Everything about The Brady Bunch totally explained
The Brady Bunch is an
American television situation comedy based around a large
blended family. The show originally aired from
September 26,
1969 to
August 30,
1974 on the
ABC network and was subsequently syndicated around the world.
Overview
Origins
Sherwood Schwartz, creator of the series, conceived the idea for the series after reading an article in the
Los Angeles Times that said "40% of marriages [inthe
United States] had a child or children from [a] previous
marriage."
Despite the similarities between the series and the
1968 theatrical release
Yours, Mine and Ours starring
Henry Fonda and
Lucille Ball, the original script for
The Brady Bunch (which was titled
Yours and Mine at that early stage) predated the script for the film. However, the success of the film was likely a factor in the network ordering the series.
Plot
Mike Brady (
Robert Reed), a
widowed
architect with sons Greg (
Barry Williams), Peter (
Christopher Knight) and Bobby (
Mike Lookinland), married Carol Martin (née Tyler) (
Florence Henderson), whose daughters were Marcia (
Maureen McCormick), Jan (
Eve Plumb) and Cindy (
Susan Olsen). The daughters took the Brady surname. Schwartz wanted Carol to have been a divorcée. The network objected to this, but a compromise was reached whereby no mention was made of the circumstances in which Carol's first marriage ended, but many assume she was widowed. The newly-formed juvenile sextet, parents Carol and Mike, Mike's live-in housekeeper
Alice (
Ann B. Davis), and the boys' dog Tiger settled into a large,
suburban home designed by Mike.
Often erroneously cited as the first series to show a "blended" family (two series which debuted in the 1950s,
Make Room For Daddy and
Bonanza, had step-siblings and half-siblings respectively), it came at a time when divorce and remarriage in America was seeing a surge. Episodes in the first season chronicled the family learning to adjust to its new circumstances and become a unit, as well as typical childhood problems such as dating, rivalries and family squabbles and the fact that their house had two bedrooms for six children.
Subtle references to larger social problems occasionally found their way into the dialogue from time to time. In one
social-issue episode, season two's "The Liberation of Marcia Brady," Marcia explores the oppression of the Brady women and sets out to prove a girl can do anything a boy can. The boys find this very upsetting and Peter finds himself joining the Sunflower Girls, Marcia's club, in hopes of making her back down from her 'bad idea'.
Mike did much of his architectural work in an office/design studio within the house, an apparent way of lending some realism to the way in which
sitcom dads seem to be almost always at home while nonetheless earning a good living. In the episodes where he was shown in his away-from-home office, he often came home from work about the same time the children got home from school.
The theme song penned by Schwartz quickly communicated to audiences that the Bradys were a blended family, though the situation largely was deemphasized from the second season on with a few exceptions. Two episodes from the third season, "Not So Rose Colored Glasses" and "Jan's Aunt Jenny", mention that Mike and Carol had been married for three years. In "Kelly's Kids," reference was made to the Bradys' adoptions ("Either way, you adopted three boys and you adopted three girls, right?") when their neighbors, the Kellys, adopted three boys of different races.
Original run and subsequent success
In 1971, due to the success of the Brady's ABC Friday night companion show
The Partridge Family (about a musical family), some episodes began to feature the Brady Kids as a singing group. Though only a handful of shows actually featured them singing and performing ("Doe-Ri-Me" in the third season, "Amateur Nite" in the fourth and "Johnny Bravo" in the fifth), the Brady Bunch began to release albums. Though they never charted as high as the Partridges, the cast began touring the United States during the summer hiatus from the show, headlining as
The Kids from the Brady Bunch. Although only
Barry Williams and
Maureen McCormick stayed in the music business as adults,
Christopher Knight readily admits he felt he couldn't sing and recalls having great anxiety about performing live on stage with the cast.
The Brady Bunch never achieved high ratings during its primetime run (never placing in the top 25 during the five years it aired) and was canceled in 1974 when Greg graduated from high school and was about to enroll in college. Despite its less-than-stellar primetime ratings and having won no awards, the show would become a true cultural phenomenon, having lasted in the minds of Americans and in syndication for nearly four decades. The series has spawned several sequel series on the "big 3" U.S. networks, two made-for-theater and three made-for-TV movies, a touring stage show and countless specials and documentaries on both network and cable TV.
Since its first airing in
syndication in September 1975, an episode of the show has been broadcast somewhere in the United States and abroad every single day of every single year through at least 2007. Reruns were also shown on ABC in the daytime from
July 9,
1973 to
August 29,
1975, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern/10:30 Central. The run was interrupted only once, between April 21 and June 27, 1975, when ABC ran a short-lived game show,
Blankety Blanks, in that time slot.
When the episodes were repeated in syndication, they usually appeared every weekday in late-afternoon or
early-evening slots on local stations. This enabled children to watch the episodes when they came home from school, making the program widely popular and giving it iconic status among those who were too young to have seen the series during its
prime time run. The show's longevity in the public mind largely owes to that phenomenon, which was a unique aberration from the traditional norm of a previously-run network program being sold to stations as schedule filler between network programming blocs.
According to Schwartz, the reason the show has become a part of Americana despite the fact that there have been other shows that ran longer, rated higher and were critically acclaimed is that the episodes were written from the standpoint of the children and addressed situations that children could understand (such as girl trouble, sibling rivalry and meeting famous people such as a rock star or baseball player). The Bradys also comprised a harmonious family (compared to the likes of
the Bunkers,
the Bundys,
the Simpsons, etc...), though they did run into problems occasionally when one of the children didn't cooperate with his or her parents or the other children. In fact, anticipating the likelihood that some children might "act out" some plotlines, the producers had a form letter they sent to children who wrote stating their desires to run away from their own families and live with the Bradys. It has also been noted that the Bradys, while not wealthy, lived well by the middle-class standards of the early 1970s, having a live-in housekeeper and taking frequent trips.
The show presently airs on the
TV Land cable network.
Cast
The regular cast appeared in an opening title sequence in which video head shots were arranged in a three-by-three grid, with each cast member appearing to look at the other cast members. The sequence has been widely imitated and lampooned since.
A recurring character was Alice's boyfriend, Sam Franklin (
Allan Melvin), the owner of a local
butcher shop. (By the time of
The Brady Girls Get Married, a made-for-TV movie in
1981, Alice and Sam were married.) Sam is incorrectly perceived to have appeared in many of the show's episodes. While he's frequently mentioned in dialogue and Alice occasionally went out on dates with him when she wasn't needed around the house, Sam actually appears in only eight episodes, although his appearances span the show's five seasons.
Although many actors who become type-cast into the roles they played on a particular series sometimes resent this, it's exactly the opposite with the actors and actresses who played on the
Brady Bunch series. Recently on a
TV Land documentary, the actors revealed that they all remain close friends, and most have remained in regular contact with one another. On several episodes of Christopher Knight's reality show series,
My Fair Brady,
Florence Henderson made guest appearances, and gave advice on Chris' ongoing relationship issues. Knight also invited Williams,
Susan Olsen, and
Mike Lookinland to a wedding party, during which most of his time was spent hanging out with them, away from the party, and he stated that it was important that his fiance accept that his
Brady Bunch friends are an important part of his life.
Cousin Oliver
In 1974 during the show's final season, the producers decided to add a younger character,
Cousin Oliver (
Robbie Rist), since the Brady children were now all 12 or older (
Barry Williams was 19 during the show's final season) and a lot of the fifth season was aimed towards Greg going to college. In the episode in which Oliver was introduced ("Welcome Aboard"), Carol explains that her brother—Jack Tyler, Oliver's father—took a four-month engineering assignment in a South American jungle where there would be no schools. He was taking his wife, Pauline, with him and Oliver couldn't go.
At first, the Brady kids think that accident-prone Oliver is a "jinx," and this discussion is overheard by Oliver. Oliver later tells Mike what he heard, and Mike sits down with the kids for a discussion about the importance of making Oliver feel welcome in their family because, like it or not, Oliver was staying. The kids express their concerns that Oliver is the reason they keep getting into trouble, but Mike assures them that these are merely accidents. The kids promise their father to try harder to be nice to Oliver and make him feel like he belongs and, true to their word, they do try to include Oliver more. Oliver overcomes his accident-prone life when the Brady kids, along with Alice and their mother, Carol, get to guest star in a movie because they'd Oliver with them. The movie roles were a prize given to a person in line for the studio tour, which was the last member of their group. If Oliver were not with them, the people behind them would have won. Oliver is overjoyed.
Oliver appeared in the series' last six episodes; ratings were not boosted enough to keep the show from being canceled. (This also parallels
The Partridge Family, which brought in a younger character named "Ricky" for six episodes of its final season that same year, in an unsuccessful attempt to revitalize the show. Similarly,
Eight Is Enough brought in
Ralph Macchio to play cousin Jeremy in the final season and
The Cosby Show cast
Raven Symone as Olivia.) Because of this, Cousin Oliver is sometimes jokingly referred to as the character who "killed
The Brady Bunch" and is sometimes viewed as the reason for the show "
jumping the shark," though, realistically, the show had run its course and would have ended regardless, due to the mediocre ratings and tensions between the producers and Reed (
see below). Rist also played Ted and Georgette Baxter's son on the last year of the
Mary Tyler Moore Show, but the child actor has never been seriously blamed for causing its demise.
"Cousin Oliver" has become television slang for a new character (especially a cute kid) introduced late into a show's run to boost interest and ratings, particularly when the show features child actors who have grown beyond the age of cuteness.
The Bradys' dog, Tiger
The dog that played
Tiger was hit by a car and killed early in the first season. When a replacement dog proved problematic, the producers decided the dog would only appear when essential to the plot. Tiger appeared in about half the episodes in the first season and about half a dozen episodes in the second season. The dog last appeared in "What Goes Up," which aired in 1971, and wasn't shown or mentioned again.
According to Barry Williams, the doghouse remained visible in the backyard set because it was used to cover holes in the artificial turf caused by a falling stage light.
In
The Brady Bunch Movie, after Carol tells Mike "Go get 'em, tiger" she remarks to herself, "Tiger... Tiger... whatever happened to that dog?"
At the end of
A Very Brady Sequel, a dog runs through the yard where a party is occurring. Cindy and Bobby turn to each other and say "Tiger?" Cousin Oliver chases the dog offscreen, which is followed by the sound of an unseen car crash. Cindy and Bobby seem unfazed.
The series pilot contained the only appearance of Fluffy, a cat that belonged to Carol's girls prior to her marriage to Mike. No explanation was given for the cat's absence in subsequent episodes.
The Brady house
The house used in exterior shots, which bears little relation to the interior design of the Bradys' home, is located at 11222 Dilling Street,
North Hollywood, within the city limits of
Los Angeles, California. According to a
1994 article
in the
Los Angeles Times, the
San Fernando Valley house was built in
1959 and selected as the Brady residence because series creator Schwartz felt it looked like a home where an architect would live.
The real house is a small single-story
ranch home. A false window was attached to the front's
A-frame section to give the illusion it had two full stories during filming of the series' many
establishing shots, all of which took place before the program debuted.
The address of the house in the series was given as 4222 Clinton Way (or Avenue). Although no city ever was specified, it was presumed from references to the
Los Angeles Dodgers, the
Los Angeles Rams, and a
Hollywood movie studio, among many others, that the Bradys lived in
Southern California, most likely Los Angeles or one of its suburbs. In the
2002 TV movie
The Brady Bunch in the White House, Cindy's map and Mike's speech state that the family lived in
Santa Monica, California.
In the years since the show first aired, those who have owned the house have had problems with visitors who trespassed on the property to peep into the windows, or who came to the front door asking to see the fictional Bradys. As a result, the property has been extensively re-landscaped, so someone casually driving by most likely wouldn't recognize it as the house shown in the TV show. For many fans, however, it's indeed still recognizable as the Brady house.
Contemporary establishing shots of the house were filmed with the owner's permission for the
1990 TV series
The Bradys. The owner refused to restore the property to its
1969 look for
The Brady Bunch Movie in
1995, so a
façade resembling the original home was built around an existing house.
Spin-offs and sequels
Several sequels to the original series were made, featuring all or most of the original cast.
The Brady Bunch Hour
A variety show called
The Brady Bunch Hour was spun-off in
1977. It was canceled after only nine episodes.
Eve Plumb was the only regular cast member from the series who declined to be in the series and the role of Jan was recast with
Geri Reischl. The entire cast took part in sketches and musical numbers, including the very non-musical Reed and Davis (in one memorable bit, a game-for-anything Reed even appeared in drag as
Carmen Miranda). Produced by
Sid and Marty Krofft, the sibling team behind
H.R. Pufnstuf,
Donny and Marie and other glitzy variety shows and children's series of the era, this show was an infamous disaster that has been much parodied since and enjoys an avid cult following. The show was intended to air every fifth week in the same slot as
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, but ended up scheduled sporadically throughout the season, leading to very inconsistent ratings, since fans couldn't remember when it was on or more likely saw a promo with Mike and Carol stating "
The Brady Bunch Hour won't be seen this week, but we'll back again soon".
- This show was famously parodied on the Season 3 episode of That '70s Show (Red Sees Red). The entire family, due to a forced curfew is sitting around watching the show and each one leaves separately in anger (Red himself remarking that "This show is crap!"). Kitty then daydreams that her own family are the stars of a similar show.
- The show was also more directly parodied as part of "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" wherein the Simpsons star in a variety show spin-off of their show. It's noted during the show that Lisa Simpson had refused to participate, so she was replaced with a much older prom queen type who also claimed to be Lisa Simpson.
The Brady Girls Get Married / The Brady Brides
A TV reunion movie called
The Brady Girls Get Married and a spin-off sitcom were produced in
1981 and aired on
NBC. The reunion movie featured the entire original cast; this would prove to be the only time the entire cast worked together on a single project following the cancellation of the original series. The ensuing series (titled
The Brady Brides) featured Maureen McCormick (Marcia) and Eve Plumb (Jan) in regular roles. The series had Marcia and Jan both married and both couples living together. The clashes between Jan's uptight husband, Phillip Covington III (a college professor who was several years older than Jan), and Marcia's slob of a partner, Wally Logan (played by
Jerry Houser) (a salesman who could never seem to keep a job), were the pivot on which many of the stories were based. Ten episodes were aired before the sitcom was canceled.
Bob Eubanks guest starred in this show as himself in the episode where the two couples appear on
The Newlywed Game.
A Very Brady Christmas
A second TV reunion movie
A Very Brady Christmas featured all the regular cast (except Susan Olsen; the role of Cindy was played by
Jennifer Runyon), as well as three grandchildren, Peter's girlfriend and the spouses of Greg, Marcia and Jan (Nora, Wally and Phillip, respectively).
Mike is still an architect and Jan has followed in his footsteps to become one herself; Carol is a realtor; Greg is a physician; Marcia is a stay-at-home mom; Peter works in an office; Cindy is in her last year of college; Bobby was in graduate school studying for business but dropped out to drive race cars.
After a series of pratfalls to get the family together, everyone comes home harboring various secrets (for example, Jan and Phillip are considering separation; Wally is out of work again, having lost his job in a merger at his toy company; Greg's wife Nora wants to spend Christmas with her family; Cindy felt pressured to come home in lieu of a skiing trip with her college friends; Peter feels inferior to his girlfriend, who is also his boss; and Bobby hasn't revealed his leaving graduate school for a racing career). Alice, meanwhile, temporarily moves back in with Mike and Carol after her husband, Sam, runs off with another woman. (
Allan Melvin didn't reprise the role; he'd retired from acting and was replaced in a single scene by
Lewis Arquette.)
Even Mike has problems: Contractor Ted Roberts, wanting to save money on a downtown office complex project (at 34th St. and Oak) where Mike is the architect, demands that he redesign the building to omit important safety specifications. Mike advises against it and causes his firm to lose Roberts' services. On Christmas Day, the building crumbles, and Roberts, unable to contact anyone at the new firm he hired, must rely on Mike to find what caused the building's structure to become unstable. While inside, the building continues to crumble, trapping Mike and two security guards inside. Of course, everyone turns out to be okay, and Alice and Sam reunite.
The movie, which aired on
CBS in December 1988 to high ratings, renewed interest in the Brady clan and set out the current careers and family situations which were continued in
The Bradys.
The fact that this movie aired on CBS gave the Bradys a rare feat: the original show and reunions aired on all of the "big 3" networks — ABC, CBS and NBC.
The Bradys
The
dramedy series
The Bradys was produced in 1989 and premiered on
February 6,
1990.
Maureen McCormick was pregnant at the time and decided not to participate in this series; the role of Marcia was filled by
Leah Ayres.
CBS was struggling at this time and decided that the original "Brady 500" tv-movie be the first episode of an hour-long series.
With this short-lived series came a brand new opening sequence and theme song. The visual still featured the familiar blue squares of the original series and reunions (with the exception of the variety hour); then they all divide and move off-screen in different directions, with current episodic clips with the actors' names on the box they contain and a clip (from the
Brady Bunch 1969 opening) of each actor superimposed in the back of a colored backdrop as a full clip opens up afterwards. Florence Henderson and Robert Reed appear side to side, the rest of the cast appear solo. After the last cast member (which is Mike Lookinland's "Bobby") is seen the familiar squares move back on screen with Ann B. Davis appearing in her spot; her clip blinks out and the squares divide staying on screen this time with the title appearing in the familiar title area (Alice's space). Reed again was a difficult presence on the set. Had the series been renewed, Mike Brady would have been killed off and Peter took his councilman seat. The producers wrote a script but never had to shoot it.
The theme music used an instrumental version for the (
CBS) network run and a lyrical version for reruns. The theme lyrics no longer featured the "That's the way we all became The Brady Bunch" lyrics, and the theme was no longer sung by The Brady Kids — it was performed by the Brady mom Florence Henderson.
TV critics dubbed this
thirtysomething-style dramedy "Bradysomething".
Specials, documentaries, and other revivals
The Brady Bunch has met with a remarkable amount of television coverage, although most of this didn't happen until the series had been off the network for more than 20 years.
The Brady Kids, animated 22-episode series, aired 1972–74, about the Brady kids living in a tree house without any adults but with various pets. The first 17 episodes feature the voices of all six Brady kids, but Barry Williams and Christopher Knight are replaced for the last five episodes due to a contract dispute. This made Mike Lookinland the only actor to play Bobby Brady.
The World of Sid & Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl, 1973. Aired on Saturday morning on ABC. The kids sing in the famous Los Angeles venue, while Robert Reed and Ann B. Davis watch from box seats.
Donny and Marie Show, ABC, October 1, 1976. Florence Henderson, Maureen McCormick, Mike Lookinland, and Susan Olsen appear as their Brady characters on an episode of Donny and Marie Osmond's variety show, without permission of the copyright owners of The Brady Bunch. They appear in several comedy sketches and the kids sing Cole Porter's We Open in Venice.
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, ABC, November 28, 1976. From the producers of Donny and Marie comes this special. It leads to The Brady Bunch Hour as a series on ABC.
The Brady Bunch Hour, ABC, January–May 1977 (8 episodes). Details above.
The Brady Girls Get Married, NBC, January–February 1981 (made for TV movie shown in three parts). Details above.
The Brady Brides, NBC, February–April 1981 (7 episodes). Details above.
The Love Boat, ABC, circa 1984. Although the name 'Brady' isn't mentioned, Robert Reed and Florence Henderson appear in a cameo and talk about how they can take a cruise since the kids are all grown up. Other famous TV couples appear in the episode.
A Very Brady Christmas, CBS, December 18, 1988. The highest-rated TV movie of the 1988–89 television season.
Day by Day: A Very Brady Episode, NBC, February 5, 1989. Robert Reed and Florence Henderson reprise their roles as Mike and Carol in this episode of a short-lived sitcom starring Linda Kelsey and Courtney Thorne-Smith. Other Brady veterans appear, including (a then pregnant) Maureen McCormick. In the episode, a teenage boy in the family (Christopher Daniel Barnes) dreams he's Chuck Brady and escapes to the Bradys' world after he's yelled at for his poor scholastic habits (he was watching a Brady marathon); however, Chuck's dream comes apart when various Bradys begin repeating comments made only a few minutes earlier. Art came to imitate life when Barnes was cast as the new Greg Brady in the theatrical Brady Bunch movies in 1995 and 1996.
Free Spirit: The New Secretary, ABC, December 10, 1989. Although the name Brady is never mentioned, Robert Reed and Florence Henderson play a couple seeking a divorce in an episode of this short-lived sitcom about a witch (Corinne Bohrer) working as a nanny to a widowed lawyer.
The Real Live Brady Bunch stage show in the early 1990s featured re-enactments of series episodes. Andy Richter played Mike Brady, and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on November 9, 1992 almost a year before becoming the sidekick on Late Night with Conan O' Brien.
The Bradys, CBS, February–March 1990 (six episodes). Details above.
The Brady 500, CBS, February 9, 1990. Bobby is injured in a car race and is paralyzed from the waist down. All original cast except for Maureen McCormick. This is actually the first two episodes of The Bradys and are also known as Start Your Engines Most of the cast, except Robert Reed, promoted their new series on the Sally Jesse Raphael series. Their live Florida broadcast was interrupted by rain.
Bradymania: A Very Brady Special, 1993. Based loosely on Elizabeth Moran's book Bradymania, this special was hosted by Florence Henderson and include clips comparing Brady behavior with that on other sitcoms.
The Brady Bunch Movie, 1995. Theatrical release. A parody of the original series. Most Brady veterans appear in cameos, except for deceased Robert Reed. Scenes with Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen were shot, but were cut from the final film.
A Very Brady Sequel, 1996. Theatrical release. Same cast as previous but with Tim Matheson playing a villain impersonating Carol's first husband (at the end of this film, Cousin Oliver is run over by a car).
Brady Bunch Home Movies, May 23, 1995. During the original series run, Robert Reed gave each of the juvenile cast members an 8 mm movie camera. This special includes footage the Brady kids shot in those days and is their tribute to Reed. Susan Olsen was executive producer.
Groovin' with the Bradys, 1998. A 1998 special produced by VH1.
Attack of the Bradys, 1998. Another VH1 special.
E! True Hollywood Story: The Brady Bunch, June 6, 1999. Members of the cast retell their anecdotes for the benefit of this E! Network series, including an extensive discussion of Robert Reed's homosexuality.
Unauthorized Brady Bunch: The Final Days, May 16, 2000. A made for TV movie looking at the making of The Brady Bunch focusing on the final season which was marred by dissension among the cast pertaining to their business arrangements and the creative direction of the show.
Growing Up Brady, May 21, 2000. A made-for-TV movie of Barry Williams's hit 1992 .
Pop-Up Brady, VH-1, July 18, 2001. Several episodes of The Brady Bunch with textual commentary added in the form of on-screen balloons.
The Weakest Link, NBC, September 24, 2001. All members of the Brady cast, except Reed and Davis, compete on this game show, including Robbie Rist, who joked during introductions, "I hope I don't kill this show, too!" Topics included Brady trivia.
The Brady Bunch in the White House, November 29, 2002. Made-for-TV movie parody in the mould of The Brady Bunch Movie but with a mostly new cast.
, September 29, 2004. Reunion special featuring entire surviving cast, hosted by Jenny McCarthy.
My Fair Brady, 2005. A reality TV series starring Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry (The first America's Next Top Model Winner) and their relationship post a stint on VH1's The Surreal Life. Barry Williams, Florence Henderson, Susan Olsen and Mike Looklinland all appear in the series as well.
Coming Together under One Roof, 2005. Sherwood Schwartz narrates this documentary about the creation of The Brady Bunch for the DVD release of the first season.
Biography: The Brady Bunch, A&E Network, June 24, 2005. A&E's popular documentary program, having earlier profiled both Florence Henderson and Robert Reed, devotes an episode to the series.
The Brady Bunch Cast Back in Hawaii, 2005. Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland, and Susan Olsen go back to Hawaii and meet up with Don Ho.
Robert Reed vs. the producers
Robert Reed became increasingly jaded about appearing in the series, as he felt that his Shakespearean training would mean nothing if he became typecast in the "Mr. Brady" role. He frequently fought with producers to make changes in the show's scripts in order to remove what he felt were unbelievable scenes or dialogue. Despite his battles, he was allowed to direct several episodes, "The Winner" and "The Big Little Man" (1971), "How To Succeed In Business" and "Getting Greg's Goat" (1973).
Reed didn't appear in a 1972 episode, "Goodbye Alice Hello," although his absence from this episode was never explained. By the final season, his arguments with the producers led to his absence from the series finale, "The Hair-Brained Scheme", because he believed a key plot point - a boy selling hair tonic and his older brother getting orange hair when he uses what turns out to be a non-FDA approved substance - was too implausible to be believed. In addition to "The Hair-Brained Scheme," Barry Williams' autobiography, Growing Up Brady, contains two of Reed's negative critiques of the episodes "The Impractical Joker" and "And Now a Word From Our Sponsor" (1971). Williams cites in his autobiography the likelihood that Reed's character would have been killed off had The Brady Bunch been renewed for a sixth season.
Trivial Mentions
The Brady Bunch has been mentioned trivially or in passing many times in a wide variety of contexts, both during its run and afterwards; for reference, some of places and people that have mentioned it are listed below, along with the context in which they mentioned it. This isn't an exhaustive list; it has likely been mentioned many additional times in casual conversations between individuals.
On an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway?, in which Florence Henderson was a guest for one of the games, Wayne Brady was referred to as "The Lost Brady Son".
In 1979, in the first episode of Knots Landing, Karen Fairgate, played by Michele Lee, refers to her family as "the neighborhood Brady Bunch".
In circa 1984, "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied Men Without Hats' "The Safety Dance" with a song called "The Brady Bunch". The first person in the song has only one television and he says the second person can watch anything except for The Brady Bunch.
In the 1991 film Hot Shots, Topper Harley moves into the base and troops in training march sing the theme song to The Brady Bunch.
In 1992, Saturday Night Live did a send-up of the Bradys versus The Partridge Family, "Battle of the Bands". Susan Dey, hosting SNL that week, reprised the character of Laurie Partridge for this sketch. SNL cast member Melanie Hutsell led the battle as Jan Brady, a recurring character at that time.
In a 1992 episode of Tiny Toons, "Grandma's Dead" (11/10/92), Elmyra grieves over the loss of her pet hamster, Jan Brady, but all the neighbors get the idea that Elmyra's vacationing grandma has bought the farm.
In a 1993 episode of Full House, Joey mentions how he wanted a family like the Bradys (The Brady Bunch was one of the shows Full House was often compared to).
In 1993 MCA Records released an album called conisting of songs recorded by The Brady Bunch.
In Season 4 of Full House, Danny Tanner mentions that his family (combined with his then-current girlfriend Cindy and her son Rusty) would make a repilca of The Brady Bunch family if they dressed Joey up as Alice. This, however, wouldn't be completely accurate because, if assuming Jesse is playing the "Greg" part, another boy would be needed.
In "Stranger in a Strange Land", an episode of Lost, Sawyer refers to Karl as "Bobby", which isn't understood by Karl, who hadn't even heard of The Brady Bunch.
In an episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, the million dollar question was "What was Carol Brady's maiden name?" The contestant chose to walk rather than guess. The answer is Tyler. (In the first The Brady Bunch episode, she's referred to as Mrs. Martin - her previous married name. Then at the wedding, Mike greets her parents as Mr. and Mrs. Tyler - thereby referring to her maiden name).
In the 1999 TV movie Come on Get Happy: The Partridge Family Story, there's a scene in which The Partridge Family cast takes their bus over to the set where The Brady Bunch cast is filming. A confrontation ensues, in which Florence Henderson and Shirley Jones exchange insults, comparing their TV families. (This scene never actually took place in real life, rather it was inspired by the "competition" factor between the shows that developed during the 90s, when Nickelodeon ran both The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family back-to-back on its Nick at Nite lineup).
In an episode of The Amanda Show, there was a skit parodying The Brady Bunch making them very violent, that was called "When Bradys Attack".
The next-to-last episode of The X-Files, "Sunshine Days", Scully, Reyes and Doggett deal with a telekinetic man who is obsessed with The Brady Bunch. In fact, those who look into his house through the windows "see" the interior of the Brady house and the Brady family.
Australian television show Fast Forward sent-up The Brady Bunch in Season 3 (1991), which had Jane Turner as Carol and Steve Blackburn as Mike.
In the March 13, 2006 episode of As the World Turns, Gwen and Will Munson reminisce about Will's family from years ago and sarcastically refer to it as being "the real Brady Bunch".
In an episode of Dead Ringers, there's a sketch based on the TV show Spooks having its split screens (or boxes as they were referred to) invaded by shows such as Hustle and 24 and finally The Brady Bunch who get a bomb dropped into their window.
In an episode of Beavis and Butt-head called "Good Credit", Beavis and Butt-head are watching the The Brady Brunch intro. Another episode had the duo having a joint dream, fantasizing about the Brady girls and singing a parody of the The Brady Bunch theme song.
A series of Old Navy commercials from Summer 2002 had a parody of this show called The Rugby Bunch.
A The Brady Bunch grid parody is seen in the music video for "Holidae In" by Chingy featuring Ludacris and Snoop Dogg.
A verse in the song "Tiki God" on The Presidents of the United States of America's album II refers specifically to the events of the three-part season 4 opener "Hawaii Bound", "Pass the Tabu", and "The Tiki Caves".
In an episode of Teen Titans, supervillain Killer Moth is shown to live in a house in which the outside completely resembles the Brady house.
In a 1973 episode, "Adios, Johnny Bravo", musical agent, Tammi Cutler (Claudia Jennings) attempts to sign Greg Brady to a music contract. It's reported that Greg (Barry Williams) had an off the air crush on Claudia who was the real life Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year in 1970.
In the first episode of Season 2, Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher, Don Drysdale plays in a cameo appearance in which he gives Greg Brady pitching tips.
The music video for Eminem's breakout song, "My Name Is" parodies The Brady Bunch's opening credits grid, with all the boxes showing Eminem's face, and the words "The Shady Bunch" in the middle.
In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, in a song performed b Genie, There is a duplication of the opening credits grid.
In 2006 the alternative band Sha-Pink performed a song entitled "Bobby Brady Pants" on their podcast, The Sha-Pink Oddcast. An animated video of "Bobby Brady Pants" premiered on YouTube in June of 2007.
The Humancalendar.com Web site (companion to the Humanclock Web site) cites the Brady Bunch opening grid as its design inspiration.
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were often referred to as the Brady Bunch during the years in which they won Super Bowls in the NFL.
The methods in which the Brady parents punished their kids was parodied in the pilot of the TV series Family Guy. When Greg is accused of smoking by his sister Jan, he's punished with four hours in a "snake pit". Jan is then punished for being a "tattle-tale", and is forced to spend a day in a "chamber of fire". Episode 1 Season 1, see Death Has A Shadow for summary of the episode and here for a quotes page
In the episode "Model Tia" from Sister, Sister they did a parodied version of the TV Theme.
In the episode "Mail Order Hero" during the fifth season of The Brady Bunch, Joe Namath guest stars as himself, a supposed friend of Bobby's. Bobby had told his friends a fib that Namath will come by his house for a family dinner when he's in town for an exhibition game the following week. All of Bobby's friends look forward to meeting the famous quarterback, not knowing that Bobby had lied to them.
Barry Williams, who had a crush on Florence Henderson during the series' run, has admitted dating his television mom, although she says it was only dinner and a kiss. In a spoof of the movie "The Bodyguard" in the 1993 MTV Movie Awards, Williams and Ms. Henderson together participated in an extended kiss, causing audience members to gasp at the idea of Greg kissing his television mother.
Episodes
| Season |
p # |
irst Airdate |
ast Airdate |
| Season 1 |
25 |
September 26, 1969 |
March 20, 1970 |
| Season 2 |
24 |
September 27, 1970 |
March 20, 1971 |
| Season 3 |
23 |
September 17, 1971 |
March 10, 1972 |
| Season 4 |
23 |
September 22, 1972 |
March 23, 1973 |
| Season 5 |
22 |
September 14, 1973 |
March 8, 1974 |
DVD releases
Paramount Home Entertainment released all five seasons (and a complete collection of the series) of The Brady Bunch on DVD in Region 1 from 2005 to 2007. The DVDs have since been released in other countries.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Brady Bunch'.
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