I think Dodie was 4 or 5? when Steve and Barbara married, but the scripts infantalised her. Bad haircut as well - it looks awful on Dawn Lyn.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSb3Y6MyNxmfPnW5Eig_KvLwbgRUUrGSDmJxX9OJrfdlO6JVFg1fQ

Poor Dodie!!! She wasn't a pretty child, but she was cute in her own way!

I think the show went afoul when Steve got married and suddenly all the kids got married as late teenagers too (except for Ernie, if the show had lasted one more season I'm sure Ernie would have been married off too). Chip and Rob were both way too young to be married.

As far as Dodie, we really need to give the kid a break. How many of us would love to have been filmed when we were 4 years old and then forever more be judged as less than perfect? I remember not liking the fact that Steve got married but Dodie was a cute kid, didn't look like the typical fake cute TV kid, which was a good thing. I'm just glad she wasn't given 30 year old smart aleck comebacks the way the kids of the '80's TV shows were.

Had the show run a few more years would Don Fedderson have done to Dodie what he did to Buffy from Family Affair - babified her too long and not let her grow up?

Who the hell cut Dodie's hair?

It looks awful on Dawn Lyn (or any girl or woman, for that matter)

When she first came on, no doubt one problem had to do with the M3S filming schedule. When she first appears in scenes with Fred MacMurray (fall 1969, Season 10), she's extremely young-looking and acting -- but by the time her other scenes (with Beverly Garland and Eleanor Audley) are shot later, she's slightly grown and the producers are forced to try to keep her looking as she did from the very start. Which may explain her hairstyle not evolving right away, and the too-short dresses.

It's been said that astute viewers who noticed Dawn's teeth coming in, for the first time were able to figure out that MacMurray's scenes were shot in advance. Apparently the secret was well-guarded through Season 9.

As we go into Seasons 11 and 12, more often she's wearing pants and has gone to a longer, more flattering hairstyle.

Dawn did look better yet in her later work on Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, and Wonder Woman. Actually by the time she did Wonder Woman she looked fine -- sadly that was about the end of her on-screen career. She's actually a pretty good-looking woman!
http://www.geocities.ws/moegal97/dawnlynn.jpg

On shows like Cannon and Wonder Woman, she appeared with her brother Leif Garrett -- sort of like the next generation's John McIntyre & Jeannette Nolan, who often came as a package deal!

Had the show run a few more years would Don Fedderson have done to Dodie what he did to Buffy from Family Affair - babified her too long and not let her grow up?

Who the hell cut Dodie's hair?

It looks awful on Dawn Lyn (or any girl or woman, for that matter)


Hey it was the 1960's!!! I think all girls from my era would agree with me. I was born in 1962. Sometimes we did look goofy! I remember my bangs being cut WAY too short! And they had a thing back than, little girls with straight hair, OMG it was like a curse, most of the time they put it up in pigtails. But if there was an event (like a wedding or school pictures or something) my Mom would put my hair up in pink sponge curlers and my hair turned out goofy!!! It didn't curl really, it just was all poofy and all over the place!:( My straight, little girl natural hair was so pretty, but Mom's INSISTED that we needed some curl to our hair and we came out looking goofy! Or like Dodie, some poor little girls had their hair cut funny!!! :(

Some sitcoms like The Dick Van Dyke Show and Family Ties would have been better had they had a little girl instead of a little boy.

Of course some sitcom stars refused to have on-screen children in their shows (Bob Newhart as Bob Hartley. Newhart was at one point handed a storyline where the Hartleys had a child. Newhart's response? "i love the script... but who are you going to get to play Bob Hartley?")

One thing about the Dodie character is that she allowed for scripts whose plotlines wouldn't have been possible anymore with the sons, as even Ernie was now a young man -- clearly no longer just a kid.

Fears of sleeping alone in a new bedroom, schoolyard bullying, missing from home (just down to Katie & Rob's apartment), and wanting a "big sister" (Katie) all were all in the domain of a very young child.

Dodie helped fill the very wide age gap between Ernie and the triplets, as the series drew to a close before the 3 new boys had grown a whole lot -- compared with Dodie's stages.

By the final season, we still had 7 males (Steve, Charley, Chip, Ernie, and the Triplets) -- so having Dodie among the 4 females (Barbara, Katie, Polly, and Dodie) helped even things up a bit!

If M3S had been ten years later, would we have seen a Very Special Episode where Dodie is captured by a child molester ala the Gordon Jump episode of "Diff'rent Strokes"?

Dodie was a running joke at our house. She was so out of place and had a ridiculous name before ridiculous names became normal. We used to call her Dopey.

Dodie was a running joke at our house. She was so out of place and had a ridiculous name before ridiculous names became normal. We used to call her Dopey.


LOL !! :lol: Yeah I know what you mean. Little girls were Suzy or Cindy back than! I think Dodie was short for Dorothy? It would have been cuter to call her Dotty than Dodie! ;)

At least with Dodie/Dorothy, you knew what sex/gender the character was. I hate the modern trend of boys names or masculine surnames on girls. Hoping our daughters will follow masculine ideals is not feminism. Never mind the ridiculous "She can be female later in life" - yeah, but she will never be a child again.

I remember my bangs being cut WAY too short!

My mom would trim my bangs the night before school photos, in the '70s. Of course, not a good result. But moms rightly didn't want their sons to look like Sam the sheepdog from Looney Tunes.

I remember the photographer bringing forward sections of the girls' hair, who had long hair. I later realized he was doing this to show it off, as otherwise it would just disappear behind their shoulders.

Or like Dodie, some poor little girls had their hair cut funny!!! :(

The girl on Lassie who had the goose (Timmy era), I think she was a member of the Wrather family, also had one of those pumpkin pie haircuts years earlier.

My mom would trim my bangs the night before school photos, in the '70s. Of course, not a good result. But moms rightly didn't want their sons to look like Sam the sheepdog from Looney Tunes.

I remember the photographer bringing forward sections of the girls' hair, who had long hair. I later realized he was doing this to show it off, as otherwise it would just disappear behind their shoulders.



The girl on Lassie who had the goose (Timmy era), I think she was a member of the Wrather family, also had one of those pumpkin pie haircuts years earlier.

First off!!! HELLO biffbronson !!!! :wave: How are you?


Oh my gosh yes!! I remember that Lassie ep with that little girl! And I thought about that when I was watching. OMG look at that child's hair! :eek: Typical little girl funny hair cut from the 50's 60's era !:D

How about Sally's hair , from Davey and Goliath!! :lol:


https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS2GtsFBtuMTlJuIyr9DHRKitUFBkSaCeSxM_iLCNcnabs4bdwD

Poor Dodie. The unwanted step-child.

Dodie was a running joke at our house. She was so out of place and had a ridiculous name before ridiculous names became normal. We used to call her Dopey.

Well if "Dodie" wasn't bad enough, how about "Opie" on TAGS? At least we knew that Dodie was a nickname for Dorothy. Whoever knew what Opie's real name was?

Well if "Dodie" wasn't bad enough, how about "Opie" on TAGS? At least we knew that Dodie was a nickname for Dorothy. Whoever knew what Opie's real name was?
That's a good question. Opie s real name was never mentioned! I wonder if he was named Andrew/ Andy after his Father & they nicknamed him Opie?

When she first came on, no doubt one problem had to do with the M3S filming schedule. When she first appears in scenes with Fred MacMurray (fall 1969, Season 10), she's extremely young-looking and acting -- but by the time her other scenes (with Beverly Garland and Eleanor Audley) are shot later, she's slightly grown and the producers are forced to try to keep her looking as she did from the very start. Which may explain her hairstyle not evolving right away, and the too-short dresses.

It's been said that astute viewers who noticed Dawn's teeth coming in, for the first time were able to figure out that MacMurray's scenes were shot in advance. Apparently the secret was well-guarded through Season 9.

As we go into Seasons 11 and 12, more often she's wearing pants and has gone to a longer, more flattering hairstyle.

Dawn did look better yet in her later work on Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, and Wonder Woman. Actually by the time she did Wonder Woman she looked fine -- sadly that was about the end of her on-screen career. She's actually a pretty good-looking woman!
http://www.geocities.ws/moegal97/dawnlynn.jpg

On shows like Cannon and Wonder Woman, she appeared with her brother Leif Garrett -- sort of like the next generation's John McIntyre & Jeannette Nolan, who often came as a package deal!

She also appeared with her brother in the 1974 'killer kids' horror flick Devil Times Five.

http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af351/Torgo70/Torgo70002/600x400DevilTimesFive_zpspcxwhru0.jpg (http://s1023.photobucket.com/user/Torgo70/media/Torgo70002/600x400DevilTimesFive_zpspcxwhru0.jpg.html)

As I watched Dawn again as Dodie in Season 10 this past weekend, I couldn't help but think the producers instead should have outfitted Tina Cole and Beverly Garland with super-short skirts -- panties exposed!! :)

As I watched Dawn again as Dodie in Season 10 this past weekend, I couldn't help but think the producers instead should have outfitted Tina Cole and Beverly Garland with super-short skirts -- panties exposed!! :)

Oh Biff!!!! :eek: You naughty boy, I'm blushing! :D :) :wave:

How about Fred Macmurray or William Demerest in the skirts and panties ;)

Well if "Dodie" wasn't bad enough, how about "Opie" on TAGS? At least we knew that Dodie was a nickname for Dorothy. Whoever knew what Opie's real name was?

Oprah

Oprah



;) :lol: :D

OK. So inside that cute freckle-faced little white boy is an adult black woman. I can run with that!

Seeing Demarest in drag, with a long skirt, was bad enough!

We never learned Dodie's middle name, I don't think?

I always thought that in a fight between Dodie, and Buffy from FA, it would be a pretty even match - Dodie can just yank Buffy's pigtails, but Buffy can pull down Dodie's exposed panties.

Gee if you didn't tell me that was Dawn I would swear it was Debra Scott. Remember Hotsy Totsy from Welcome Back Kotter. They look a lot alike.

I loved Dawn Lyn's response that Fedderson and co. would have had no problem with a "Dodie's first bra" episode, given that they'd already put in too-short dresses with her underwear exposed.

As I watched Dawn again as Dodie in Season 10 this past weekend, I couldn't help but think the producers instead should have outfitted Tina Cole and Beverly Garland with super-short skirts -- panties exposed!! :)
If we do get seasons 11 and 12 on MeTV, you'll get your wish--well, the short skirts part, anyway.

She showed up today on her first My Three Sons & her dress was shorter than most blouses!

Poor Dawn Lyn...that scene where she meets Barbara on the street, when Barbara is in deep thought (about marrying Steve). She might as well have been walking around in just underwear. They really should have put a decent dress on her.

Some random things I’ve noticed about Season 10 and the earliest Dodie episodes:

We know that Robbie & Katie do not move far from home at all, because later Dodie runs away and walks right to their apartment. (Of course we see them several times at the Douglas house, but they could have come by car.)

Elaine Devry, who plays somewhat wacky date for Steve “Millicent Sawyer” set up by Katie (Season 10, ep. 1), also appeared in Season 6 of M3S (“Helen Logan” - S6, Ep. 24) and on Family Affair. Elaine was a couple of decades younger than Fred MacMurray, a few years younger than Beverly Garland.

Eleanor Audley, Dodie’s grandma, apparently favored sandals and other open-style shoes, as she wore them quite often on the various series she appeared in.

Steve and Barbara almost breaking off the wedding is a repeated theme from when Rob and Katie nearly called theirs off in Season 8.

Barry Livingston’s acting as Ernie continues to be very good throughout. Stanley as Chip is somewhat more convincing and natural than he’d been the past couple of seasons.

Beverly Garland, who had gone blonde permanently some years earlier, apparently had her hair colored right before her filming began, as there’s not a hint of her natural brunette roots in her Season 10 scenes with Fred MacMurray.

When you consider that Steve is well-off and works in the aerospace industry, you might expect that he and Barbara maybe take a plane to a honeymoon destination. Instead they simply drive down to Mexico (could be to show the station wagon off, as part of the Pontiac/GM sponsorship?).

Dodie runs away and walks right to their apartment.

Dodie's lucky she was not pulled into some strange man's car and molested/killed.

Mostly we think of M3S as completely free of violent crime, and by-and-large it was -- then again shots were fired at Steve as he hid in a bathtub, while on assignment out-of-town...! A crime against Dodie?

I forgot to mention something about Season 10: Barbara breaking a lamp while practicing her golf swing. There was an unusual amount of lamp and vase breaking on both M3S (female Mike and her firecrackers in a vase) and Family Affair (Jody Davis, for one -- bedroom lamp). Don DeFore's character broke a vase with a golf club swing in a prior season of M3S.

Mostly we think of M3S as completely free of violent crime, and by-and-large it was -- then again shots were fired at Steve as he hid in a bathtub, while on assignment out-of-town...! A crime against Dodie?


I'm just pointing out that it's a very bad message to send to the younger children watching, that if you run away you'll make it safely to your destination. In real life, Dodie's next appearance would possibly have been at the morgue.

I am a few years younger than Dawn Lyn so I was about her age when I watched the original episodes of M3S. Even though I was very young, I can distinctly remember having a real affection for Dodie because like Dodie, I was not the TV perfect blonde pigtails, blue eyes little girl of that era, a la Cindy Brady and Buffy Davis. I too had straight dark hair that my mother cut unevenly at times and a porcelain complexion, so in some ways I did look somewhat like Dodie, the main difference being that I have light green eyes and she had dark brown eyes. I can remember really enjoying watching her on the show because for a little girl like me it made the show more interesting than watching a bunch of teenage boys and men as it had largely been before she and Barbara came along. I paid no attention to her acting at that age, I just liked her because I could sort of relate to her.

It has only been in more recent years as I watch reruns of M3S that I really appreciate how doggone funny and adorable Dodie was, and I truly mean that. She was so different from the other kids on TV at the time, so down to earth, so much more normal looking, and by that I mean that she didn't always look like she was dressed up to compete in a Little Miss pageant or something. Her hair could be messy at times, her clothes were generally very everyday (the little t-shirts and pants that looked like they came from the Sears catalog like most of us wore back then), and her missing and crooked teeth. But the real treasure with Dodie was when she would open her mouth and say those hilarious lines. Whoever wrote Dodie's lines had a great sense of humor. The expressions she would use, like, "and junk", instead of "and stuff", "Oh, man!", and just the outright funny lines. Some I can remember:

As Ernie is animatedly trying to tell Dodie a bed time story and really getting into it she peers up at him and says randomly, "Ernie, why do you have to wear glasses?" he gives her a quick. pat answer and continues with his story and she says, "Ernie, why do you wear your hair that way?" I LOVE it. So real, so cute!

She announces to Steve and Barbara that her little friend who was "in love" with Ernie wants to go home in the middle of the night because she snuck in and kissed him while he was sleeping and "It was like kissing a chair".

She gets hit by the football in the living room and falls down,when everyone rushes over to see if she is ok, she says in true deadpan fashion, "I'm ok, but I think Myrtle's dead". That made me LOL.

She tells her mother that her piano teacher "smells weird, like mothballs" and that she's going to "practice my brains out".

And even though this wasn't funny, I can't ever watch this without bawling my eyes out, the scene where she is ashamed of the anniversary ("university") gift that she made for Steve and Barbara which was a piece of paper with her hand print on it underneath which she had scrawled in her little girl printing, "To my mommy and daddy my left hand, the one closest to my heart". Awww....and she was afraid it wasn't as nice as everyone else's store bought gifts. God love her.

There are so many more, I wish I could think of them all. Dodie rocked, and if somehow Dawn Lyn ever reads this, I want you to know that you made another little "Dodie" in Ohio feel very happy back in your M3S days and you still make her laugh almost 50 years later. I don't know why there is hate on this board for Dodie/Dawn. She wasn't "homely" and she was a great little natural comedienne. :)

I always liked Dodie also. She was nothing like Ricky from The Partridge Family or cousin Oliver from Brady Bunch. Dodie was more a more normal kid.

Post 37 -- really enjoyable to read, and very interesting. Thanks for that!

A lot of people seem to dislike Dodie, and this puts a whole new slant on her, for me. You're right--they wrote some very good lines for her. Also, that first episode of season 11 and her present to Steve and Barbara--truly memorable.

Ricky from the Partridge Family--ugh! If only he could sing, he might have been tolerable. Note they got rid of him...

Post 37 -- really enjoyable to read, and very interesting. Thanks for that!

A lot of people seem to dislike Dodie, and this puts a whole new slant on her, for me. You're right--they wrote some very good lines for her. Also, that first episode of season 11 and her present to Steve and Barbara--truly memorable.

Ricky from the Partridge Family--ugh! If only he could sing, he might have been tolerable. Note they got rid of him...

Thanks, I really meant it. I mean, could you imagine Cindy Brady saying that her piano teacher smelled like mothballs or that her doll was dead? Those kids were way too perfect and unnatural, they were never really kids. The "Family Affair" kids may have been just a touch more "real" but not much at all. Still way too perfect to identify with. Dodie seemed like a kid you could meet on the playground.

Ricky on "The Partridge Family" Ugh. What an annoying kid and what a stupid story line. First of all we see that his mother hates the Partridges and doesn't want Ricky around them and then, one cookout later, voila, the kid can live at their house. It always gagged me how the whole family would circle around, grin like idiots, and even accompany him on their professional grade instruments while he belted out an off pitch tune that was supposed to teach a little moral lesson..."You can do it!", et al. And that hair. I lived through that era and little boys never had hair like that. He looked like Prince Valiant from the old cartoon strip.

Ditto Cousin Oliver. The BB writers seemed to try to make him a "real" kid as compared to the Brady kids but it just fell flat. He was a little dweeb, sorry, Robbie Rist, I'm sure you grew up to be a very nice adult.

@horizonbeach11

Yeah i might have been too harsh on Dodie but adding girls to My Three Sons... even fifty years later there are very few shows that portray boys and men as being able to handle domesticity without a woman around, and that's not actually a good thing.

I do enjoy The Brady Bunch, but man, that first season...ugh! Cindy sneezed...egad, put her to bed, and call the doctor. And can we go out for the evening?...she might sneeze again...give me a break. And Alice says, Oh, I'll stay home...good heavens, it's JUST A SNEEZE! You have six kids between you, haven't these kids sneezed before? And in another episode she loses her doll and you might think the world was coming to an end.

I guess Oliver was a desperation addition...the network had probably told them they were in danger of cancellation (and they WERE subsequently cancelled). At least Sherwood Schwartz had a five season sitcom, rather than the three seasons of Gilligan's Island.

And Ricky...I don't know where the producers' minds were. It was the beginning of the fourth season, so I don't think they would have been worried about cancellation yet (but they were cancelled, too). They were smart enough to ditch him eventually, but by then it might have been too late. The same kind of thing happened in the 50s to Our Miss Brooks, only in reverse--they dropped Miss Brooks' love interest, Mr. Boynton (and moved the sitcom to a different school)...they eventually realized that was a mistake, and brought him back...but, again, cancellation after four seasons.

@horizonbeach11

Yeah i might have been too harsh on Dodie but adding girls to My Three Sons... even fifty years later there are very few shows that portray boys and men as being able to handle domesticity without a woman around, and that's not actually a good thing.

I can see your point, but I'm guessing that after nine seasons of men and boys (with the exception of Mike's wife, Sally, in the earlier episodes and then Katie), the ratings were probably beginning to drop a bit, not because it was mostly about men and boys but just because it had run for so long, so they decided to do something to drastically shake up the series and bring in a new audience demographic. You can see where they tried to shake things up in earlier seasons (adopting Ernie, moving to California, Rob marrying Katie and having triplets) so maybe this was just another attempt to do the same and also give Steve, the perennial widower, a new role. I am fairly certain that more women and kids tuned in after Barbara and Dodie were introduced.

As far as the attitude that men can't do anything domestic, I see your point there too, although Uncle Charley was a pretty proficient cook and housekeeper. It doesn't seem like they brought Barbara in so much to provide domestic guidance because the men and boys were so helpless, as it was to attract a female audience who enjoyed watching Barbara and by association, her daughter Dodie, adjust to their new blended family.

I do enjoy The Brady Bunch, but man, that first season...ugh! Cindy sneezed...egad, put her to bed, and call the doctor. And can we go out for the evening?...she might sneeze again...give me a break. And Alice says, Oh, I'll stay home...good heavens, it's JUST A SNEEZE! You have six kids between you, haven't these kids sneezed before? And in another episode she loses her doll and you might think the world was coming to an end.

I guess Oliver was a desperation addition...the network had probably told them they were in danger of cancellation (and they WERE subsequently cancelled). At least Sherwood Schwartz had a five season sitcom, rather than the three seasons of Gilligan's Island.

And Ricky...I don't know where the producers' minds were. It was the beginning of the fourth season, so I don't think they would have been worried about cancellation yet (but they were cancelled, too). They were smart enough to ditch him eventually, but by then it might have been too late. The same kind of thing happened in the 50s to Our Miss Brooks, only in reverse--they dropped Miss Brooks' love interest, Mr. Boynton (and moved the sitcom to a different school)...they eventually realized that was a mistake, and brought him back...but, again, cancellation after four seasons.

Yeah, I too am a fan of BB, probably because I grew up with it on some channel or other almost constantly and it was such an iconic part of our generation, but that family was way too perfect to be true. The example of Cindy sneezing is a perfect one. Seriously, people who just created a blended family out of three boys and three girls of varying ages wouldn't even notice a sneeze out of one of their kids unless it was accompanied by a very high fever, green nasal drainage, or a hacking cough, let's be real. Those kids were never, ever, rude or disrespectful to anyone, they did everything they were told without complaining for the most part, and they never got into any serious situations, even when they were teenagers.

That's why Dodie seems so endearingly real to me in comparison. Today I was watching the episode from season 11 where Steve gets promoted to vice president at the plant. Dodie tells Steve at home later that one of the ladies who took her and Barbara out to tea was fat. She would never have said it to the lady's face, they didn't make her nearly that precocious or rude, but she used the word "fat". and then Steve gently corrected her by suggesting that she use the term "heavy set". That very honest word would have never come out of Cindy Brady's or Buffy Davis' mouth, but honestly, isn't that what real kids say? In the Bradys' world, the kids would never have noticed if someone was overweight, that would have killed their Stepford Kids persona.

Dodie's image as the girl that had "hatchet" hair and always showed her undies has persisted largely because Season 10 has been the only one of her seasons syndicated to any great extent. Seasons 11 and 12 where she has longer and better hair and wears trousers more, are not.

Some random things I’ve noticed about Season 10 and the earliest Dodie episodes:

...Steve and Barbara almost breaking off the wedding is a repeated theme from when Rob and Katie nearly called theirs off in Season 8.


As was Tramp showing up at the ceremony, and the guys oversleeping before it.

Dodie's image as the girl that had "hatchet" hair and always showed her undies has persisted largely because Season 10 has been the only one of her seasons syndicated to any great extent. Seasons 11 and 12 where she has longer and better hair and wears trousers more, are not.

Maybe her mother saw some of the episodes from season 10 on TV, and put her foot down for the last 2 seasons.

Maybe her mother saw some of the episodes from season 10 on TV, and put her foot down for the last 2 seasons.

Well, her mother was in a season 10 episode so she should have been around enough to see what they were dressing Dawn in, but it's possible that she had no say due to contractual obligations or something. Also, this was the prevailing thing to do with little girls in sitcoms of that era, as others have mentioned. Cindy Brady, Buffy Davis, and others were dressed the same way, and come to think of it, if you go all the way back to the early Shirley Temple and Little Rascals movies of the 1930s they dressed little girls the same way, in too short dresses that barely, or didn't, cover their underwear, so it was probably not frowned on as it is today.

Plus, it was just a more innocent era, as you can tell when you see episodes of M3S where Dodie is sent out the front door (in North Hollywood!) to walk to school or the market by herself without a thought from the adults that she might not return. Cindy Brady was left alone in a line of kids in a crowded department store waiting to see Santa in an early episode of "The Brady Bunch", and all of the Brady kids walked places alone in suburban LA without anyone batting an eye.

I realize these things happened in the made up world of sitcoms, but I also grew up in that era, albeit in a small Midwestern town, and my sisters, friends, and I, who were all fairly young kids in the early '70s, walked and rode our bikes around town all summer long without any adults chaperoning us or any thought of anyone grabbing us or trying to harm us, and no one ever did. It was just a simpler, and in that way much happier, time to be a kid.

I agree that the early 70's were such a simple time. We would ride our bikes all over the place without adult supervision. Also stay out playing "Fox and Hounds" until one in the morning. No one ever bothered us. Our parents did not seem to worry as much. This could not happen today.

However; it's a somewhat sad hashmark against The Brady Bunch when a much stodgier, more tired, and definitely squarer show (M3S) actually does a more realistic arc capturing the conflicted emotions of a child reacting to a parent's re-marriage AND herself joining a larger family.

However; it's a somewhat sad hashmark against The Brady Bunch when a much stodgier, more tired, and definitely squarer show (M3S) actually does a more realistic arc capturing the conflicted emotions of a child reacting to a parent's re-marriage AND herself joining a larger family.

Very true. M3S had much better writers who had a deeper understanding of how to address family issues and understood the need to do so to make the story line somewhat believable.

Just by nature of being a Sherwood Schwartz product, "The Brady Bunch" was really pretty silly and unrealistic. Not nearly as much so as "Gilligan's Island" but still pretty silly. Day 1: Mike and Carol get married. Day 2: All of the kids immediately start calling their brand new parent Mom or Dad with zero conflicting emotions or explanation except that the boys' mother had died at some point. Where was the girls' dad? Did Mike adopt them? It was never even discussed but they immediately began using his surname instead of Carol's previous married name, Martin. Did Carol adopt the boys? What happened to Tiger? Why did Alice have to wear an uncomfortable uniform when she lived with the Bradys and didn't work through an agency? They weren't that formal about anything else. Explanation someone, please! #sherwoodschwartz

Season 1 of BB was filled with silly stories. The sniffles and sneezes we talked about, a whole script about two pediatricians and which one to use, worrying about an "evil stepmother", fighting over a phone for a whole episode. And can you really imagine 6 kids sharing one bathroom? Getting out to school must have been a nightmare.

The scripts did improve as time went on. I wonder if Schwartz brought in different writers...easy enough to check.

Based on HB11s posts, I've been appreciating Dodie more, as I watch season 10. Now looking forward to the rare season 11, starting next Wed, and the even rarer season 12 to follow.

Season 1 of BB was filled with silly stories. The sniffles and sneezes we talked about, a whole script about two pediatricians and which one to use, worrying about an "evil stepmother", fighting over a phone for a whole episode. And can you really imagine 6 kids sharing one bathroom? Getting out to school must have been a nightmare.

The scripts did improve as time went on. I wonder if Schwartz brought in different writers...easy enough to check.

Based on HB11s posts, I've been appreciating Dodie more, as I watch season 10. Now looking forward to the rare season 11, starting next Wed, and the even rarer season 12 to follow.

Dodie is a bit more mature and more of a seasoned actress in seasons 11 and 12, naturally, and her hair looks a lot better. However, I still have a special affinity for season 10 "hatchet hair" as someone else put it, Dodie, another big reason being that not only did I somewhat resemble Dodie at that age but my dad died at the very young age of 28 in late 1969 when I was four years old, so right around the time that they introduced the story line with Dodie, whose dad had also died when she was very young. I can remember seeing that episode where she shows Steve the picture of her father and says, "This is MY daddy!" and I was so little myself when it aired. I just felt a special bond with Dodie back then, I guess maybe that character even helped me to feel a little less different at the time too, because it seemed like all the other kids had dads at home (much unlike today, sadly).

Cute picture of Dodie with Myrtle ! :) :heart:


https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTeW347QZcH0qRpbWRBCy4HgaFf-x6I_lzhqI4In-xPeq1NcRus

She really was a cute kid.

There was a season 10 episode where she "told" Myrtle she couldn't come to school anymore. I can't remember if Myrtle lasts into season 11...we'll see.

Re the comments above about 70s kids doing things freely, without having to be watched...it was the same for us growing up in the late 50s and 60s. I'll add we had respect for adults we knew, such as neighbors, teachers, and principals.

HB11 - I think it's a really good thing that Dodie wasn't blonde like Buffy Davis from Fedderson's Family Affair.

HB11 - I think it's a really good thing that Dodie wasn't blonde like Buffy Davis from Fedderson's Family Affair.

So do I, and I'm glad that they didn't try to dye her hair or make her wear a wig so that she shared Barbara's hair color, bravo for them for letting her be natural! I remember reading that Mike Lookinland, who played Bobby Brady, had naturally reddish blond hair so his hair was dyed throughout the BB so that he would look more like his TV dad. You can tell in the early episodes that he had a dye job, his hair was so jet black with no natural highlights. What a ridiculous thing to put a small child through! It seems like it would have been easier to just find a dark haired child actor to play the third son.

...You can tell in the early (Brady Bunch) episodes that (Mike Lookinland) had a dye job, his hair was so jet black with no natural highlights. What a ridiculous thing to put a small child through! It seems like it would have been easier to just find a dark haired child actor to play the third son.

Or just leave his hair alone. Everyone knows it's just a TV show with un-related actors.

Or just leave his hair alone. Everyone knows it's just a TV show with un-related actors.

Right, or even made a point of letting the audience know that the boys' mother had been a lovely redhead and Bobby took after her. It was so odd and unrealistic how the three girls all had to match their mother's hair color, even to the point where it was mentioned in the theme song, and the three boys all had to match their dad's hair color.

There were much more deserving shows than TBB that should have become cutural icons. I once wrote a "realistic" AU where Marcia is sexually assaulted and then killed by a Doug Simpson type and his buddies. A "Heather Rich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Heather_Rich)" reality, meets the Stepford Kids scenario of the Bunch.

(sarcastic joke post)

They should have tried to compete with Norman Lear at the end... when Dodie tries to walk to Katie and Robbie's apartment, Reality Ensues and she is snatched off the street and bundled, screaming, into a strange man's car. The next scene is Steve and Barbara identifying Dodie's body at the morgue.

Well, her mother was in a season 10 episode so she should have been around enough to see what they were dressing Dawn in, but it's possible that she had no say due to contractual obligations or something. Also, this was the prevailing thing to do with little girls in sitcoms of that era, as others have mentioned. Cindy Brady, Buffy Davis, and others were dressed the same way, and come to think of it, if you go all the way back to the early Shirley Temple and Little Rascals movies of the 1930s they dressed little girls the same way, in too short dresses that barely, or didn't, cover their underwear, so it was probably not frowned on as it is today.

Plus, it was just a more innocent era, as you can tell when you see episodes of M3S where Dodie is sent out the front door (in North Hollywood!) to walk to school or the market by herself without a thought from the adults that she might not return. Cindy Brady was left alone in a line of kids in a crowded department store waiting to see Santa in an early episode of "The Brady Bunch", and all of the Brady kids walked places alone in suburban LA without anyone batting an eye.

I realize these things happened in the made up world of sitcoms, but I also grew up in that era, albeit in a small Midwestern town, and my sisters, friends, and I, who were all fairly young kids in the early '70s, walked and rode our bikes around town all summer long without any adults chaperoning us or any thought of anyone grabbing us or trying to harm us, and no one ever did. It was just a simpler, and in that way much happier, time to be a kid.

Yes,it was that way. I'm two years younger than Dawn Lyn, and watched the shows on reruns in the late '70s.

Going back decades, yes, another example of the too short dress and underwear -- Margaret O'Brien (then 7 years old) in "Meet Me in St. Louis," in a scene deliberately showing her in such clothes.

I'm seeing these episodes now on MeTV and it's really a shame they put a little girl thru that kind of embarrassment. And she seems to have lots of little friends that don't have to put up with that.

Sorry if this is a duplicate post--I think this thread goes back several months.

I haven't seen so much insane ado over nothing since Shifty Schiff made up all his lies. What's so horrible about a little girl's underwear showing? It's only dirty to those that see it that way. I see nothing wrong with it at all and find this whole P.C. gone mad discussion revolting.puke:

If I were a little kid I wouldn't want to parade around in my underwear on TV.

Agree on pencil-neck Shifty Schiff though!

Yeah, i think "i have to wear these dresses on NATIONAL TELEVISION" would have been a big humiliation for Dawn Lyn.

A lot of Dodie's little friends don't actually appear on MeTv - their scenes are often cut, even though they might still appear in the end credits.

In the mid 1990's I produced a TV comedy talk series that appeared nationally on a LPTV network called "Channel America".

We had many classic sitcom stars on the series throughout the years including two "My Three Sons" Reunion shows, one included Stanley & Barry Livingston (whom I lunched with) and the other reunion episode featured Tim Considine, Cynthia Pepper, Stanley Livingston and yes Dawn Lynn (who brought her original Myrtle Doll).

I can tell you first hand Dawn had nothing negative to say on and off camera, the original topic thread of this discussion did come up during a informal off camera Q&A after the taping with our very small studio audience, Dawn said quote, "I had no problems with my clothing, I still don't, I was suppose to be the "new" little child as the rest of the cast had grown so much."

She was a delight to hang with for about the 5 hours in attendance and remember Dawn came from a very liberal acting family with her mother an actress and of course brother Leif Garrett.

Just wanted to let all in this thread basically know that Dawn never felt odd wearing short dresses and loved playing every aspect of the character.

I haven't seen so much insane ado over nothing since Shifty Schiff made up all his lies. What's so horrible about a little girl's underwear showing? It's only dirty to those that see it that way. I see nothing wrong with it at all and find this whole P.C. gone mad discussion revolting.

OK, OK. I just read TeeVeeCloset's post. I was wrong, you were right!

if M3S had had one more season, Dodie might have flirted in her own 9 year old way with a teenage boy and her sister-in-laws teasing her by saying boyfriend..