The Brady Bunch
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Template:Infobox television The Brady Bunch is a U.S. television situation comedy, based around a large blended family. The show originally aired from 1969 to 1974 on the ABC network, and was subsequently syndicated across the world.
Contents |
Overview
Plot
The idea to make the series was based on creator Sherwood Schwartz's reading an article that a growing share of the marriages in the United States involved 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.
Mike Brady, a widowed architect with sons Greg, Peter, and Bobby and a housekeeper named Alice, married Carol Martin (née Tyler), whose daughters were Marcia, Jan, and Cindy; the daughters take 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.
The new family, including Alice Nelson (Mike and the boys' housekeeper even prior to the death of his first wife; on one episode Alice said she had been with Mike before Bobby was born), all moved into a new home which had been designed by Mike. Episodes in the first season detailed the family learning to adjust to their new circumstances and become a unit, as well as typical problems of childhood and teenagers (such as dating, rivalries and family squabbles). Subtle references to larger societal problems occasionally found their way into the dialogue. There was only one true social-issue episode, "The Liberation of Marcia Brady," from the second season, in which Marcia explores the oppression of the Brady women and sets out to prove a girl can do anything a boy can. 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, a circumstance that has been ridiculed almost as long as the genre has existed.
From the second season on, scripts tended to deemphasize the fact that the Bradys were a blended family, and scripts generally gave the impression that the family had always been together. However, in the episodes "Not So Rose Colored Glasses" and "Jan's Aunt Jenny", mention was made that Mike and Carol had been married for three years. Further, in "Kelly's Kids", mention was made of the Brady adoptions when their neighbors, the Kellys, adopted three boys themselves. The opening theme song was the only way to actually make it known that the Bradys were a blended family.
Original run and subsequent success
The Brady Bunch was not a highly rated program during its prime time run (it never placed in the top 25 in the five years it aired) and was cancelled in 1974. Despite its relatively brief run and having won no awards, the show has become a true cultural phenomenon, having lasted in the minds of Americans for over 30 years. The series has spawned several sequel series on all three major networks, two theatrical 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 every single day. It was also shown on ABC in the daytime during the summer months from July 9, 1973 to August 29, 1975. (The only time the show was off television was from August 1974 when the prime time and daytime runs ended until October 1974 when the daytime reruns on ABC resumed in most markets.) When the episodes were repeated in syndication, usually appearing every weekday in late-afternoon and early evening slots so children could watch the episodes when they returned from school, the program became widely popular and achieved iconic status among those who were too young to have seen the series during its prime time run. The show was an excellent transition out of cartoons and into sitcoms on many independent stations. 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. The Bradys also comprised a harmonious family (compare that to the Bunkers or the Simpsons or any number of dysfunctional television families). In fact, the producers had a form letter they sent to children wanting 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 middle class standards, having a live-in housekeeper and taking frequent trips.
The children on the show began singing careers as they toured the USA in the 1970s, calling themselves The Kids from the Brady Bunch, although only Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick have stayed in the music business.
A list of episodes of "The Brady Bunch" can be found in the article List of The Brady Bunch episodes.
Cast
Image:Bradybunchdvdseason4.jpg 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:
| Marcia Maureen McCormick | Carol Florence Henderson | Greg Barry Williams |
| Jan Eve Plumb | Alice Ann B. Davis | Peter Christopher Knight |
| Cindy Susan Olsen | Mike Robert Reed | Bobby Mike Lookinland |
Eight of the nine main cast members are still alive, the lone exception being Robert Reed.
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 sometimes perceived to have appeared in many of the show's episodes. While he is frequently mentioned dialogue, Sam actually appears in only nine episodes, although his appearances span all the seasons.
Cousin Oliver
Image:Cousin Oliver.jpg In 1974, the show's final year, the producers decided to add a younger character, Cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist), to balance that the children were now all 12 and over (Barry Williams was 19 during the show's final season). In the episode Oliver was introduced ("Welcome Aboard"), Carol explained that Oliver's parents were moving to South America to engage in an archaeological dig, and that they were unable to bring their young son along. Oliver appeared in only six episodes, and the casting change made no difference as the show was cancelled.
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. His last appearance was in "What Goes Up" airing in 1971. Eventually the dog was phased out altogether. According to Barry Williams, the doghouse remained because it was needed to cover holes caused by a falling stage light in the artificial backyard.
The Brady house
House setting
The house used in exterior shots (which bears little relation to the interior design of the Bradys' home) is located at 11222 Dilling St., 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 split-level 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), and although no city was ever specified, it was presumed from references to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Rams and a Hollywood movie studio, among others, that the Bradys lived in Southern California.
In the years since the show first aired, those who have owned the house have had problems with visitors who trespass on the property to peep into the windows (perhaps expecting to see an interior that looked like the set of The Brady Bunch), or who even come to the front door asking to see the Bradys. As a result, the property has been extensively re-landscaped, so someone casually driving by most likely would not recognize it as the house shown in the TV show. For many fans, however, it is 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.
House exterior
The Brady house has a rather skimpy rear yard, actually made of astroturf, crowded with assorted play equipment and the doghouse that only had a canine occupant in the first two seasons. There is also a brick barbecue, seen in actual use twice: First in the 3rd season in the episode "Dough Re Mi" when Greg approaches Alice as she puts raw hamburger meat on it (you can see fake smoke rising from the grill which was actually dry ice!)- perhaps in preparation for supper. The second time was on the 4th season's "How To Succeed In Business", but which Mike was cleaning up in anticipation of use in one episode. Also, there is a seesaw, at least in one episode in which Bobby and Cindy attempted to set a world-record. The "garage", actually a carport, had storage areas and a workbench. Boys' and girls' clubhouses seem only to appear in an early episode. The side of the yard opposite the garage has a gate, where it leads to is not clear. The Ditmeyers are the neighbors living behind the fence next to the driveway.
Rear access to the house consisted mainly of patio doors (with no apparent lock in "A Camping We Will Go"), although in "Sorry, Right Number", Alice and Sam exit in a manner that implies that there is another rear exit near Alice's room and the laundry room. This was referred several times throughout the series run as the "service porch"- which viewers saw once when Bobby tried out the washing machine and filled the service porch with suds. The patio doors seem to provide access to at least three rooms: the family room, kitchen/breakfast nook, and the dining room.
House interior
Kitchen
The kitchen has a fixed island with range, sink and other counter space, while two ovens are on the wall behind it. The rear counter has more counter space (including various countertop appliances), plenty of cupboards and lower cabinets, and another sink. A small utility closet sits in one corner, next to the side-by-side refrigerator/freezer; a small chalkboard often hung on the outer door in later seasons.
There is also a table with seating room for six ; this is where the Bradys often ate their breakfast, lunch and snacks. In the movie "A Very Brady Christmas," the tiled back wall of the kitchen is replaced with glass bricks over at least a portion. This was but one example of the myriad continuity problems the show endured as it was generally understood that Alice's bedroom presumably existed behind this same wall. The glass bricks in the movie suggested that Alice's room either no longer existed, or that the long presumed location for Alice's bedroom was the error of viewers' imagination; a microwave oven can also be seen in place of one of the ovens. In the earlier days, the kitchen was a vibrant orange.
Alice's room/Utility room
Behind the kitchen is Alice's room (presumably with her own bathroom) and a utility room, which was changed several times throughout the series run. There was no other downstairs bathroom until A Very Brady Christmas. However, there was believed to be a bathroom to the left as Mike's study was to the right.
Dining/Living Room/Mike's study
The dining room (which has seating room for all eight Bradys including alice ) is an extension of the living room; it also contained a china hutch. The living room is furnished with two green chairs, a couch, and a coffee table, where a telephone sat. There is also a console television set, which was never used in the series (except in a promo photograph). Adjacent to one of the chairs is a fireplace, that was used in at least 4 episodes. A drink bar (where Mike mixed alcoholic beverages) was seen in only one first-season episode. Directly beneath the staircase is a raised area, which contained a small pirate-type chest. Below and adjacent to the staircase sat a wood chest, and upon it sat a decorative horse sculpture (the one that figured heavily into the plot of A Very Brady Sequel).
There are two first-floor raised areas: an entry vestibule to a pair of double front doors (this area also contained a walk-in coat closet); and another raised area for the staircase and the entrance to Mike's study.
Mike's study is separated from the living room by a half-height stone wall, atop of which are two square red-brick columns (which most likely represented the chimneys for the two fireplaces) plus closable wooden shutters for privacy. The study has only one entrance to it. Fixtures in this room include Mike's drafting table (with ample storage for his supplies), a hutch containing a bookcase for his reference materials, an end table, a phone, and a couch and a couple of leather "occasional" chairs. The study also has its own fireplace, situated diagonal of the one in the living room.
Greg was allowed to turn the study into his bedroom for one episode, "Our Son, the Man," and decorated it in gaudy early 1970's fashion, with lava lamps, beads, etc.
Family room
On the other side of the kitchen is the family room, where the family frequently entered the house (through the sliding patio doors). Many of the family meetings took place in this room. The room was furnished with a snack bar (which protruded into the kitchen and contained an old rotary phone), a recreation table (with four chairs), a pair of chaises longues and a portable 19-inch color television set (purchased by the kids with trading stamps in the episode "54/40 and Fight!"). Midway through the second season, a stereo system was added (which Alice had won in a contest). A medium-sized picture window allowed a view into the back yard.
Upstairs
At the top of the stairs, there is a dog leg to the right and then left again. A door at the top of the stairs was never opened, but if you study and follow the floor plan carefully, you'll conclude that this "mystery door" leads into one of Mike and Carol's bedroom closets! Mike and Carol's bedroom is off to the left of this hall, and directly across from the boy's bedroom; they had a queen-size bed with a phone on a nightstand on one side and a dedicated master bathroom. Behind Mike and Carol's bed existed what appears to be something of a dressing area (featured briefly in the episode "The Grass is Always Greener"). In this dressing area sat a modern dresser. At the right side of the hallway are the boys' bedroom, the children's shared bathroom and the girls' room; each bedroom opened into the bathroom via wooden sliding doors.
A door toward the end of the hallway opens to a stairway up to the spacious attic.
The upstairs hallway also has a walk-in linen closet, which contains a heating duct that allows anyone to listen in on conversations taking place in the attic/Greg's room.
Other rooms
In the season 2 episode "Our Son, the Man" the attic was dismissed as a potential bedroom for Greg because there was not enough vertical space. However, that issue was forgotten by the season 4 episode "A Room at the Top," in which Greg and Marcia each compete to turn the attic into their own bedroom. Greg prevails and his attic bedroom is seen throughout season 5, notably in "Getting Greg's Goat," during which Greg hides Coolidge High's mascot (a goat named Raquel) in his bedroom.
No basement was ever seen; however, in the episode "Confessions, Confessions", Peter assigns Greg the "punishment" of hosing down the window screens and storing them in the cellar. The basement also presumably contains the fuse box, which switches the Bradys' electricity on and off.
The Bradys' cars
During the first two seasons, each of the Brady family's motor vehicles were supplied by Chrysler Corporation: a blue 1969 Plymouth Fury III convertible (which Mike drove) and a light brown 1969 Plymouth Satellite station wagon.
For the 1971–1972 season, the Bradys obtained new vehicles, once again supplied by Chrysler Corporation: a blue 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible and a brown 1971 Plymouth Satellite Regent station wagon. The 1971 Barracuda was modified during the 1971 – 1972 season into a 1972 model, with the addition of that year's particular grille and tail light combination (interestingly, the Chrysler Corporation never produced a 1972 Barracuda convertible). Greg, who by this time had his license, sometimes drove Mike's convertible, although he briefly owned a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, a car which proved to be a lemon.
The Bradys kept the 1971 Plymouth station wagon throughout the rest of the series (this vehicle played a central role in the episode "The Fender Benders"), although Mike kept switching cars, which by the 1972–1973 season, were supplied by General Motors. These were as follows:
- 1972–1973 - A blue 1972 Chevrolet Impala convertible.
- 1973–1974 - A maroon 1973 Chevrolet Caprice Classic convertible with white interior during the first half of the season. Starting with 1974 episode, "The Driver's Seat" and continuing through the remainder of the series, the convertible is a red 1974 Chevrolet Caprice Classic convertible with black interior.
There are two known surviving "Brady Bunch" cars: The blue 1969 Plymouth Fury III convertible (which has been perfectly restored), and the modified 1971 – 1972 Plymouth Barracuda (which was found in 2001 in extremely poor condition, and is under restoration by its current owner). The whereabouts of the remaining vehicles are not known.
During A Very Brady Christmas, Mike's car is a 1988 Chrysler LeBaron convertible; the family station wagon is not seen.
In The Bradys, Mike continues to drive the same car as in A Very Brady Christmas. The family station wagon (which a drunken Marcia attempts to drive) is a 1990 Buick Estate wagon.
The Bradys' phones
Shortly after Mike and Carol married, they discovered that one phone line was not sufficient. In the episode "Sorry, Right Number," a second phone line was installed for the kids to use; however, the continuing battle over monopolizing led to time limits, and cheating on the time limits. Mike arranged to have a payphone installed, but some of the kids fought for extra money after using up their own. In the end, however, the kids learn responsibility, and the payphone is removed – but not before Mike nearly loses a lucrative contract between his company and a London firm; he had been forced to use the payphone when the other phones were in use and he absolutely needed to make the call. Mike was just about to confirm the appointment with the company's president, Mr. Crawford, when the operator cut in ... and Mike didn't have enough money to continue the call. Crawford – wondering about the financial stability of Mike's company — begins canceling the deal when Mike blurts out the payphone was in his home and then the reason for it. Crawford realizes he has similar problems teaching his teen-aged children about responsibility and the deal is salvaged. In his book "Growing Up Brady," Barry Williams noted that he has met many parents who were inspired to install a payphone, thanks to that episode.
The phone number is never consistent, even with two phone lines in the house. In the episode where Greg and Marcia babysat for the younger children, Carol is seen dialing 222-1126. However, not long afterward, Jan has the operator call to "check to make sure the phone set rings", calling 762-0799. And, in the episode "Coming Out", Mike appears to be dialing 223-2223 (or, less likely, 334-3334). These all break the mould of using 555 or Klondike 5 numbers, but are consistent with I Love Lucy use of recognizable exchanges like Murray Hill and Circle. On TV Land reruns of "The Brady Bunch," several of the numbers to the non 555-numbers are edited out – presumably to cut down on prank calls by naive viewers who believe they really are calling the Bradys.
Presumably, the area code is a consistent 213, which applied to nearly the entire greater Los Angeles area until 1983 when 818 was added.
The Bradys' doctor(s)
When all six children get the measles, Carol calls her doctor, Dr. Porter, while Mike calls his doctor, Dr. Cameron. Reasoning finally that they could have two doctors, they learn that the two have combined their practices, but neither doctor ever is seen again. Dr. Howard attends to Carol and Cindy when they get tonsillitis, and again when Marcia is nervous about starting high school.
Music recordings
During the run of the television show, the cast recorded several record albums:
- Merry Christmas from the Brady Bunch
- Meet the Brady Bunch
- Kids from the Brady Bunch
- The Brady Bunch Phonographic Album
- Maureen McCormick and Chris Knight from the Brady Bunch
Two very popular songs were "Sunshine Day" and "Keep On".
Spin-offs and sequels
Several sequels to the original series were made, featuring all or most of the original cast.
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour
A variety show called The Brady Bunch Variety Hour was spun-off (Eve Plumb was the only actor who declined to be in the series; the role of Jan was recast with Geri Reischl) in 1977 and was canceled after only nine episodes. The show aired on Friday nights on ABC after Donny and Marie.
The Brady Girls Get Married
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 more slob of a partner, Wally Logan (a salesman who could never seem to keep a job), were the pivot on which many of the stories were based.
A Very Brady Christmas
A second TV reunion movie A Very Brady Christmas featured all the regular cast (except Susan Olsen), as well as three grandchildren, Peter's girlfriend, and the spouses of Greg, Marcia and Jan.
Mike is still an architect; Carol is a realtor; Greg is a physician; Marcia is a stay-at-home mom; Peter works in an office; Cindy is in college; Bobby was in graduate school studying for business but quit to drive race cars.
After a series of pratfalls to get the family together, everyone comes home harboring various secrets (e.g., Jan and Phil 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 feels pressured to come home in lieu of a skiing trip; Peter feels inferior to his girlfriend, who is also his boss; and Bobby hasn't revealed his leaving college for a racing career. Alice, meanwhile, temporarily moves back in with Mike and Carol after her husband, Sam (the butcher), runs off with another woman. (For an unknown reason, Allan Melvin did not play Sam in this movie.)
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 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 late 1989, and premiered on February 6, 1990; Maureen McCormick decided not to participate in this series, and her role of Marcia was filled by Leah Ayres. It was also the last time Robert Reed would portray Mike Brady. Mike ran for city council to battle a freeway off-ramp that would necessitate destruction of the Brady house, which, however, was lifted and moved when Mike got the idea from his grandson. Bobby's paramour was played by former MTV VJ Martha Quinn.
Other storylines:
- Bobby's budding car-racing career ends abruptly in the first episode with an accident that left him a paraplegic.
- Peter breaks up with his fiancée, to whom he became engaged in A Very Brady Christmas.
- Jan and Phillip, unable to conceive children of their own, adopt a Korean girl.
- Stay-at-home mother Marcia battles alcoholism while Wally loses yet another in a series of jobs, the latest being Mike's campaign manager. Wally and Marcia, who along with their two children have been forced to move in with Mike and Carol, eventually decide to open their own catering business to support their family.
- Radio host Cindy begins a romantic interest with her boss, a widower more than 10 years her senior who has two children.
The role of Kevin Brady, Greg's son, was filled by Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who went on to greater success on the sitcom Home Improvement just 18 months after The Bradys was cancelled (after just six episodes, due to low ratings).
Specials, documentaries, and other revivals
The Brady Bunch has met with a remarkable amount of television coverage, although most of this did not 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.
- 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.
- 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. 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 is 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 Bradys, CBS, January–March 1990 (six episodes). Details above.
- 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.
- A Very Brady Sequel, 1996. Theatrical release. Same cast as previous.
- Brady Bunch Home Movies, May 23, 1995. During the original series run, Robert Reed gave each of the juvenile cast members an 8mm 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 VH-1.
- Attack of the Bradys, 1998. Another VH-1 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 book.
- 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. Members of the Brady cast compete on this game show.
- 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.
- The Brady Bunch 35th Anniversary Reunion Special: Still Brady after All These Years, September 29, 2004. Reunion special hosted by Jenny McCarthy.
- My Fair Brady, 2005. A reality TV series starring Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry (The 1st America's Next Top Model Winner) and their relationship post a stint on VH1's The Surreal Life.
- 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.
Parodies
Melanie Hutsell portrayed the Jan Brady character as an overweight, jealous manipulator on several episodes of Saturday Night Live in the 1990s.
A 1995 feature film, The Brady Bunch Movie was a parody of the original show with new actors playing all the main characters, including Shelley Long as Carol and Gary Cole as Mike. The Brady Bunch Movie placed the original 1970s sitcom characters, with their 1970s fashion sense and 1970s sitcom family morality, in a contemporary 1990s setting, and the resulting culture clash. The children are at the age they were in the third or fourth season of the original series. It featured cameos from four original cast members as well as Davy Jones. The film was successful and prompted a reasonably well-received sequel in 1996 with the same cast. Imaginatively titled A Very Brady Sequel the story of this sequel included a family trip to Hawaii and made sly comment on the well-documented real-life sexual tension between some of the teenage cast members of the original TV series.
In 2002, a telefilm called The Brady Bunch in the White House continued in the vein of the earlier parody movies. It again featured Long and Cole as Carol and Mike, however new actors portrayed the children, allowing them to remain at the age of the kids during the early seasons of the original series. This last movie received poor reviews. The movies all featured plot references and songs from the TV show.
The Brady Bunch Variety Hour was parodied in The Simpsons episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", where a different girl plays Lisa, but the rest of the Simpsons appear in The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour. Also on "The Simpsons", the Simpsons parodied the Brady Bunch opening in a couch gag.
There are also many different references to the 1977 variety show. One such reference comes from the WB Network series "Gilmore Girls." In the episode entitled "Application Anxiety," main characters Lorelai Victoria Gilmore and her daughter Rory appear to enjoy one of the show's over the top song and dance numbers while disbelieving that TV Guide ranked it as one of the worst shows on television. The gaudy song and dance numbers were also parodied on That '70s Show, as The Forman Bunch Variety Hour.
There is a humorous reference to the show in the Beastie Boys song "Shake Your Rump" (off the Paul's Boutique album). The song includes the line "Like Sam the butcher/I'm bringing Alice the meat".
Another humorous reference to the show was in an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head, where Beavis and Butthead bunk school and spend the time sleeping. The best dream they reckon they have, which they are dreaming together shows them in the opening credits of The Brady Bunch, eyeing up Marcia, Jan and Cindy, complete with a Beavis and Butthead corrupted version of the theme song. They are then shown on the stairway, a cleverly drawn replica of the Brady one, with the girls, trying to crudely chat them up.
A 2002 episode of the X-Files titled Sunshine Days featured a character named Oliver Martin, who was obsessed with the Brady Bunch and had psychically recreated the entire Brady home with his ability to physically alter reality.
On Tiny Toons, Elmira Duff has 6 Hamsters, each with the name of a Brady kid. On this particular episode, "Jan Brady" dies, and Elmira later buys a new "Jan".
"Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a parody of "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats, called "The Brady Bunch" on his album "Weird Al" Yankovic In 3-D (1984). The parody focuses on a man who loves watching television but dislikes The Brady Bunch, and includes a cover version of the theme song.
An episode of 2 Stupid Dogs entitled Family Values finds the title characters joining an unnamed Brady-like family for a cookout (except that all the female characters are brunettes and the males are blondes). The parents ask "Well, kids, what have you learned?" after every mishap and misunderstanding, Craig and Martha (the only two of the kids named) kiss passionately at one point, the Big Dog accidentally eats the family and declares that they taste "wholesome", there's a full-blown psychedelic musical number entitled "Lawn Mowing Day", and the family has a masculine maid named Beatrice who puts out fires by spitting on them. Many other references to the Brady Bunch appear in this episode, such as the middle boy saying "I learned that Jesse James is not a good role model" and the oldest girl saying "I learned not to get hit in the face with a football".
More recently, an episode of the show Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network's adult swim programming block parodies both the Brady Bunch and the 2005 film Mr and Ms Smith as a segment titled "Mr. and Ms. Brady". This segment portrays Mike and Carol Brady as two rival secret agents, who have a gun-fight which ends up killing the Brady kids, during which references are made to Jan's jealousy of Marsha, and the aforementioned sexual tensions between the teenage cast. At the end of the segment, there is an interview in which Carol claims that "Since the kids have been gone, the sex has gotten much better", to which Alice responds "I couldn't agree more!".
Brady Bunch Kung Fu
This officially licensed 2005 video game by Mobliss [1] for wireless phones has the show's characters "kung fu fighting" against one another.
Opie and Anthony's Demented World
On the compilation CD put out by XM Radio's Opie and Anthony, the song "Marsha Brady" (sic) discusses a childhood crush on Marcia (presumably Anthony's, because he sang the song), driven home by the line "I-I-I got my very first boner watching Marcia Brady on a black and white Zenith TV, golly gee".
Home video
Columbia House released 10 volumes of VHS tapes to subscribers from 1993–1996 with various themes totaling 40 episodes all from the first three seasons and none from the last two. They never released any more. Also, eight episodes were commercially released on VHS tapes in 1995. All five seasons were released by Paramount Pictures/Viacom on DVD between March 2005 through March 2006 and are available at this time [2].
VHS retail releases
- The Brady Bunch Volume 1 - The Honeymoon / A Camping We Will Go (1969) 1995
- Brady Bunch 2 - Tattletale/Law & Disorder (1970/1972) - 1995
- The Brady Bunch 3 - Will the Real Jan Brady Please Stand Up / Her Sister's Shadow (1971/1972) - 1996
- The Brady Bunch - Getting Davy Jones / The Subject Was Noses (1971/1973) - 1996
- The Brady Bunch Variety Hour - Vol. 1 (1977) - 1999
- The Brady Bunch Variety Hour - Vol. 2 (1977) - 2000
- Brady Bunch Home Movies (1995)
- Brady Bunch Movie (1995) - 1998
- A Very Brady Sequel (1996) - 1999
VHS mail order releases
- Bradys One & All - The Honeymoon - Dear Libby - Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore - Father of The Year (1992)
- The Littlest Brady - Kitty Carry All Is Missing - The Possible Dream - The Tattletale - The Teeter Totter Caper (1993)
- Marcia Brady - Brace Yourself - Going Going Steady - Marcia's Liberation - Getting Davy Jones (1993)
- Bradys Run Amok - Sorry Right Number - To Move Or Not To Move - The Babysitters - Tell It Like It Is (1993)
- Brady In The Middle - Lost Locket Found Locket - The Not So Ugly Duckling - Will The Real Jan Brady Please Stand Up - Her Sister's Shadow (1993)
- Greg Brady - The Dropout - Call Me Irresponsible - Where There's Smoke - Our Son The Man (1993)
- Bradys Under Par - The Voice Of Christmas - The Big Sprain - A Fistful Of Reasons - Coming Out Party (1993)
- Bradys Lost & Found - Tiger Tiger - The Treasure Of Sierra Avenue - The Impractical Joker - Not So Rose Colored Glasses (1994)
- The Battle Of The Bradys - Confessions Confessions - The Winner - The Private Ear - The Big Bet (1994)
- Brady Vs Brady - A Clubhouse Is Not A Home - Vote For Brady - The Slumber Caper - My Sister Benedict Arnold (1994)
DVD releases
- Brady Bunch Variety Hour (1976–77) - Best of - 2001
- Brady Bunch Movie (1995) - 1998
- A Very Brady Sequel (1996) - 1999
- Brady Home Movies (1997) - 2000
- Growing up Brady (2004) - 2004
- The Complete First Season - all 25 1969–70 season episodes - released March 1, 2005
- The Complete Second Season - all 24 1970–71 season episodes - released July 11, 2005
- The Complete Third Season - all 23 1971–72 season episodes - released September 13, 2005
- The Complete Fourth Season - all 23 1972—73 season episodes - released November 1, 2005
- The Complete Fifth and Final Season - all 22 1973—74 season episodes - released March 7, 2006
Facts and Trivia
Robert Reed became increasingly jaded about appearing in the series, as he felt that his Shakespearean training would mean nothing after being typecast in the "Mr. Brady" role. Toward the end of the series, Reed fought with producers to make changes in the show. He was allowed to direct several episodes of the series, "The Winner" and "The Big Little Man" 1971, "How To Succeed In Business" and "Getting Greg's Goat" 1973. He did not appear in a 1972 episode "Goodbye Alice Hello". By the final season, his arguments with the producers also led to his absence from the series finale "Hairbrained Scheme".
External links
- {{{2|{{{title|The Brady Bunch}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- Encyclopedia of Television
- bradyworld.com - online resource for The Brady Bunch
- The Canonical Brady Bunch Episode Guide
- Chateau Brady (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 26, 1994)
- Bradymaniac's Supergroovy Pagede:Drei Mädchen und drei Jungen