Shark Bytes

THIS show was famous inside of the televiusion industry for tyring to be.."Bradysomething". Very odd (and sad, incidentally, but you kn ew that..) seeing America's favorite family in ages wind up worse than the Conners on "Roseanne" or the Bundys on "Married with Children" (ironically itself by Columbia, the studio responsible for "Donna Reed" and those other shows..also coindicnetlaly, the Bradys were by the same studio, Paramount, that made the world's most famous crooner before Sinatra and Elvis, the star of the in the Depression and 1940s (World War II and after), the equally image-scandalized Bing Crosby! At least Bing has gottens omewhat redeen (those kids were allegedly brats, not that I'm defending the alleged beating either, but in terms historically, thanks to jazz critic Gary Giddens), and likmwise the Bradys were fiction, and as with Bing Crosby the tarnish can be ignored by enjoying the art, well, if one calls the Bradys art, as some smartasses might dsay..)

Maureen McCormic may have opted outta the Bradys due to hatred of the show, but maybe it was the sick state of THIS show that got ol' Marcia, Marcia, marcia, to back down and Leah Ayres stepped iN Gery Reischl and Jennifer Runuyon's footsteps as the Brady wannabe.

Signed,
Penny Pingleton

Firstly, why make Marcia - America's sweetheart - a drunk for? If anything, Jan's the one who should have had the drinking problem with all her issues. So, Marcia's hubby was out of work! BFD!! Maybe she should have gotten off her bum and get a job herself, rather than sit around the house getting drunk!

Secondly, if they couldn't get Maureen McComrick to reprise her role as Marcia, why couldn't they have gotten Christine Taylor (who played Marcia in the "Brady Bunch Movie")??? Or at least someone who resembled Maureen at least a little bit. The girl they wound up getting was attractive, but lacked that signature Marcia Brady glow.

The existence of "The Bradys" makes it clear that neither Sherwood nor Lloyd Schwartz has the SLIGHTEST idea of what The Brady Bunch's appeal is.

We love the cheesy clothing, the silly problems with completely unrealistic solutions (Marcia promises all her friends that Davy Jones will play with his band at her prom, so her parents help her sneak into his hotel room!!), the fantasy situation of having lots of brothers and sisters to have fun with and to stand up for us. We love Alice's persistently sunny demeanor in a job of sheer drudgery, and Mike and Carol's smiley, vague, '70s So Cal style of parenting (again...THEY HELPED THEIR DAUGHTER SNEAK INTO A ROCK STAR'S HOTEL ROOM).

In short, what we loved was just how hilariously NOT like real life The Brady Bunch was.

But with The Bradys, the Schwartzes wrecked all that. They strived to bring real life and real problems to our favorite dippy fantasy family. Bobby is paralyzed in a car crash and spends the rest of the show in a wheelchair; Jan is sterile; Marcia starts hittin' the booze.

Why on earth did they think we wanted to see this stuff?

So The Bradys died an early (but none too soon) death in 1990. Only a few years later, some people who DID understand what we loved about The Brady Bunch made the first Brady Bunch movie, which was a monster hit because it was so true to the source material.

It just goes to show...if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I liked the show I was 14 years old when it aired on CBS.I think people had a hard time seeing them as grownups.If they ever release this show on DvD I hope that they don't use The music were
the moms sings that was painful to hear.

I personally thought this show could have gone further. It was interesting to see the Brady kids all grown up. I for one would have loved to have seen a Jan/Marcia showdown, because now they were adults and they could have fought over much more adult stuff. Like, maybe have Marcia somehow manage to get freaky with Jen's husband. MEOW!!! CATFIGHT!!! The alcoholism episode was a but cheesy though.

This show could have been put in a different time slot so it wouldn't have had to compete with Full House, a powerhouse show on ABC. I really didn't mind the other Marcia at all.

This show jumped from Day One, for two reasons: first, a new Marcia, and second, Jennifer Runyon, who had played Cindy in "A Very Brady Christmas", wasn't back as Cindy for the show. It jumped even further when Marcia became an alcoholic. Right after the alcoholism episode aired, there was also an advertisement from AA promoting abstinence from alcohol, featuring Maureen McCormick. When that ad appeared, I couldn't blame her for not wanting to return as Marcia.

The first thing that I would like to do is thank the second to last poster for the appreciation that he or she showed me in regards to my explanation of this series! As for the most recent poster, I have no problem understand that he or she is protected by the "Freedom of the Press" Amendment. However, I find this person's sarcasim to be "very" insulting! This is just my opionion, but I think that people should learn how to show respect for other people's feelings!

There were 6 episodes of The Brady's. Don't you just love people who ramble on and on with wrong information? The show was pretty good too.

Well done, Smartboy! Thank you for that excellent explanation, but unfortunately, I really don't remember this show at all. I guess it was on such a short time, I never got to see it or something. Thanks, and I'll check out the "Brady page" too!

In response to the last poster's question, "The Brady's" was a "very" short-lived sereis from 1990! I believe that it consisted of "four" episodes! It was an attempt to take the characters from a situation comedy and put them in a drama. It was a "total" flop! By this time, a good number of the children were married and had children of their own. I guess you could say that it was a spin-off of sorts to the movie made for television "A Very Brady Christmas". Did you ever see that movie? This sereis dealt with issues like Jan and her husband Philip being unable to have children of their own and thus adopting a Korean girl. If you would like an explanation of the fourth and final episode, just look at the last post before yours! Also, the fact that you are interested in this sereis, leads me to believe that you like "The Brady Bunch". So do I! The last time I checked, I was the most recent person to post a message on that page of this site. I would be "very" interested in reading what you think of my words of wisdom of that show!

I have never seen this show before. Could someone tell me what it was about and when it aired - year/date and time. It sounds very "unique" to say the least.

If my memory is correct, it was the fourth and final episode of this series in which Alice's husband Sam got rid of his butcher shop and then got it back in the course of an hour. Another thing that I hope that my memory is correct about is which three female characters opened the catering business out of the space that the butcher shop had taken up. I believe that it was Marcia the, fashion designer, Jan the architech and Greg's wife the nurse. During Sam's retirement, he became very board and would tend to sit at home and look at Alice. This made her very nervous. Simultainiously, the womens' attempts to cater a party was a complete disaster! They decided to get out while the getting was good. One of the ladies said that the only problem was that they still have the lease on the space and have nothing to do with it. Alice responded with, "oh yes we do"! This is one more example of a story about someone who does not know how to handle retirement and thus, does not retire. In a way, it is like the message that I posted about "The Brady Bunch" a few days ago. Just like the children did not want to deal with the changes that the bigger house would bring, Sam did not know how to handle the changes of retirement or old age and thus pretended that they did not exist.

to the guest who wrote "what's next,a reality show called "here's the story"? PLEASE do not give anyone in hollywood any more "Brady" ideas!

"Guest"wrote:
"...This show was worse than virtually every other TV show I've ever seen - and I really dislike most TV shows. The moment that stands out in my mind is when the cast is singing and dancing to "The Hustle." Since the tune's an instrumental, they're all going "la la la la la-la-la la la!""

Methinks you were writing (or trying to) in on "The Brady Bunch Hour" where your comments were already posted.