The Brady Bunch Turns 50: Here is the Story…

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It is a gap credit sequence that is immediately recognizable to generations of TV viewers. Blue squares with smiling faces in them, all trying round at these within the squares above or beneath them. After which, the track begins.

“Here is the story of a stunning woman…”

Admit it, you are singing the remainder of it in your head proper now, aren’t you?

We’re speaking, after all, about The Brady Bunch, the enduring sitcom concerning the adventures of a blended household that debuted on ABC precisely 50 years in the past on September 26, 1969. From creator Sherwood Schwartz, who’d created one other iconic basic TV comedy with an equally iconic theme track (each of which had been written by the creator himself), CBS’ Gilligan’s Island, 5 years earlier, it was a easy sufficient premise: Widowed father of three boys Mike Brady marries single mom of three ladies Carol Martin, 5 seasons value of hijinks ensue.

Impressed in 1966 after studying in The Los Angeles Instances that “30% of marriages [in the United States] have a baby or kids from a earlier marriage,” he started working on a pilot script tentatively referred to as Mine and Yours. After buying the venture to the Massive Three (CBS, NBC and ABC—aka the one three on the time), he shelved the venture when every introduced admitted they would not decide to filming with out adjustments. However after Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda‘s comparable characteristic movie Yours, Mine and Ours went on the change into the 11th-highest grossing movie of 1968, ABC, on the lookout for a venture that might capitalize on the movie’s recognition, gave Sherwood an preliminary 13-episode order.

Schwartz instantly got down to discover the kid actors who would make up The Bradley Brood, because the present was referred to as at that time limit, and from 264 interviews in the summertime of ’68, he made certain he had a complete of 12 youngsters on maintain: three blonde boys, three blonde ladies, three brunette boys and three brunette ladies. The reason is that neither Mike nor Carol had been forged but and, because it was assumed that the mother and father would have contrasting hair colours, he wanted to be ready for something. 

“As a consequence, to today, there are three dark-haired ladies and three blonde boys about 45 to 50 years outdated someplace on this planet who might need been The Brady Bunch youngsters,” he wrote in his 2010 e book Brady, Brady, Brady: The Full Story as Advised by the Father/Son Crew Who Actually Know, written alongside son Lloyd J. Schwartz. “And they’re simply discovering that out in the event that they’re studying this e book.”

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After touchdown on dark-haired Robert Reed, who was already below contract at Paramount and had beforehand co-starred on common authorized drama The Defenders, for widowed architect Mike, regardless of preferring to interview then-unknown Gene Hackman for the function (a call the studio put the kibosh), and blonde comedic actress Joyce Bulifant for Carol, brunettes Barry Williams, Christopher Knight and Mike Lookinland had been forged as Greg, Peter and Mike, respectively, whereas blondes Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb and Susan Olsen had been tapped for Marcia, Jan and Cindy, respectively. 

(In the event you’re scratching your head on the identify Joyce Bulifant, that is as a result of as soon as Ann B. Davis was forged as wacky live-in housekeeper Alice, the function of Carol shifted away from a Lucille Ball-type and extra in the direction of a grounded, down-to-earth mom, paving the way in which for musical theater actress Florence Henderson to change into the quintessential mom for generations.)

Even nonetheless, the youngest two had been pressured to endure painful dye jobs to get their hair hues shades shut sufficient to go well with the producers. A pure strawberry blonde, Lookinland’s hair needed to be dyed to look darkish sufficient below the lights. And regardless of being a pure blonde, Olsen’s hair apparently wasn’t mild sufficient for producers and he or she was pressured to endure common bleachings till, in the course of the present’s second season, her hair started falling out in clumps and Sherwood put an finish to that specific follow for good.

Although the present aired for 5 seasons, it was by no means precisely a success. Critics weren’t particularly enamored with its inoffensive charms—expressly avoiding any point out of politics regardless of airing on the peak of the Vietnam Conflict, the present was the visible model of simple listening—and it by no means cracked the highest 30 within the scores as soon as in any season. So, when it crossed the magic 100-episode mark to be bought into syndication in its fifth season, it was canceled. Although it is not prefer it ever actually went away. 

Simply over a yr after it ended, it started airing in syndication the place it grew to become a mainstay for years, endearing itself to generations of kids who wore born many years after it had completed its authentic run. “It is by no means actually been off the air, in a method or one other, however the motive that’s is as a result of they do not should pay as residuals,” Plumb just lately informed E! Information concerning the present’s endurance, laughing. “So it is sort of low cost present to air.”

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Wits its recognition on the rise due to its syndicated presence, the present went on to spawn a spread collection, a handful of TV films and a couple of spinoff, ending with 1990’s The Bradys, which solely lasted for six episodes on CBS. Although none managed to match the success or cultural ubiquity of the unique.

“It’s totally protected and pleasant and good. , it is a recognized amount,” Plumb mentioned. “If you go to observe The Brady Bunch, that an issue can be solved and folks love one another and you’ll take a look at the outdated humorous garments.”

And whereas she’s proper, with the present changing into synonymous with a wholesomeness that is not lengthy since fallen out of vogue in popular culture, issues behind the scenes in the course of the present’s five-season run—to not point out the years instantly following—had been something however. 

From the tragic demise of the canine who performed household pooch Tiger on the Paramount lot throughout filming of the one the present’s fifth episode, resulting in a frantic seek for an equivalent substitute who may solely sit nonetheless if his collar was nailed to flooring, to hormones operating wild amongst all of the younger forged—Olsen admitted years later that she and Lookinland had been making out in Tiger’s canine home at age 9—the tales that got here trickling out of the present’s proved to be extra fascinating than any of the adventures Schwartz had written for the Bradys.

Williams, who as soon as confirmed as much as set stoned after being referred to as in on what he thought was a time off, prompting the livid producers to scale back his half within the episode after he started tripping over nothing within the driveway as he walked, and McCormick discovered themselves so smitten with each other (solely after Henderson, then fortunately married, turned down his teenage advances after entertaining his crush with a dinner his older brother needed to drive him to) that producers needed to work additional time to maintain them aside. Identical went for Knight and Plumb, who Williams as soon as claimed had been caught by LAPD earlier than getting frisky at the back of his pickup.

Reed, who commonly clashed with Schwartz over the present’s extra infantile components and was truly written out of the present’s collection finale, was a closeted gay who saved his non-public life firmly below wraps for concern it might adversely influence his profession. It wasn’t till his loss of life in 1992, initially attributed solely to colon most cancers, that the world discovered he was additionally HIV constructive. “Right here he was, the proper father of this excellent little household, an ideal husband,” Henderson informed ABC Information in 2000. “He was an sad individual…I believe had Bob not been pressured to reside this double life, I believe it might have dissipated loads of that anger and frustration.” Whereas his TV spouse had compassion for him as a result of she “knew he was struggling,” she added that she was sure the present would’ve by no means taken of had he been extra open about his sexuality. I do not suppose The Brady Bunch may have existed at the moment with the general public realizing that Robert Reed was homosexual. I simply do not suppose they’d have purchased it.”

Adjusting to life after the present wasn’t simple for any of the six who received their begin as mere kids, with all of them dealing with struggles of some type. Knight later admitted he’d felt exploited by his mother and father to generate profits, Olsen grew to become a marijuana farmer along with her now ex-husband and Lookinland battled alcoholism till he discovered himself on the point of loss of life and sobered up. However it was McCormick who maybe fought the toughest battle within the ensuing years. Not solely had she developed bulimia whereas on the present, however she developed a cocaine habit so extreme, there was little or no she would not do to feed it. 

“I sought refuge in seemingly glamorous cocaine dens above Hollywood. I believed I’d discover solutions there, whereas in actuality I used to be merely operating farther from myself. From there, I spiraled downward on a path of self-destruction that price me my profession and really practically my life,” she wrote in her 2008 memoir Here is the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Discovering My True Voice. It was so unhealthy that she started having intercourse in alternate for medicine. “If there was coke, I needed to keep up and do each final flake even when it meant going with out sleep for days,” she revealed. “Nothing else mattered.” On the peak of her habit, she confirmed up so excessive for a gathering with Steven Spielberg a few half in Raiders of the Misplaced Ark that he merely gave her an orange and despatched her house.

After marrying husband Michael Cummings in 1985, she sought therapy and is now sober.

Although it had been 15 years because the six surviving forged members had been all collectively—after Reed’s loss of life in 1992, Davis died in 2014 after falling within the bathtub, hitting her head, and by no means regaining consciousness, whereas Henderson handed on Thanksgiving Day 2016 from coronary heart failure—they just lately reunited for HGTV’s extremely publicized A Very Brady Renovation, which noticed them be part of HGTV expertise to recreate the Brady Bunch units inside the home that served as its exterior on the present. (Enjoyable truth: The home, which could be discovered within the San Fernando Valley, is the second-most visited residence in the USA simply behind the White Home.)

“Actually, we might seen one another in several groupings over time for one factor and one other, however I believe the final time that there was the confluence [Laughs.] of all six was about 15 years,” Plumb mentioned of the expertise. “The coven!”

As Plumb insisted, as soon as the coven was reassembled, it was “nice” reconnecting. “, we’re all grown-up now, clearly, and all of us get alongside like actual individuals. And HGTV simply supplied us an prolonged household reunion,” she added. Even when cameras had been off, she mentioned they’d share tales of occasions previous and proper one another’s recollections. “Similar to any household reunion, having totally different recollections of various occasions,” she mentioned.

Someplace Mike and Carol Reed and Henderson are smiling on the considered their TV infants again collectively once more.

A Very Brady Renovation airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on HGTV.