Here's a story of a TV show , called the Brady Bunch , the series began in 1969 and ran until 1974 (Pretty Much Nixon's presidency ) , but that wouldn't stop the Bradys.
That brings us to the spin offs (or revivals or something) , we already talked of one .. "The Brady Kids" that was in our "Animated versions of live-action shows" article and that one ran around the same time as original series. The shows we are talking about ... well didn't.
1. The Brady Bunch Hour
It's 1976 ( yay , bicentennial ,baby!) and it's been about 2 years since the Brady Bunch ended. ABC decided they want them back. Everybody came back , except for Eve Plumb (Jan Jan Jan ) who was replaced by Geri Reischl .
Jan went away for one year and came back...different
Instead of it being sitcom or anything it was a variety show. ABC first tired this idea with The Brady Bunch Variety Hour on November 28, 1976 ,the ratings were good enough for ABC and they made it a series with the word variety taken out and it aired between January-May 1977 in various times with 8 episodes. It was produced by Paramount (who also are producers of original Brady Bunch) and Sid and Marty Kroft. The idea came from ABC's head at the time Fred Silverman (the guy who didn't any farm shows on CBS anymore) he wanted to reunite the Brady cast. 4 members came on the popular Donny and Marie Show , that made great ratings so they tried this variety show thing.
Since this is a variety , and most of these things are shows with skits , singing and dancing numbers it's not like a sitcom or drama where the episodes had to have a strong plot line. They had some sort of premise for the show where Mike Brady founds that ABC wanted him and his family for a variety show . (Inside Joke?) He gives up his job and moves the family to a beach house in Southern California. ( San Diego?)
The series ran for 9 episodes and then ended.
2. The Brady Girls get Married (or The Brady Brides)
Ever wonder if Bobby got married ?( he was the best character besides Alice...this is called bias)
Well that had nothing to do with this , in 1981 NBC wanted some Brady fun ( just not on Supertrain) so they had a Brady movie made. Well it was going to be a movie but NBC decided to let it go longer so they broke up the movie to 3 parts airing in 30 minute increments. This was called The Brady Girls get Married. There was more they then stared a new sitcom called The Brady Brides . This is the one time everyone from the original cast (except the dog) was together for something Brady related. We also find out what happened after the original series (the Variety show ,thankfully didn't count) Mike is still an architect , Carol is now a real-estate agent. (He designs them , she sells them) Marcia is a fashion designer ( it's like houses but with clothes) , Jan is also an architect, Greg became a doctor , Peter is in the Air force , (why does no one have an office job or something they hate or something?) . Bobby and Cindy are in College. (Possibly becoming lawyers?) Alice got married to Sam. The Movie was about Jan and Marcia's double wedding. (saves on having to do another movie) The series was about Marcia and Jan living together with their husbands. (because it saves on sets?)
Carol and Mike are not shocked they are sharing a house. /Copyright Paramount
Come join us ... after the jump for more ...
Would have been more fun to see Alice and Sam (c) Paramount
3. A Very Brady Christmas
It's now 1988 (it took us over 14 years to get to this post) We had a TV movie for the Brady Bunch and now on CBS. ( Too bad FOX never tried a Brady Bunch thing?) It aired the week before Christmas in 1988 , every cast member , but Susan Olsen ( Cindy) was there, so Jennifer Runyon, was Cindy. Mike and Carol decide to get their kids , grand kids , spouses of the kids together for Christmas. But since , it's a movie it can't be that easy. I
Greg's wife is away with her family , Peter is "involved" with his boss ( darn it Peter , you were in the air-force!) Bobby dropped out of college ( after 7 years?) and he hasn't told his parents yet. Marcia's husband (who we met above) was fired from being a toy-sells man. Jan is separating from Phillip. And Cindy wanted to go skiing with her friends in Aspen. And just to screw up everything good , Alice is dealing with Sam leaving her for another woman. (booo) While later one Mike finds out that a businessman he designed a building for ,made the building dodgy and it collapses trapping two people in it, he tries to help and gets trapped too. Carol sings "Oh come all ye Faithful" and everything is alright. (Christmas!) Then at the same Santa comes ... and oh wait it's Sam (dirt bag) oh wait he found the error of his ways Alice takes him back and Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas ! / copyright CBS
4. The Bradys
Here's a story of 1990 , CBS must had a hunch when their Very Brady Christmas movie did well. So they decided they were going to make series... and that's how it became the Brady's .
This time it was a drama series that was an hour long Everyone returned ...except Maureen McCormick (Marcia) (PS: that means with the exception of The Brady Brides, each of the 3 original cast members from the girl side all missed one spin-off). She was replaced by Leah Ayres. 
They even re-cast a child for the intro.../(C) paramount
Also, this was the last TV related to the Brady Bunch Robert Reed did before his death in 1992.
Here's what was going on this series : Mike runs for Congress (because why not?), Jan (who apparently got back with Phillip) and her husband find out they can't conceive children so they adopt. Peter dates Mike's political rival's abusive daughter. Marcia became an alcoholic (she even changed her looks) and her husband (still Wally) keeps losing jobs. And they are forced with their children to live with Mike and Carol. Bobby gets in a race car accident and is left paraplegic and recovering and marries his college girlfriend. Cindy , who is on the radio, falls in love with her boss who is ten years older than her and has two kids The show ran 6 episodes , but it didn't do well , some reason could be it was downbeat spinoff of an upbeat show or it was against Full House and Family Matters. (Might as well just put the show against two shows that were the highest rated of all the networks at the time and see how it goes)
The Theme song is nice though ... and one version song by Florence
That's our look back hope you enjoyed ... and Alice too .
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