The Brady Bunch - General Discussion

[mmecorday]

Quote

I saw “Goodbye Alice, Hello” this morning. I do NOT like how Carol pointed her finger right in Alice’s face when she was demanding that Alice finger the kid who broke the lamp. Disrespectful.

Yeah, Carol was treating Alice like one of the kids there. I recall another time when Carol and Alice were putting dishes away and apparently the dishes weren't clean enough and Carol kind of shook her head disapprovingly at Alice. Kay was probably a much better housekeeper than Alice, but Carol needed someone to be her friend too and that wasn't how Kay rolled. 

One of my least favorite episodes of the series aired Sunday on MeTV -- "The Big Bet." Greg bets Booby he can do twice as many chin-ups as Shrimpo and when he fails to do so, he has to do pretty much everything Bobby tells him. I am thinking that both Mike and Carol realized their mistake in not leaving Bobby at Grand Canyon when he poked a hole in the convertible top at the drive-in with an umbrella. A replacement cover was $150. That would be $1,010 today. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

That’s it. I’m taking this off my schedule from Catchy Comedy. They edit more than MeTV. In “Law & Disorder” they cut out the line where Bobby whines about Greg not telling him why he was late, and Mike’s response that he tried, but Bobby wouldn’t listen. They’re already “saving” for time with the way they air the end credits!🤬🤬🤬🤬

And no, I don’t want to hear about ad blah blah. Let me wallow in my bitterness, thankyouverymuch.

[Egg McMuffin]

Have you watched on Pluto TV? It’s edited pretty noticeably there, too.

[GHScorpiosRule]

9 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Have you watched on Pluto TV? It’s edited pretty noticeably there, too.

No. I only watch it on MeTV, which seems to have the least amount of editing. I was recording it from both MeTV and Catchy, but I hate what Catchy has done with the closing credits and square boxes. Yes, for those episodes that have three parts, they skip over those square boxes.

[bluegirl147]

For anyone who wants to watch the episodes without any editing should buy the 50th Anniversary DVD collection.  It's all the seasons.  The Brady Brides, The Brady's, the Saturday morning shows and all the Brady movies.  It's only $58 on Amazon.  I got it from the library a couple years ago just so I could watch the Brides and the Brady's since I hadn't seen those in over 30 years.

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

For anyone who wants to watch the episodes without any editing should buy the 50th Anniversary DVD collection.  It's all the seasons.  The Brady Brides, The Brady's, the Saturday morning shows and all the Brady movies.  It's only $58 on Amazon.  I got it from the library a couple years ago just so I could watch the Brides and the Brady's since I hadn't seen those in over 30 years.

I think I got it too-is that one with the groovy shag cover? The 50th was in 2019. so I think that was the 50th I got. I remember the Brady Christmas, but not the others. I'll have to check.

[bluegirl147]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I think I got it too-is that one with the groovy shag cover? The 50th was in 2019. so I think that was the 50th I got. I remember the Brady Christmas, but not the others. I'll have to check.

This isn't the groovy one.  This one has every Brady show and movie.

[GHScorpiosRule]

42 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

This isn't the groovy one.  This one has every Brady show and movie.

Just ordered it! Though I have to admit, with the girls being teens of the 70s, I hated what a frump Jan turned into in the Brady Brides and Wally was the best Marcia could do?

Also, as cheesy as the original set was, I was not a fan of how they modernized the home-it was too WHITE and bright!

I miss Robert Reed.

[Egg McMuffin]

Marcia was way out of Wally’s league. Agree about Jan, too,

The second-act squares from the three-parters are missing from all the current prints (MeTV and DVD included). Not sure why - they were there in syndication in the 80s. I do know that both three-parters were available to air as 90 minute specials in syndication at one time. Perhaps the squares were edited out of those versions, and Paramount used those prints when they remastered the series. I know that the show has a terrible history when it comes to preserving it and they’ve had to piece it together for DVD releases. It’s one of the reasons they’ve been unable to strike HD versions - in some episodes, they’ve had to use 16 mm backup prints for some scenes.

[Blergh]

I'm not sure why the 2nd Act Tic-Tac-Toe Grids are gone from the newer showings. However, it's interesting that, at least for a time, BB merch was excluding Mike (even awkwardly making eight-person tic-tac-toes -as though Carol and Alice were the parents) because the late Mr. Reed's estate evidently weren't able to work out terms with the showrunners.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Oh this BITES. Watched "Amateur Night" last night and they cut out three scenes.

I HATE Catchy.

Edited September 22, 2023 by GHScorpiosRule

[GHScorpiosRule]

Lookit what arrived this morning!!!

[GHScorpiosRule]

So first thing I pulled out was Growing Up Brady and I had totally forgotten that Mike Lookinland was played by his real life son! And that Mike had a brief cameo. 

I loved the real actors’ pictures and clippings from the magazines they used even though they were played by different actors.

But the casting was all wrong and especially the hair. Well except Kaley’s. Actress playing Florence had the SAME HAIR for all the seasons. 
 

The Timing seemed to be off. Like the episode where Jan was allergic to Tiger/his flea powder aired in the first season, but in the movie, we had Michael Tucker’s Schwartz tell them it was in the second season.

And the famous scene where Greg tells Marcia she can have the attic? That aired at the end of season 4, which would have been filmed in ‘72 or ‘73. But they showed those scenes being filmed in March of ‘71-waaaay before the puberty and growth spurts!

I won’t lie- I got misty seeing “In loving memory of Robert Reed” at the end.

With all tension between Reed and Schwartz, I’m amazed Reed agreed to return for the hideous Brady Brides and it was, so I only watched the premiere, the Christmas movie, and the horribly hideous The Bradys that recast Marcia and turned her into an alcoholic and paralyzed Bobby. Then o remember he did it for the kids.

I guess between the failed spin off and the Christmas movie ( where Jan looked  a LOT better), the sisters sold that house they shared in the same town as the parents, and moved far enough away where airline tickets were given to them to come for Christmas? And Peter left the Air Force? 

And Sam CHEATED ON AND LEFT Alice????!!! 🤬🤬🤬🤬

 All those nits aside, I have the toons! I remember watching them even though NONE of them look like their toon counterparts!🤣🤣🤣

But I do wish closed captioning was available for the original show and Growing Up Brady like they are for the spin off series and the Christmas movie.

Edited September 24, 2023 by GHScorpiosRule

[bluegirl147]

On 9/24/2023 at 10:26 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

the horribly hideous The Bradys that recast Marcia and turned her into an alcoholic and paralyzed Bobby.

If I'm not mistaken the Bradys was the first, or at least one of the first shows to do a reboot of the original many years after the original had went off the air.  It's commonplace now but back then it was unusual.  As with most reboots it didn't live up to expectations.  I watched it of course and the one episode I always remembered was when Marcia (not played by Maureen McCormick) became an alcoholic and was going to drive drunk with kids in the car.

[GHScorpiosRule]

51 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

If I'm not mistaken the Bradys was the first, or at least one of the first shows to do a reboot of the original many years after the original had went off the air.  It's commonplace now but back then it was unusual.  As with most reboots it didn't live up to expectations.  I watched it of course and the one episode I always remembered was when Marcia (not played by Maureen McCormick) became an alcoholic and was going to drive drunk with kids in the car.

I don't remember when they decided to go with The Bradys. I know that A Very Brady Christmas came out in December of 1988-and I missed the original airing because I was en route to India for vacation. I think the success of that movie had Schwartz and company decide to bring the show back. But this time without Maureen. And the actress they used to recast just wasn't any good.

And yeah, I hated the "serious" tone they put on it, by making Bobby paralyzed, and as you and I mentioned, turning "Marcia" into an alcoholic.

I'm finally reading Growing Up Brady, and Robert Reed HATED this show from the pilot on. And yet, yet, he stayed. Because he didn't have a choice. The show he thought and was told was going to be made into a series didn't happen. But unlike what Barry wrote, or maybe it was quoting Sherwood Schwartz, I never saw Mike as always having a "dark cloud" over his head; and nor did I, or do I think, he doesn't have a sense of humor. I found Reed funny. But the show needed him. And I'm still upset because they couldn't come up with a more believable line as to why Mike missed Greg's graduation.

But post The Brady Bunch (that hideous variety show notwithstanding), instead of going back to theatre (unless he did), Robert Reed ended up playing villainous villains and murderers! Me no likey!

And in that finale? Greg STILL hadn't decided which college he was going to go attend? Was that possible in 1974? Especially since, he at least got an acceptance from "State" but told Carol he wasn't going to go to either of his parents' alma maters.

And based on the movie, Growing Up Brady, they really thought they would have a sixth season? And no Oliver in that movie? Or the final scene from the finale? Hmmm....It ended when it should have, but I wonder if it got axed because of those demands, and I just rolled my eyes at the kind of plots Eve, Mike, and Christopher wanted; IF that really happened and wasn't creative license. 

I'm going through season two now. Season one had a featurette, with Barry, Susan, Mike, Christopher, Sherwood, and Lloyd Schwartz. I know why Eve separates herself. But I was hoping to hear from Maureen. And Florence. Oh well.

[GHScorpiosRule]

HOLY SURF WAVES, BATMAN!

I just got through reading about the shooting nightmares when the cast was in Hawai'i! Susan could.NOT.Swim. Barry/Greg didn't have a stuntman, and he really did wipe out! Came thisclose to having his head shredded by the sharp coral sticking out from the water, since TPTB insisted on filming during low tide, instead of high tide.

Unless IMdB is wrong, Florence was married at the time she and Barry went out on their date, a mere three months before he turned 16 and she let him kiss her.

Susan really, really hated playing Cindy. I think it's her love for Sherwood that had her agreeing to do that hideous show after the Christmas movie.

And now I have it stuck in my head and will be looking to see if Barry and Maureen really are giving each other googly-and-hormonally-charged-eyes during season 4. At least, the kissing in Growing Up Brady for the season four finale was creative license.

And now I know why Susan/Cindy's hair went from tow-headed to the dark blonde by season two. They were dyeing her hair and it was FALLING OFF! And it was her real hair. Poor Susan.

And of course. Robert Reed couldn't refuse to do the show, because he was locked into a contract. I'm glad that his issues with the Schwartzs were behind the scenes, and never fodder for the kids or cast. If his rewrites or ideas resulted in less slap sticky, and showed how the kids were like real kids? I'm #TeamReed.

Back to the show itself. I hated how they got rid of Mr. Phillips at the end of the final season and replaced him with Mr. Thurston III Jim Backus.

Chris/Peter really was adorbs the first two seasons. As was Mike/Bobby. And poor Mike. He was a natural redhead and also was a victim of the hair dye!

I'm glad I bought the updated DVD set, even if I'm now cringing at how horrible the toon was (the kids were really bad at voice acting and Maureen, Barry, and Chris, I think? were recast in the final 5 episodes (short season two)) and didn't even try to make their real home into a cartoon version.

So I'm sure, when the mood hits me, I'll have them on hand to watch.

Hope y'all don't mind my long, wandering comments.

[sistermagpie]

2 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I'm glad I bought the updated DVD set, even if I'm now cringing at how horrible the toon was (the kids were really bad at voice acting and Maureen, Barry, and Chris, I think? were recast in the final 5 episodes (short season two)) and didn't even try to make their real home into a cartoon version.

 

If I recall also from reading GUB, we can't really blame the kids for the voice acting. They had them come in and do all their dialogue at once without any context. So they'd record them saying, like, "Far out!" but with no idea why they were saying it in that moment, so it's no wonder it sounds bizarre.

[GHScorpiosRule]

45 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

If I recall also from reading GUB, we can't really blame the kids for the voice acting. They had them come in and do all their dialogue at once without any context. So they'd record them saying, like, "Far out!" but with no idea why they were saying it in that moment, so it's no wonder it sounds bizarre.

Bizaare is the PERFECT word. They all sound...weird. And Chris doesn't even sound like himself; neither does Mike. Even the songs sound funny.

Like "Time to Change" in the show? You can hear how deep Greg's/Barry's voice is and how clear Maureen's/Marcia's is. In the toon? They sound...tinny.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I’m near the end of Growing Up Brady and I have a brand new respect for Susan Olsen. Shocked at the behind the scenes and the abusive treatment she endured with some of the directors. I don’t blame her for wanting her fair share of 💰 for the Christmas movie. And she got a raw deal from the network.

And while Barry talks about how Robert wasn’t in the finale, he doesn’t mention his not being in “Goodbye Alice, Hello” in the section where he’s summarizing the episode plots, with his opinions. But he gets a LOT of the details in the plots wrong. But I also learned a lot of trivia I didn’t know.

And I don’t blame Maureen for refusing to do that disastrous last series.

I got teary in the section when Barry talks about meeting and talking with Robert when he was writing the book and asking Robert if he would write the Foreward. It was the last time he saw Robert alive.🥲🥲

And OMGEE!!! Maureen actually was HIT with that football! She agreed to do it!😱😱😱

But despite all of this, nothing will ruin my love for this show.

Up to the middle of season four. And I just remembered something I wanted to mention, which I kept forgetting;

We know the girls REFUSED to let Dennis the Menace’s fathera male doctor in the first season, but by season two, when Cindy needs and has her tonsils out, she’s A-Okay with Dr. Howard(?) treating her. And he would look Marcia over in ”Today, I’m a Freshman” in season four. I love that actor-I’m almost positive he showed up  as a judge on Mothership Law & Order

Edited September 29, 2023 by GHScorpiosRule

[Blergh]

On 9/26/2023 at 11:14 AM, sistermagpie said:

If I recall also from reading GUB, we can't really blame the kids for the voice acting. They had them come in and do all their dialogue at once without any context. So they'd record them saying, like, "Far out!" but with no idea why they were saying it in that moment, so it's no wonder it sounds bizarre.

Alas, they made the kids seem like two-dimensional caricatures of their live-action counterparts.Virtually the ONLY interesting character in the cartoon was an immortal magical mynah bird called Marlon voiced by the marvelous Larry Storch who actually wound up zapping the BK and. . .Jan's teacher Diana Prince back to Classical Athens. Yes, this snoozer of a cartoon actually holds the distinction of featuring the first animated depiction of Wonder Woman!  Truly, they should have just given Marlon his own cartoon and let the BK devolve into a Bazooka Bubble Gum joke-a-day comic strip!

BTW, somehow I don't recall them ever mentioning WHERE the Brady Parents and Alice were supposed to have been during their 'adventures'!

[sistermagpie]

16 minutes ago, Blergh said:

Alas, they made the kids seem like two-dimensional caricatures of their live-action counterparts.Virtually the ONLY interesting character in the cartoon was an immortal magical mynah bird called Marlon voiced by the marvelous Larry Storch who actually wound up zapping the BK and. . .Jan's teacher Diana Prince back to Classical Athens. Yes, this snoozer of a cartoon actually holds the distinction of featuring the first animated depiction of Wonder Woman!  Truly, they should have just given Marlon his own cartoon and let the BK devolve into a Bazooka Bubble Gum joke-a-day comic strip!

 

I remember loving Ping and Pong--as a kid I didn't get that their names and the way they talked was probably a very racist joke!

[MissT]

I want to know where Fluffy, the cat, went.  🐱 I think she was only in the first episode of the wedding/honeymoon.  She disappeared with the in-laws. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, MissT said:

I want to know where Fluffy, the cat, went.  🐱 I think she was only in the first episode of the wedding/honeymoon.  She disappeared with the in-laws. 

Come on, now! That was the pilot and shows always change/recast once a show is picked up.

I always thought Fluffy was the grandparents’ kitty, as Carol and the girls were living with them maybe?

Grandparents got two mentions in the first season: in “Father of the Year” when Marcia was supposed to stay with them while the family went skiing, and “Katchoo” where Tiger was going to go when it was thought Jan was allergic to him. Though it was never clear if it was Mike’s parents or Carol’s.

I finished watching the DVDs from the 50th anniversary and now I’m wondering if they are all the unedited versions? In ”Room at the Top”, when Marcia admits to being selfish, we get that editing “flip” before she’s done speaking! And in ”Amateur Night”, the scene where Mike gets off the phone and tells Carol the cabin isn’t available, I could have sworn I remembered them discussing what they were going to do for their anniversary and were interrupted by Mr. Phillips’ phone call.

And since I watched “Law and Disorder” after reading Barry’s book, I see that stumble by the bike (which he attributed to being high) and his goofy grin throughout that scene when Mike comes home with that “boat” that was waaaaay too small to fit all NINE of them!

I also think it was very cruel of Lloyd Schwartz of scaring Mike Lookinland and telling him what to think for him to look horrified and scared in the Jesse James episode dream sequence. Think of your dog being run over and killed by a car? Your real parents/family murdered?

Nice.

[Egg McMuffin]

Tiger ate Fluffy in between the pilot and the first episode.

Also, note that Kitty Carryall was recast after the pilot.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Egg McMuffin

[Egg McMuffin]

I was watching the episode where Marcia gives Molly Webber the makeover so she can host Banquet NIGHT (Marcia always emphasizes the second word for whatever weird reason).

Molly going from mouseburger to popular girl to total B in about three days is a little silly. Even electric shock therapy doesn’t work that fast.

I wish Marcia had taken her revenge on Molly though. That would have made a good follow-up episode, if the Bradys had ever had repeat guest stars.

[GHScorpiosRule]

14 minutes ago, Egg McMuffin said:

if the Bradys had ever had repeat guest stars.

They did. The actor who played Dr. Howard, as I mentioned up thread.
 

Hope Sherwood, who played two characters-but recurred as Rachel, and Chris Beaumont-but he played 4 different characters with each appearance. First was as the hippie senior in “Our Son, the Man”, “The Wheeler Dealer”, “A Room at the Top”, “Quarterback Sneak.”

[Laura Holt]

26 minutes ago, Egg McMuffin said:

That would have made a good follow-up episode, if the Bradys had ever had repeat guest stars.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not but I always wondered how it was that Marcia and Greg had a different boyfriend/girlfriend from show to show.  Same thing on The Partridge Family and My Three Sons (until they married the boys off way too young).  In some ways I do see it as a positive but I guess they weren't really making statements about the drawbacks of "going steady" at too young an age but rather didn't want to have too many recurring actors.

[Egg McMuffin]

17 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

They did. The actor who played Dr. Howard, as I mentioned up thread.
 

Hope Sherwood, who played two characters-but recurred as Rachel, and Chris Beaumont-but he played 4 different characters with each appearance. First was as the hippie senior in “Our Son, the Man”, “The Wheeler Dealer”, “A Room at the Top”, “Quarterback Sneak.”

Lindsay Workman was on a couple of times as the principal, too. As was the girl who played Kathy Lawrence. But all of these were relatively minor characters, as opposed to people who were the focal point of episodes, like Jennifer Nichols and Molly Webber and Aunt Jenny. Those types of characters never returned.

The only real recurring guest stars who played significant roles were Sam and Mr. Phillips. And I guess Cousin Oliver would count.

 

[sistermagpie]

So weird, but this morning for some reason I woke up thinking about the Bobby's Hero ep. It's just so very Brady in that the plot is so odd. The central problem is a boy idolizing Jesse James? I get the point--he's a criminal etc., but there's something so funny about being worried about a kid idolizing a bank robber from the 1800s. Particularly since he's dressing up in an all-black cowboy outfit (that's how you know he's a bad guy!). 

Then there's that odd moment where the parents try to watch a movie about JJ with him, which you'd think would be a bad idea since if he's the star of the movie, he's probably going to look cool. Instead the trouble is the TV station editing the movie to not only make him look good, but make the movie incoherent. JJ walks into a house and then it cuts to him "giving a girl a ride"--but Mike explains he's actually killing a farmer and abducting his daughter. You'd think the channel would just cut the whole sequence? And now that he has the girl, isn't she still in the movie? Shouldn't it be clear he's holding her against her will, even if Bobby doesn't get to see him rape her?

Anyway, despite the weirdness of the episode, why is that dream of Bobby's still so upsetting? That dream has represented JJ to me my whole life--even having sat through "The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford." Why is it somehow more scary that he's yelling "Bang!" as he shoots the Brady's dead?! How is it not funny?

[Egg McMuffin]

All great points. As silly as that sequence is, it’s upsetting to see our beloved TV family shot dead, fake bullets and all. The writers were driving home the point that violence is scary, and that sequence is oddly effective in making their argument.

[Egg McMuffin]

Clark Tyson is a moron. I’m watching “The Not-So-Ugly Duckling” episode (aka the George Glass episode), and Clark is mansplaining to Jan that her drawing of a map of the United States looks weird because she forgot Baja California. LOL - Baja California isn’t part of the US.

Clark also thinks that Jan doesn’t look much like a girl. He also needs glasses.

[mmecorday]

Quote

Clark also thinks that Jan doesn’t look much like a girl. He also needs glasses.

"She's a real swell guy!" 

 

[TheLastKidPicked]

On 9/26/2023 at 8:08 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

Hope y'all don't mind my long, wandering comments.

Just the opposite.  I enjoy reading what you have to say.

 

On 9/30/2023 at 2:00 PM, MissT said:

I want to know where Fluffy, the cat, went.  🐱 I think she was only in the first episode of the wedding/honeymoon.

 

There were some cute lines in The Brady Bunch Movie that addressed some of this.  Not the cat, but the dog.  

"Go get 'em, Tiger!   Hmmm... Tiger?  I wonder what happened to that dog?"

And a funny line about the astroturf instead of grass in the back yard.

 

On 10/3/2023 at 5:37 AM, Egg McMuffin said:

All great points. As silly as that sequence is, it’s upsetting to see our beloved TV family shot dead, fake bullets and all.

 

You remind me of when they did "The Bradys", a more serious reboot of the series.  Seeing Bobby in the hospital was jarring.  Especially since we were accustomed to them having such happy lives.

[Blergh]

On 10/24/2023 at 4:45 PM, TheLastKidPicked said:

Just the opposite.  I enjoy reading what you have to say.

 

 

There were some cute lines in The Brady Bunch Movie that addressed some of this.  Not the cat, but the dog.  

"Go get 'em, Tiger!   Hmmm... Tiger?  I wonder what happened to that dog?"

And a funny line about the astroturf instead of grass in the back yard.

 

 

You remind me of when they did "The Bradys", a more serious reboot of the series.  Seeing Bobby in the hospital was jarring.  Especially since we were accustomed to them having such happy lives.

To say nothing of Bobby rendered a paraplegic in a wheelchair and was NOT cured by the end of that shortlived series! But then no one attempted to sing 'O Come All Ye Faithful'. . .

Edited October 26, 2023 by Blergh
carol correction re Carol

[Egg McMuffin]

There should have been some individual character spinoffs right after the show ended. How about:

• Big Man on Campus follows Greg as he goes to college and deals with juggling his multiple girlfriends: Rachel, Jennifer Nichols, and Linette Carter.
• Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Alice decides to give up her job at the Bradys and goes back to work at the diner from “Goodbye Alice, Hello.” She becomes close to her two fellow waitresses, ditzy Myrna Carter and a floozy (Abbe Lane, who payed Beebe Gallini in “Mike’s Horrorscope”).
• Cindy Brady, Lady. Carol’s snooty mother decides Cindy is too unrefined and pays to send Cindy to an elite New England finishing school, in this precursor to “The Facts of Life.”  Co-starring Molly Dodd (the dress shop saleslady in “Brace Yourself” and Mrs Payne in “Kelly’s Kids”) as the school’s headmistress.
• Tell It Like It Is. Bored with her housework, Carol takes a job as a writer at Tomorrow’s Woman magazine in this workplace comedy. There, she deals with her tough boss, Mr. Delafield, and her colleagues: snooty Nora Maynard, and neurotic Wally Witherspoon.
• Love and the Older Man. After graduating high school, Marcia marries widowed Dr. Vogel and becomes stepmother to his three bratty children while also helping out at his dental practice.

[mmecorday]

CSI: Grand Canyon. In the pilot episode, investigators are called to an Indian reservation in Grand Canyon where a small boy has been discovered dead of battery acid poisoning caused by eating beans out of a flashlight. 

[LexieLily]

*More in the dramatic vein of The Bradys rather than the sitcom. 

Will The Real Jan Brady Please Stand Up? Jan goes back to Lucy Winters' party without her black wig but by the end of the night Lucy is murdered and the only clue to the killer is someone with black hair that looked very much like Jan. Peter, Margie Wimple, and the Brady parents help Jan clear her name.
 

[Egg McMuffin]

Was watching “Her Sister’s Shadow” this morning. Why in the world did Mrs Watson feel the need to announce in front of the entire school, “The winner of the essay contest is NOT Jan Brady.” First of all, the point of the assembly was to announce the winner. Why announce who isn’t the winner? Also, you’d think that since Mrs. Watson has failed basic math when calculating final scores, she’d want to double check the number before announcing Nora Coombs as the new winner.

[Blergh]

On 11/11/2023 at 7:51 AM, Egg McMuffin said:

Was watching “Her Sister’s Shadow” this morning. Why in the world did Mrs Watson feel the need to announce in front of the entire school, “The winner of the essay contest is NOT Jan Brady.” First of all, the point of the assembly was to announce the winner. Why announce who isn’t the winner? Also, you’d think that since Mrs. Watson has failed basic math when calculating final scores, she’d want to double check the number before announcing Nora Coombs as the new winner.

Maybe to heighten Jan's humiliation and/or to depict the actuality that there ARE some deliberately biased and mean teachers out there who openly broadcast their pets and whipping kids!

Yeah, I know all the above is rather cynical but, yes, I did encounter rotten teachers like Mrs. Watson in my academic trek sometime between nursery school and college graduation.

[Katy M]

th

On 11/11/2023 at 8:51 AM, Egg McMuffin said:

Was watching “Her Sister’s Shadow” this morning. Why in the world did Mrs Watson feel the need to announce in front of the entire school, “The winner of the essay contest is NOT Jan Brady.” First of all, the point of the assembly was to announce the winner. Why announce who isn’t the winner? Also, you’d think that since Mrs. Watson has failed basic math when calculating final scores, she’d want to double check the number before announcing Nora Coombs as the new winner.

While the assembly was to announce the winner, I think everybody knew it was Jan.  And for some reason this was an assembly where the honoree's, and only the honoree's, parents were expected to attend.  Although, obviously it would have just been better to leave Jan's name out (even htough she had just run outon stage and this was not a secret) and sais the sassembly was postponed.

[Bazinga]

The grading of Jan's essay paper makes no sense and can never be graded correctly, assuming 100 is the highest possible grade, as it should be. 

Follow: there are 7 categories with 15 seeming to be the highest grade possible in each category.  7 times 15 is 105.  Jan's grade is '98' but adds up to 93, thus allowing Nora Coombs ("Nora, Nora, Nora!") to be the true winner.  Possibly the final two categories, "Presentation" and "Literary Style" (whatever those are supposed to be), in which Jan gets marks of 10 respectively, are out of 10, but still doesn't work, as then the highest total possible would be 95.  The teacher just deducted 10 points and thinks the total of 98 is still possible is equally nonsensical.  The grading system being used by the teacher is incorrect, as it never adds up to 100.  Corollary, Jan was deducted 12 points, which from a possible 100 would be 88 not the 93 the score actually adds up to. 

The teacher would have been better off just giving a total score with no categories and be done with it, but then there would be no mistake in addition allowing for Jan to wrongly be declared the winner and then come clean.

The grading: Spelling: Jan gets 15 (out of 15); Grammar: Jan gets 14 (out of 15); Neatness: Jan gets 14 (out of 15): Originality of Idea: Jan gets 15 (out of 15); Composition: Jan gets 15 (out of 15): Presentation: Jan gets 10 (out of 15); Literary Style: Jan gets 10 (out of 15) with the total incorrectly added up to 98 not the correct total of 93.    

Always bothered me.

Jan's essay link on IMDB:

Jan's Graded Essay Image

Edited November 14, 2023 by Bazinga

[mmecorday]

Maybe Mrs. Watson's faulty math can be chalked up to her unrequited love for Miss Linda O'Hara. 

[sistermagpie]

I appreciate that they put in the two fours to explain how she came up with an 8!

[Blergh]

18 hours ago, mmecorday said:

Maybe Mrs. Watson's faulty math can be chalked up to her unrequited love for Miss Linda O'Hara. 

Or perhaps her yearning for  Nora Coombs's widowed father who she hopes the bias toward his daughter will impress him enough dump his meter maid  girlfriend then to meet her at the library while Mr. Watson's at the pool hall trying to vie for the title of Foosball Champion against Sam the Butcher!

Edited November 15, 2023 by Blergh

[Egg McMuffin]

I’m watching “The Teeter-Totter Caper.” Does anyone else think Carol’s wedding gift for Cousin Gertrude - a silver frog - is a tad chintzy? Especially since Carol and Mike brought four other people to the wedding. I suppose it could be sterling silver, but it looks silver plated to me.

[Snow Apple]

2 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

I’m watching “The Teeter-Totter Caper.” Does anyone else think Carol’s wedding gift for Cousin Gertrude - a silver frog - is a tad chintzy? Especially since Carol and Mike brought four other people to the wedding. I suppose it could be sterling silver, but it looks silver plated to me.

Maybe they also put cash/check in a card to put in a box at the reception? Is that common in the 70's like it is now?

[mmecorday]

Maybe it was the best she could do on short notice. I seem to recall that when Carol got the invitation, she said the wedding was a week from Saturday or something like that. 

[Egg McMuffin]

“Try, Try Again” was on this morning; it’s the one where Jan decides she’s a no-talent loser. What if Jan had turned out to have aptitude for tap dancing? Would The Brady Six have had room in their act for tap? Or would she have gone out as a solo act?

Edited December 9, 2023 by Egg McMuffin

[Katy M]

On 11/14/2023 at 12:44 AM, Bazinga said:

he grading: Spelling: Jan gets 15 (out of 15); Grammar: Jan gets 14 (out of 15); Neatness: Jan gets 14 (out of 15): Originality of Idea: Jan gets 15 (out of 15); Composition: Jan gets 15 (out of 15): Presentation: Jan gets 10 (out of 15); Literary Style: Jan gets 10 (out of 15) with the total incorrectly added up to 98 not the correct total of 93.    

You're assuming (not illogically) that all the scores were out of 15. Perhaps literary style or Presentation were only worth 10, which would bring the total to 100.

[Bazinga]

Nevermind

Edited December 12, 2023 by Bazinga