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The Brady Bunch
BradyBunch title screen
'Brady Bunch title screen feat. cast from the final season

Producer/Creator

Sherwood Schwartz

Company

Redwood Productions
Paramount Television

Distributor

CBS Television Distribution

Starring

Robert Reed
Florence Henderson
Ann B. Davis
Barry Williams
Maureen McCormick
Christopher Knight
Eve Plumb
Mike Lookinland
Susan Olsen

Network/Country

ABC/United States

First/Last Network airing

First aired 26 September 1969
Last aired 8 March 1974

Number of seasons/Episodes

5 seasons/ 117 episodes

Followed by

The Brady Brides
A Very Brady Christmas
The Bradys

Related shows

The Brady Kids
The Brady Bunch Hour

The Brady Bunch TV series was created by Sherwood Schwartz and starred Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis. The series revolved around a large, blended stepfamily. The show originally aired from 26 September 1969 to 8 March 1974 on ABC and was subsequently syndicated internationally. A compromise was reached whereby no mention was made of the circumstances in which Carol's first marriage ended. Included in the blended family are Mike's live-in housekeeper, Alice Nelson (Ann B. Davis), and the boys' dog, Tiger. The setting is a large, suburban, two-story house designed by Mike, in a Los Angeles suburb.

Themes[]

The theme song, penned by Schwartz and originally arranged, sung, and performed by the Peppermint Trolley Company[1] in the first season and then by the Brady Bunch Kids in Seasons Two through Five, quickly describes the blended situation of the family. In the first season, this blending figures prominently in the stories. These episodes chronicle the family learning to adjust to its new circumstances and become a unit, as well as typical childhood problems such as rivalries and family squabbles. Over time, the episodes focus more on issues related to the kids growing up, such as dating, self-image, responsibility, and puberty.

From season two on, the family carries on as if they had long since adjusted to life as a blended family, and the stories no longer showed such tensions and adjustments. The fact that they are a blended family is only mentioned a few more times. Two episodes from season three, "Not So Rose Colored Glasses" and "Jan's Aunt Jenny," mention that Mike and Carol had been married for just three years. And "Kelly's Kids" from the final season explicitly recalls Mike and Carol's adoptions when their neighbors, the Kellys, adopted three boys of different races.

The Brady Bunch was not the first TV series about a blended family. Two series which debuted in the 1950s, The Danny Thomas Show/Make Room for Daddy and Bonanza, had stepsiblings and half-siblings respectively. Nor was it the only network series to start the 1969 season showing life in a blended family: My Three Sons (CBS) brought a new wife and daughter into the Douglas family (which also had an Alice-equivalent, Uncle Charley). At a time when remarriage was becoming more prevalent, these shows reflected a new lifestyle in America.

Contemporary issues were sometimes explored. Season two's "The Liberation of Marcia Brady" explored the equality of women, as Marcia sets out to prove a girl can do anything a boy can. The boys challenge the idea and coerce Peter into joining Jan's club, the Sunflower Girls, to make a point.

Cast and Characters[]

Main article: Characters

Main[]

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. In a 2010 issue of TV Guide], the show’s opening title sequence ranked No. 8 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.

Although many actors who become type-cast into the roles they played on a particular series resent this, the cast of The Brady Bunch express a contrary attitude. 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 Knight's ongoing relationship issues. Knight also invited Barry 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. He said it was important his betrothed accept that his Brady Bunch friends are an important part of his life. During the Brady Bunch special edition of TV game Weakest Link in 2001, Mike Lookinland expressed the thought that after having been friends with his co-stars for thirty years, it was hard for him to vote anyone off the game.

While Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen have remained close friends with their co-stars, Eve Plumb has been distancing herself from the Brady years, and Maureen McCormick, while good friends with Williams, Knight, Lookinland and Olsen, had a falling out with Plumb with a meant-to-be-a-joke remark which Plumb took seriously.

Even though Robert Reed did not always get along with Sherwood Schwartz and had resented the Brady Bunch years, he was still close to his co-stars, especially Florence Henderson. He even took the Brady kids on a trip to London aboard QEII in 1971 at his own expense. Florence Henderson had also mentioned that the Brady Bunch cast were the only ones to know Robert Reed's secret homosexuality, and that she felt much compassion for him. When Reed was dying, Henderson herself called all six Brady kids to inform them of it.

The Brady kids even had on-set romances with each other. First ones were Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen, who used to make out in Tiger's doghouse that was still on the set, despite Tiger being written off from the show. Maureen McCormick even acted as a wedding minister for them once, asking Mike Lookinland if he took Susan Olsen as his "awfully wedded wife". However, their "romance" was short-lived when Lookinland started taking interest in McCormick and Plumb during the filming of later seasons.

Recurring Characters[]

Sam Franklin (Allan Melvin), Alice's boyfriend, is a recurring character. He is the owner of a local butcher shop. Sam appears in only eight episodes, but they span all of the show's five seasons. He is also frequently mentioned in dialogue, and Alice occasionally goes on dates with him off-screen. By the time of the 1981 made-for-TV movie The Brady Girls Get Married, Alice and Sam are married.

Tiger the dog – The original dog that played Tiger was hit by a florist truck and killed early in the first season.[2] A replacement dog proved problematic, so 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. Tiger seemingly vanished without an explanation and was not shown again after "The Impractical Joker" (1971) (in a parallel, the Partridge Family's dog, Simone, disappeared during their second season). According to Barry Williams, the doghouse was retained as a prop to cover holes in the artificial turf caused by a falling stage light.

Cousin Oliver (Robbie Rist) – In 1974, the producers added a younger character to maintain viewer interest in the show, a strategy later attempted by The Partridge Family. Dubbed "Cousin Oliver Syndrome", Rist's character is known for leading ABC to cancel the series.

Notable Guest Stars[]

Production[]

American television producer Sherwood Schwartz conceived the Brady Bunch television series in 1966 and registered the idea that same year with the Writers Guild under the name Yours & Mine as a blended-family presentation. Schwartz then developed the pilot script to include three children for each parent, a widower, a mother whose marriage past was left open, and a housekeeper, each of whom would be introduced in the pilot in connection with the wedding between the parents. After receiving a commitment for 13-weeks of television shows from ABC-TV in 1968, Schwartz hired film and television director John Rich to direct the pilot, cast the six children from 264 interviews during that summer, and hired the actors to play the mother (whose maiden name was Tyler and first married name was Martin), the father, and the housekeeper. As the sets were built on Paramount Television stages 2 and 3, the production crew prepared the backyard of a home in Sherman Oaks, California as the Tyler home's exterior location to shoot the chaotic backyard wedding scene. Filming of the pilot, then titled The Brady Brood, began on Friday, 4 October 1968 and lasted eight days. The final episode aired 8 March 1974, though the series has never been off the air in The United States, running in syndication ever since.

Development[]

In 1965, following the success of his TV series Gilligan's Island, Sherwood Schwartz conceived the idea for the series after reading in the Los Angeles Times that "30% of marriages [in the United States] had a child or children from a previous marriage." He set to work on a pilot script called Mine and Yours[3] and passed it around the "big three" television networks of the era. ABC, CBS, and NBC all liked the script, but each network wanted changes before they would commit to filming and Schwartz shelved the project.[4]

There are 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 predated the script for the film. The success of the film was a factor in ABC's decision to order episodes for the series.

The Brady House[]

The house used in exterior shots, which bears little relation to the interior layout of the Brady's home, is located in Studio City, within the city limits of Los Angeles, California. The house is currently owned by HGTV and is to be used for 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.[5]

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.

In the years since the show first aired, previous owners of the house have had problems with visitors trespassing to peep into the windows or coming to the front door asking to see the fictional Brady family. As a result, the property had been extensively re-landscaped until 2019, when it was the subject of A Very Brady Renovation, in which substantial work turned it into a two-story house and transformed it to look exactly like the Brady house inside and out.

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 facade resembling the original home was built around an existing house.

In the series, the address of the house was given as 4222 Clinton Way (as read aloud by Carol from an arriving package in the first season episode entitled "Lost Locket, Found Locket"). 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 many others, that the Brady family 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.

Episodes[]

Main article: Episodes

In 1971, following the success of the ABC Friday-night companion show The Partridge Family about a musical family, several episodes began to feature the Brady Kids as a singing group. Though only a handful of shows actually featured the children singing and performing, "Dough Re Mi", "Amateur Nite" "Adios, Johnny Bravo", several LP records were recorded under "The Brady Bunch Kids", and the cast began touring the United States during the show's summer hiatus, headlining as The Kids from the Brady Bunch. Only Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick stayed in the music business as adults.

In May 1975, there had been plans for Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen to form a musical group, called "The Brady Bunch Three". They were planning to record a potential sixth Brady LP, which was to include solo numbers from each group member and several group sing-a-longs. The album wasn't completed, but a handful of tracks had made it to the studio. While there were costumes made and publicity photos released, the tour was cancelled.

Season Ep # First broadcast Last broadcast
Season 1 25 26 September 1969 20 March 1970
Season 2 24 27 September 1970 20 March 1971
Season 3 23 17 September 1971 10 March 1972
Season 4 23 22 September 1972 23 March 1973
Season 5 22 14 September 1973 8 March 1974

Reception[]

U.S. Television Ratings[]

The Brady Bunch never achieved high ratings during its primetime run, never placing in the top 30 during the five years it aired and was canceled in 1974 after five seasons and 117 episodes; it was canceled shortly after the series crossed the minimum threshold for syndication. At that point in the story 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, enduring in the minds of Americans and in syndication for decades. The series has spawned several sequel series on the "Big 3" U.S. networks, made-for-TV movies, and parody theatrical releases, as well as a touring stage show and countless specials and documentaries on both network and cable TV.

Critical Reception[]

When the series was aired in syndication, they usually appeared every weekday in late-afternoon or early-evening slots on local stations. This allowed young children to watch the episodes when they came home from school.

According to Schwartz, the reason the show has become a part of American culture despite other "classic" shows having run for much longer, rated higher and were critically acclaimed, is that the episodes were written from the point of view of the children and addressed situations that children could understand.

In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the show's opening title sequence was ranked 8 on a list of TV's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.[6]

Awards and Honors[]

Award Year Category Result Recipient
Young Artist Award 1989 Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award Honored Barry Williams
TV Land Awards 2003 Hippest Fashion Plate - Male Nominated
Favorite Dual-Role Character Nominated Christopher Knight
as Peter Brady and Arthur.
Funniest Food Fight
The Brady Pie Fight on the Paramount Lot.
Nominated
Favorite Guest Performance by a Musician on a TV Show Won Davy Jones
Most Memorable Male Guest Star in a Comedy as Himself Won Joe Namath
2004 Favorite Fashion Plate - Male Nominated Barry Williams
Most Memorable Mane Nominated Susan Olsen
Favorite Made for TV Maid Won Ann B. Davis
2005 Theme Song You Just Cannot Get out of Your Head Nominated
Best Dream Sequence
For episode "Love and the Older Man," in which Marcia has a crush on her dentist.
Nominated
Favorite Two-Parter/Cliffhanger
For the Greg Brady surfboard accident.
Nominated
Favorite Singing Siblings Nominated Williams, McCormick, Knight, Plumb, Lookinland, Olsen
2006 Best Dream Sequence
For episode "Love and the Older Man"
Nominated
Favorite Made for TV Maid Won Ann B. Davis
Favorite TV Food
Pork chops and applesauce.
Won
2007 Most Beautiful Braces Nominated Maureen McCormick
Pop Culture Award Won Williams, McCormick, Knight, Plumb, Lookinland, Olsen, Davis, Henderson, Lloyd J. Schwartz (producer)

Syndication[]

Since its first airing in syndication in September 1975, the series has never been off the air. Reruns were aired on ABC daytime television from 9 July 1973 to 29 August 1975 at 11:30 a.m. EST/10:30 CST

The Brady Bunch has been a staple in syndication and cable television for decades. The show was aired on TBS from 1980 through 1997, on Nick at Nite from 1995 through 2003, on Noggin's The N block from March through April 2004, and on TV Land from 2002 through 2015. The show briefly returned to Nick at Nite in Spring 2012.

In syndication, several stations cut out parts of the episodes to make more time for commercial breaks, or to remove scenes deemed inappropriate for that network.

Current[]

As of 2015, the series is being shown on some local stations around the country, while airing nationally on MeTV Sundays from 11AM-1PM in its own programming block called "The Brady Brunch", Inspiration Network (INSP) weekdays from 5-6PM, and on Hallmark Channel weekdays from 6-8PM.

A modified version of the show airs on Nick Jr.'s programming block NickMom and is called What Was Carol Brady Thinking, which is a standard episode of "The Brady Bunch" with added pop-up "thought bubble" comments from Carol Brady.

DVD Releases[]

Paramount Home Entertainment released all five seasons on DVD in Region 1 from 2005 to 2006, before CBS DVD took over DVD rights to the Paramount Television library (though CBS DVD releases are still distributed by Paramount). Paramount and CBS have released the series on DVD in other countries as well.

A box set containing the complete series was released in 2007 by CBS and Paramount, which includes the TV movies A Very Brady Christmas and The Brady 500, as well as two episodes of The Brady Kids animated series. The box art for the set features green shag carpeting and 70s style wood paneling. There is another version sold and made on demand via Paramount's website.

The first two seasons are also available on region 2 DVD for the Nordic countries, with audio in English and subtitle tracks in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or Finnish.[7][8] The series has also been released on VHS, but the VHS tapes have gone out of print.

Seasons one and two have also been released in the UK.

DVD name Episodes Release dates
Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
The Complete First Season 25 1 March 2005 27 August 2007 19 September 2007
The Complete Second Season 24 26 July 2005 24 March 2008 6 March 2008
The Complete Third Season 23 13 September 2005 N/A 4 September 2008
The Complete Fourth Season 23 1 November 2005 N/A 2 April 2009
The Complete Fifth Season 22 7 March 2006 N/A 18 June 2009
The Complete Series 117 (with extras) 3 April 2007 N/A N/A

Spin-offs and Sequels[]

Several spin-offs and sequels to the original series have been made, most featuring the original cast.

Kelly's Kids[]

A final-season Brady Bunch episode, "Kelly's Kids", was intended as a backdoor pilot for a prospective spinoff series of the same name. Ken Berry starred as Ken Kelly, a friend and neighbor of the Bradys', who with his wife Kathy (Brooke Bundy) adopted three orphaned boys of different racial backgrounds. One of the adopted sons was played by Todd Lookinland, the younger brother of Mike Lookinland. While Kelly's Kids was not subsequently picked up as a full series, producer Sherwood Schwartz would rework the basic premise for the short-lived 1980s series Together We Stand starring Elliott Gould and Dee Wallace.

The Brady Kids[]

Main article: The Brady Kids

A 22-episode animated series produced by Filmation aired on ABC from 1972 to 74. This series featured the Brady kids having various adventures. The family's adults were never seen or mentioned, and the "home" scenes were in a very large well-appointed tree house. Several animals were regular characters, including two non-English speaking pandas (Ping and Pong), a talking bird (Marlon) who performed magic, and an ordinary pet dog (Mop Top, not Tiger). The first 17 episodes featured the voices of all six of the original child actors from the show, however Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick and Christopher Knight were replaced for the last five episodes due to a contract dispute.

The Brady Bunch Variety Hour[]

Main article: The Brady Bunch Hour

A variety show called The Brady Bunch Variety Hour was spun off in 1977. It was canceled after only nine episodes. Eve Plumb was the only regular cast member from the original show, as she declined to be in the series. Subsequently, the role of Jan was recast with Geri Reischl. Produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, the sibling team behind H.R. Pufnstuf, Donny & Marie and other variety shows and children's series of the era, the show was intended to air every fifth week in the same slot as The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, but ended up being scheduled sporadically throughout the season, leading to inconsistent ratings and its inevitable cancellation. In 2009, Susan Olsen wrote a tell all book titled, Love to Love You Bradys, which dissects and celebrates the Variety Hour as a cult classic.

The Brady Girls Get Married / The Brady Brides[]

Template:Infobox television A TV reunion movie called The Brady Girls Get Married was produced in 1981. TV Guide indicated the movie would be shown in one evening, but at the last-minute NBC divided it into half hour segments and showed one part a week for three weeks, and the fourth week debuted a spin-off sitcom titled The Brady Brides. The reunion movie featured the entire original cast; this would be the only time the entire cast worked together on a single project following the cancellation of the original series. The plot revolves around the family reuniting for Jan and Marcia's double wedding.

The Brady Brides series features Maureen McCormick (Marcia) and Eve Plumb (Jan) in regular roles. The series begins with Marcia, Jan and their new husbands buying a house and living together. The clashes between Jan's uptight husband, Phillip Covington III (a college professor in science who is several years older than Jan, played by Ron Kuhlman), and Marcia's slovenly husband, Wally Logan (a fun-loving salesman for a large toy company, played by Jerry Houser), were the pivot on which many of the stories were based, not unlike The Odd Couple. Ten episodes were aired prior to cancellation. This was the only Brady show in sitcom form to be filmed in front of a live studio audience. Bob Eubanks guest starred as himself in an episode where the two couples appear on The Newlywed Game.

In the 1990s, The Brady Girls Get Married, including the pilot of The Brady Brides, was rerun as a single two-hour movie on Nick at Nite to celebrate the release of The Brady Bunch Movie in 1995.

A Very Brady Christmas[]

Main article: A Very Brady Christmas

A second TV reunion movie, A Very Brady Christmas, aired in December 1988 and 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 Valerie, 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 with two kids; 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.

The movie, which aired on CBS with high ratings, renewed interest in the Brady clan and set out the current careers and family situations which were continued in The Bradys.

The film airing 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[]

Main article: The Bradys

A six-episode dramedy series named The Bradys was produced in 1989 and premiered 6 February 1990.

The theme song used was an instrumental version for the original run-on CBS, and a lyrical version for reruns. The lyrics were rewritten, and the song was performed by Florence Henderson.

Reboot[]

It was announced 31 July 2012 that CBS would be producing a reboot to The Brady Bunch, produced by Vince Vaughn.[9] The series would act as a sequel, in which the plot revolves around Bobby Brady, now a divorced father, a teacher, who marries a woman with children of her own, starting a new family.[10] This series, however, never came to fruition.

Specials, Documentaries, and Other Revivals[]

The Brady Bunch has met with a remarkable amount of television coverage, most of which has capitalized on the show's continuing iconic cult status.

  • The World of Sid & Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl; Thanksgiving weekend, 1973; the kids sing at the Los Angeles venue; Robert Reed and Ann B. Davis watch from box seats.
  • Donny & Marie (1976 TV series); 1 October 1976; Florence Henderson, Maureen McCormick, Mike Lookinland, and Susan Olsen appear as their Brady characters on an episode the variety show in several comedy sketches
  • All Star Anything Goes, 1977-78: on two episodes, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Susan Olsen with Geri Reischl (from the variety series), competed twice against four members of the DeFranco family singers, with the DeFrancos winning the first time and the Brady cast the second.
  • The Love Boat; 29 October 1983; Robert Reed and Florence Henderson appear in a cameo (though the name "Brady" is not mentioned) and talk about how they can take a cruise since the kids are all grown up (other famous television couples appear in the episode)
  • The Family Feud; 1983; Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight and Susan Olsen played twice against "The Petticoat Junction" and once against "Your Hit Parade".
  • Star Games; 1986; All six original child actors compete against contestants from Dynasty, Charlie & Company and The Love Boat.
  • Day by Day: "A Very Brady Episode" (NBC) 5 February 1989; Robert Reed and Florence Henderson reprise their roles; other Brady veterans also appear, including a then-pregnant Maureen McCormick, alongside Ann B. Davis, Christopher Knight and Mike Lookinland. In the episode, the teenage son (Christopher Daniel Barnes) dreams he is named Chuck Brady, and escapes to the Bradys' world after he is scolded for his poor scholastic habits due to watching a Brady Bunch marathon. Barnes was later cast as Greg in the theatrical Brady Bunch movies)
  • Remote Control, 23 September 1989; Barry Williams, Eve Plumb and Susan Olsen compete against each other in the first episode of the syndicated game show.
  • Free Spirit (TV series): "The New Secretary" (ABC) 10 December 1989; Robert Reed and Florence Henderson play a couple (the name 'Brady' is not mentioned) seeking a divorce
  • The Real Live Brady Bunch; stage show featuring re-enactments of series episodes; Andy Richter played Mike, and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 9 November 1992 almost a year before becoming the sidekick on Late Night with Conan O'Brien; Jane Lynch played Carol Brady
  • Bradymania: A Very Brady Special, 1993; based loosely on Elizabeth Moran's book Bradymania; hosted by Florence Henderson and includes clips comparing Brady behavior with that on other sitcoms. In the end, features cameos from Ann B. Davis, Sherwood Schwartz, Mike Lookinland, Christopher Knight and Susan Olsen.
  • The Brady Bunch Movie, 1995; theatrical release; a tongue-in-cheek parody to the original series; some Brady veterans appear in cameos (scenes with Maureen McCormick, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen were filmed, but were cut from the final release.)
  • A Very Brady Sequel, 1996; theatrical release; same cast as The Brady Bunch Movie with Tim Matheson playing a villain impersonating Carol's first husband
  • Brady Bunch Home Movies, 31 May 1995; Tribute special to Robert Reed using 8mm movie camera footage filmed by the cast using cameras given to them as a gift from Reed; Susan Olsen was executive producer
  • Groovin' with the Bradys, a 1998 VH1 special.
  • Attack of the Bradys, a second 1998 VH1 special.
  • E! True Hollywood Story: The Brady Bunch, 6 June 1999; members of the cast retell their anecdotes
  • Unauthorized Brady Bunch: The Final Days, 16 May 2000; television movie focusing on the final season, which was marred by dissension among the cast pertaining to their business arrangements and creative direction of the show
  • Growing Up Brady, 21 May 2000; television movie inspired by Barry Williams's 1992 book book of the same name
  • Pop-Up Brady (VH-1) 18 July 2001; several episodes of series with textual commentary added in the form of on-screen balloons modeled after Pop-Up Video.
  • A Very Brady Weakest Link (NBC) 24 September 2001; all surviving cast members including Robbie Rist (sans Davis) appeared.
  • The Brady Bunch in the White House, 29 November 2002; television movie sequel of A Very Brady Sequel with Gary Cole and Shelly Long reprising their roles; Brady kids are recast
  • The Brady Bunch 35th Anniversary Reunion Special: Still Brady after All These Years, 29 September 2004; reunion special featuring all surviving cast members; hosted by Jenny McCarthy
  • My Fair Brady, 2005; reality television series about 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 Lookinland make appearances)
  • Coming Together Under One Roof, 2005; Sherwood Schwartz narrates this documentary about the creation of the original series, included on the DVD release of the first season.
  • Biography: The Brady Bunch, (A&E) 24 June 2005.
  • The Brady Bunch Cast Back in Hawaii, 2005; Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen return to Hawaii; Don Ho appears as himself, as he did in the September 1972 episode "Hawaii Bound"
  • A Very Brady Musical 6 June 2008; a stage musical which debuted in Los Angeles written by Lloyd J. Schwartz and sister Hope Juber; music written by Hope and Laurence Juber, directed by Lloyd Schwartz[11]
  • A Very Brady Reunion 31 August 2008; Barry Williams, Susan Olsen, and Mike Lookinland return to Kings Island (where the November 1973 episode "The Cincinnati Kids" was filmed) for a four-show special of song, dance, and Brady Bunch stories[12]
  • Trivial Pursuit: America Plays; 10-14 November 2008; Barry Williams, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen guest-star on the special "Brady Week" of the game show hosted by Christopher Knight. The first four episodes featured the four guest stars as the America's Team's captains, and on the final episode, Eve Plumb, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen compete for charity with Barry Williams as America's Team's captain.
  • Rachael Ray; 5 March 2009; Barry Williams, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen guest-star on the talk show.
    BradyBunchRachelRayShow20091

    Left to right: Mike Lookinland, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, Susan Olsen and Barry Williams on Rachael Ray, 2009

  • The Talk; 11 February 2014; for Florence Henderson's 80th birthday, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland and Susan Olsen join her on the talk show.

Vehicles[]

The vehicles for The Brady Bunch were provided by the Chrysler Corporation, and from Season 4 on, also by General Motors Corporation.

In the pilot episode, Mike Brady drove a blue 1968 Dodge Polara 500 convertible.

In Seasons 1 and 2, he drove a blue 1969/1970 model year Plymouth Fury III convertible.

For Season 3, Mike switched to a blue 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible.

In Season 4, Mike switched to a blue 1972 model year Chevrolet Impala convertible, and for season 5 to a red 1973/1974 model year Chevrolet Caprice Classic convertible.

Carol drove a brown Plymouth Satellite wagon throughout the series, with again different model year for different seasons. This car was recreated in a 2019 episode of Fast N' Loud.

In Season 3, Episode 4, "The Wheeler-Dealer", after getting his driver's license, Greg bought his first car, a very much-abused blue 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible for one hundred dollars from his friend Eddie, but even after all the cosmetic restoration, it couldn't be restored fully, so he ended up selling it to scrapyard for fifty dollars later in the episode.

During the Bradys' trip to Hawaii in Season 4, the family was driven around in a 1971 Dodge Coronet wagon provided by Kipula (Mike Brady's business partners) construction firm. Mike and Carol later used it to go looking for Greg, Peter and Bobby, when they went to take the cursed tiki idol back to the ancient kings' burial ground.

In "A Very Brady Christmas", Mike's car is a Chrysler LeBaron convertible.

References[]

  1. "The Biography of the Peppermint Trolley Company". Danny Faragher. http://www.dannyfaragher.com/bio/the-peppermint-trolley-company/.
  2. "Growing up Brady" by Barry Williams with Chris Kreski, p. 210, 1992
  3. Edelstein, Andrew J.; Lovece, Frank (1990). The Brady Bunch Book. New York: Warner Books. pp. 5–9.
  4. Biography Channel Documentary titled The Brady Bunch, retrieved 16 June 2008.
  5. "Here's the story of the Brady Bunch house". Davidbrady.com. http://davidbrady.com/times/latbrady.html. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  6. Tomashoff, Craig. "Credits Check" TV Guide, October 18, 2010, Pages 16-17
  7. "The Brady Bunch – Sesong 1 (Television 1969, Serie på 4 plater)". Lovefilm.no. http://www.lovefilm.no/film/312074-The+Brady+Bunch+-+Sesong+1.do;jsessionid=4CA8DC6688423258E4B3F9AB12D83808. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  8. "The Brady Bunch – Sesong 2 (Television 1970, Serie på 4 plater)". Lovefilm.no. http://www.lovefilm.no/film/312078-The+Brady+Bunch+-+Sesong+2.do. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  9. "CBS and Vince Vaughn Developing The Brady Bunch Reboot". 2012-07-31. http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/07/31/cbs-and-vince-vaughn-developing-the-brady-bunch-reboot.
  10. "CBS Developing 'Brady Bunch' Reboot With Vince Vaughn". 2012-07-31. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/cbs-brady-bunch-reboot-vince-vaughn-development-356419.
  11. "The Brady Bunch: Here’s the Story, of a Brand New Musical". Tvseriesfinale.com. 2008-06-06. http://tvseriesfinale.com/articles/the-brady-bunch-heres-the-story-of-a-brand-new-musical/. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  12. Kings Island website – A Very Brady ReunionTemplate:Dead link

External Links[]

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