![]() Oddly enough, Robert Reed, who was never happy playing a Brady, came back for every Brady reunion show.Īnd the book ends with Barry getting married, and all his Brady family there with him (except Mike Lookinland who was home with a nine-months pregnant wife). And then, in 1989, the surprise success of A Very Brady Christmas, which in turn led to the short-lived television series The Bradys. The cast got together for the Brady Bunch Variety Hour just three years after the show was over. To his credit, Barry Williams is pretty contrite about it, but really – he was eighteen and being led on by shysters.Īfter the fifth season, The Brady Bunch was canceled. the others) when it came to voicing the characters in a Brady Kids cartoon. The agent managed to break up the bunch (Barry & Chris vs. And, of course, greedy agents saw their chance, represented all six kids and went to Sherwood Schwartz with demands about getting their act in the show more. But now they were face to face with TONS of screaming fans. Up to that point, they’d worked on the Paramount lot, then went home each night. They also got their real first taste of being famous. (I may or may not have had this on cassette tape.) They performed all over the country at smaller arenas and county fairs. You might recall a few episodes featuring the cast singing and dancing – and they put a few albums out. In later seasons, the Bradys became cross-promotional hits. Susan Olsen (Cindy) and Mike Lookinland (Bobby) got play-married, and Christopher Knight (Peter) and Eve Plumb (Jan) even had their own thing for a while. ![]() Barry and Mo (Marcia Brady’s Maureen McCormick) were pretty hot and heavy, and made out frequently in his trailer. And, Sherwood even says that if they had been picked up for season six, the Brady’s would have been Mike-less. Mike and Sherwood’s (and later Lloyd Schwartz’s) feuds over terrible scripts became legendary at the Paramount Studio.īeyond the Reed & Schwartz feud, a lot of the book focused on the relationships of the actors who played the Brady kids. Except for the last episode – he and Sherwood had butted heads so badly, Mike wasn’t in the final episode. He was wrong and he ended up on the Brady set as Mike, the role for which he would become best known, for the next five years. Aww…Mike Brady, an asshole? He was a classically trained actor and took the job for a paycheck, convinced the network wouldn’t pick it up seeing the pilot. The most shocking thing about reading this book, was finding out that Robert Reed could be kind of an asshole. Susan Olsen was the only kid who was cast immediately upon her audition by being fucking adorable. In his arrogance, Barry was sure he was a lock for Greg (despite competition hundreds of kids deep) but Sherwood set him straight. He landed a couple of spots on TV shows, and eventually auditioned for The Brady Bunch, the brain child of producer Sherwood Schwartz who became aware that blended families were not well-represented on television, in that there weren’t any. Whenever they wanted trouble (sneaking girlie mags, raiding the liquor cabinet, setting off firecrackers in a beehive) little Barry was always willing to do whatever they wanted, so long as he got the attention.Īt eleven, his parents gave in and got him acting lessons. His parents weren’t giving in to his pleas for acting lessons, so he became a performer for his older brothers and their friends. ![]() Barry Williams (born Barry William Blenkhorn) was a kid obsessed with acting. Then it delves into fairly innocuous biography territory. ![]() They were wasted on the plane, Cindy was threatened with arrest, but they had a great time getting to know Brady fans. Which was terrible (and they knew it was terrible) and lasted a half a season. The book starts off (after a Foreword written by Robert Reed) with a hilarious prologue in which the Brady family (now grown) are on a media tour to promote their TV show The Bradys. Brady books lined the shelves (I had a fair few – including Alice’s Brady Bunch Cookbook) and the Real Live Brady Bunch was a theatrical hit* (and starred a pre-Conan Andy Richter and Jane Lynch in the cast!), and of course, The Brady Bunch Movie, which was a hilarious and satirical take on America’s grooviest family. Barry Williams was a genius for writing this book when he did, and as I recall it sold pretty well. The Brady’s were having a weird resurgence in popularity in the early 90’s. I don’t know why – I fully realized that the show was ridiculous and schlocky, but there was something about it that I loved. It may have been my first geek-obsession. I’ve mentioned this before, but I was a little bit of a Brady nut when I was a teenager. ![]()
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