The Brady Bunch

Brady Bunch was an American television sitcom starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis, which revolved around a large blended family. The show originally aired from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974, on ABC and was subsequently syndicated internationally.

Plot summary

Mike Brady (Robert Reed), widowed architect with sons Greg (Barry Williams), Peter (Christopher Knight) and Bobby (Mike Lookinland), marries Carol Martin (née Tyler) (Florence Henderson), whose daughters are Marcia (Maureen McCormick), Jan (Eve Plumb) and Cindy (Susan Olsen). The wife and daughters take the Brady surname. Producer Schwartz wanted Carol to have been a divorcée but the network objected to this. A compromise was reached whereby no mention was made of the circumstances in which Carol's first marriage ended. The blended family, Mike's live-in housekeeper Alice (Ann B. Davis) and the boys' dog Tiger settle into a large, suburban, two-story house designed by Mike. Their specific location is not explicitly stated in the series, though numerous indications suggest they reside in Southern California.

The theme song penned by Schwartz quickly communicated to audiences that the Bradys were a blended family. In the first season this blending figured prominently in stories. These episodes chronicled 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 focused more on issues related to the kids growing up, such as dating, self-image, responsibility, and puberty.

From the second season the blending and its particular tensions were less intrinsic to stories but would sometimes be casually mentioned in dialogue, often as part of a joke. Two episodes from the third season, "Not So Rose Colored Glasses" and "Jan's Aunt Jenny", mention that Mike and Carol had been married for just three years. "Kelly's Kids" in the final season explicitly recalled Mike and Carol's adoptions ("Either way, you adopted three boys and you adopted three girls, right?") when their neighbors, the Kellys, adopted three boys of different races.

It was not the first series to show a "blended" family (two series which debuted in the 1950s, Make Room For Daddy and Bonanza, had stepsiblings and half-siblings respectively), but came at a time when divorce and remarriage in America was seeing a surge.

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 Marcia's club, the Sunflower Girls, to make a point.

[edit]Episodes

Main article: List of The Brady Bunch episodes

In 1971, due to the success of the Bradys' ABC Friday night companion show The Partridge Family (about a musical family), some episodes began to feature the Brady Kids as a singing group. Though only a handful of shows actually featured them singing and performing ("Dough-Re-Mi" in the third season, "Amateur Nite" in the fourth and "Adios, Johnny Bravo" in the fifth), the Brady Bunch began to release albums. Ironically enough the LP records featured background vocals sweetening by the same session vocalists who were on The Partridge Family platters. Though the kids never charted as high as the Partridges, the cast began touring the United States during the summer hiatus from the show, headlining as The Kids from the Brady Bunch. Only Barry Williams and Maureen McCormick stayed in the music business as adults. Christopher Knight readily admits he felt he could not sing and recalls having great anxiety about performing live on stage with the cast.

Season Ep # First Airdate Last Airdate

Season 1 25 September 26, 1969 March 20, 1970

Season 2 24 September 27, 1970 March 20, 1971

Season 3 23 September 17, 1971 March 10, 1972

Season 4 23 September 22, 1972 March 23, 1973

Season 5 22 September 14, 1973 March 8, 1974