Here is something we all have in common: Two parents and a family of various proportions. Even if we were given up for adoption at birth, we came from one egg and one sperm. And those two items came out of two someones. And those two “someone’s” have all sorts of people attached to them.
Most of us are lucky enough to have been born into the “conventional” family setting with a mom, a dad, and siblings. If we are really lucky, there was a family dog too. Or parakeet.
But every so often, people find themselves growing up in an unfamiliar situation. And TV illustrated this fact, time and again. On this particular date, September 26, 1969, the American sitcom The Brady Bunch premiered on ABC. It would become an enduring pop culture phenomenon.
This family stuck around on TV for almost five years, from September 26, 1969, to March 8, 1974.
Let me rehash. It’s “the story of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls. All of them had hair of gold. Like their mother. The youngest one in curls.” Yada. Yada.
Carol Somebody met Mike Brady. And their six kids converged under one roof. Her three girls, his three boys. Oh, the wholesome fun. Oh, valuable Brady lessons.
I can’t believe it debuted nearly half a century ago. But it took off like wildfire, and to this day, people still follow those reruns. I don’t remember watching it as a kid. I didn’t like whiners, like Jan and Cindy, so that may have been the aversion. But I’ve seen plenty of these shows in syndication and gotten some groovy laughs.
But there are some things you might not have known about the show, so I’m here to help, in a big Brady kind of way.
— The kids’ hair had to match their parents’.
The creator of the show was Sherwood Schwartz. He was adamant about ensuring the kids’ hair matched the parents’ hair. Before he cast Robert Reed and Florence Henderson as Mike and Carol, Schwartz had 12 children ready to play the parts. Three blonde girls, three brunette boys, three brunette girls, and three blond boys. Once blonde Carol and brunette Mike were picked, the kids whose hair didn’t match the parent were dropped.
— Little Cindy, Susan Olsen, wasn’t blonde enough.
Susan Olsen was a blonde kid in real life. But not blonde enough. So the producers made Olsen get her hair bleached regularly. They had to stop the whole routine because her hair started falling out during season two. Balding Cindy.
— Gene Hackman was supposed to be Mike Brady.
So, yes, originally, they’d hired Hackman to play the Brady Dad. But Hackman, up to that point, wasn’t well known. He’d done a bunch of TV spots, but nothing major. Well, our good Robert Reed was already under contract with the studio. So they booted Hackman and went with Reed. That was probably good for Hackman’s career. He did The French Connection in 1971. Poseidon Adventure in 1972. Yep. I can’t see him as Mike Brady.
— The bathroom doesn’t have a toilet.
That’s right — six kids, one bathroom, no toilet. The network was uneasy about having a toilet on camera. So. No John. Good luck with that, Bradys.
— Tiger, their dog, was killed.
Yep, the trainer took him out for exercise in between scenes. Some car came along and hit him. He died. They ended up scrapping the dog in the series. At least for a while.
So there are a few bits about this particular family.
We all have our family stories, our ups, and downs. Our hits and misses.
Hopefully, those memories stay largely happy. I know I wouldn’t trade mine for anything. Not even The Brady Bunch.
===========
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
==============
“In every conceivable manner, the family is a link to our past, a bridge to our future.”
— Alex Haley
=============
“I have learned that to be with those I like is enough”
― Walt Whitman
============
We are family. From us to the Brady’s.
