I think the show was a lot better that people give it credit for. Sure, it was kind of goofy at times - a bunch of do-gooder kids........but I think that, overall, it had good stuff where the kids got in trouble (at times), and Mike Brady had to be a little harsh. Like the one where Marcia is trying to get her "new" father voted "Father of the Year," but she has to do stuff in secret, and eventually gets punished for sneaking out the window (yikes!) in order to mail the letter. Marcia cried a lot on that show - a pretty good actress, there - Maureen McCormick was the most dramatic kid in that show. Kind of stuck up.

Anyway, the dumbest plot, I think, was when Peter Brady found his "double," and had him pose as "Peter." The Peter-double looked "just like Peter," same permed hair and all. Just plain dumb. But then, this was the last season (season 5), so that's usually when a good show goes down-hill.

/thread

hope you don't plan on surfing anytime soon

I dunno. I always felt that the "most (melo)dramatic kid" award went to Jan. She suffered from middle-kid syndrome worse than any other TV kid I can remember. From wearing wigs, to trying to rub off her freckles, to refusing to wear her glasses, to "Marcia Marcia Marcia!", Jan out-drama'ed them all.

As for dumbest plot, I don't know what you mean! They were all so REAL and true-to-life.

OK, I guess if I have to pick one, I would go with this one:



Then again, with the music industry what it is today, with things like autotune, maybe that episode was just a brilliant glimpse into our (then) future.

...But, he fit the suit!

I suppose, but all that came later. During Season One, Jan was a down-to-earth kid, who wore normal clothes, and was even telling her friend how to bleach out the freckles, but she seemed fine with her own. I guess from Season Two and forward, they decided to make Jan some kind of jealous, incompetent knucklehead - worse than Peter, even.

As far as Marcia, she was the only kid on the show who addressed her mother as "Mother." Marcia was very "formal."

The dumbest plot was when Bobby sold Greg that hair tonic, and his hair turned orange right before Graduation. I think Oliver was in that episode, so the show was heading downhill anyway.

As it turned out, that episode was the Series Finale. So there you go. Robert Reed refused to be in that episode, so they wrote him off as "being out of town."

They'd have never survived a Sixth Season anyway. Too much discord. They were going to kill off Mike Brady. That's very Un-Brady-like.

Did I just hear some ominous-sounding flute music in the background?

"Mom always said 'don't play ball in the house.'"

....opps... wrong episode.

Well, Reed grew to really dislike doing the show, but he always cared about the kids.

He sure did. He took them all on a big cruise once.

Robert Reed's own kids once asked, "how come you can't be as calm and understanding as you are on the show?" Robert Reed told them, "you don't give me 30 minute problems!"

It must have been hard for the girls to remember to use their new last name of "Brady."

They used to be:

Marcia Tyler
Jan Tyler
Cindy Tyler

I"m surprised none of them ever "slipped up" and used their old last name. That would have given it more of a touch of realism.

Well, thanks to you starting this thread, now I've got my Complete Series DVD set out (the one with the flower power motif and green shag carpet on it ), trying to decide which episode to watch next!

I've been watching the First Season with my 7-year old (my excuse for watching at my age)....

But I've always enjoyed the one with Jan screwing up Mom and Dad's "Silver Platter," to misunderstanding that each letter costs money. So they become a singing group, known as The Silver Platters.

Also the one with Jan refusing to wear her glasses. That one is always a hoot.

OR when Greg decides to become a hippy and takes over his Dad's den as his 'new room.' "Far out, man."

Don't remmeber if I though it was dumb but the one with Greg vs. Macria in a driving contest to see who can get closest to to th egg seemed unrealistic, even as a kid. The whole family out there cheering like it was the state championship or something. I just couldn't picture a whole family getting that excited over it.

That's part of the "corny" stuff people always complain about the show. And rightfully so. It was so-oo unnecessary.

But, aside from the "corny," I did remember liking the episode in general. How Greg was so over-confident, thinking he was so great, meanwhile he knocks over the egg. A good lesson for the viewers.

Always loved the Brady Bunch, corn and all.

Some of the dumber plots:
The pool table episode - This cliche has been done in many other sitcoms. When a pool table is introduced, someone in the main cast turns out to be a professional-level player despite it never being mentioned before or after.

The Shirley Temple episode - Even as a kid, I felt SO sorry for Cindy having to dress up like Shirley fucking Temple and sing like a doof meanwhile she was like 13 at the time.

AND WHY were there so many mentions of Benedict Arnold? I think his name turned up in several episodes, including being the center of an entire one. The writers may have been obsessed.

It all went downhill when Cody moved in with his van

That's awesome.

Agreed. This really was just flat out awful. I didn't really blame Reed for refusing to be in it. Apparently, he supported the cast by being on set but refused to appear in it.

I didn't learn about Benedict Arnold from school - I learned it from The Brady Bunch.

Bad meat in the can...?

While I was growing up during the 70's, there was an urban legend that a Sixth Season was actually done - but never aired because it was considered "too taboo and controversial." Apparently, Marcia got caught taking drugs, and some other crazy things that were a football field away from the original "feel" of the show. It was almost as "serious" as the 90's dramedy The Bradys.

I guess Robert Reed got over it (or realized Brady Bunch is his claim to fame) since he came back for the reunion movies.

The one where they moved the ENTIRE house seemed dumb (at least that element of the movie). Is that even possible to really do? If so, it probably would cost multiple times that to just build an identical house at the new location. They could just disasseble it & rebuild it.