"The Brady Bunch" (1969-1974) - ABC's Old-Style Family Sit-Com Starring Robert Reed and Florence Henderson

[DonRocks]

No, I'm not doing a retrospective of "The Brady Bunch" (goodness knows, I must have seen every episode when I was a kid), but I just read a couple of interesting pieces of trivia:

Robert Reed was the second choice for Mike Brady; the producer's first choice was Gene Hackman (!), but he was too unknown at the time.

Florence Henderson was the second choice for Carol Brady, after the role was turned down by her best friend, Shirley Jones, for "The Partridge Family."

I can see Shirley Jones - she looks like Florence Henderson's cousin - but *Gene Hackman*? Good call going with Robert Reed (did you know he co-starred in "The Defenders?") - he fit the part; Hackman would have pulled out a gun and shot one of his kids in the back when they were running up the stairs.

Season One (Sep 26, 1969 - Mar 20, 1970)

1.1 - "The Honeymoon" - Sep 26, 1969 - 
Directed by John Rich (Emmy Award Winner for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy" for "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and for "Sammy's Visit" on "All in the Family")

[NiceDocter]

You were "kind of" in the Brady Bunch!!!  Marys sister married the nephew of Florence Henderson..... she sent them a gift and Alice called her Aunt Flo!!!!  Theres yer trivia fer ya!

[DonRocks]

43 minutes ago, NiceDocter said:

You were "kind of" in the Brady Bunch!!!  Marys sister married the nephew of Florence Henderson..... she sent them a gift and Alice called her Aunt Flo!!!!  Theres yer trivia fer ya!

I think I knew this: Florence Henderson was my brother's wife's sister's husband's aunt, right?

Well, why didn't I get any royalties?

[The Hersch]

As someone once remarked, if it weren't for the laugh-track, you wouldn't know which parts of The Brady Bunch were supposed to be funny. God, what an awful stinker of a show.

[DonRocks]

49 minutes ago, The Hersch said:

As someone once remarked, if it weren't for the laugh-track, you wouldn't know which parts of The Brady Bunch were supposed to be funny. God, what an awful stinker of a show.

It was fun when I was 12.

The tarantula crawling up Peter in the hotel might have been the moment when the series jumped the shark - I recognized this even as a pre-teen.

I think I remember reading that Robert Reed - who was a classically trained (i.e., Shakespearean) actor - *hated* the show, but I guess every whore has his price. 

[The Hersch]

On 3/19/2017 at 9:51 PM, DonRocks said:

I think I remember reading that Robert Reed - who was a classically trained (i.e., Shakespearean) actor - *hated* the show, but I guess every whore has his price. 

I'm sure I remember reading that the entire cast of "Gilligan's Island", an equally stinky popular TV show of the same era, thought it was a stupid piece of shit, which it was. But acting is among the most tenuous of occupations, and turning down good money because the material sucks is a good way to starve. Your comment on Robert Reed seems monstrously unfair to me.