The Brady Bunch - General Discussion

[LexieLily]

Then again, if Mike had died like Sherwood Schwartz would have done had The Brady Bunch went beyond season five, that would have opened up the den for a bedroom. Or a "kid home from college" sleeping space. 

[Katy M]

7 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Then again, if Mike had died like Sherwood Schwartz would have done had The Brady Bunch went beyond season five, that would have opened up the den for a bedroom. Or a "kid home from college" sleeping space. 

In that case, I would have given Peter the attic, and Marcia the den and Greg could stay with Peter when he came home.

[Waterston Fan]

I wonder how things would have been if Sherwood would have killed off Mike. I admit, RR is Mike Brady, no matter who would have taken over if he got killed off. 

Edited October 3, 2019 by Waterston Fan

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Waterston Fan said:

I wonder how things would have been if Sherwood would have killed off Mike. I admit, RR is Mike Brady, no matter who would have taken over if he got killed off. 

A cancellation before you could blink.

And honestly? I'd rather talk about what actually happened on the show, rather than speculate what ifs.

But that's just me.

Edited October 3, 2019 by GHScorpiosRule

[LexieLily]

3 hours ago, Waterston Fan said:

I wonder how things would have been if Sherwood would have killed off Mike. I admit, RR is Mike Brady, no matter who would have taken over if he got killed off. 

No Mike and more Cousin Oliver? No thank you. 

[VCRTracking]

Honestly I don't mind Cousin Oliver, because it was clear by the fifth season the writers did not know how to write for teenagers, at least teenagers of the early 70s. It's easier to write for kids because no matter what era little kids' interests don't change that much. It's why Leave it to Beaver resonated because writers could recall their own childhood when writing the stories. It's why the early years of TBB felt relateable. But when trying to write for teenagers the writers brought their own high school memories which were already 20 and 30 years out of date. Before rock and roll and drugs became a huge part of being a teen. If the show was truer to life the Brady teenagers acting more like the characters in Dazed and Confused:

Edited October 5, 2019 by VCRTracking

[ByTor]

If Mike Brady were killed off, I'd advise Carol to get an alibi stat!

[Glendenning]

I love this comment from TBB subreddit on the Variety Hour  (Hard to imagine Susan Olsen being "hot", it's like Charlotte Long (hottie) vs. Cindy Shelley (gawky, toothy bird from Howard's Way) in "The Tripods").

"If you can make it through the one season of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, it shows what the Bradys would have been like three years after cancellation: Greg looking for his own place, Marcia dates Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter, Carol has an atrocious Dorothy Hamill wedge hairdo and Cindy looks a lot hotter."

[MarkHB]

There is to be no more discussion of Sherwood Schwartz's supposed infatuation with Buffy Davis / Anissa Jones.  No one has alleged that anything inappropriate ever happened, and innuendo about the supposed mindset of someone who has been dead for a decade is pointless.  Talk about the show.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Something weird. I don't know if Marcia wanted Alice to hurry up because she wanted more pancakes or because she wanted the phone free for Millicent to call.

I am speaking, of course, about "Never Too Young" when Bobby goes back to kiss Millicent to confirm he saw fireworks. And Alice is making pancakes for Mike, Carol, Bobby, Cindy, Jan and Marcia. And when Sam calls, Marcia's all "can you hurry it up?" and I thought it was because she wanted more pancakes. But then Millicent calls, tells Bobby she doesn't have the Mumps, and then the all leave the table.

Very rude, Marcia.

[Waterston Fan]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Something weird. I don't know if Marcia wanted Alice to hurry up because she wanted more pancakes or because she wanted the phone free for Millicent to call.

I am speaking, of course, about "Never Too Young" when Bobby goes back to kiss Millicent to confirm he saw fireworks. And Alice is making pancakes for Mike, Carol, Bobby, Cindy, Jan and Marcia. And when Sam calls, Marcia's all "can you hurry it up?" and I thought it was because she wanted more pancakes. But then Millicent calls, tells Bobby she doesn't have the Mumps, and then the all leave the table.

Very rude, Marcia.

Yeah, I think Marcia was just dying to know if Millicent had the mumps or not and Bobby was very rude to just kiss her like that too. 

[Glendenning]

If I were Millicent i wouldn't take being forcibly kissed anymore acceptable than being slapped on the butt - or if she was older Mary Ingalls age - my chest assets grabbed. If it was made today, Bobby would be in boiling hot water.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Waterston Fan said:

 Bobby was very rude to just kiss her like that too. 

1 hour ago, Glendenning said:

If I were Millicent i wouldn't take being forcibly kissed anymore acceptable than being slapped on the butt - or if she was older Mary Ingalls age - my chest assets grabbed. If it was made today, Bobby would be in boiling hot water.

Going by your logic, what about Millicent? After all, she was the one who kissed an unsuspecting Bobby first. Was she "forcing" a kiss on him? And I didn't see him kissing her as "forcing" a kiss on her.

Can we not talk about this show without bringing up the "If this was today.." comparisons? 

[Katy M]

42 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Going by your logic, what about Millicent? After all, she was the one who kissed an unsuspecting Bobby first. Was she "forcing" a kiss on him? And I didn't see him kissing her as "forcing" a kiss on her.

Can we not talk about this show without bringing up the "If this was today.." comparisons? 

Yes, they both did the exact same thing. If it was wrong for Bobby, it was wrong for Millicent.  Probably even more so, since she did it first.  But, they're kids.  Neither of them was giving me a rapey vibe.

[mmecorday]

Years later, Mike Lookinland shows up on "Little House on the Prairie" as a boy Mary meets on the train after she goes to Chicago to get dumped by her cheating boyfriend.

I never minded Cousin Oliver. He's only in six episodes and I think he was kind of cute. He's also got the last bit of dialogue in the whole series. He was loads better than that annoying neighbor kid on "The Partridge Family."

[PennyPlain]

1 hour ago, mmecorday said:

I never minded Cousin Oliver. He's only in six episodes and I think he was kind of cute. He's also got the last bit of dialogue in the whole series. He was loads better than that annoying neighbor kid on "The Partridge Family."

God I despised that kid!  I felt terrible for hating a 4 yr old but talk about the death knell of a show!!  Anyway agreed about Cousin Oliver - I remember reading something Robbie Rist said about having his whole life defined by what was essentially a summer job!  Poor guy!

[Glendenning]

Both Dawn Lyn (My Three Sons) and Emily Mae Young (Step by Step) got the same type of crap Rist has gotten. I'd say it was even more vicious because they are female. I can imagine the kind of sexist crap that would have happened had a child actress been cast instead of Robbie Rist.

[Katy M]

5 hours ago, Glendenning said:

Both Dawn Lyn (My Three Sons) and Emily Mae Young (Step by Step) got the same type of crap Rist has gotten. I'd say it was even more vicious because they are female. I can imagine the kind of sexist crap that would have happened had a child actress been cast instead of Robbie Rist.

I've heard much more negative crap about Ryan Rist and Brian Bonsall than Emily Mae Young, so I'm not sure I can agree with the sexist thing in this case.

[mmecorday]

Quote

Not all of season one is cringeworthy. There are some gems in the first season.

Definitely! I love the Father of the Year episode especially. You could tell how much Maureen loved Robert Reed and how much he cared about her. I love the measles episode too, though it drives me mad that the two parents didn't consult with each other before calling a doctor. The one about the trading stamps makes me nostalgic for the time when Mom would hand me some S&H Green Stamps and a pile of blank "saver books" and we'd spend a Saturday afternoon hoping to have enough stamps to buy a milk glass pitcher and a set of matching glasses. (I still have both the pitcher and the glasses!)

[Glendenning]

@mmecorday AFAICT the measles episode has been withdrawn from streaming and possibly from the episodes offered for local syndication. I guess that whoever own the copyright to the "Bunch" feel that it's too dangerous, given what modern anti-vaxxers have done with it.

(by the way, as a "Blackadder" fan, I agree with such cuts and withdrawals if the material causes danger or harm, e.g. "they want us to nail up the dog" which is no longer in modern versions of "Blackadder's Christmas Carol")

[Snow Apple]

8 hours ago, Glendenning said:

@mmecorday AFAICT the measles episode has been withdrawn from streaming and possibly from the episodes offered for local syndication. I guess that whoever own the copyright to the "Bunch" feel that it's too dangerous, given what modern anti-vaxxers have done with it.

For some reason, the dialog about all day suckers and Mike observing doctors must have a deal with dentists popped into my head a few days ago. I couldn't get the phrase "all day suckers" out of my head. In little Cindy's voice, of course.

[GHScorpiosRule]

9 hours ago, mmecorday said:

Definitely! I love the Father of the Year episode especially. You could tell how much Maureen loved Robert Reed and how much he cared about her. I love the measles episode too, though it drives me mad that the two parents didn't consult with each other before calling a doctor. The one about the trading stamps makes me nostalgic for the time when Mom would hand me some S&H Green Stamps and a pile of blank "saver books" and we'd spend a Saturday afternoon hoping to have enough stamps to buy a milk glass pitcher and a set of matching glasses. (I still have both the pitcher and the glasses!)

“Father of the Year” is exactly what I was thinking about when a poster said they found the first season bad and “cringeworthy.” The switch of Bobby being “Cinderella” was also a good one-thinking that Carol was a step and didn’t love him, and planning to run away.

All I could think whenever I see the Measles episode is: “It’s Mrs. Cunningham and Mr. Weaver!” 😁😄😄😄😄😄

Even the election one is good-when Greg defends Marcia’s honor after his campaign manager threatened to spread rumors about her.

[Glendenning]

Whenever I think of Shelley Long (movie Carol), I can't help thinking that she deserves the "how's that superstar movie career going?" ribbing she got after stupidly leaving "Cheers".

[iMonrey]

Quote

“Father of the Year” is exactly what I was thinking about when a poster said they found the first season bad and “cringeworthy.”

The episode I happened to watch was cringeworthy. I didn't watch the whole first season. I saw the one where the whole family goes camping. So, aside from the corny dialogue, the really weird thing about this episode is Alice. She's like a cartoon character. All the Bradys are wearing regular outdoor clothes and Alice is dressed up in some kind of camp counselor/cub scout uniform, herding the kids around in a semi-military style. It's just odd. Then all the girls, including Alice and Carol, are in the same tent together, and Alice is putting her hair in rollers for the night. WTF. 

Why was Alice even there? You'd think the housekeeper would want the time off if the entire family is going camping. She just stuck out like a sore thumb. I know she was like part of the family but clearly she was not traditionally part of the camping experience pre-Carol, per the boys' reactions to having girls along.

It's no wonder Robert Reed became so disenchanted with the show. They had the ingredients to do something a little more highbrow and instead they did really cartoonish things like this.

I do remember various episodes of the series fondly but this one just did NOT hold up. 

[Snow Apple]

It's strange how they treat Alice. They say she's part of the family to the point that she goes on vacation with them, including Hawaii(!) She's clearly not there to babysit. Carol and Mike always defend her, even against the kids. All that is nice. 

So why does she always eat off in some corner when on vacation? I can understand the maid eating in the kitchen at home, but why can't she eat with the family in the woods? That's just wilderness etiquette. 

[Homily]

With Alice it really came down to they wanted Ann B. Davis on the show and this was the way to do it.  It worked better than having her on as a neighbour or relative who was always dropping by but it ended up being very clumsily handled in a lot of episodes.

[blondiec0332]

Watching the show as a child you don't notice a lot of things. Watching as an adult you do.  One thing the show did was really promote girls as being equal to boys.   Looking back I really appreciate that. However they also showed Alice as being desperate for Sam to marry her. At the time I didn't really think anything about it but now I just cringe.

[mmecorday]

Quote

The episode I happened to watch was cringeworthy. I didn't watch the whole first season. I saw the one where the whole family goes camping. So, aside from the corny dialogue, the really weird thing about this episode is Alice. She's like a cartoon character. All the Bradys are wearing regular outdoor clothes and Alice is dressed up in some kind of camp counselor/cub scout uniform, herding the kids around in a semi-military style. It's just odd. Then all the girls, including Alice and Carol, are in the same tent together, and Alice is putting her hair in rollers for the night. WTF. 

The Bradys always stressed that Alice was a member of the family, but yet they always treated her like the help. In one episode Alice and Carol are putting away dishes and apparently there's some leftover food residue on the of the plates and Carol gives Alice a mean look like she's thinking, "Woman, what do we pay you for?"

[Waterston Fan]

Starting to like this show all over again. lol

Watching Her Sister's Shadow and I noticed a scene I don't ever remember seeing before. The part where Mike is fixing a shelf in the den and Carol hears Marcia and Jan fighting. 

The part we end up seeing after Jan leaves is where Carol comes out and that scene makes more sense than Carol coming out as Jan is coming down the stairs. 

EDIT: Really wish my DVD's and books didn't get lost. 😞 I would be checking that book again that BW wrote. 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Waterston Fan

[Katy M]

24 minutes ago, Waterston Fan said:

Watching Her Sister's Shadow and I noticed a scene I don't ever remember seeing before. The part where Mike is fixing a shelf in the den and Carol hears Marcia and Jan fighting. 

The part we end up seeing after Jan leaves is where Carol comes out and that scene makes more sense than Carol coming out as Jan is coming down the stairs. 

I like the part where she's stomping up the stairs, yelling back at Marcia, and generally grumbling, and then she sees Carol and she's like "Oh, hi," with a big smile on her face.  Sure, Jan.

[smittykins]

6 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

It's strange how they treat Alice. They say she's part of the family to the point that she goes on vacation with them, including Hawaii(!) She's clearly not there to babysit. Carol and Mike always defend her, even against the kids. All that is nice. 

So why does she always eat off in some corner when on vacation? I can understand the maid eating in the kitchen at home, but why can't she eat with the family in the woods? That's just wilderness etiquette. 

And in A Very Brady Christmas, when Alice goes to the Bradys after Sam leaves her and they invite her to stay as long as she wants, within a few days she’s back in her maid’s uniform even though she no longer works for them.

[Waterston Fan]

I did a search for photos of the book that I wanted to ask about. I found two titles with different book covers. 

The one on the top is the book that got lost in the move. 

Does anyone have both books? Or is it just the difference with the cover? 

Edited October 9, 2019 by Waterston Fan
It showed left and right before submitting.

[catlover79]

Barry is going to have to update the book again after the events of HGTV. ☺

[Snow Apple]

I found Florence Henderson's book at the library book exchange today. I'd forgotten she wrote a book and never read it before. What kind of Brady Bunch fan am I?!

[Waterston Fan]

52 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

I found Florence Henderson's book at the library book exchange today. I'd forgotten she wrote a book and never read it before. What kind of Brady Bunch fan am I?!

Is it called 'Life is not a stage'? 

[Snow Apple]

6 minutes ago, Waterston Fan said:

Is it called 'Life is not a stage'? 

Yes, that's the one.

[methodwriter85]

On 10/3/2019 at 7:13 PM, VCRTracking said:

Honestly I don't mind Cousin Oliver, because it was clear by the fifth season the writers did not know how to write for teenagers, at least teenagers of the early 70s. It's easier to write for kids because no matter what era little kids' interests don't change that much. It's why Leave it to Beaver resonated because writers could recall their own childhood when writing the stories. It's why the early years of TBB felt relateable. But when trying to write for teenagers the writers brought their own high school memories which were already 20 and 30 years out of date. Before rock and roll and drugs became a huge part of being a teen. If the show was truer to life the Brady teenagers acting more like the characters in Dazed and Confused:

I feel like the Partridge was in general better writing teenaged characters that reflected the mindset of the early 70's. There's an episode where Lori covers for a friend who's cheating on a test and it sparks all these protests at their school and I remember thinking, "Brady Bunch was never this good at writing high school."

I'm currently watching the wig episode on Hulu. Eve Plumb really did have fabulous hair. If I were a girl, I probably would have envied it, too.

They don't have the Davy Jones episode on Hulu, and that makes me sad.

[Glendenning]

Some Brady episodes are missing from streaming for "music rights being cost-prohibitive". Obviously the Davy Jones episode is one.

[Snow Apple]

"Girl, what you've done to me, me and my whole world" 

Man, I love that song.

[GHScorpiosRule]

10 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

"Girl, what you've done to me, me and my whole world" 

Man, I love that song.

It’s “Girl, LOOK what you’ve done to me, me and my whole world.

Girl, you brought the Sun to me 
With your smile, you did it girl

I'm telling you girl, something unknown to me
Makes you what you are...

And what you are is all that I want for me
And it's good to feel that way girl

Thank you girl, for making the nighttime nicer...
Girl, for making the daytime brighter
Girl, for making a better world for me

I'm telling you girl, something unknown to me
Makes you what you are
And what you are is all that I want for me
And it's good to feel that way girl

Thank you girl, for making the nighttime nicer...
Girl, for making the daytime brighter
Girl, for making a better world for me

Thank you girl, for making the winter warmer
Girl, for making the music softer
Girl, for making a better world for me

Thank you girl...”

siiiigh. Love and Miss Davy.

[Waterston Fan]

This really sucks.. I can't find the book with the black cover that I lost. Its the newer one and I don't like that one. Meh... 

[Katy M]

I just watched Try Try Again and it really annoyed me.  The only thing Jan actually failed at was ballet.  I assume she was in class at least the full year and was not up to par with the rest of the class.  OK, she sucked.  She then takes up tap and practices at home and gets on everyone's nerves.  Marcia says she has no aptitude for tap.  How would she know?  I wasn't fully watching, but I got the impression that everyone was just hearing the tapping.  I'm sure if she was doing it perfectly, it still would have been annoying to hear.  Marcia then decides that Jan needs to be a drum major.  She shows her how to twirl a baton and 5 minutes later, she throws it through the window.  Jan is then deemed to be a failure at baton twirling because clearly that is a skill you should learn in 5 minutes flat.  She then tries out for the lead in the school play where apparently in order to auditon she had to memorized the play the night the before.  Maybe it was just one scene which would be more reasonable.  But, maybe there were parts besides the lead that she could have tried out for.  It seems to me the family was just telling her to quit everything until she found something that she was good at without having to try at....which, of course, she did.

[Snow Apple]

In another episode, Bobby says he's the only one without a trophy, so Jan must be good at *something* and not a complete loser. Even Marcia Marcia Marcia isn't good at everything after just one try.

Edited October 13, 2019 by Snow Apple

[Waterston Fan]

Watching some that I recorded and have waited to watch. 

You're never too old... Are you kidding me? Do we know how old Mike and Carol are? We never see the grandparents again but when they were in the wedding episode they looked like they were maybe in the early 80's at least. I can't believe RR did this episode but I wonder what FH thought of it.. 

Dough Re Mi -- I notice some scenes, especially at the grill area, the picture just looks brighter. Its like that when Greg and Peter are in the girls' room before Cindy comes in. Is it like that in the DVDs for anyone who has it? I liked that episode though. 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Waterston Fan

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Waterston Fan said:

Watching some that I recorded and have waited to watch. 

You're never too old... Are you kidding me? Do we know how old Mike and Carol are? We never see the grandparents again but when they were in the wedding episode they looked like they were maybe in the early 80's at least. I can't believe RR did this episode but I wonder what FH thought of it.. 

We only met Carol’s parents in the pilot. We never met Carol’s grandmother or Mike’s grandfather-who Florence and Robert played in this episode.

Mike and Carol are in their early 30s.

[Waterston Fan]

Watched Getting Greg's Goat. That was awesome. 😂

I also saw Peter and the Wolf. I think Mike's clients were a bit too picky about what was going on with Peter. 

But Greg's and Mike's reaction was hilarious. 😂

[mmecorday]

Quote

Watched Getting Greg's Goat. That was awesome. 😂

That's one of my favorite episodes of the series. And I don't like too many of the last season's episodes.

"The Cincinnati Kids" was on yesterday. If you don't remember this one, I'll refresh your memory: Mike's job as an architect enables him to take his family and his housekeeper someplace awesome once again, this time King's Island amusement park in Cincinnati, Ohio (hence the title.) Because they can't go anywhere without something awful happening, Mike's plans for the park get lost and Marcia and Eve run around braless and in platform shoes trying to find them. Meanwhile, Greg, that incurable Casinova he is, tries to make time with park employee Marge who has no interest in him whatsoever.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 minute ago, mmecorday said:

Marcia and Eve run around braless

You mean Jan?😄

And the search and running to get Mike's designs in time too waaaaay longer than the 10 minutes Mike said they had to find them.

[Homily]

Checking out IMDB to see info about the Cincinnati episode I realized I only ever saw a handful of shows from the last season - one the oh so horrible Kelly's Kids episode.  I am guessing by that point in the series I had either outgrown The Brady Bunch or the episodes started to really suck.  Which leads me to a question - the last season had the episode where Marcia gets her driver's licence and has the competition with Greg - can anyone refresh my memory about what happened?  I seem to remember she came out ahead but that she still (in typical '70s fashion) somehow let Greg save face and come out the winner.

[mmecorday]

Quote

  20 minutes ago, mmecorday said:

Marcia and Eve run around braless

You mean Jan?😄

And the search and running to get Mike's designs in time too waaaaay longer than the 10 minutes Mike said they had to find them.

Thanks for the catch! 🙂

That's what was driving me crazy yesterday! It would have taken half a day to retrace their steps!

Quote

Which leads me to a question - the last season had the episode where Marcia gets her driver's license and has the competition with Greg - can anyone refresh my memory about what happened?  I seem to remember she came out ahead but that she still (in typical '70s fashion) somehow let Greg save face and come out the winner.

No, Marcia won that obstacle course challenge fair and square. Greg, in his haste to get closer to the cone than Marcia did, pressed the accelerator too hard and knocked over the egg. At the end we see him ironing and he singes his finger. Cos he's a guy.