The Flashback
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 ...
