The Brady Bunch - General Discussion

[PennyPlain]

On 1/17/2020 at 1:45 PM, smittykins said:

At the time, it was normal to date multiple people in high school.   Not everyone married immediately after graduation. 

I miss shows like The Brady Bunch that had the teens dating and not getting serious about anyone.  It seems like almost any show in recent memory that has teenagers on it at least one of those teens ends up marrying their high school boyfriend/girlfriend.  Are things so different post Brady Bunch that this is a realistic look at teenage romance?  Somehow I doubt it.

[mmecorday]

In the episode entitled "Click," we, the audience, are suddenly made to believe that 1.) Skinny-as-a-rail Greg is picked for first-string football and 2.) Greg is an ace photographer who has his own dark room equipment.

Seriously, wasn't baseball Greg's game? Didn't he think he was going to be a bonus baby and all that? And don't get me started on stupid Bobby wondering why his "pitchers" weren't turning out as great as Greg's.

[Snow Apple]

I'm glad MeTv shows the entire episodes without cuts. There are scenes I haven't seen in decades. For example, in the episode where Peter's voice change, reruns usually cut the funny scene where Cindy gets her money by taking off her doll's head, and also when Peter visit the head of the recording studio and see the other family musical group, but I just saw them again today.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Snow Apple said:

I'm glad MeTv shows the entire episodes without cuts. There are scenes I haven't seen in decades. For example, in the episode where Peter's voice change, reruns usually cut the funny scene where Cindy gets her money by taking off her doll's head, and also when Peter visit the head of the recording studio and see the other family musical group, but I just saw them again today.

They actually don’t. They cut out a scene from “The Not-So-Rose-Colored Glasses.”

Carol is snooping looking for an anniversary present. When Alice asks her what she’s doing, she says “You know perfectly well what I’m doing. I’m snooping.”

When  Carol asks Alice for a hint, she responds with:

”Roses are Red 
 Violets are Blue 
Mr. Brady would BEAN me
If I told you.”
 

So I guess it’s hit or miss on the episodes where they edit scenes out.

[VCRTracking]

It suddenly occurred to me that The Brady Girls Get Married could have been a neat American version of Pride and Prejudice. Schwartz blew it.

[Snow Apple]

I just finished the book The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch by Kimberly Potts. 

No real revelations. There's not much that Brady fans don't already know but I'm one of those who don't mind reading the same stories multiple times.

[Waterston Fan]

Have any of you read Sherwood and Lloyd's book, 'Brady, Brady, Brady.? 

[BooksRule]

Part of my job at my library is collection development.  I'm currently working my way through the history section to see what books we have and where I need to add new titles.  I just saw a list of some books about Millard Fillmore.  I know he's not exactly the most well-known of our presidents, but he would probably be unhappy that whenever I see his name, this is the only thing that comes to mind: 

 

[Swenson]

On 12/10/2019 at 4:16 AM, Katy M said:

Do you not remember how stupid Cindy was?  

Even so that doesn't really bother me much.  It's a lot better time-continuity wise than the Waltons, both in-show and the reunion  movies.

No, Cindy was SMART because she passed the exam and got on tv.

[Swenson]

On 6/27/2019 at 6:19 PM, VCRTracking said:

Looking up the season 4 episode list I have to ask: How did Cindy go from being perfectly fine singing on live TV here:

to episodes later being frozen like a deer in headlights when the red light of a TV camera turns on?

I'm the same age as Susan Olsen....and even in 1973,  you would never see a girl wear that dress.....did they rent it from the little house set?

[Swenson]

On 4/28/2014 at 6:53 AM, MaryHedwig said:

Oh, that's the TV show that I want to watch!

That show was called "Hazel".

[VCRTracking]

So during this pandemic I decided watch old TV shows I've heard of but never seen. Today I watched the Lone Ranger for the first time and when Tonto spoke I thought "He sounds familiar..." The more he talked I knew I had heard that voice before. And it hit me "The Brady Bunch!" I looked up the actor, Jay Silverheel's IMDB and sure enough I was right! The grandfather of the little Indian boy Cindy and Bobby met when they were lost in the Grand Canyon! The tribal chief who was grateful and gave all the Bradys Indian names! I had no idea that was the original Tonto! Forgive me for just learning this but I'm Gen X. Did kids watching him know who he was?

Edited June 14, 2020 by VCRTracking

[smittykins]

I think The Lone Ranger was still in syndication, so probably.

[Waterston Fan]

I think anyone who has watched the Lone Ranger and remembers who played Tonto would have noticed that. I confess, I never watched the Lone Ranger so I would not have known the guy who played Tonto was the same one who was the grandfather of the Indian boy who wanted to see the stars. 

Thanks for the interesting trivia. 🙂

[mmecorday]

I really dislike Jimmy in the Grand Canyon trilogy. He makes it seems like being an American Indian is an occupation. He can still be native American and be an astronaut. Silly kid.

And I don't care how hungry I am, I am not eating battery acid beans from an empty flashlight.

[Brn2bwild]

On 5/13/2020 at 10:04 AM, Swenson said:

Looking up the season 4 episode list I have to ask: How did Cindy go from being perfectly fine singing on live TV here:

to episodes later being frozen like a deer in headlights when the red light of a TV camera turns on?

The only thing I can think of is that she was one of six in the first example, but was all on her own in the second example.  

Edited June 27, 2020 by Brn2bwild

[VCRTracking]

Thinking about how almost all the episodes in the 1st season dealt with being a mixed family, and adjusting to step-parents and step-siblings and by season 2 it's as if they were a regular family. Like they ran out of stories to make about it. If it wasn't for the opening theme song a person who started watching post season 1 would never know they weren't all blood related!

[Snow Apple]

2 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

Thinking about how almost all the episodes in the 1st season dealt with being a mixed family, and adjusting to step-parents and step-siblings and by season 2 it's as if they were a regular family. Like they ran out of stories to make about it. If it wasn't for the opening theme song a person who started watching post season 1 would never know they weren't all blood related!

If someone never saw the first season or the theme song, they'll sure he confused by the episode with Jan's glasses and anniversary picture. Mike told the photographer they were married three years. The photographer was like "Three years and six kids. Everybody is in such a rush rush rush."

Edited July 12, 2020 by Snow Apple
spelling

[VCRTracking]

You can have her be roommates with the baby girl Jan and her husband adopted from Korea all grown up.

Edited July 12, 2020 by VCRTracking

[legaleagle53]

10 hours ago, Susan Easey said:

Of the Brady grandchildren from the ill-advised "A Very Brady Christmas" and "The Bradys", I nominate Marcia's daughter Jessica Brady Logan for an Brady Meets World-esque sequel. And now because this is the BB thread, a television screen capture of Jessica's actress in sailor suit:

I would think Marcia of all people would have had better fashion sense than that!

[VCRTracking]

12 hours ago, Susan Easey said:

Yeah, sailor suits on children I have *never* understood, Would Jessica Brady Logan's actress have been able to veto being seen on national television in that sailor suit, or would she have had no choice?

@legaleagle53

The trend was started by Queen Victoria. She had a child's sailor suit made for her young son, the future Edward VII to wear aboard the royal yacht and it later became fashionable for the rest of England.

As I mentioned earlier seasons 2-5 the Bradys are mostly written like they're all related and not mixed. When Greg joins the football team in season 3, Carol is so against it for fear of him getting hurt you'd think she carried him in her womb!

 

[Waterston Fan]

17 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

The trend was started by Queen Victoria. She had a child's sailor suit made for her young son, the future Edward VII to wear aboard the royal yacht and it later became fashionable for the rest of England.

As I mentioned earlier seasons 2-5 the Bradys are mostly written like they're all related and not mixed. When Greg joins the football team in season 3, Carol is so against it for fear of him getting hurt you'd think she carried him in her womb!

 

I realize there is a bit of a difference but Carol had no problem with Peter playing football in season 2. 

[Katy M]

11 minutes ago, Susan Easey said:

A Very Brady Christmas and "Why can't Jessica Brady Logan wear trousers to the Christmas festivity like her brother and cousin can"?"

Maybe she didn't want to.

[VCRTracking]

And FakeCindy is sitting at the kids table! That's what she gets for being in college for a decade.

[Katy M]

 

6 hours ago, Susan Easey said:

Still, it came across as 1958 not 1988 to put Jessica in a Christmas dress. It's sexist and archaic.

No, it's not. Not if she wanted to wear a dress.  Girls and women are allowed to wear dresses if they want to.  It's not a crime.

[VCRTracking]

5 hours ago, Susan Easey said:

Fake Cindy was popular with the lads at my school after the Brady TVM was aired. She has the looks...

When I saw her I immediately recognized her from:

 

 

[Snow Apple]

I'll always remember fake Cindy from Charles in Charge.

As for the debate of Jessica's dress, I only got to wear those kind of dresses (nice material and ribbons or lace) for holidays and weddings and looked forward to it at that age. YMMV.

[VCRTracking]

51 minutes ago, Snow Apple said:

I'll always remember fake Cindy from Charles in Charge.

I recognized Peter's boss/girlfriend as "The New Gidget". My family didn't get cable til 1988 so I watched a LOT of syndicated shows on weekends!

[GHScorpiosRule]

10 minutes ago, VCRTracking said:

I recognized Peter's boss/girlfriend as "The New Gidget". My family didn't get cable til 1988 so I watched a LOT of syndicated shows on weekends!

Nope. New Gidget was Greg’s wife.

Peter’s boss/girlfriend I remember from the last season of Matlock. She was his investigator.

[VCRTracking]

34 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Nope. New Gidget was Greg’s wife.

Peter’s boss/girlfriend I remember from the last season of Matlock. She was his investigator.

D'oh! That's right. I should have remembered her in the nurse's uniform. 

The late 80s asthetic wasn't that bad in comparison to the Eight is Enough reunion. It was made in 1987 only six years after the show was cancelled.

[mmecorday]

Now I'm depressed. When did I become as old as the Bradford patriarch? 😟

I watched the "Father of the Year" episode yesterday, which is one of my favorites. You are not just seeing the affection between actors playing father and daughter, but the genuine love Maureen had for Robert.

MeTV has been showing themed episodes of "The Brady Bunch" every Sunday this summer. Yesterday the theme was competition and one of the episodes shown was about Bobby's quest for a trophy. It's really too bad that he had to wait so long to realize he was a billiards savant. Also, what was up with the donkey mask he wore in this episode?

[VCRTracking]

Because he felt like an ass? *rimshot*

There isn't much difference in Robert Reed's performance in the 1st season or the last but there is in Florence Henderson's. Season 1 she plays Carol very demure and soft-spoken. By the final year she's more her like herself IRL, which if you've seen her on Dean Martin Show clips, is brassy AF!

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by VCRTracking

[VCRTracking]

I think that "bubble wig"(as Florence called it) she had to wear for most of season 1 must have inhibited her because once it was off her natural personality was free along with her hair like in this scene with Bibi Galini. It's my favorite scene of the season. It has that 60s romcom feeling.

 

 

Edited August 9, 2020 by VCRTracking

[mmecorday]

Quote

I think that "bubble wig"(as Florence called it) she had to wear for most of season 1 must have inhibited her because once it was off her natural personality was free along with her hair like in this scene with Bibi Galini. It's my favorite scene of the season. It has that 60s romcom feeling.

Don't you mean "Wessonality?" 😄

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 8/10/2020 at 10:51 AM, mmecorday said:

Don't you mean "Wessonality?" 😄

Florence Henderson had some great insight into her Wessonality commercials, and doing commercials in general:

"There are so few venues for young actors and actresses to work, to pay for classes, to pay for clothes.  And commercials are not easy to do.  To hit the mark every time, to get the product in the frame, and make it believable.  And to have everyone out in their homes feel that you are talking to them and that they can trust you.  It is some of the hardest acting in the world."

 

[mmecorday]

Hey, Florence convinced me that Safe was better than Best detergent.

[legaleagle53]

11 hours ago, mmecorday said:

Hey, Florence convinced me that Safe was better than Best detergent.

It's all about the motivation. Motivation is everything, you know!

 

[VCRTracking]

Hearing the voice of Tigger and Gargamel getting angry at the end and ripping into the Bradys, calling them "ding a lings" is one of my favorite moments.

[mmecorday]

Quote

It's all about the motivation. Motivation is everything, you know!

Yeah, I totally read that in Myrna's voice.

[VCRTracking]

There are only two bike shop owners I've seen in sitcoms and of them Mr. Martinelli on the Brady Bunch is one everyone will agree we'd all rather work for, whether we're "mechanically inclined" or not. The other one, well we've never looked at WKRP's Gordon Jump the same since! 

[legaleagle53]

On 8/26/2020 at 7:10 AM, VCRTracking said:

There are only two bike shop owners I've seen in sitcoms and of them Mr. Martinelli on the Brady Bunch is one everyone will agree we'd all rather work for, whether we're "mechanically inclined" or not. The other one, well we've never looked at WKRP's Gordon Jump the same since! 

Yes, but would you drive Mr. Martinelli crazy the way Peter did by being so bad at the job that Mr. Martinelli had no choice but to fire you after only a few days?

[mmecorday]

One of my LEAST favorite episodes of the series is on now. The kids give Alice the cold shoulder after they accuse of her squealing on them. So Alice makes up some elaborate story about her Uncle Winston needing someone to run his "very nice dress shop" after the woman who ran it up and eloped and she would be taking over for her. Eventually she would make partner. First of all, Kay seemed a much better housekeeper than Alice. And I was a restaurant server once and I just want to slap Alice when she's ignoring all the other diners at the Golden Spoon because the Brady kids are there when the one guy makes it plain he's in a hurry.

The actress who plays Kay is Mary Treen who had a long career as a character actress in Hollywood. She's perhaps best known for playing Cousin Tilly in "It's A Wonderful Life."

[Snow Apple]

I still can’t believe they needed a temporary housekeeper for one measly week when they thought Alice was eloping.

[GHScorpiosRule]

19 minutes ago, mmecorday said:

One of my LEAST favorite episodes of the series is on now. The kids give Alice the cold shoulder after they accuse of her squealing on them. So Alice makes up some elaborate story about her Uncle Winston needing someone to run his "very nice dress shop" after the woman who ran it up and eloped and she would be taking over for her. Eventually she would make partner. First of all, Kay seemed a much better housekeeper than Alice. And I was a restaurant server once and I just want to slap Alice when she's ignoring all the other diners at the Golden Spoon because the Brady kids are there when the one guy makes it plain he's in a hurry.

The actress who plays Kay is Mary Treen who had a long career as a character actress in Hollywood. She's perhaps best known for playing Cousin Tilly in "It's A Wonderful Life."

Same! Except for one bit—while I agree Alice shouldn’t have waved off the customer (after the kids’ self serving apology) who said he was in a hurry—this same guy told her to “Chop! Chop!” Just as the kids got there and was taking/deciding what they were going to eat. And she has just taken his order.

But yeah, I loathe this episode and I loved Carol not feeling sorry for them and taking Alice’s side.

And we finally got to see Kay-Alice was often on the phone with her before this episode.

But I blame Greg and Peter more as Alice helped raised them from when they were little. Bobby just followed along like a lemming. We know that it was Alice who always healed his scrapes and bruises, as that season one  Cinderella-esque episode demonstrated.

I would have LOVED for Robert Reed to have been in this episode for Mike to rip Greg a new one.

[mmecorday]

Quote

I still can’t believe they needed a temporary housekeeper for one measly week when they thought Alice was eloping.

Especially since the kids were older and could manage the laundry, cooking and cleaning duties. And Mike was perfectly capable of cooking a meal.

[Waterston Fan]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Same! Except for one bit—while I agree Alice shouldn’t have waved off the customer (after the kids’ self serving apology) who said he was in a hurry—this same guy told her to “Chop! Chop!” Just as the kids got there and was taking/deciding what they were going to eat. And she has just taken his order.

But yeah, I loathe this episode and I loved Carol not feeling sorry for them and taking Alice’s side.

And we finally got to see Kay-Alice was often on the phone with her before this episode.

But I blame Greg and Peter more as Alice helped raised them from when they were little. Bobby just followed along like a lemming. We know that it was Alice who always healed his scrapes and bruises, as that season one  Cinderella-esque episode demonstrated.

I would have LOVED for Robert Reed to have been in this episode for Mike to rip Greg a new one.

I've wondered what made RR unavailable for this episode because that would be something to see, him rip Greg and Peter a new one. 

I liked Kay and how she showed the Bradys they were lucky to have Alice and they realized it. 

That was one thing that always irked me about Alice not being there, why does Carol need help? Surely Carol could manage the house hold when Alice has a day off here and there. 

[LexieLily]

8 hours ago, Waterston Fan said:

That was one thing that always irked me about Alice not being there, why does Carol need help? Surely Carol could manage the house hold when Alice has a day off here and there. 

Especially considering that even when the series started, all six of the kids were old enough to be in school, and all of them (the older four for sure, but even Bobby and Cindy) were old enough to help out with chores. Did the first Mrs. Brady have a job or work outside the home? Mike's architect hours seemed flexible/weird, and I always wondered why they had Alice from when Bobby was a baby or toddler.

[merylinkid]

6 hours ago, LexieLily said:

Especially considering that even when the series started, all six of the kids were old enough to be in school, and all of them (the older four for sure, but even Bobby and Cindy) were old enough to help out with chores. Did the first Mrs. Brady have a job or work outside the home? Mike's architect hours seemed flexible/weird, and I always wondered why they had Alice from when Bobby was a baby or toddler.

1) Time period.   If you were of a certain socio-economic class you had "help."  It was jsut the way it was.   Kinda like if you can afford it, you have a nanny now.

2)  I always got the feeling that the first Mrs. Brady passed when Bobby was very young.  Mr. Brady really needed a housekeeper then because while he had weird hours, he still had to work.   And someone had to cook, clean and take care of 3 very active little boys.

On the show the kids were occassionaly seen doing chores (usually a plot point) but yeah it seemed that Carol and Alice did most of it.   With 6 kids that's a lot of laundry right there, not to mention making meals.   Remember no microwaves, high tech food choppers, etc.    We forget how time consuming household chores used to be -- and they had washing machines and vacuums. 

[Katy M]

3 hours ago, merylinkid said:

2)  I always got the feeling that the first Mrs. Brady passed when Bobby was very young.  Mr. Brady really needed a housekeeper then because while he had weird hours, he still had to work.   And someone had to cook, clean and take care of 3 very active little boys.

And I've kind of fanwanked that she died from a long illness, so, of course they would also need help during that.  then, you certainly wouldn't get rid of the housekeeper, both because Mike still needed help, and you wouldn't want to take yet another person out of the boys' lives.  Then, after all that, assuming it's not a financial hardship, it would just be very unfeeling to let Alice go just because Mike remarried.  She's family by that point.

[LexieLily]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

And I've kind of fanwanked that she died from a long illness, so, of course they would also need help during that.  then, you certainly wouldn't get rid of the housekeeper, both because Mike still needed help, and you wouldn't want to take yet another person out of the boys' lives.  Then, after all that, assuming it's not a financial hardship, it would just be very unfeeling to let Alice go just because Mike remarried.  She's family by that point.

I like the idea of your fanwank of how the first Mrs. Brady died and that does make sense but then it brings up another question: if their mom died because of a long illness why do the boys, Greg and Peter especially, never talk about her? 

Someone else said it in here once, I think, that after the first season you wouldn't even think that the boys and the girls both had a different birth parent than Carol/Mike. Which is nice, but not one of the kids ever thinks of their birth mom/dad on their birthday, life milestones, or a holiday like Christmas? Mike or Carol never get sad thinking of their former spouse, especially if it was a death and not a divorce?

 

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by LexieLily