Guys,

I do have to say that I have great respect for the legendary work of The Brady Bunch's series producer Sherwood Schwartz, and the incomparable work, of the equally great Robert Reed. Barry Williams mentions in his book the great respect that he had for both of these gentlemen and I share that assesment.

I think it was a good thing to have the comic elements of Mr. Schwartz and the realistic elements of Mr. Reed working together on The Brady Bunch, even if they were at each other's throats most of the time over the direction of the show. I don't think that slapstick in a show is the terrible curse of doom, as Robert Reed thought. However, a show that is too serious can lose some of its comic elements. Mr. Reed and Mr. Schwartz were able to strike a fantastic balance of comedy and realism that made The Brady Bunch so appealing to all generations of yesterday and today.

I wonder what the original scripts and storylines might have been like if Robert Reed hadn't had an influence on them? I think that in "Juliet is the Sun" the idea of having the school do Romeo and Juilet for the play was totally Reed's idea. (Being the Shakesperian authority that he was, the script worked well.) It established a great story line for Marcia in this episode, with very powerful realistic situations. The same is true with the play about the American Revolution, and Peter wanting the role of George Washington instead of Benedict Arnold in "Everyone Can't Be George Washington."

"Bobby's Hero" is ingeniously done, creating a concept about kids and guns that is ahead of its time. Burt Mustin who plays Mr. Collins, who tells how his father was killed by Jessie James is very moving for and powerful for a so called "comedy series"

As a sidenote, much of the work of the finest episodes and writing of the series can be attributed to Robert Reed's friend, script editor Tam Spiva. If Tam Spiva is listed in the end credits as a script editor, you KNOW it is one of the best episodes of the series!

Does anyone know if during the filming of Growing Up Brady if they used actual original scripts? There is a scene in the movie where Alice is cooking hamburgers and Carol says something to the effect that Greg might be home later to eat, and Alice says, "Don't worry about that Mrs. Brady, Greg will be here to eat, he has the greatest sniffer in town!" (or something like that.) Than Gary Cole, who plays Robert Reed turns his disgust to the actor who plays Sherwood Schwartz and they have an argument over this line. I have often wondered if this was a real conflict taken from an original script, or was just used for the GUB movie?

What about you guys? Do you think that there were any scenes or tag sequences that didn't work? Reports are that many scenes in later seasons were altered from the original script because Reed was not happy with the comic element of the original scenes.

I do think that if Reed had not interfered, we might have seen more of the likes of characters such as Skip Farnum. (UGGHHH!!)

Hey, remember the big conflict between Reed and Schwartz during the filming of "Jan, the Only Child?" It's the scene with Alice and Carol making strawbaerry preserves for the hoedown. Robert Reed was supposed to say, "It smells like strawberry heaven", but blew his stack at Sherwood because he insisted that strawberry's when cooking have no oder! Sherwood said that he could smell strawberries all over the set! But Reed wouldn't say his scripted line, so he had it changed to:

"I do believe I've died and gone to strawberry heaven!" (which is what he ends up saying) I have always wondered who was right in this debate regarding the smell (or lack of smell) of strawberries when cooking.

Reed was a great stickler for realism, but he should have always remembered that without Sherwood Schwartz, the show wouldn't have existed. (Maybe Reed would have liked that, I don't know) But, the point is the greatness of both men's work on this series can never be overemphasized.

Jack

Actually Daniel-Hugh Kelly played Robert Reed in Growing Up Brady. Gary Cole played the caricature of Mike Brady in the Brady Bunch feature films and the Fox movie where Mike became President.

I imagine that Robert Reed's quest for realism helped the scripts to a degree. At least nothing supernatural ever happened in a Brady ep outside of a dream sequence. Gilligan's Island crossed the boundary into the supernatural at least once when a mad scientist and his assistant changed bodies w/ two pets, which could then speak. :(

Too bad Reed wasn't a stickler for more noticeable continuity problems. One of the most noticeable problems was how the tv show The Bradys changed Mike's middle name from Paul, as it was when he married Carol, to Thomas, which Peter says again and again when Mike is elected to city council. One of the Brady books mentioned that Sherwood Schwartz got many letters from fans pointing out this discrepancy. The Fox movie had fun w/ this point by having Mike sworn in as Michael Paul Thomas (and maybe a couple other middle names) Brady. If so many fans noticed this problem, I'm surprised Reed didn't. Mike Lookinland may have noticed as well, since his real middle name (and his father's name) is Paul. I wonder if Mike Brady's middle name was changed to Paul after Mike Lookinland was cast, since he and Robert Reed were the two cast members whose characters had each other's real names. I can't say first names here, since Robert was actually the middle name of John Robert Rietz. I wonder if the two of them ever answered to the other's character's name by mistake. :)

If Robert Reed had been on the Full House set, he would have torn those scripts up. They couldn't remember things they said from one season to the next. Those writers REALLY needed help.

I agree completely with Reed's influence making the scripts better. Anyone who feels different need look no further than an episode of (uggh) Gilligan's Island. The situations and jokes are so juvenile, that I'm amazed it was ever renewed after the 1st season (maybe the catchy song helped it's case).

But, back to The Brady Bunch. Without Reed's steadfast devotion to keep the show somewhat realistic, I'm sure it would have been canceled much sooner. Just think of the ridiculous final episode, which Reed refused to appear in ("The Hair-Brained Scheme"). Can you imagine if those episodes were the norm, instead of the exception?

The show would not have been the same without reeds help he did add a measure of reality to the show, but he was allso a regular on manix at the time as well and may have seen the brady bunch as dumb compared to manix.

And by the way gilligans island is 1 of the most played sitcoms in reruns of all time. so it must have not been that bad, and as far as the show being juvenile well that was the same things the critics said about it, and they were the only ones to take it seriously.

This is somewhat off topic but it is something that I want to address:

I loved MOST of the Brady Bunch Episodes after Reed got into the scripts and storylines, especially around Seasons 2-4. Seasons 3 and 4, are the best of the series. The Brady Bunch was supposed to be semi-realistic about families and their problems. I LOVE Gilligan's Island as a side note and have the Season 1 DVD. But I don't think you can draw comparisions other than the fact that Sherwood Schwartz produced both series.

I enjoyed "Gilligan's Island" because it was silly and comical and supposed to be that way. I like the serious Brady Bunch emphasized after the first Season, which I always felt was weak. Other than "Sorry, Right Number", "Vote For Brady", "Is Their a Doctor in the House?" and a few others. Season 1 just doesn't wash as well as the others. I DO like the corneyness of the "House of Cards" game in "54-40-and Fight!" and the janitor at the Trading Stamp Store who does the dead-ringer of Jimmy Stewart!!!! hahahaha!! But it was good that The Brady Bunch tried to be serious once it got going. I just enjoy Gilligan for the laughs. The thing is UNLIKE Robert Reed, I don't think it is wrong to enjoy slapstick comody, if your characters are naturally funny and likeable as Gilligan and the other castaways were.

Jack