, Barnes landed the role of Greg Brady, eldest of the male trio of brothers, in "The Brady Bunch Movie" and convincingly projected the goody-goody essence of the character. Barnes reprised the role in the sequel.