I thought, personally, it was weak. It came out three years after I was born so I didn't get to see it on the original run, but I saw it on Fox Family a little while back. The problems were sort of realistic and now they were facing adult sort-of problems, but at the same time, it was weak. They even had a laughtrack during an episode where Marcia was becoming an alcoholic... you'd think they could at least cut out a laughtrack!
What'd everyone else think?

I'm trying to think of a way that "The Bradys" could have worked. Maybe if it had been filmed 10 years earlier with different writers, it could have been sort of like "Eight is Enough". Do we really want to see a middle-aged Greg? Doing it in 1990 meant that you had to have most of the kids paired off or with families of their own, which made the cast way too big.

Also, I don't know what's up with Florence Henderson, but ever since the original series ended, she overacts in everything I've seen her in. She was good in the original, but lousy after that.

And the writing, ugh. Don't take a lightweight show like this and have them deal with serious topics. It just doesn't work

I personally thought it was okay. Not great, but something to keep you awake.

Even though I always love a good Brady reunion (series). I didn't enjoy this one. I mean Bobby was in a wheel chair the whole time. One of the things I love about the brady's is the lack of "major" problems they had. In this series they seem to have made for 20 years of drama free living. lol :rolleyes

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Cafemochadrinker
http://cafemochadrinker.homestead.com/BradyBunch.html

I liked 2 episodes in this short lived series: Mike Runs For President and Bottom's Up.

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Andrew Carden

I liked Greg's wife ,Nora, in the Bradys. Former New Gidget star Caryn Richman was a good addition but it must have a little hard for the pretty little thing to go from star of a show to one of many supporting players. And she had to wear high heels as Nora while she was often shoeless as Gidget so the second role physically wasn't very comfortable either for Caryn I'm sure.

I would've liked to have seen it as a half hour comedy. I think making it a drama was the big mistake!

Maybe a different show all together, like maybe the Brady cousins, focusing on Mike and carol's grandchildren with the adults making only occasional appearances. Maybe they could have had a top square for each Brady kid and have their children underneath. hmmm...

I thin The Bradys would have worked as a prime time soap with on going storylines - have Marcia become addicted to booze over the course of a season rather than just one episode...

Well, I have heard the snyopsis for the 'Bradys' and it sounds like it wasn't very good..

I think they should have stopped at 'A Very Brady Christmas'. I could watch that every year and not get sick of it..

I loved watching The Brady's on CBS Friday Night's at 7:00 pm Central Time

If they ever have a reunion show without Robert Reed (take offs like the feature films and documentaries don't count!) then there will be nothing to stop it from becoming an annual event!

Robert Reeds death is the one thing that seems to have put a stop to reunion specials. Even though he walked out on the last episode, he was in every reunion special they made.

Now if there is one, there could be a dozen!

The real question is, would that be a good thing?

The thing is.........The Bradys was not supposed to be a series, but rather 2 TV movies. Then CBS got greedy and did the NBC thing with the Brady Brides (originally a one shot TV movie split into 4 parts, with 6 more episodes tacked on).

I loved watching The Brady's on CBS Friday Night's at 7:00 pm Central Time


Me too! I liked it although I would have changed some things around.

Had the Bradys been placed at 8:00pm central, it would have done better in the ratings as evidenced by the original 2 hour pilot episode "The Brady 500". From 7pm to 8pm, it was clobbered, esp by "Full House";when the second hour came on, the reverse happened, it clobbered the competition, which is why the rating for the whole 2 hour episode average around a 12 (today that would be considered a smash hit!). Sherwood and others tried their best to convince CBS to move the show an hour later, but CBS kept saying we need a family show at 7pm, but families were already watching "Full House" en masse--and the irony being that FH was exactly the type of saccahrine sitcom the Brady Bunch had been in the '70s. You don't compete like vs. like--you counterprogram. But I guess it's for the best that The Bradys didn't survive longer--I don't think they would have been able to handle RR's passing in a good way.

I throught that The Brady's was a awsome show.

Sherwood Schwartz and company perhaps bit off more than he could chew and confused realism with just depressing the audience. Marcia's a drunk? Bobby's a paraplegic?

It ended badly. Peter and Cindy were the only kids not married. I think Valerie could have came back in the final episode and would have gotten back with Peter, and Cindy would have married her boss. Another double wedding to end the Brady Bunch history. That's how it should have ended. Then Robert Reed died in 1992.

I mainly stopped watching anything to do with the Brady Bunch soon after the most original series went off the air.

As a kid, I loved it cause that was about the time my obsession with The Brady Bunch peaked so I was glad to see them back on tv. But watching the episodes as an adult, it is pretty bad.

As a kid, I loved it cause that was about the time my obsession with The Brady Bunch peaked so I was glad to see them back on tv. But watching the episodes as an adult, it is pretty bad.


I think I feel that way about a lot of shows I liked as a kid.
As an adult, I realize how dumb they were.
Yet on the other hand, they may not have been so dumb when they were first aired because society was a bit different and there wasn't as much an "anti-innocence" attitude back then. ( Sure, there definitely was, but it still had not intensified to the extent it had today). Now, TV shows, even those for younger audiences, without a lot of mention about outright sex and such would really be considered too old fashioned and boring .

Well, I gotta say that in general, the forces that be have milked the beejeezus out of the show. Almost to the point of wanting to upchuck. That being said, I liked The Brady's ; I found the dramatic twist poignant and appealing. Sadly many did not, as TB died a quick death (6 eps).

On the other hand, The Variety show they had from the 70s made me gag, and IMO, could have been used to torture political prisoners.

10 being best. I give it a 5. It was ok, I guess. To me, The Brady Bunch was a comedy/Drama, mostly comedy, but the Brady's wasn't very comical. It was mostly Drama. Marcia becoming an Alcoholic. Peter almost choking to death to have Greg save him. Bobby almost being killed in a racing accident. Reminds me of Gilligans Island episode. The Hunter. Gilligan being hunted to be killed by a psycho for sport. Nothing funny about that.

It had potential for sure.

I throught that The Brady's was a awsome show.I dont think I ever saw it!!!

It was when they were all older right??? The original series ended?

I dont think I ever saw it!!!

It was when they were all older right??? The original series ended?


You are correct. The original series ended in 1974. This, short-lived show came out in 1990.

It was gone too soon and it was missed :(

How many episodes did it have??

Were they as good as THE BRADY BUNCH??

Watched it when it originally aired, don't really remember much about it other than Bobby being in a wheelchair.

Watched it when it originally aired, don't really remember much about it other than Bobby being in a wheelchair.

And one of the girls became an alcoholic I think?

And one of the girls became an alcoholic I think?

That sounds familiar.

How many episodes did it have??

Were they as good as THE BRADY BUNCH??

Six!!!

Ep 1 & 2 - Bobby races in the Indy 500, crashes, and is paralyzed, gets married

Ep 3 & 4 - The Brady home is threatened with demolition. The Bradys move the house and Mike runs for office

Ep 5 - Marcia is feeling useless and turns to the bottle; Mike fires Wally from his staff

Ep 6 - Peter & Greg are cross; Marcia and the kids help Mike & Carol put on a gathering for a visiting diplomat

Wow sad it only lasted 6 shows!!!

And one of the girls became an alcoholic I think?


Yep, Fake Marcia got tipsy enough for the fam to intervene and by the episode's end, she was spouting off the Twelve Steps and never had another drop for the rest of the short lived series. Yeah, like that happens ALL the time!

I think had they just made a single TV movie instead of trying to relaunch an entire series as a drama, it may have worked better (and yes, I DID watch it). Also, the onetime MTV Veejay Martha Quinn was woefully miscast as Bobby's wife who seemed more interested in becoming a Brady than actually having a genuine affection for her husband (much like Winifred Wagner did re her own husband in wanting to join the Wagner clan).

I've seen a few episodes and it felt like a terrible soap opera. It was hard to watch and it was a huge mistake. I guess they didn't learn from The Brady Bunch Variety Show and The Brady Brides that the Bradys just don't have staying power as a series?

Had the Bradys been placed at 8:00pm central, it would have done better in the ratings as evidenced by the original 2 hour pilot episode "The Brady 500". From 7pm to 8pm, it was clobbered, esp by "Full House";when the second hour came on, the reverse happened, it clobbered the competition, which is why the rating for the whole 2 hour episode average around a 12 (today that would be considered a smash hit!). Sherwood and others tried their best to convince CBS to move the show an hour later, but CBS kept saying we need a family show at 7pm, but families were already watching "Full House" en masse--and the irony being that FH was exactly the type of saccahrine sitcom the Brady Bunch had been in the '70s. You don't compete like vs. like--you counterprogram. But I guess it's for the best that The Bradys didn't survive longer--I don't think they would have been able to handle RR's passing in a good way.

Yeah, Full House in a round about way, is to millennials (https://ew.com/article/1993/05/21/full-house-tvs-new-brady-bunch/) what The Brady Bunch (https://uproxx.com/tv/fuller-house-the-bradys/) was to Generation X.

The thing is.........The Bradys was not supposed to be a series, but rather 2 TV movies. Then CBS got greedy and did the NBC thing with the Brady Brides (originally a one shot TV movie split into 4 parts, with 6 more episodes tacked on).

I can get the logic behind the creation of The Bradys. A Very Brady Christmas aired approximately a year and a half prior and garnered huge ratings for CBS. Plus the reruns for the old show were still really popular at this point. Maybe there was a kernel of good idea in this, but the writing wasn’t great. Apparently, the idea was to introduce thirtysomething themes into the Brady family and Sherwood Schwartz thought it was going to making him relevant in the new era. Unfortunately, this didn't really work because More to the point, they never let anything develop. Bobby was in a coma until the third act. Marsha was an alcoholic for an afternoon. Jan's adopted daughter didn't fit in for an hour. The fact that Maureen McCormick (arguably the most popular Brady kid) didn't want to participate naturally didn't help.

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10 being best. I give it a 5. It was ok, I guess. To me, The Brady Bunch was a comedy/Drama, mostly comedy, but the Brady's wasn't very comical. It was mostly Drama. Marcia becoming an Alcoholic. Peter almost choking to death to have Greg save him. Bobby almost being killed in a racing accident. Reminds me of Gilligans Island episode. The Hunter. Gilligan being hunted to be killed by a psycho for sport. Nothing funny about that.

The Bradys was obviously made to not just cash in on the ratings success of the Christmas reunion movie, but also all of the network (https://www.vulture.com/2016/06/comedy-tv-genre-of-our-time.html) "dramedies" (http://articles.latimes.com/1988-04-27/entertainment/ca-1785_1_tv-critics) that were all of the rage (https://emorywheel.com/the-rising-popularity-of-the-dramedy/) by the end of the '80s (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1527476409351289) (Frank's Place (http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-26/entertainment/ca-2439_1_creole-cooking), Hooperman (https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19880121.2.199&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1), The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd).

After the success of the Christmas reunion, Sherwood Schwartz pitched the idea of three more reunion movies. CBS, desperate for ratings, asked him to do a six-episode series instead.

The reason the Christmas movie was so popular is that people wanted to see what everyone looked like and what all the characters were doing. Once that curiosity was satisfied, they didn’t need to see the characters every week.

The sad thing is that the reunion and short-lived series didn’t recapture what made the series fun. It was never overly dramatic. I wish they had gotten Tam Spiva, who wrote some of the more memorable episodes of the series, to write the movie. Sherwood Schwartz only wrote two episodes of the original series - the pilot and Kelly’s Kids, two of the weakest. And he wrote both “The Brady Kids Get Married” and “A Very Brady Christmas”. Big mistake.

After the success of the Christmas reunion, Sherwood Schwartz pitched the idea of three more reunion movies. CBS, desperate for ratings, asked him to do a six-episode series instead.

The reason the Christmas movie was so popular is that people wanted to see what everyone looked like and what all the characters were doing. Once that curiosity was satisfied, they didn’t need to see the characters every week.

The sad thing is that the reunion and short-lived series didn’t recapture what made the series fun. It was never overly dramatic. I wish they had gotten Tam Spiva, who wrote some of the more memorable episodes of the series, to write the movie. Sherwood Schwartz only wrote two episodes of the original series - the pilot and Kelly’s Kids, two of the weakest. And he wrote both “The Brady Kids Get Married” and “A Very Brady Christmas”. Big mistake.

It was probably a blessing in disguise that The Bradys didn't get a longer run because naturally, the subject regarding Robert Reed's health and subsequent death (which came less than two years after The Bradys was on the air) would have to be dealt with. Then again, Robert Reed like on the old series, was very difficult on set due to his issues with the quality of the writing and direction. And had he had been healthy and had The Bradys lasted longer, then Sherwood Schwartz would've likely had written Mike Brady out anyway.

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It ended badly. Peter and Cindy were the only kids not married. I think Valerie could have came back in the final episode and would have gotten back with Peter, and Cindy would have married her boss. Another double wedding to end the Brady Bunch history. That's how it should have ended. Then Robert Reed died in 1992.

This show sucked. AVBC ended on a great note. Wally found a new job doing something he loved, Marcia was content as a housewife, Jan and Philip worked things out, Cindy was finally accepted as the adult she was, Peter and Valerie were going to be together, Greg and Nora were together for Christmas, and Bobby found his bliss.

The Bradys trashed all that for "drama". Bobby paralyzed? Okay, that's one thing. Now Wally is apparently some bum and Marcia becomes an unsettled drunk. Valerie becomes some workaholic fiend so Peter will dump her so he can be a bachelor. Cindy and her boss...borderline. Jan and Philip had infertility I think...

This could have been a great comedy or a couple of movies per season like Perry Mason. CBS killed the Bradys in my opinion.

I've seen a few episodes and it felt like a terrible soap opera. It was hard to watch and it was a huge mistake. I guess they didn't learn from The Brady Bunch Variety Show and The Brady Brides that the Bradys just don't have staying power as a series?

I loved the Brady Brides because that's what made the Brady Bunch work...as a light comedy. Yes, the occasional drama like in AVBC but it was fun. The Bradys destroyed all the good stuff for to provocative and it blew.

In the last episode of “The Bradys”, I would have had them move back to the beach because they accept an offer from CBS to reboot their Variety Hour.

Maureen McCormick said in an interview once that the original plan for "THE BRADYS" was to do it as a series of TV movies but CBS insisted on a weekly series. She said if they had stuck to the original plan, she would have returned.

That's so true! I thought Florence Henderson was horrible in a serious role.